Do the hungry ever sleep?
I want to believe it.But my carnivore heart
– Erica Sparks, from Carnivore Heart
comes out after dark
waiting to be fed
Proof of Life
Carnivore Hearts is a collective for all of my web projects dedicated to the manga Claymore by Norihiro Yagi. Though small in number at present, more shrines may surface in the (far) future. You’re welcome to poke me about them in the guestbook.
The site is intended to be viewed at a minimum resolution of 1280x720.
✗ last update: August 2025
✗ part of The Wither and Bloom Network
Strength and Heart
I first watched Claymore as a fansub sometime between 2007 and 2011 after reading praise for it here and there. Teresa’s story struck me, but the amount of animated violence and severed limbs as well as the abrupt and unsatisfying ending left me with a bitter taste. Although the series seemed promising in its earlier parts, its lack of strong themes and follow-up on characterization had me think of it as an action story like any other. What I didn’t know at the time was that the anime features an alternate, premature ending; more importantly, it is only the overture of the manga’s broader story. It wasn’t until sometime in 2012, I believe, that I read Yagi’s work and came to see and appreciate Claymore for what it truly is.
Claymore, though not among my favourite manga, is a series I find myself rereading often, marvelling at its strong themes and all the different female warriors who drive those themes home. While I acknowledge that it may not have been written to be about women and female solidarity specifically, fandom discourse over the years shows how much it means for Claymore to focus so strongly – and almost exclusively – on its female characters. Not only are these characters powerful and driven, they also weave a wide variety of meaningful bonds with each other: as comrade-in-arms, friends, sisters, partners, rivals, opponents, mentors and protegées, mother figures, idols and so on. In a genre (with a certain target demographic) that is regularly unperturbed about objectifying and sexualizing female characters regardless how well-written or powerful they are – if they are allowed to be overshadowingly powerful in the first place —, Claymore is a sight to behold, and a rare taste to savour.
Fit for Battle
Sites that have come into existence.
A Distant Pledge
Shrines not yet born. Add Dietrich and you have all my favourites in one spot.
The Last Battlefield
Back when I dove into shrine-making in 2015, I was fairly certain I would make some shrines to select Claymore characters eventually so as to share my reflections on them. In response to a community event prompt in the same year, Awakening was thus written as a foundation and introduction for what is to come, steering clear of addressing individual narratives. A few months later, in November 2015, stormwind.org (named after Stormwind Noel, No. 4 during Teresa’s era) was registered to house all of my Claymore projects present and upcoming.
The years went by, and no Claymore sites followed. (If you must know, drafts and a mock-up layout for the Teresa shrine exist.) Though my wish to engage with the characters in shrine format remains unchanged, the projects are far from being a priority. stormwind.org was let go in December 2024, and the collective was subsequently revamped in August 2025. It was renamed to Carnivore Hearts after Erica Sparks’ poem, which I have always associated with the – although at times seemingly dormant – relentless, all-consuming craving for a soul that understands you deep down, in all aspects of your humanity. The poem can be read in full on the website of the artist Lisa Jaeggi.
the less sanitary version of how this revamp came about, excerpt from a chat log (12.10.2024)
- begrudgingly sits down to do prep work for the overhaul of a collective with projects I don’t want to work on anytime soon, for a series I love less than many others, all bc of an expiring domain I maybe shouldn’t have bought (I WANT TO WORK ON MY DOMAIN REVAMP INSTEAD I have no time for this)
- thinks up the fucking perf name that is entirely wasted on an inactive collective
- looks for fucking artbook scans, finds them through sheer dumb luck thanks to the gods of old [a MEGA mirror link someone dropped on an old torrent file I shit you not], none of the imgs are motives I want to use
- begrudgingly opens photoshop to make a damn teaser img out of a bad quality scan found through chinese scanlation
- ends up with a skeleton header that gains so much favour that I feel like queen of the world MAYBE WE SHOULD BE MAKING CLAYMORE SHRINES TO FILL THE COLLECTIVE WITH YES WE ARE BACK IN THE GAME
- maybe I should get drunk and write a mini claymore character shrine, 12h challenge LET’S GO
- I want to work on my domain revamp I HAVE NO TIME FOR THIS
(Alas, though I ended up doing most of the work in the span of two sick days, I ended up going back to the oubliette.nu revamp and only dug up this project again ten months later to finish it.)
credits
- Claymore: Norihiro Yagi
- Translations: VIZ Media
- Abstract shapes: Luna Sonego Design
- Pattern: Subtle Patterns
- Fonts: Old Standard TT, Josefin Slab, Roboto, Playfair Display
The layout features the twin sisters Alicia the Black and Beth the Black, No. 1 and 2 respectively of Clare’s generation. The image is the front illustration of volume 18’s inner cover; in the US, the original inner cover illustrations were only printed for the exclusive booklet that comes with the Claymore complete box set. If you know where to find or are in possession of high quality scans of these illustrations, I beg you to contact me. (The Memorabilia artbook only contains around half of them.)
All headings are named after chapter titles from the manga.
Lingering Scent
If you would like to link this collective, feel free to use one of the following buttons and direct it to https://claymore.oubliette.nu. Please do not direct link buttons.
