Claymore vol. 17

I enjoyed this latest volume of “Claymore” for reasons which I’ll elaborate on in the next paragraph.  The thing is that there were so many little details that I’d forgotten in the long wait between volumes (i.e.:  What was the deal with Rafaela and Luciela?  Why was Miria hanging out with Galatea?) that it has led me to start re-reading the series from the conclusion of the “Battle of the North” in vol. 11.  So far, things have held up pretty well.  Though this series will always be “Berserk Lite” in terms of style and execution (and I’ll always use that term in my reviews of this series since it’s such a perfect description), it shows that mangaka Norihiro Yagi is a more capable storyteller than I’d given him credit for.  Yes, he tends to bludgeon the reader with exposition between and even during fights, but the man has demonstrated some impressive long-term planning and served up some impressive revelations with these past few volumes.

Which brings us to the current one.  As Claire and company throw down with Riful and her henchman Dauf, things go from bad to worse and ultimately culminate in “Oh god!  Oh god!  We’re going to die!”  With all of the chaos happening around the renegade Claymores, you’d think that the stakes have been raised too high to be satisfactorily dealt with.  That may be true, but it’s something that will be determined by how it plays out in subsequent volumes.  Here, it leaves me eager to see how it’ll all play out… IN JUNE!  Well… at least it’ll be here sooner than the next volume of “Berserk.”