Why does the Claymore anime end differently?
Because in 2007 the manga was eleven volumes into a twenty-seven-volume story, and television needed an ending anyway.
The Claymore anime, made by Madhouse and broadcast on Nippon TV from April to September 2007, is two adaptations in one. For most of its twenty-six episodes it follows Norihiro Yagi's manga closely, scene for scene. Then, with the source still years from finished, it leaves the page and builds a finale of its own.
THE FAITHFUL STRETCH
Episodes 1 to 20 · volumes 1 to 11A close adaptation
Directed by Hiroyuki Tanaka with series composition by Yasuko Kobayashi, character designs by Takahiro Umehara and music by Masanori Takumi, the anime covers the manga's first eleven volumes: Clare's introduction, the Teresa flashback, the hunts, and the road north.
The production problem
The manga was still running in a monthly magazine and had no ending to adapt. A straight adaptation, as Anime News Network's reviewer noted at the time, offered no adequate cut-off point: the story's next natural stop was years away.
THE DEPARTURE
Episodes 23 to 26 · anime originalPriscilla comes north
The anime moves its pieces. Priscilla, who in the manga stays far from the northern campaign, is brought to the war at Pieta, and the last episodes build to the confrontation the manga was still deferring: Clare against the Awakened Being who killed Teresa.
The volcanic duel
Episodes 25 and 26 are entirely original: Clare, half-awakened, duels Priscilla on a volcanic field. Clare wins the fight and loses the point of it: with Priscilla beaten back into her human form and memory, Raki begs for her life, and Clare lets her go. Isley carries Priscilla away; Clare leaves with Raki.
THE MANGA'S OWN ROAD
What print did insteadPieta, as written
In the manga Priscilla never comes north. The battle at Pieta ends in secret survival: seven warriors fake their deaths and vanish for seven years. Clare's hunt for Priscilla stays unresolved for most of the remaining sixteen volumes.
Sixteen more volumes
The anime ended in September 2007; the manga ran until October 2014. Everything English readers now think of as late Claymore, the Destroyer, the fall of the Organization, Teresa's final return, exists only in print. The anime is a faithful adaptation of a first act and an invention for an ending; the manga is the whole work.