Genre: Action/romance

Creator: Watase Yuu

No of Episodes/Volumes of Manga: 26 episodes, 14 volumes of the manga

Reviewer: Misao

Review:

Set in the present time, Ayashi no Ceres is about the Mikage family, mainly focussing around the life of the twins, Aya and Aki. Both are reincarnations of powerful people in the past, Aya being the reincarnation of the Tennyo (fairy) Ceres, and Aki being the reincarnation of Mikage Shiso, the man who stole Cere's hagoromo thus preventing Ceres to go back to the heavens. Ceres is reborn many times within the girls of the Mikage family, however, the girl she is born in is always murdered to prevent the Mikage family from being destroyed. However, this time, Ceres is awakened on Aya's 16th birthday and thus emerges into the world to kill the man who stole her hagoromo and end the Mikage family from their evil. Aya and Aki's lives are taken for a spin, with Ceres wanting to kill Aya's twin brother because he was the man who stole her hagoromo. Aya struggles with herself and Ceres as she tries to gain control of the Tennyo within her body in order to live a normal life with her brother.

Tooya, a man who was employed by the Mikage family, has orders to protect Aki and destroy Aya/Ceres. However, in a twist of fate, Tooya ends up falling in love with Aya (typical Watase Yuu) and Tooya ends up fighting the Mikage family to save his love. Tooya also lost his memories and therefore only works with the Mikage family because they say that they can grant him his memories back. When Tooya chooses fight the Mikage family, he also chooses Aya over finding his memories.

The anime and the manga is basically the fight between the Mikage family, the twins and Tooya. The characters are very well developed, which is a plus because in Fushigi Yuugi, it seemed ages for the characters to develop, and the characters in Ayashi no Ceres can be related quite well to normal human lives. There is not a lot of humour in Ayashi no Ceres, there is barely any super deformed characters to add comedy, however, when comic relief is needed, it is supplied very well. Whereas Fushigi Yuugi was a light romance/comedy, Ayashi no Ceres in comparison is quite dark but of course, romance is still there. In Ayashi no Ceres, there's not a lot of love triangles (thank goodness) and the plot is quite easy to understand from the first few eps.

This anime seems to go towards the shoujo side, however, there are issues in it which are appealing to boths girls and guys. The drawings in this anime are the same as the FY OAV, so there is some striking resemblences between the characters in both anime (Tooya looking a little like Sukunami Taka, Yuuhi looking a little like Suboshi, etc...), however, the drawings are good, and the characters are easy to recognise, which makes the anime quite worthwhile in seeing

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