Claymore, although very flawed, is also one of those series that just hooks you in immediately with its concept and grim dark adventure vibes. I recently did a re-read of the series after one of my friends started reading it at my suggestion, and to this day my feelings have not changed since I first read this near-masterpiece of a series (both in the postive and the negative aspects).
The first thing that makes an impression is the art style: with Claymore's dark lines and grimdark fantasy setting, Clare hunting down Yoma with her giant Claymore sword immediately evokes images and comparisons to Guts from Berserk in the best ways possible. Clare has to struggle in many of her early fights with Yoma and her connection with Raki really creates the heart and center of the story until we begin to get her background with Teresa (the GOAT).
Unfortunately, the tone of the series becomes much lighter once we begin meeting more friendly Claymores who also have vendettas against The Organization that created them, and although Helen, Deneve, and Miria are all fun and memorable characters, I do feel as if the series jumped the shark on introducing them and advancing the plotline to begin turning on The Organization. I think speeding through the plot is a recurring theme in the last half of the series and even parts a little before then. The story beats I think are good, but in my opinion it needed more time to cook and marinate on the implications and political nature of the story and that chance to let it breath while still retaining the tension would have alleviated a lot of the narrative and tonal inconsistencies. Like maybe just one more arc with Raki in the first half of the series before they met Ophelia, and then one more arc before Miria attempts to take down The Organization.
Overall this series still holds a very special place in my heart, but both on my first and subsequent reads, it's hard to ignore the tonal shift about halfway through, and this is one of the rare cases where I wouldn't have minded the grimdark vibe for longer.