Thanks To Success Of ‘One Piece’, CBS Green Lights Live-Action ‘Claymore’ Series From ‘Heroes’ Star And Netflix’s ‘Death Note’ Co-Producer Masi Oka
It’s a project that will almost certainly end in flames, and yet an absolutely baffling development has seen CBS Studios give an official development order to a live-action television adaptation of Norihiro Yagi’s dark fantasy manga Claymore from the co-producer of Netflix’s Death Note film, Masi Oka.
Its existence exclusively confirmed by Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva on the morning of March 12th, the series will be developed in partnership between CBS, the original manga’s publisher Shueisha, and production house Propagate Content, the last of whom boasts a TV track record that includes such outings as the History Channel’s History’s Greatest Mysteries with Laurence Fishburne, Netflix’s Untold, and Hulu’s four-part Hillary Clinton documentary Hillary.
Joining Oka in the series’ executive producer chair will be Propagate Contents Ben Silverman, Howard T. Owens, and Rodney Ferrell, with Shueisha also said to be directly involved in a yet-to-be-specified capacity.
Further, while the series’ head writer has yet to be found, the search is said to be “underway”.
According to Andreeva, CBS’ decision comes amid a “renewed interest in live-action manga adaptations following the success of Netflix’s One Piece.”
To this end, she also adds that the series will apparently attempt to “preserve the action and complex moral dilemmas of the original manga and the anime TV series.”
However, as anyone who has actually read the manga or watched its 2007 anime adaptation, may have already realized, this assurance will be exceptionally hard for CBS to follow through on given the manga’s actual content.
Originally published in Shueisha’s Monthly Shōnen Jump and its successor Jump Square from 2001-2014, Claymore drops readers into a medieval fantasy setting wherein human kind are regularly preyed upon by the Yoma, a species of human-mimicking shape-shifters whose inhuman strength and speed makes them practically undefeatable to the average individual.
Enter the series’ eponymous Claymores, an all-female group of Yoma-Human hybrids who wield the demonic abilities granted to them by their unique DNA in defense of humanity, cutting down any and all Yomas who they happen to come across.
But of course, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and the women’s constant dancing with their Yoma heritage makes them vulnerable to a process called Awakening, which occurs when they succumb to their lesser-halves and results in them becoming even more violent and sadistic than their natural-borne counterparts.
Notably, it is this threat of Awakening that has led to the Claymores’ all-female ranks, as the transformation brings with it an feeling of sexual gratification so intense that men are quick to forgo their humanity in order to chase it.
With that all in mind, does one really trust a Western television network to handle the series’ sexual and violent themes with any sort of respect? Or even accurately cast the light-haired, pale-skinned series lead, Clare?
It’s admittedly possible, but honestly, the odds are more unfavorable than those facing anyone who wishes to take on the brutal trials required to join the ranks of the silver-eyed witches.
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