Japan has a long tradition of monsters and continues to produce them like an assembly line of fear.
From Godzilla to Putties, these monsters can have a wide variety of symbolism and biology, or just be there for the good guys to smack around.
Sometimes, that position stifles their symbolism, but later opens others.
In this installment, I’ll take a look at the Youma from the manga and anime series, Claymore. At first it seems that these creatures will be the primary threat, but they are soon relegated to the sidelines in place of something far worse.
Brace yourself, because, like many manga series, later plot revelations totally change the dynamics, so I’m warning ahead—spoilers flow freely.
The word Youma (妖魔) derives from the Japanese words for a breed of often shape-changing monster (Youkai, 妖怪) and the word from ‘magic’ (魔, Ma) which is sometimes read as “Demon” or “Demonic”. Literally, it just means “Monster” or “Demon” and has been used to describe many creatures in many anime and manga series.
Within Claymore, these monsters plague a medieval world. These monsters prey on human beings, but do so by hiding amongst them. They gain the memories and mannerisms of their victims, likely by devour their brain, as well as gaining the ability to take their shape and hide among their prey unnoticed. True wolves in sheep’s clothing, they hide in a town and slowly pick the humans off one by one.
They are both a combination of predatory fears and a seed of distrust. In this world, the people cannot really trust many strangers for fear of one being a man-eating monster.
The Youma get several fun lines about them being atop the food chain, but the real fear factor comes when one of them relates the strong feelings he is getting from one of the people’s brains he’s consumed, when the memories he absorb bring tears to his eyes before he eats that person’s younger brother.
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| “Tears. . . It seems what’s left of your brother is shedding tears. Sweet, isn’t it?”
Viz Translation, Scene 1, “The Silver Eyed Witch”, p. 39
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Creepy stuff. Ripe for paranoia and all sorts of Lecter-esque madness, but that’s not what they’re used for.
Within the series, the titular Claymore warriors are created by infusing them with the flesh of the Youma and granting them heighted physical abilities as well as the ability to detect them. They tap into the Youma’s power (Youki: “Monstrous Life Energy”), but doing so is both pleasurable and risks that flesh taking over them and causing them to “awaken.”
That is where the true symbolism lies. The Youma are bad, but combing them with humanity makes them thousands of times worse when the Awaken. Awakened beings are the primary antagonists in the full series, with the secondary slot taken up by regular humans, whose evil perpetuates the “Awakened Beings” and the Youma.
The Youma may be from hell, but Humans are still worse.
A Youma will just eat you; an Awakened will level a town and torture a few of its inhabitants or eat everyone but the female children, leaving a horde off traumatized orphans in its wake.
They straddle the line between Monster and Villain, being aware of their bestial urges and reveling in them in a way only sentient beings can.
While Youma have a rather uniform shape (gray skin, bald, yellow eyes, claws, elfin ears and shark-like teeth) their awakened counterparts are physically much more diverse—and more demonic. These creatures take shapes ranging from giant insects and lizards, to centaurs, mountains of razor-blade tentacles, ogres, three-jawed tigers and a one horned flying purple people eater.
I’m not making that last one up. That monster is the primary antagonist for the series heroine.
There should be a song . . .
Biology
Youma are very weird, biologically. In the anime, they are given purple blood, to emphasize their inhuman nature. They regenerate quickly, rendering decapitation or destroying the brain the only really effective way to kill these creatures.
Worse, they can apparently control their bleeding to a degree, only releasing a small portion off blood from the initial cut before the blood vessel seal up.
A similar system exists in Insects, but it only works at their joints, allowing them to lose a limb and get away scot-free.
Aside from the shape shifting using the DNA of their intended form, these creatures can also extend their fingers into stabbing tentacles. This rapid growth and later retraction is, frankly, a super power. There’s no other way to classify it.
Given other things that appear in the series, it’s time to just sit back and leave your brain at the door. This is a fighting series, don’t think about how things are being done, only what effect on the strategies they’ll have.
I hate saying “A Wizard Did It”, but sometimes, there’s no other recourse. It IS magic and authors rarely explain it very well.
One of the abilities of both Youma and those infused with their flesh is to detect that magical energy, which they call “Youki”. It’s often described as a scent, but keep in mind that the “Ki” in Youki is basically the Japanese form of “Chi”, the ethereal energy of the universe.
Thankfully, the regeneration and so on are fed by a high protein diet. Like real world predators, they go for the blood-filled organs such as the Liver first. It’s usually in text referred to a craving for “Innards” or “Guts”. Sadly, most of these creatures feed once every week or two. Still, it’s not enough to fuel that kind of energy usage. Awakened beings eat more, but can stave off eating even longer.
Why can’t writers obey the laws of energy consumption? What do these guys do for energy?
Are they like the legendary Dragon Warrior from Kung Fu Panda: subsiding primarily on the dew of a single gingko leaf and the energy of the universe?
Well, they are using Ki energy (also known as Chi), so maybe.
