Series Info:

            Also known as: Ayashi no Ceres

Episodes: 24

            Originally Aired: 2000

            Studio: Studio Pierrot

            Licensed by: Viz

 

Story Synopsis:

A long time ago, a young man came across a beautiful woman, a Celestial Maiden, as she was bathing.  He found her hagoromo (Celestial Robe) on a pine tree, and hid it.  Unable to return to heaven, the maiden became the man’s wife.  This is but one of many legends of the Celestial Maiden found throughout Japan.

 

Present day high school student, Aya Mikage just wanted to have a normal sixteenth birthday party with her friends and her twin brother, Aki.  Instead, Aya and Aki are brought to the Mikage main house to undergo a ritual.  Aya exhibits a strange reaction to the special ‘present’ revealing her to be a Tennyo (a Celestial Maiden).  But she isn’t just any Tennyo; she houses the vengeful spirit of Ceres, the mother of the Mikage clan! Her once loving grandfather, the head of the Mikage family and Mikage Corp., orders her immediate execution.

 

       Aya is saved thanks to Toya, and the Aogiri family.  Toya is an amnesiac who works for the Mikage and saves Aya for reasons he doesn’t understand.  Suzumi Aogiri is another Tennyo and a member of the Aogiri family through marriage.  Yuhi Aogiri is the bastard child of the head of the Aogiri family and the younger brother of Suzumi’s deceased husband.  Suzumi senses Aya’s awakening and decides to send Yuhi to save her.  The Mikage family very rich and very powerful and is more than capable of getting away with murder.  And they have no intention of letting Aya get away.  And if that wasn’t bad enough, Aya has to deal with the vengeful Ceres living inside of her who wants to destroy the entire Mikage family!

 

Warnings/Objectionable Content

       Let’s see: nudity, blood (a good deal of it, the bloodiest shoujo I’ve seen), graphic deaths, incest (sort of), scenes of attempted rape.  It definitely earns its 16+ rating (Viz’s rating for the Region 1 DVDs).

 

Plot:

       Ceres’ story is certainly one of the more original shoujo stories out there.  It’s also one of the darkest.  While the series has its lighter moments, the overall tone is dark and ominous.  Overall, the story is paced very well.  The first episode drags a tiny bit and the ending is a tad rushed, but it’s rather insignificant and doesn’t really hurt the overall flow.  The ending keeps with the tone of the show and brings the series to a beautiful close.  Ceres is easily has one of the best stories out there.

 

Characters:

       The characters are not particularly deep, but the important characters are still developed fairly well.  Aya is a bit irritating at first, but she gets better once the crap hits the fan and her character starts to develop.  Toya could have used a bit more character development, but he’s the hot bishie badass, so it’s not a big deal.  Yuhi is probably the best developed character after Aya and is much more ‘normal’ (kung fu cooking aside) than Toya is, which makes him more likeable and easier to relate to.

 

Art/Animation:

       The art is pretty well done.  The art in the anime actually makes Toya look less like Tamahome than the manga does.  Animation is also good quality.

 

Music:

       Simply beautiful.  Ceres has the best music out of any anime series I have ever seen.  The music fits almost perfectly.  The opening, “Scarlet,” has a sad and solemn melody, perfect for the story.  The background music is equally beautiful.  From introspective scenes to action scenes, the music sounds and fits great.  The only parts where the music isn’t outstanding are the ‘neutral’ scenes.  Like when characters are simply walking down the street with nothing in particular going on.  Of course, such scenes don’t really need great background music, so I can’t really count this against it.

 

Miscellaneous:

       English Dub commentary:  Passable for the most part.  Except that Aya’s voice is really irritating, especially at the beginning.  She gets slightly better as the show goes on, but not much.

 

       Manga Comparison:  This is where Ayashi no Ceres tends to draw a lot of criticism.  The first half of the TV series follows the manga with minimal changes, but the second half removes several.  The biggest loss is that one particular character is almost completely removed from the anime.  The anime also removes two story arcs from the second half.  While one story arc contained some good character development for Aya and Yuhi, the story arcs really didn’t contain anything that advanced the plot.

 

Final Thoughts:

       Ayashi no Ceres was one of the first fansubs I saw (back around 2001) and it remains my favorite anime to this day (although it may soon be matched by Bleach).  If you are looking for a dark anime with a great plot, you really can’t go wrong with Ceres.

 

Rating:

 

 

(This review was written by HitokiriShadow)