Ayashi no Ceres

Ayashi no Ceres presents a beautiful love story, which intertwined with great action and characters makes for a sad, yet heartwarming story that can grip your heart.

It starts off very peacefully, with Aya Mikage and her twin brother Aki spending time with their friends, celebrating the twins' 16th birthday. However, this peaceful day is interrupted by Aya falling off a bridge, down on the highway underneath. Miraculously, she lands without getting a scratch, and she's saved from cars on a collision course by a mysterious, red-headed man. And that day marks the end of the happy days for the two.

They are summoned to the ... family mansion to celebrate their 16th birthday, but instead, they end up being the victims of the Mikage family's gruesome rite of killing off female descendants with strong tennyo powers in them. Said powers suddenly awaken, preventing her from getting killed.

From here on, the story goes darker, deeper and angstier as we're thrown into the mess that Aya suddenly finds herself in, being hunted by her own family all of a sudden. She has to deal with the fact that her twin brother has turned into a reincarnation of an evil man from the past, and she has to make sure Ceres doesn't take over her body completely. This leads to some great action scenes, as Ceres emerges to fight the Mikage family from time to time, with her astounding powers.

And then there's the love, the beautiful, yet sad love that is Aya's and Toya's love - Toya is the guy who saved her, but also a Mikage henchman, which means he's out to get her. However, he slowly falls in love with her, and her with him, despite the two of them being enemies. Now they must find a way to live out their love without the Mikage family or Ceres, who has a vendetta against the Mikages, getting in the way. Of course, there's Yuhi, and there's actually some mutual love between Yuhi and Aya as well, creating a love triangle that can rip Aya apart.

The characters in the anime are all very realistically portrayed. From Toya's quest to find his place in this world to Aya's struggles to remain herself through all that happens around her. The love that slowly develops between Toya and Aya is never forced, and their relationship progresses nicely over the course of the series.

The side characters are all good too, and despite not having so major roles, they fulfill them excellently, and they are portrayed very well too. Most of the characters you will see have some depth to them, which causes your heart to be with them as well, and not only Aya and Toya.

I'm also fond of the character development that takes place during the course of the series - at the end I could see how much they had matured, obviously having learned a few things about life and love during the events that took place during the course of the series.

Studio Pierrot did a nice job on the animation, and despite it being a bit old, it's very good. The lighting effects are very well done, though the same can't always be said about the special effects - they had their moments they too, though. The overall detail is very good, but there's one thing that bugged me, and that was the fact that their hair seemed transparent when in front of their eyes. You can't see your eyes through a layer of hair >_

Ayashi no Ceres:

Story:
A very original plot line, immersing a young woman on her 16th birthday, into a world of danger and constant threat while those who are around her and those who she loves are hurt. With love triangles that are sometimes heart wrenching and at other times very sweet. And with a very important message which you will be blatantly told if you haven't already figured it out by the end of the series.

Characters:
Characters that are simply amazing, follow them all through their pain and trials that they have to overcome. All are excellently portrayed and their feelings ... really reach you. The romance between some of the characters is just grand, it really gives and shows you the true feeling of love.

Sound:
Soundtrack is just amazing, opening song: Scarlet, must be hands down one of the best openings for an anime. The background played throughout the anime is outstanding with beautiful instrumental and piano music. The voice actors, just wow, their acting, the feeling they put in each character, it is just outstanding, some scenes I actually think in the recording studio the voice actor actually cried.

What is so good about this anime?
For an anime that was released in 2000 the art is simply amazing. The plot line is so intricate and very original. The romance between various characters that really portray their anguish, sadness, happiness, confusion, and love. An amazing soundtrack that completely fits the mood and just makes you want to listen to the songs over and over again. I have to say, this is one of the best romance anime's out there. Enjoy this series.

If you'd like to see my full review then leave a comment on my profile.

Characters: The relationships of the family members were the most fascinating in the series. Aya and Aki had the typical brother/sister relationship of bickering and understanding, but after their 16th birthday it became more intense. Aki now desired the maiden inside of Aya. Aya also had a lot of growth, as she fought to control Ceres and save her brother from their power-hungry family. All of the characters have inner demons that they are constantly fighting in order to protect the ones they love.

Story: Ayashi no Ceres starts out like an average shojo anime with a mysterious, aloof love interest (naturally), fantasy elements, and a love triangle, but unlike other shoujo, this is based on a Watase Yuu work, so expect a lot of drama and some darker moments (see incest). This show ends up moving in some wild and frankly implausible directions, even aside from the usual angst and drama we come to expect from a shoujo anime. It's not light, that's for sure.

Art: What can I say? It's typical Watase Yuu, but the art, especially for the male characters, is delicate and pretty. As with ... most shoujo, it's colorful. I imagine if the work was done today, the colors would be even more vivid and glossy and less faded, but they're not at all bad.

Sound: The theme song was awesome. :)

Character: Unfortunately, as happens with many anime that suddenly choose a villain from among the main cast, we can't really say much about the characters because their personalities change wildly when they suddenly become villains or suddenly embody the reincarnated soul of a vengeful spirit (yes, it happens). The characters become plot devices themselves. Events move this story along rather than the characters.

Overall: If you like your romance staid and centered on relationships and characters, then this anime is not for you. If you like your soap operas full of drama, unlikely plot twists, and fantasy, then this may be for you. If you're a Watase Yuu fan, go for it.

Why can't we have more Shoujos like this!This show is full of win!

Let me get this out of the way.The main reason why i can't give this a 10/10 is because I wish the main character,Aya could do more or be more PROactive.

However,her role is well defined and established in this story,never did i feel that she had no reason to do what she did.Which is not something i could say for most anime these days.

And at least she has some real character and personality.Not being made artificially strong just for the sake of the tired 'strong girl"trope,implying girls need bs plot armor to be ... strong.

The 2 dudes she loved are allright,and do have a meaningful love triangle.
a heroic yuuji and our emo boy Toya.

Fortunately both of them are more complex than they seem.And you kinds get why she choose the one.(hint.Nice guys finish last). Unlike some shows, this nice guy isn't a loser.He makes some tough choices and goes through a lot.

The other guy is tied too well to the plot for me to go too deep into him.
He is a lost dude whose struggle to find himself isn't cringe worthy

This show is very ecchi for a shoujo.There are shonen harems with less service than this.That is because this anime had a source material which was once a PORN manga for GIRLS( Girls like porn too lol)

But the show knows when how to tell a serious story.Or tone it down when it needs too.

The story also has Aya host a spirit called Ceres(Goddess host from TWGOK is the best modern equivalent) .She is the" Diana to the Tenri.She basically is gonna kill if she doesn't get what she needs.


There is a whole mystery surrounding Aya ,Ceres and her family line.Conspiracies and corporations around.One of the best original Conspiracies in anime around.

I love the fantasy in this anime, it has well established rules
so when the fantasy happens, it didn't feel that the author pulled stuff out of nowhere to make stuff happen(unlike madoka).This can get very over the top,but it has a realism to ground the story.

The villans ,I'd say one of them needs a tag team of Keima,lelouch and Kira to take him on.He is a very focused dude who works towards the shows theme,"perfection".He isn't just the bad guy.More is shown rather than said for this dude ,which is what makes him stand out.

The other villan seems so generic at first.However,he has however one of the most realistic motivations out there.

The violence is brutal.and i've seen a lot of violent anime on my day.......

When I say "Is shoujo a dead genre" ,This is the kind of show I am talking about!

"16 year old girl gets pregnant with a guy who's made up of the ocean and derived from herself; or in short, she fucked herself."

"Her entire family wants to rape her the whole season."

"The entire family line is literally built upon incest."

^^Just a few one-liners to introduce you to the show. ^^


----[ Initial Review at ep. 17; read below for final review ]----
...
Damn, I can't believe this. I was actually enjoying the anime in the beginning, but I'm at episode 17 and it's going SO downhill.

The first couple episodes were pretty good. We got trauma, drama, directed almost like a thriller that actually had me on my toes, and some kind of character development from our main characters (oh except Toya, that guy literally never gets any until AFTER episode 16/17 LOL).

This anime gets pretty dark at certain times, and the way it's depicted gives a thriller/suspense kind of feel. That's what I found really cool about this, was that it was able to build up suspense and drama in a good way.

However, I notice after episode 13-14, the directing starts going to shit. The transitions and story-telling in the anime become ABSOLUTE CRAP halfway through the season and so much stuff is happening without proper explanations that it gets really confusing.
||| Often times when I start a new episode, it seems like it does a time-skip and doesn't pick up where the previous episode left, so I have to check to make sure I'm watching the right episode. |||
This happens a lot. I notice that it glosses over really important and drastic things / turn of events that I'm wondering "when did they do this??? why is she attending a new school all of sudden??"

Furthermore, there's SO MANY PLOT-HOLES. A lot of the stuff doesn't make sense, no proper explanations and it becomes so irksome that it's ridiculous.

The only character development we've seen is Yuhi and the celestial being herself, Ceres. Suzumi, although seemingly introduced as a major character, actually ends up being on the sidelines and out of the story a lot, so not much from her.

The romance in the show started off good in the first couple episodes, but by episode 13-14, it starts falling apart.

Why does it fall apart? Well, in the first couple episodes we have one guy who has gotten close to Aya and always protects her. They even have their 'moments', Aya doesn't really mind it either and even says she doesn't mind being kissed by him and may actually fall in love with him. We have ALL that chemistry built up for a good TWELVE EPISODES and lots of scenes where they get to know each other. So they have this guy here as the possible love interest, and you're led to believe they'll be together because he's been there for her in all of her roughest times and saved her every single time, /and/ they're progressing in their relationship.

Then we have another guy who seems like the main love interest based on the OP, except what? He doesn't have ANYTHING with Aya. This guy literally responds to Aya with 1-2 lines in the first 12 episodes and she rarely ever saw him. Yet somehow she's in love with him??? This is a weird love story. She fell in love with a guy she barely knows, a total complete stranger that remains a stranger until around episode 13-ish. And the guy barely knows her either, yet he says he's in love. Not only that, but around episode 16-17, they start throwing ALL KINDS of new stories to make up for his lack of character development.

The story at this point doesn't make sense anymore. I notice that a lot of times the story drifts away from the plot. The story keeps drifting away from finding the celestial robe. I'm really close to dropping it at this point lol

Also, I don't know what it is with the mangaka's obsession with rape, but yes this show does have several scenes that mention it or hint at it. There's also a lot of sexism and misogyny in this /sigh/



----[ Final Review ]----

I finally willed myself to finish watching the last couple episodes in hopes that the show will redeem itself. No, it does not.

|| I really had to ask myself if I was just watching a really bad Hentai. || The plot became something you'd find in a hentai, but even more disappointing and cringey. No more suspense or thrill felt from the first episodes, which sucks.

It didn't improve. It just kept building and building onto the clusterfuck called its 'plot'. I felt like I was watching several different animes jumbled into one, or like the mangaka thought "what if i kept adding random stories that didn't make sense and was never hinted EVER in the story?" And the amount of plot-holes was astonishing, like nothing ever made sense.

Remember, this is a story on a 16 year old girl. Everyone is trying to rape her, she gets pregnant and is like "I will carry your baby" to a guy she's barely known, becomes reduced to a character that really doesn't do shit after episode 13-ish except for screaming.

I mentioned before about plot-holes. The amount of plot-holes is astonishing, there's way too many. When you watch an episode, it mostly doesn't pick up from the last episode so often times you're wondering what's going on /now/ and if you skipped an episode.

The || animation || in this show was so cheaped out. It's very noticable how they cut corners with animating things and being really lazy. Often times the audio doesn't match up with the mouth, and often times the official licensed translation is very off and awkward.

!!!!!! Lastly, there's a lot of rape and incest themes in this. The entire storyline is based on incest, so you have been warned. !!!!!!

I don't know what can compel someone to want to continue watching this.

Mysterious Ceres is the type of shoujo series that you can't take too seriously but you can still really enjoy it to the max. It's a story filled with a lot of drama, love triangles, teenage angst...not to mention, it's got that whole crazy sci-fi, mystical and trans-generational angle thrown into the mix as well. With all of that, it should suffice to say that we've got ourselves a pretty complex story going on with this anime series, but even so, it's really not that hard of a story to follow....and that's precisely why I'm giving this story high marks because no matter how awesome ... a story maybe, no matter how super smooth and modern the art might be, if the story isn't told well enough to make a connection to it's audience then it fails as a program....and ultimately it all amounts to a steaming pile of crap. So even though this show, Ceres has had it's uber-EMO moments with all these characters that are either suffering from some sort of bipolar or MPD = Multiple Personality Disorder, I still give it high marks because not once did I roll my eyes in disgust nor did I get bored with it. Mysterious Ceres does tell a good enough story that you'll be able to follow through to it's conclusion all the while being entertained the whole time.

Animation
The animation isn't the best in the world, there's a lot of freeze-frame shots during the fight scenes and sometimes you have the characters making these jumpy, erratic movements when they walk, run or fight. Plus I spotted a few inconsistencies with the coloring as well as with some characters' wardrobes and even inconsistencies with the lengths of their hair. Do I care about all this? Am I that nit-picky? No, but it might bug other viewers so I'm stating it as a matter of fact.

Overall, to me at least, all those flaws and errors made the show more unique and somewhat valiant. Also all those little imperfections in the series help to create [however unintentionally] a kind of vintage feel to it all, like it was something out of the late 80's/early 90's.That's how I was able to cope with it anyway.......


SOUND
Both the OP and 1st ED Theme songs have this very 80's retro vibe to them. The OP especially sounded like one of those cheesy 80's soap opera theme songs. It's all kinds of dramatic and melancholy. And then there's the 2nd ED Theme was more of that forgettable 90's electro-synthesizer POP sound. Was this on purpose? Who knows....but it does kind of fit the overall feel of the series since it did kind of look a lot older than it actually is.


ANIMATION
I think the most important thing to keep in mind when watching this series is that this is really a love story, even though there are tons of action scenes with lots of gunfire, explosions and bloodshed. That somehow even with all the dual personalities, back-stabbing and betrayals worthy of most soap operas, the plotline still remains incredibly basic which is that everyone wants or is somehow connected to the Aya/Ceres character.

At first while watching episode 1, I thought “GAH! What a yucky cheese-fest!” but as soon as they get to Grampa's house for their birthday “celebration” things got pretty good pretty fast.....and that's what make this show a good show to watch! It's not just a cheesy soap opera in anime form nor does it adhere to just one type of basic shtick. This series has a whole bunch of stuff to offer, of course it has the more obvious romance and drama elements, but there are tons of gritty, bloody fight scenes, suspense, shocking revelations and freaky plot twists. Though sometimes I do think they get carried away in some scenes, like for example, which government is going to allow some agency [multi-conglomerate, big business, mafioso or otherwise] to fly a helicopter around the city armed with live ammo and missiles to go around chasing civilian cars and blowing up the highway in the process?

But even with those incredulous moments, I still must say it was a very good story that will shock you and leave you questioning, “how will it all end?”


CHARACTERS
Though Mysterious Ceres isn't considered a 'bishonen' anime exclusively, in my book, it still falls in that category since it's jam packed with lots and lots of extremely good-looking, if not somewhat effeminate, pretty boys! I'm not opposed to bishounen animes...in fact, the more the merrier I say. However I do think these guys kind of looked too similar. Only their hair and eyes were colored differently but they were basically from the same mold as if they were the products of mass production not unlike a certain factory line of Ken dolls. Speaking of mass production, Ceres' face seemed to be the main template being used when drawing women's faces, tho it was rather ingeniously explained away in the story as simply being a coincidental phenomenon thru genetic heredity.

Personality-wise, the main thing I noticed was that the dudes seem to do way more crying than the girls and while it's nice to see a little male sympathy & compassion, they did seem to go a teensy bit overboard with all that bawling, but it's to be expected sometimes with female oriented shows where the girls are empowered in all sorts of ways while the guys are considerably much weaker and also much more emotional.

Also I thought that the Mikage family at times seem a bit too overwrought with all this drama with people dying all over the place it was like something out of one of those ancient Greek tragedies. Every time you met a 'family' member they had a tale of death and personal tragedy to tell, it made you wonder if anyone had a happy childhood or even a happy adulthood for that matter.



ENJOYMENT
All in all this was a pretty good series and despite it's shortcomings art-wise and music-wise, it was still a pretty compelling story that was told in a way that's enjoyable and pretty easy to follow. It's the kind of story that will get a reaction out of you. I found myself saying “Daaaaaaaamn!” out loud lots of times and there are many episodes that will end leaving you wide-eyed with shock and racing with anticipation to see what happens next in the following episode.

It's a show, I would definitely recommend to those interested in this type of show or is a fan of shows with lots of bishounen

let me give you a warning, I didn't expect this wasn't going to be that great. Its been from my mind , "ok going to watch it because it seems very interesting and not going to be a great story just another romance plot with dramatic shocking moments for anime with pretty boy and girls" Though i do cry but sometimes force myself. I do cry on Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal, Makoto Shinkai's films for example. Thought in series just a force but for this series, I WAS WRONG!!!! This is my second series to cry so hard with Elfen Lied. ... If not seen that show too, you better :)
I watched this only 8 episodes yesterday and then Saturday the rest of the time till right now. I forgot that i finished the whole thing till 23 thinking, "OMG I AM in near the last episode already" let me tell you i didn't get tired one bit.

The story in the beginning begins a typical shojo high school teenager of Aya hanging with her twin brother Aki and her friends having so much fun like kareoke. Aya happens to be the best singer in her high school let me say. Then a womens bag got stolen and Aya came to grap the bag from the burglar but then fell off the cliff from the bridge when she tripped. though without her dying, she started to float with a strange ancient symbol. though she landed carefully but was about to get hit by a car but a handsome guy came to save her in time. the guy whose name is touya. Thats just the beginning. From then it was time the twins 16th birthday to celebrate but not going with their friends but to grandpa's house. What happens they didn't expect is as a gift a ancient that awakens them of the ancient fairytale. the fairy tale about a women named ceres came down to heaven and something to her precieces is taken by a man who wouldn't let her leave so beared children together. so yes mixed humen of ceres and the mans blood. Which happens was a true story. For Aya she is the awaken of CERES and AKI is the man who beared her children. So for that rule is Aya for any women that is born a CERES has to be killed from her whole family. So yeah start out cute to intense sci fi, fantasy. Yes has a bunch of love triangle soup opera going on and some cartoonie faces but you forget that. Its not just for girls, its for boys to love this show too. LOTS OF VIOLENCE AND BLOOD!!!

the characters, you might love all of them. Though be one character might hate is Touya. AT first might but then later on the series get to love him which i really did too for wondering why AYA loves them. I promise you, you will. Sadly, characters you'll get to love will die tragically. I kept screaming in my mind with tears.

The theme song "Scarlet", i loved it before found it was in the series. When it was i was surprised my favorite voice japanese voice actress sang this and is the voice of ceres :) Great theme that won't get sick of.

So its an OUTSTANDING SHOW that shouldn't be missed which is my personal favorite :)

For other stuff enjoy which is in the manga FRUITS BASKET. Made me cry more in the manga than the anime did. Enjoy that one too :)

Very Celestial indeed! Contains violence & mild nudity.

Story of adventure & supernatural, Aya being a descendant of a celestial maiden (Ceres). Also goes complicated when her twin brother Aki appears to be a descendant of the man who forced Ceres to be his wife. Aya has a little control when it comes to switching back to herself, how can she take it if Ceres saw Aki? She knows Ceres would definitely kill him, actually, the whole Mikage clan. Luckily enough, she met her protector Yuuhi who was a former employee of her evil grandpa.

Will Yuuhi be on her side forever? Can he also protect ... their relationship from all the chaos that's happening?

It's quite similar to Fushigi Yuugi in terms of supernatural genre & the "against all odds" love affair. Still, Fushigi Yuugi comes first to me :). Other than that, they are both great animes! ^^

So I began to watch this thinking it was the ordinary, normal reverse harem anime, with a girl that had the generic standard type of personality and guys surrounding and falling in love with her, because of different things. And boy was I wrong. I can't even begin to point out how wrong I was. I just saw the picture and thought "Hey, stereotypical reverse harem. I'm bored, let's watch", and that, my friends, is how I slowly entered the hell that is Ayashi no Ceres.


Story 9/10
The story is about the twins Aya and Aki, though Aya takes the main lead pretty fast.
What I thought ... would be the fluffy lovestory with many males around one female quickly became this train to my feels utter destruction. Every stop had tragic events right around the corner, and while we did get to see some romance and happiness, that would quickly get to a point where we would just wait for the next lightning to strike. The tragic events actually came to a point where the characters just couldn't handle it and was like "Yea, it was tragic, but like, we are used to it, so let me freak out a bit and get back to you tomorrow".
The story in itself messed me up pretty badly. But if it was only tragic I wouldn't have watched it to the end. The tragedy in this is so freaking beautifull that I just couldn't take my eyes off.

Art 6/10
I know this is an old anime, but the art still kind of took away something of the enjoyment for me. I found myself forgetting to concentrate on the events of the story, only to keep thinking "Just move those mouths two cm down or something". It just really annoyed me a lot, and I thought I would get used to it, but I didn't really. Other than that I guess the art is what to expect.

Sound 8/10
I don't really notice the background music unless it's totally off, so I guess it was okay. The reason for giving it 8, however, is because of my love for both the OP and the ED's. They just embody the whole feeling I get from the anime, and the OP especially is so powerful and sad. Thinking back I should have gotten a clue, that this wasn't a "Kiss kiss fall in love" kind of a deal...

Character 9/10
So let's talk characters, because even though the plot was kind of original (Only kinda), the characters would be the thing that would make or break a show. And these really made it.
Aya, our heroine, starts out just being a normal girl. She is only 15 when the anime begins, and at her 16th birthday, where the anime really takes hold, everything just changes around her. Like, literally everything. She finds out she has a celestial being (I think it was called) inside of her, her whole family wants to kill her, and so she has to flee. The way she grows as a character is outstanding. It's very human, and not as if she is either too weak or too strong all the time. She shows both her strong sides and weak sides. I don't know if I imagined it, but as the anime progresses it almost feels like she matures a lot. Both her clothing and facial expressions. And everything in between I guess.
Toya, a very important character, also really evolves. I would go in-depth with it, but that would be kind of a spoiler.
Same with Aki, Ayas twin brother.

The one, however, I am mostly pleased with is the character named Alec, but I would really suggest people to watch it.
In general the characters mostly have very noticable personality changes in the good way. There is a few exceptions, of course, and other characters whom aren't given any time to shine, but because of the time I can see as to why they did as they did.

Overall enjoyment 9/10
As I started with, I thought this would be a normal reverse harem anime, and then I boarded the train to hell instead. I was not, the least, prepared mentally or emotionally for this bormbardment of feels I got thrown at me. I cried, I hurt, I felt with the characters, and I truly ended up feeling with them in not that much time. Now I feel empty and sad, because even though this anime was tragic, I really loved it. I really enjoyed it. I like anime that can get me to feel something, and with this I went through almost my whole feeling register. So well. I'm sad that I'm finished.

she has a very long history where a goddess remembers herself because she has to find her own dress in order to return to the divine world, which was stolen by a human being who became her husband and takes a body from every Mikage woman to look for her dress and take revenge on the family.
The plot is captivating: Aya and Aki are twins, and carefree teenagers like many others.
On their sixteenth birthday they are put to the test. Aya discovers she has incredible powers and is sentenced to death by her own family because it is considered a threat. He will soon find ... out that he is a descendant of the Goddess Ceres and his brother was his former beloved ancestor of the Mikage family. The one who had stolen his mantle, the hagoromo, preventing it from returning to the sky. Now the Goddess Ceres has awakened and lives in the body of Aya, the two entities cohabiting with several problems. As a plot, I have to say that there are many surprises and facets that embellish and greatly increase the level of this anime.

The manga was 84 chapters, so for the anime to have only 24, it felt really cramped up, especially towards the ending. I felt like it needed more episodes to expound on the plot. Hence my rating. Other than that, I love everything about Ceres!

This anime was a classic! It's not your normal reverse harem shoujo type themes! It has a darker tone, definitely not for kids below 15. The plot was original and impressive.

The characters were all great. I liked that Yuu Watase always make it a point to create her side characters really likable. All the more so, for the main ones.

ART ... was astonishing, a little old-ish but (personally) it's how I like my anime anyway so it doesn't bother me at all. Music was a phenomenal as expected for a shoujo theme - Scarlet was so emotional, really fits the story.

I must warn you, this is one' bittersweet series.. so don't expect a happy ending, but do watch this anime..it's really good! Another Yuu Watase masterpiece!

Plot: From the famous author Watase Yuu. Based on the Japanese legend of the “Tennyo no Hagoromo.” A young man spied a celestial maiden bathing. He saw the "celestial robe" and took it with him. Unable to go back to heaven, the celestial maiden was forced to marry the young man.

Story:
Based on the manga with the same title. The series is a a mix of drama, fantasy, adventure and romance. Much darker than the author's previous work. A love story that will appeal to everyone.

Art:
Studio Pierrot did a really great job with the animation. The satisfying character designs are so pleasing to ... the eye.

Sound
The Japanese voice acting for the characters was exceptionally amazing. They depicted their sentiments persuasively and conveyed their lines with the control and originality. Also, the songs are haunting.

Note: I really like the opening song. Very emotional.

Character:
I like how strong-willed Aya is (the main female protagonist). She was able to endure the hardships of her situation and was able to confront the enemy. Her brother (Aki) is vise versa since he lost control of himself. Touya, on the other hand is sometimes too depressing but all of them complimented each other.

Enjoyment:
I really enjoyed this series because of it's unique plot. The mystery of the Celestial Beings is really intriguing and the romance between Aya and Touya is so heartwarming.

Overall:
One of the best series for me. Awesome story and music. I would recommend this series to anyone, but be warned... be ready with a box of tissues lol

AYASHI NO CERES REVIEW
01-02-2019

OVERALL: 7.6

PLOT: 7

Love is not always how happy you are with the person you care for. It is also understanding them, it is also maintaining what is between the two of you. It is kinda funny to think of the main plot of this story. It is like a lovers quarrel due to the misunderstanding between two person in love. What makes it interesting is the way that little thing turns out into a big one that cause disruption, not only just the two of them, but also the blood running next to them. It is also fascinating to know something ... about a myth or historical love story flashing in my eyes. This anime has its twist that you'll never expect it to be. The only thing I kinda doubted is how the bond between the other two main characters bloom. Love should be shown naturally. It does not create a feelings out of nowhere. It always, always have its root. It always come from something lovable, with flaws, but with understanding. Apart from that, the concept of it, how twisted human can be, how different people is from each other, how greed can control emotions, how revenge can turn so bad, it's all in here. And it will just depend on you how you'll see and enjoy this series.

CHARACTER: 7

There's always that character who really is like a character. While there is also a character who is more like human than the main one. I think, the best character who show what real human can be is the antagonist of the series. He has the most developed character. Along the series, he learned his mistakes and accept the consenquence of his actions. While he has his good sides, the protagonist of the story is kinda neutral and descending. Yes, the story progress because of her falling in love with a guy with all his heart. However, her changes is minimal, and it is kinda irritating how she can only cry, hurt, use not her powers, for the sake of her loved ones.

SOUND AND ANIMATION: 9

I freaking love the opening song. It's heartbreaking, it is really sad and you can feel the emotions put into the song. It's like its inviting you to cry along with it. Though the language is a foreign one, the feelings suppressed on it is not. The emotions wanted to burst is real. Additional point with the animation of this series which really looks like my first favorite anime, none other than fushigi yuugi. Same author, yes. Though the animation is old, the expression of the character is fine and some of it will really get you goosebumps, or rather excited. The psychotic gesture of one of the characters is really something.

ENJOYMENT: 7

The main historical story is really amazing for me. That's what I enjoyed the most. An angel goes down from heaven, unable to leave the earth and so on. I'm really a fan of stories like this. It has its unique taste on its own. Watching historical anime is already an enjoyment for me. What more if it is a good one?


ENDING: 8

If you ever write a story, you will sympathize with the author, I guess. Imagine you have written a story, two guys fall sincerely inlove with a girl. Don't you think it is very hard to pick one of the two? If you mold your characters the best way you can? I think Yuu Watase follow her soft side when thinking of an ending. She picked an ending where everybody understands each other, no one was left behind, no one has regrets, all is happy, all has planned. Cliche is not the best term for it, I think it's more of just a peaceful ending.

Ayashi no Ceres is a 2000 anime from Studio Pierrot. You know, the studio behind Hikaru no Go, Yu Yu Hakusho & Bleach. Fortunately, only one of those is a mediocre rip off of Yu-Gi-Oh. So, there's some hope for this. For the end of horror anime month, let's take a look at Ayashi no Ceres.

Story:

Everything seems to be going right for Mikage Aya. She has a good relationship with her twin, Aki. They're about to celebrate their sixteenth birthday. And she just floated to safety after falling from a high place and was caught by a handsome passer-by to boot. Then they ... find out that they have to celebrate with their entire family and Aya quickly finds herself marked as a danger to the family and with the personality of her own celestial ancestor, Ceres, inside her body.

Let me start by saying, there are some interesting ideas in this. Sure, the whole body swapping thing was also in 3x3 Eyes and it isn't the first anime to be about a powerful family turning on one of their own but that doesn't mean it can't use those ideas very well. And there was a point where I thought it might turn out to be a decent anime, possibly even really good.

Unfortunately, the series goes out of its way to drop, weaken or outright destroy every potentially interesting idea it uses with horrendous execution. Tooya's back story is absolute rubbish once it gets explained. The whole element of examining the dark side of old fables is destroyed towards the end when the ultimate facts are revealed. Aki's struggle against the Progenitor gets dropped until the very end where it suffers a very anti-climactic conclusion. Even a potentially interesting loss gets reversed because the writer doesn't have the ovarian fortitude to let tragedy befall the main cast.

Everything with the potential to be interesting falling apart isn't even the only narrative problem with the series. The romance is absolutely horrendous. It pretty much starts with "I barely know you but I love you so huggy muggy much." Moves into "I love you, but we can't be together because plot contrivances are happening." And just keeps going with more melodramatic nonsense and a complete rubbish dynamic betwixt the leads. The series also suffers from that old syndrome of bad writing, All these characters are morons whenever it suits the plot. The powerful, "secretive" Mikage family literally sends attack helicopters after people on crowded roads on more than one occasion. Because nothing helps keep your evil plans secret like a massive public display that anyone within a twenty kilometre radius will notice. There's also Aya who quite literally lets herself get captured and nearly has horrible things happen to her multiple times because she can't be bothered to let Ceres take over for no adequately explored reason.

Characters:

At best, the characters in this series are mediocre. And that's mostly the Aogiri family characters. Aya is a rubbish heroine. She never moves past the whiny little damsel in distress stage. She makes Fushigi Yuugi's Miaka look like a strong independent woman who doesn't need any man. Tooya is a boring character with less personality than a bit of lint stuck in your navel. The antagonists are basically just scumbags who do bad things that make very little sense so that they can twirl their imaginary moustaches. Ceres starts out as the most interesting character but a lot of what makes her interesting is the whole element of exploring the dark side of folk tales and she just becomes dull as soon as that element gets dropped.

Art:

The artwork is mostly fine. The character designs are a bit bland. The action sequences aren't very good but they're passable. The backgrounds are pretty decent. The animation uses some definite short cuts but it's fine.

Sound:

The acting is sub-par, at best. Remember how in 3x3 Eyes Hayashibara Megumi did the voices for both Pai and Parvati but managed to make them sound distinct and very different? Well, the director for this series clearly didn't have that much faith in Aya's actress, Kakazu Yumi, since they got a second actress, Iwao Junko, to voice Ceres. I know Kakazu isn't a bad actress since she voiced both Yuffie and Aizawa Mint. That being said, I understand that decision when I listen to her acting in this. It's a pretty pitiful performance. Very whiny, over the top overly melodramatic during the rubbish purple prose scenes. Whereas Iwao has the strongest performance in the series and even hers is just okay. Definitely not on par with her performances in anime like Perfect Blue or Cardcaptor Sakura. Sakai Ryou's music is definitely the best element of the series. It's quite good. Well composed, nice to listen to, it would be suitable for the series even if the series had decent execution.

Ho-yay:

There's none to be seen. Which is probably for the best given how bad this series is at romance.

Areas of Improvement:

1. Know when to commit. One of the huge issues with this series comes down to the simple fact that they back pedal on certain aspects that could have been interesting and just undo them or heavily weaken them to make the story more generic. Which only serves to make it utter tripe.

2. Actually develop your romance. This purple prose, melodramatic shite they've got is not a good romance. It's not even good enough to be sub-par romance.

3. Have your characters do things that make sense. Does it make sense for a powerful, secretive family to try to eliminate certain people it sees as threatening to its power? Sure. Does it make sense for them to use the most bombastic, attention grabbing methods possible to eliminate people? Fuck no. That's exceptionally stupid, in fact.

Final Thoughts:

Ayashi no Ceres is a pretty bad series. It didn't have to be. It had good ideas. It had potential. It started out pretty decently. But then you factor in the terrible romance, the crappy characterisation that never improves and to top it all off they toss out everything that could have been compelling and make it all rubbish. My final rating for Ayashi no Ceres is going to be a 2/10.

ok so i liked this anime but didn't love it. It was good but the whole story in general never really made me go "wow! i love this!". I thought the art was ok, ive seen better but i have also seen worse.But i will admit that I loved how tooya was always there to protect aya! no matter what, like even at the cost of his life! but i was like no! when i thought he was gona leave aya. over all its a fairly good show :)

The story revolves around a teenage girl named Aya and her twin brother Aki, members of the wealthy and powerful Mikage family. On their 16th birthday they are called to the family home to be given a special gift. Instead they find themselves the victims of an ancient family ritual. Aya is proven to be the reincarnation of a celestial maiden called Ceres, the tennyo. And Aki gains the ability to manifest as "Shiso Mikagi", the ancestor of the Mikage family who stole Ceres' celestial robe, without it she cannot return to heaven.

My thoughts:
This anime has everything. Action, love, romance, paranormal... I really enjoyed it. ... Aya is a strong character that will do anything to right the past wrongs her family has done. Aki at first is gentle and caring, but once host to Shiso, his attitude and demeanor changes drastically to one of violence and hate. Ayashi no Ceres is a story that encompasses a host of emotions that leaves the viewer with a sense of satisfaction. I recommend this anime.

One of the best shoujo anime (and maybe even anime in general) I've ever seen, where do I even start?

Story-wise, this is a retelling of an old legend called sealskin, soulskin analyzed by Clarissa Pinkola Estes in her book Running with the Wolves. To sum it up, it's a story about women and how they lost their freedom and soul to patriarchate and all kinds of other oppressive, outside forces.

This is what Ayashi no Ceres is. It's a powerful archetypal story about women, and the wild woman inside us. It's a story about the emotions, feelings, personal truth and accepting ourselves. Filled with ... commentaries about life, death, love, not turning away from drastic displays of cruelty, this anime is deep, moving, empathetic and sensitive to all aspects of female soul.

For a more profound experience, definitely watch it after reading the Sealskin, soulskin chapter in Running with the Wolves book.

To start off, I'm really disappointed that this is ranked so low on myanimelist. Can't believe the lack of love for ANC!

tl;dr- watch it if yr a fan of shoujo love stories, but with a twist (think psycho pass-esque dark themes littered throughout), watch it if you want to have a good cry, watch it if you are currently bumming around and have nothing to watch...its definitely a 'must watch' on my top 10 list.

Story:

Maybe I haven't watched enough anime, but I think that this is one of the most heartwrenching shoujo anime out there. Though Fushigi Yuugi (another work by ... Yuu Watase) had its dark moments as well- it has NOTHING compared to ANC. This anime is chockfull of mature and dark themes- which I found really refreshing in a (typically) shoujo anime.

Oh, dont worry, there's still the love story (and boy, WHAT a love story it is) to enjoy- but its not one that is characterised by its happy, love-love moments.
Its actually one of the better romance depictions out there- maybe I'm biased, but they don't seem to write romances like this anymore.

Of course, the story doesn't just focus on the MC. The minor characters here have interesting backgrounds, strong characters, and at the end of their storylines you kinda wish the anime was longer so you could learn a little bit more about them.

Art:
The art's old, but I don't usually let things like that get in the way of a good story (and neither should you) . Similar to Fushigi Yuugi, if you've watched it.

Sound:
I thought I would never use this phrase (ever!), but Iwao Junko's voice is beautifully haunting. There's no other way to describe it.
The two EDs are pretty good as well, but there is no beating that OP.
Really, even if yr not even going to watch this anime, just check out the OP and EDs.

Character:
Okay, its been a while since I've watched ANC, around the time I was 13 year old hormonal teenage girl- but one of my favourite shoujo heroines has to be Aya. Maybe I felt that I could relate to her (I mean, if I was similarly thrown in this mess)- so I didn't feel as irritated as I do with other shoujo heroines.

Character development is great. You find yourself falling in love with the MC's love interest as she is (again, 13 year old hormones might've been doing the talking there), sympathizing with the stories of the side characters...you get the drift.

Enjoyment:

This is my first (and likely, only) review that I'm doing for MAL. I think that says a lot about how much I enjoyed the anime.
Please do yourself a favour and watch this- but yknw, get a box of tissues first.

This is my first review so i'm going to do my best ^^ First i'm going to say that i read the manga first and fell in love with it so i decided to check the anime out to see if it stayed true to the manga. Coming into it without high expectations and thinking that they might have strayed from the story, watching it i should have kept those same expectations because the anime brought it out so perfectly.

Story: 9/10
I give the story a 9 because to me the story was completely original. Celestial robes, and incarnations have never been brought out this ... way. Yu Watase mixed blood and gore well with romance and drama. It flowed smoothly and was fast paced exactly like the manga. Right when i thought things couldn't get any worse it did and kept me hooked till the very end. The romance was brought out perfectly not too mushy and over the top and was original how Watase brought it out.

Art 8/10
Understand the show is old and not up to date on new technology so this art then was considered exceptional. I love that they stayed true to Watase's original look. The only thing I ever hated about her drawings were how a bang covered one eye but yet we could still see that one eye. That they could have not used. But overall the art was great to me.

Sound 6/10
Same thing an old anime so the sound wasn't great at all. Not bad enough to stop watching but there were some weird sounds that didnt belong where they put them.

Character 7/10
The characters were well developed and expressed themselves greatly. Every character had their own problems to deal with and approached them in different ways. But also every character were tied together in a certain way that made everything combine and made problems worse to the point where some of the characters went crazy. Most characters are likeable and some are hateful but all have a backstory to make you sympathize with them.

Enjoyment 10/10
I enjoyed Ceres fully. I couldnt stop watching once i started. Every bit of information sucked me in and made me want to know how it happened, where it happened, and what they were going to do to solve it. The emotions the characters protrayed made me want to cry with them, laugh with them, and get mad with them.

Overall 10/10
Ceres Celestial Legend is a show i would watch over and over again. The characters and story are something that will stay on my mind and will be very hard to forget. Ceres will stay with you even if you don't want it to. A very powerful story.