This is the 10th volume in the Claymore series. I have really enjoyed all the books in the dark fantasy shounen manga series. I think this was probably one of my least favorite books in the series so far though, there are tons of Claymores and numerous battles that were more confusing than normal...the scope just got a bit too big.

In this volume the Claymore battle three different Awakened Beings in the city of Pieta. The Claymores do an excellent job of working as a team. Towards the end of the novel a few very surprising things happen. We see Raki again and get to finally meet Isley of the North.

As mentioned above this was probably the least focused and most confusing books of the Claymore series. I am not good with names in general and there were a ton of Claymore to keep track of here. The story focuses mainly on the Claymore team leads. So while Clare is in the story some she is not the focus.

We do see a lot of awesome fighting scenes between the Claymore and the Awakened Beings. The scenes switch between different fights quite often, again this was a bit confusing. I guess just sit back and go with it and accept a bit of confusion and you should be all good. It doesn’t really matter that much in the end which Claymore is in which group, etc.

Probably the best part of this book was the reappearance of the mysterious Priscilla and the introduction of Isley (who we have heard a lot about in previous books but never seen). We also meet the incredibly ferocious Rigaldo the Lion. This book really starts some new interesting storylines and I am excited to see where this series is going.

Overall a solid addition to the Claymore series. I was a bit disappointed in how fractured and confusing some of the fighting scenes were (this series is usually awesome at making fighting scenes that are clear and easy to follow). I really did enjoy some of the new story elements that were introduced. There is some really cool stuff going on with the story here and I am eager to see how it plays out. ( )