Ayashi no Ceres

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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.

Based in the manga by Yuu Watase, a mangaka that can make really beautiful drawings, but fails in the attemp to develop an story that could enjoy somebody else than a teenager girl.
The story looks really interesting: Aya Mikage discovers she's the reincarnation of Ceres, the maiden from a fairy tale her grandfather used to tell her when she was a child, but her family, descendants of Ceres, want to kill her because they fear Ceres take control over Aya and kill them. Also, her family is experimenting with the population in Japan to discover who has the genes of the Ceres' powers, called ... C-Genomers. Also, when Ceres takes over, Aya has incredible powers. Everyone could do a great series with lots of action, drama and romane, but unfortunetly, the romance and drama feels abused, while the action is little and boring.
Instead on focusing the plot, the story focuses on the lame love story of the main character with Toya, generic bishonen with mysterious past who deeply fall in love with her despite they never met before...
Oh, no, wait, they've met before, when Aya was a little girl, and this so valuable memorie is only remenbered when the main couple need to remenber it¿Could it be more cliché?
Ok, now i've told what i dislike from this anime, let me tell you what i like. Like i've said before, the plot is interesting, the idea of make a shojo based in the legend of the supernatural lady who married a human after he stole her clothes is really creative. The idea of Aki, the beloved Aya's twin brother turned into the villain looks brillant, and Aya has a lot of chemistry with Yuhi, a character more interesting and appealing to me than Toya. The show has alot of potential, but it wased because the creators prefer to sell the typical love story to whiny teenage girls.

This is a solid six. At first, I was going to rate it a 5 because the art was good but the storyline was definitely a 3. Plus, the audio definitely was not the greatest. The first few episodes was definitely naff. I continued watching because I am a curious person and wanted to see what would happen in the end.

The more I watched, the more I got invested into the drama. There was one shocking death where a girl jumps off a building. And by the last two episodes I was so invested in the soap opera story line, I cried. I am ... a sucker for a good love story and the renaissance premise that there is no greater love than this, than to lay down your life for a friend. Cute.

Honestly, I might be a little biased against this show - that tends to happen when I love a creator's work so much and so I look too forward to the next one. Watase Yuu's "Fushigi Yuugi" was my all-time favorite for a long period of time, so I went into Ayashi no Ceres with high hopes. I think you can definitely see the difference; there's less humor in Ayashi no Ceres, and FY was definitely more of a bishie reverse-harem kind of deal, while ANC seemed to focus more on plot (even though I did not like the plot). The ending made me go ... "...wait what?". It seemed really weird to find Touya's real identity. Do I recommend watching it? Yes. Did I personally enjoy it? No.