CERES, CELESTIAL LEGEND

is a 14-volume shōjo manga series by Yuu Watase, the creator of the popular manga/anime series ''Fushigi Yūgi'' and ''Alice 19th''. It was adapted as a 24-episode anime television with the same title. In 1998, it won the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōjo.
''Ayashi no Ceres'' was serialized from 1996 to 2000 in the bi-weekly Japanese manga magazine ''Shōjo Comic''. The original Japanese title is ''Ayashi no Ceres - Tenkū Otogizūshi'', which the literal translation is "Bewitching Ceres - Heavenly Fairy Tale". The original title was changed for North American release by VIZ Media.
The name of the goddess comes from Ceres in Roman mythology. However, this story is completely unrelated to the grecoroman mythologies concerning Ceres and has nothing to do with the duties, powers, and rank of that goddess.

Contents

Story

Characters

Background

Trivia

References

See also

Links

Story

The story revolves around a teenage girl named Aya and her twin brother Aki, members of the wealthy and powerful Mikage family.
On their sixteenth birthday, they are called to gather in their family home to be given a special present. The present was actually some sort of test -- which Aya failed. She is proven to be a reincarnation of a tennyō (celestial maiden), and when her hidden memory is jogged, she will transform into Ceres, the ''tennyō''. According to the legend, if left to live, the reincarnation of Ceres will bring ruin upon the Mikage family. Aya quickly finds she is being hunted by her own family who plans to kill her. She is saved by Suzumi Aogiri, another tennyo descendant, Yūhi, a very energetic teenager and Suzumi's brother-in-law, and Tōya, a mysterious man with whom Aya soon falls in love.
Events escalate as Aya struggles to control Ceres and her brother gains the ability to manifest as the "Progenitor", the ancestor of the Mikage family who happen to have stolen Ceres' hagoromo (celestial robe) that will help her open the gate of heaven.
As Aya's allies increase, which include two tennyo like herself and the Aogiri family, and Tōya, she manages to reach a compromise with Ceres such that Ceres will not manifest herself without Aya's approval so long as Aya manages to recover Ceres' lost hagoromo.
Aya's quest to find Ceres' hagoromo wavers as she attempts to avoid her family, the advances of the Progenitor, and forces that threaten to tear her apart from Tōya, whose lost memory may be the key to finding Ceres' hagoromo. Toya soon learns that he was the organism that was created from the "hagoromo" or mana and his purpose was to return the mana back to Ceres. His love for Aya set him apart from everyone else.

Characters

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: A sixteen-year-old girl at the beginning of the story who discovers she is a descendant of a ''tennyo'' named Ceres and is Ceres' latest medium for existence. The Mikage family takes this as a threat and continuously tries to take Aya's life. Her father is killed attempting to protect her. Her mother is forced into a coma for the majority of the series. While Aya is initially horrified that her life has been turned upside down, she is determined to right the past doings of her family and recover Ceres' ''hagoromo'' so that her family will no longer suffer in fear of Ceres.
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: A celestial maiden, or ''tennyo'', who married the Progenitor of the Mikage family. While she is extremely powerful and volatile, she seeks to recover her ''hagoromo'', or celestial robe, to regain her powers. She has repeatedly attempted to manifest herself through certain female descendants of her line when they reach the age of sixteen, only to be thwarted each time as they are killed by the Mikage family. Ceres hides a tragic past misinterpreted by descendants who seek to kill Aya to stop Ceres for another generation. :
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: A mysterious young man who has absolutely no memory of his past or the nature of his being; his only clues are two names: "Tōya" ("ten nights", his name), and "Mikage". He and Aya are drawn to one another, not only in love. Tōya is the embodiment/offspring of the ''hagoromo'' which Ceres is searching for. As he regains his lost memories, he sacrifices the immortality bestowed upon him by the object to save Aya and his unborn child. At the end of the series he tells Yuhi that he may not live for long and that Yuhi should take care of Aya once he dies.
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: Aya's twin brother, a gentle and caring person who is subject to becoming a medium for the spirit of the Progenitor, the founder of the Mikage family who aggressively pursues Aya and Ceres and almost raped Aya. In the end he sacrifices his life to destroy the violent Progenitor's reincarnation.
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: A descendant of a ''tennyo'' from the Kansai region, Suzumi is a head of a branch of the one of the Aogiri family's schools of Japanese dance. She welcomes Aya into her household when she discovers Aya has become Ceres' latest medium. Suzumi cannot become a ''tennyo'' like Aya, though she does possess slight psychic powers like clairvoyance and telekinesis. She is capable of making protective charms for Yuhi as he strives to aid Aya.
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: Suzumi's brother-in-law, the adopted younger brother of Suzumi's deceased husband. He has unrequited feelings for Aya, who comes to see him as a brother. Later, he begins to return the affections of Chidori Kurama. A notable martial arts expert, he is also an extraordinary cook.
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: The Aogiri's household help, a gnome-like woman known for her reckless driving and ridiculously ugly appearance, despite her consistent claims that she is a beautiful woman. She's convinced that Tōya and her are made for each other.
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: Another ''tennyo descendant'', a sixteen year old girl who looks younger that she is until she transforms into a ''tennyo''. Chidori cares deeply for her younger brother, Shouta, who was hospitalized upon her introduction into the story. She can transform into a ''tennyo'' at will. She develops deepening feelings from her crush on Yūhi, as she dies for his sake.
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: A Okinawan ''tennyo'' descendant raised as a man by her family in fear that Shuro would one day take away the family's heirloom ''hagoromo'' and ascend to heaven. She is a famous pop star alongside her cousin Kei Tsukasa, who ends up being killed when Kagami released the C-Vector (a vector derived from the corpse of the first Ceres) nationwide. Shuro has the ability to magnify her voice to epic amplitudes when she transforms into a ''tennyo''.
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; Kagami Mikage
: Aya's distant cousin, he is one of the few members of the family who actually wants to meet Ceres and does not fear her. In fact, he almost seems in love with her. Kagami wishes to learn the true nature of ''tennyo'' in hopes of bettering humanity though his methods are less than moral. When kagami was young he sufferd a tradgic childhood and was beaten by his mother for not being the best at things. Because of this it has an effect on his personality.
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; Alexander "Alec" Howell
: A Scottish scientist hired by Kagami, he is a certified genius with a very high IQ (240) and is a complete otaku. The only thing keeping him from doing his job ends up being his own moral convictions.
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; The Progenitor
: The founder of the Mikage family, a man from the Jōmon period of Japan named Mikagi. In the legend, he hid her ''hagoromo'' in the ocean forcing her to become mortal. Toward the end, it is revealed that he had begun as a gentle, kind young man. Ceres falls in love with him, to the point of granting him power after their family is attacked and he is ashamed at his own inability to protect them. The Progenitor grows strong and mad, his love becoming an obsession that drives him to hide the hagoromo, and Ceres comes to fear for her children's safety. When she leaves, he chases her and is killed by Ceres (after he kills their first child), who covers him with lacerations identical to the ones that appear on Aki Mikage when the Progentor manifests himself in his descendant. The Progenitor will stop at nothing to ensure Ceres is his again.
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; Assam
: An young assassin from Indonesia hired by Kagami Mikage to kill Tōya after Tōya cut his ties with Kagami to join Aya. He is also a replacement for Tōya. His goal for the C-Project is to stop using children as objects of war.
; Wei Feilee
: A young man from China whose left eye was taken by Tōya. He is Aki's caretaker because he replaced Tōya. He seems to be calm most of the time, and does not complain.

Background

''Ceres, Celestial Legend'' is based on a folktale that has appeared in various versions in the world, from Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, and China, all the way to Scotland and Ireland, and among the Plains Indians of North America.
In versions, the story has a consistent form where a man (a fisherman, farmer, woodcutter, or the like) finds an item belonging to an unearthly maiden (a tennyo, fairy, star fisher, merrow, selkie, or so on) and keeps it. The maiden cannot return to her world because the man possesses the item she needs (a celestial robe, a feathered cloak, a hat, a seal-skin, or so on—it is usually a garment) and reluctantly marries him. However, she always recovers the item (often as a result of her children discovering it) and she returns to her world. In some versions, she takes her children from Earth and in some, her husband joins her. Once the maiden returns to her world, she never returns to Earth.

Trivia

★ The girl in the picture that Kagami is holding on page 41 in Volume 11 resembles Takiko Okuda, Priestess of Genbu, from Fushigi Yūgi Genbu Kaiden.

★ Two cars were prominently featured in the series: the Aogiris' Jaguar XJ automatic (which she drives like hell), and Tōya's BMW Z3. As for the Z3, it is included in the closing credits.

References

1. . Accessed 2007-02-25.

See also

★ : Another anime that also refers to the Ceres folktale.

★ Faeries' Landing: A Korean manhwa that also refers to the Ceres folktale.

Links

★ Viz's Page

★ Ayashi no Ceres @ dokidoki-paradise

★ Ceres, Celestial Legend Profile

★ Ayashi No Ceres Image Gallery

★ Celestial Sign - German Ayashi no Ceres Fanpage