Ayashi no Ceres

Ayashi no Ceres or Ceres, Celestial Legend in English title, an original manga story written and illustrated by Yuu Watase. Anime adaptation of Ayashi no Ceres is produced by Studio Pierrot and here’s some popular titles behind its studio like Tokyo Ghoul, Naruto, Black Clover and Great Teacher Onizuka. Ayashi no Ceres consists of 24 episodes, runs about 21 minutes per episode and aired from April 2000 till September 2000. Opening song “Scarlet” performed by Junko Iwao (Ceres). Ending song “One ~ Kono Yo ga Hatete mo Hanarenai” and “Cross My Heart” both performed by Day-break. The Ayashi no Ceres anime is directed by Hajime Kamegaki.

Ceres a celestial maiden from heaven who came down to earth to bathe in a water stream, she hung her robe or also known as “hagoromo” on a nearby tree. The hagoromo is the key for going to heaven, but the robe is stolen while she’s taking a bath at that time. The man who stole Ceres robe forced her to be his wife in return of her robe but it didn't happen at all and a family was born with a mix of human and celestial blood.

Aya Mikage is the descendant of Ceres with a strong blood of celestial pass through in her. On Aya’s sixteen birthday with her twin brother Aki, celebrating a big party became unforgettable for Aya because her family and grandfather tried to kill her. The reason for killing Aya is because of the strong celestial blood inside her and reaching the age of 16 she can transform or change her being to Ceres herself the celestial maiden who returns and seeks her revenge to destroy the Mikage family. Aya can return to herself after the transformation from Ceres. 

Ayashi no Ceres is a story of love and revenge at the same time, a love for Aya and a revenge for Ceres. The story moves around Aya who carries or inherits the blood of a celestial maiden named Ceres who just came to earth to have a bathe and while taking a bath her hagoromo or robe is stolen by a man and forced to be married after for the change of the sacred robe but didn’t got after the marriage. The story itself is a good one for the love story and a bad one at the same time and mix emotion felt inside of Aya because she can also felt Ceres anger at the same time to her family that she loved so much from her young age and all of sudden change when she turns 16 on her birthday she planned to be killed because the women in family can transform to Ceres. For this kind of storyline is a bit confusing to start but learning the past events and where the anger of Ceres came from is so strong to the fact, she doesn’t mind about the present but a change starts when Aya feels her emotions and intrigue to follow all the way to the end part.

Ayashi no Ceres animation is still good and considering the year it aired is still reasonable where drawing things to become an anime is still part of the system of the studio adaptation and the details is still great for this story to get an anime series. Studio Pierrot did a good job in the anime series of Ayashi no Ceres to stick to the main story and a bit of effects for Aya when she transforms to Ceres is good and a few fight scene inside the anime series, a fight is to protect you care most and a fight for your revenge. For the music choice the opening song is mesmerizing and performed by the seiyuu of Ceres itself and suits well to the whole anime series, for the ending song a bit melodrama a reflection of the whole series feelings of the main character Aya and Ceres.

Ayashi no Ceres deserves a good anime recommendation, in terms of the story this is a good shoujo romance some called it a classic love story but for some this is a must to be seen or read shoujo story in terms of drama and romance combined. Manga or anime? For me I started to watch it because the anime is the first thing I learned about this title and after watching the whole series and which is a good story you can skip the manga but if you want to know more for the characters around the manga is the source of the story. Is Ayashi no Ceres an underrated anime series? Nope, not at all but it turns out a good rated anime series because of the story to showcase inside and that’s the biggest selling point of a shoujo manga story a good twist and turn of events in the main cast is a good story development even some side character got a bit of story development and it turns out also a good thing to wrap up things after the story is done. Ayashi no Ceres is a beautiful love story with great action and makes the characters yet heartwarming at the same time.

Information:

Title:

• Ayashi no Ceres
• Ceres, Celestial Legend
• 妖しのセレス

Type: Series (24 episode)

Aired: April 20, 2000 to September 28, 2000

Studio: Studio Pierrot

Source Story: Manga

Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Horror, Psychological, Supernatural, Drama, Romance, Shoujo

Rating: R - 17+ (violence & profanity)

Song:

Opening:

• "Scarlet" by Junko Iwao

Ending:

• "One ~ Kono Yo ga Hatete mo Hanarenai" by Day-break (eps 1-15)

• "Cross My Heart" by Day-break (eps 16-23)

• "Scarlet Ver.II" by Junko Iwao (ep 24)

Director: Hajime Kamegaki

Character and Voice Actor:

• Tooya (Konishi, Katsuyuki)

• Mikage, Aya (Kakazu, Yumi)

• Ceres (Iwao, Junko)

• Aogiri, Yuuhi (Itou, Kentarou)

• Mikage, Aki (Chiba, Susumu)