Claymore was a seinen revenge series that had a lasting impact on its fans. Themes of vengeance and hatred extended through the characters' twisted relationships and made its mark on anyone who enjoyed this monster-slayer anime.
These demons weren’t just disposable monsters; they were true effigies of evil. That emotional resonance is worth revisiting, if only to rage-out about the anime's most hated characters, ranked below.
10 Riful
Riful was the youngest of her generation’s elite claymores to awaken into a fully sentient shapeshifting demon, the most dangerous kind. This little monster represented the worst of children, which is an uncomfortable source of irritation. It’s all in the attitude, and some characters don’t need more than a bratty personality to garner hatred from fans of the show.
Riful is childish and carefree, which doesn’t mesh well with being sadistic. Her manifesto was to torture Claymores into awakening as creatures that she can befriend. Technically, she was already playing with her Claymore pets without lifting a finger; her doting companion Dauf did her dirty work for her while she cheered on for all the bloodletting at the sidelines.
9 Rubel
Rubel was the two-faced double agent of The Organization which commanded all Claymores to fight Yoma on humanity’s behalf. To say he looked shady is an understatement because he was disguised in black clothes and wearing shades.
What you did see of him—the wicked curled grin and sunglasses—appeared to be a window to the darkness of his personality. What makes him especially easy to hate is that neither the main character Clare nor The Organization could trust him, even though he had allegiances that spanned generations for both. It’s even more disgusting that he’s depicted as a father figure to Clare. The flashback scenes implied that he groomed her towards his pursuits for decades.
8 Dauf
Dauf was Riful’s slave/partner and invited the kind of hatred that bordered on pity. His low intelligence made him a brute that didn't understand the gravity of his actions. However, his character had not only such simplicity because he was Riful’s pet.
Fans rightfully wanted him disposed of for burdening the plotline, and they also hated him because his mere existence was a tragedy. Since only the strongest Claymores survive Awakening, this monster was once a top-ranked warrior among men. The logic is that, if this is what it reduced him to, he was better off dead for ethic’s sake.
7 Rigaldo
Also known as the silver-eyed lion king, Rigaldo was powerful enough to have a bonafide arc in this series. Everyone including the other characters hated him because he was the worst kind of evil, the kind that is also intelligent and possessed tactical defense strategies.
It was no coincidence, for example, that he picked off the Claymore team leaders first. He was also arrogant enough to telegraph his fights and his attacker’s methods with the play-by-play narration of a sports commentator. Furthermore, he’s one of the few male demons in this show to engage in such a violent war with the highest-ranked female Claymore. It’s a feminist battle of the sexes, and the show made it clear that he’s not just loathsome for being ugly.
6 Helen
Fans will not even spare the protagonist's supporting characters from fan-hate. This Claymore brigadier might have been better respected if she wasn’t so mean-spirited when she met Clare. She let the insults fly to define her character as a foul-mouthed tomboy, but, to fans, the brash and sassy tendencies were not endearing at all.
In times of war, it is dangerous to be hot-tempered, and there is no room for black-sheep scrapping with one’s teammates. They tried to redeem her by the end of the series, but it was too-little-too-late. Also of note, Helen enjoys apples. It's the film and TV trope of someone who deserves disrespect.
5 Galatea
Helen is not the only Claymore that gets hate, despite not being a villain. We loathe most characters for how they act and what they do, but they hated this one for what she didn’t. First, she remained on the sidelines as a spy for the Organization, which, by association, implied that Clare could not trust her. Second, she only rescued Clare for her interest in fulfilling her spy duties.
It didn’t matter that she changed allegiances, that she was working on the inside, or that the Claymore battle against the Awakened endeared her. She did not use her power responsibly, and her smug, indifferent attitude about it certainly didn’t help. For a #3 ranked warrior, hiding in the shadows was not only indefensible, but it was also cowardly.
4 Priscilla
There’s a certain relatability that fuels fan hatred for this Awakened Claymore. The anime doesn’t stop at letting fans see her tragic backstory, but also gives a glimpse of before, during, and after Priscilla's downward spiral.
Priscilla was Clare’s arch-nemesis and the show's main villain. Fans hated this Claymore character for being obstinate in bringing down Clare’s matriarch Teresa. As another highly ranked child soldier, Priscilla’s immaturity was also a source of annoyance for her teammates, as well. Fans hated her for her foolish pride and hubris, both of which were on full display in her reaction when offered a merciful death.
When she finally became an all-powerful awakened Claymore, it didn't end there. Psychological effects from the transformation left her delusional because it stuck her with the mind of a Claymore child. All the counter-productive corruption diminished what little respect of the character remained.
3 Young Clare
There are few greater disappointments than the main character being the villain in her own story, but that’s exactly what the situation was with Young Clare. The flashback story arc depicted how the young orphan pestered a soldier into becoming her guardian, how it got her beheaded, and ruined both of their lives in the process.
As shown in the anime, Clare is entirely at fault. Some people interpret this as her cross to bear, but it didn’t make fans any more forgiving of her. In the flashback episodes, young Clare also didn’t talk or express any aptitude for making the tragedy worthwhile, so there was no reason not to revile her with the context provided.
2 Raki
The only human child worse than Young Clare is Raki, who not only set Clare on a dangerous and destructive path but disappeared for several episodes in the wake of destruction he caused. Ironically, when Raki and Clare parted ways, he went off to train with evil Awakened villains. When he returned, he had no swordsmanship skills to show for and still whined of his own cowardice within a shameful stone’s throw of Clare. In the Rigaldo arc, Clare lost control of her Yoma power and risked losing her humanity, while Raki just hid, paralyzed with fear.
It is certainly controversial to have a human character best monsters, demons, and sadists as the most hated. However, many fan sites and social media forums unanimously agree. Raki as a character was as useless as a toddler in an action film, and his whiny voice added insult to injury.
1 Ophelia
This series had some useless, poorly written, unintelligent, immature, and just plain rude characters, but none of them compared to the collective fear and fan loathing of Ophelia. This Claymore was both clever and crazy, simultaneously funny and scary, and was crafted so well that she was clearly designed as someone to love to hate.
The story has a crowning example of this with Ophelia’s sadistic game of cutting off Clare’s legs while she swordfights an under-skilled Raki. She makes a “deal” with Clare that she’ll fight Raki at his pitiful level, increasing difficulty every minute up to ten. Can Clare use her Yoma power to reattach her legs and save him? Will Raki even survive ten minutes? Just how diabolical Ophelia was made for great entertainment, even before she became an awakened demon.