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AW YEAH, CLAYMORE!
Feb. 12th, 2012 08:06 pmI got to read the eighteenth volume of Claymore today! As I might have deduced from the title of this post, I thought I was really, really good. I wish more writers and publishers were doing stories about women like that. Well, I could do without the extreme goriness, but I want more stories about female characters sticking with each other through life and death situations, fighting evil organizations, learning about and developing their capabilities, battling monsters and/or turning into monsters, and realizing that everything they thought they knew about their limitations was a pack of lies designed to control them and keep them isolated from each other.
One thing I find very interesting about the experience of reading Claymore is that things that would bother me in just about any other manga/comic/GN on grounds of sexist implications are just in this story-- especially in the later volumes, when the storyline gets increasingly female-heavy-- because there are so many distinct female characters. Not only is it impossible to pick out one character as the Designated Representative of All Women, but it's not even easy to pick out a few characters as representatives of "the different types of women." Also, I know this might be my tendency to read through feminist goggles going overboard, but I can't stopping seeing The Organization as The Patriarchy.
I wish I had someone to talk Claymore with, but unfortunately it's too gory for me to recommend to anyone I know IRL except for one person I hardly ever get to see anymore. If I do get to spend more time with her in the future, I think I'll try to sell it as "Final Girls get some consciousness raising going and plot to destroy the Watchers' Council."
One thing I find very interesting about the experience of reading Claymore is that things that would bother me in just about any other manga/comic/GN on grounds of sexist implications are just in this story-- especially in the later volumes, when the storyline gets increasingly female-heavy-- because there are so many distinct female characters. Not only is it impossible to pick out one character as the Designated Representative of All Women, but it's not even easy to pick out a few characters as representatives of "the different types of women." Also, I know this might be my tendency to read through feminist goggles going overboard, but I can't stopping seeing The Organization as The Patriarchy.
I wish I had someone to talk Claymore with, but unfortunately it's too gory for me to recommend to anyone I know IRL except for one person I hardly ever get to see anymore. If I do get to spend more time with her in the future, I think I'll try to sell it as "Final Girls get some consciousness raising going and plot to destroy the Watchers' Council."
