manga: Claymore ch 95

[meganbmoore]

So…uhm…in the first two panels, did anyone else think that thing looked like a penis? That then grew teeth? And then they were growing out of Deneve’s arm. And a huge one “violating” (as the translators put it) Beth?

Meanwhile…

RIPPED OFF HER OWN ARM!

Deneve: Helen! Remove your cloak so that we can we can fight in our hot matching outfits!
Helen: Sorry, busy boggling at being rescued by Clare. Also, mine still has sleeves. What happened to your sleeves?
Deneve: Who needs sleeves when you have 2 Claymores?

CASUALLY RIPPED OFF HER OWN ARM!

Clare’s random yet detailed infodumping is strangely awesome. I guess there was a ton of stuff if Rafaela’s head.

DENEVE CASUALLY RIPPED OFF HER OWN ARM!

I’m glad to see that Riful and Dauf escaped (Well, mostly Riful. But she’d be sad without Dauf, so…) and am deeply amused that she was literally dragging him along by the hair. I remain Deeply Concerned about them.

AND THEN GREW A NEW ARM IN SECONDS!

In short, Deneve is awesome (nothing new) and Strange Phallic Imagery has arrived.

 

Comments

[eisen]

tbh I was trying not to think about it the entire time (and used them turning into LucielaRafaela tinymonsters as my excuse to do so).

[meganbmoore]

I'm trying to think of other instances of blatant phallic imagery in Claymore. Usually in shounen, it's everywhere, but it doesn't seem to be as much so here. And it's very negative, as opposed to the typical "cool and powerful."

[eisen]

You mean other than their swords ...?

Although that's not as blatant as this (to the point that I'd actually forgotten one could interpret them that way, mostly because to do it just means you have to interpret any sword in any story as a case of phallic imagery, and that's not very useful from a critical perspective).

[meganbmoore]

Yeah, swords are common phallic imagery, but not automatic. Bleach and YuYu Hakusho, for example, definitely use weapons as phallic imagery,and then, say, Utena does it for different reasons, but Claymore has never struck me as doing that.

And if we do look at big swords in Claymore as phallic imagery, then men who can use them quickly turn into insane monsters, while women who can use them can be fine for decades.

[eisen]

Yeah, that's what I was getting at. They're not made into phallic imagery any more than swords are in real life - as opposed to about a bazillion examples from any other manga with swords in them.

This is the first real case where the link seems both noticeably there and probably intentional - and you're v. right that it's in a negative portrayal, unlike any other case I can think of in a shounen manga.