Ayashi no Ceres

From Animepedia

Jump to: navigation, search
Ayashi No Ceres (妖しのセレス) (English "Ceres, Celestial Legend") is an anime and manga by Yu Watase, who also created Fushigi Yugi. The manga is 14 volumes and the anime is 24 episodes. It was released starting in 1996 in the manga magazine Shojo Comic.
Row 1 Aya, Ceres,   Row 2 Yuuhi, Tooya, Aki
Enlarge
Row 1 Aya, Ceres, Row 2 Yuuhi, Tooya, Aki

Contents

Plot

The story begins with the twins Aya and Aki Mikage on the day before their sixteenth birthday. Aya and Aki are hanging out with friends when a man tries to steal someones purse. Aya runs after the man and he throws the purse over the side of a bridge. Aya jumps after the purse and grabs it just as she realizes she’s too far and is going to fall. Before she hits the ground she is caught by a mysterious man, Tooya.

When they get home their parents tell them that they must go to their grandfathers house tomorrow after school instead of being able to hang out with their friends. The mood seems very gloomy about the whole deal. When they get to their grandparents house they see that the entire Mikage clan is there. Aya and Aki are then presented with a box, they open it to find an old decayed hand in it, Aya is grossed out by it and Aki confused. The hand then seems to explode causing several cuts on Aki. Aki begins to bleed profusely. Aya panics, screaming for the family to help Aki, none of them do and her father is passed a gun to shoot Aya. The family reveals its secret, they are the decendents of the orignal Mikage and a Tennyo, or a celestial being. Every generation there is a set of twins, the female is the “rebirth” Ceres the Tennyo, and the male is the “rebirth” of the orignal Mikage. The legend says that Ceres will bring about the fall of the entire Mikage clan so the female is killed on their sixteenth birthday, before Ceres is able to gain full power, and the male becomes the new head of the Mikage family.

Aya’s father is unable to kill his only daughter and is murdered by their grandfather. Aya transforms into Ceres sensing the danger and escapes. She is rescued again by Tooya and he sends her off with Suzumi Aogiri and her brother in law Yuuhi. Suzumi is also a descendent of a Tennyo, although she lacks the ability to transform, she has some psychic and telekinetic powers, and makes a protective charm for Yuuhi to wear to protect Aya.

Aya tries to visit her brother in the hospital only to be accosted by her mother who blames her for her fathers death. When her mother tries to kill her she transforms again into Ceres. Yuuhi rushes to save Aya, sensing that she’s in danger and finds Ceres, who explains that she and Aya share the same body. Ceres then attempts to attack Aya’s mother to punish them for taking her hagoromo, but Yuuhi prevents her. He then kisses her which triggers Aya to regain control. When Aya realizes whats going on she slaps Yuuhi for kissing her and rushes to her mother. Aya’s mother has fallen into a coma and Suzumi arranges for her to stay at the hospital until she comes out.

Aki over hears people at the Mikage mansion plotting to kill Aya and he heads out into the rain to find her. Tooya saves Aki this time from a group of thugs. He allows Aki to visit Aya for the night. After falling asleep Aki is woken up by Ceres strangling him accusing him of stealing her harogomo. Tooya again saves Aki and takes him back to the Mikage mansion. Yuuhi finds Ceres again and kisses her to return Aya to control. Aya then runs after her brother and Tooya. She demands to be told whats going on and Tooya takes her to his apartment where Aya breaks down crying. She realizes that she has fallen in love with Tooya.
Aya and Tooya
Enlarge
Aya and Tooya

Aya is captured by her cousin Kagami and she realizes what his plan has been the entire time. He is obsessed with Ceres and wants to extract her genes to create a superior human race, what he calls the C- Project. He attempts to extract it from a quiet girl, Urakawa, at Aya’s school by having a hired teacher woo her and slip her drugs with Cere’s DNA. Urakawa then believes Aya to have told everyone about her and her lovers relationship and sets the school on fire. Tooya runs in to save her and admits his love for Aya. When Urakawa throws a bolt of fire at Aya it is Yuuhi who takes the hit and falls. Ceres then takes control and tries to reason with Urakawa. Urakawa is unable to defeat Ceres, her lover, the teacher, yells at her and reveals that he never really cared for her. She ends up setting both her and her lover on fire.

Suzumi is then captured by the Mikage clan and they threaten to use the C-Project drug on her. Aya and Kyuu run to the home to save Suzumi. For the first time Aya willingly transforms into Ceres to save them. They save do end up saving Suzumi and Aya decides to work with Ceres to achieve her goals.

Aya and her friends are visited by a small young looking girl named Chidori, that asks Yuuhi to bring the girl that he was flying with to her brother so that he can fly too. It was always her little brother’s, Tochigi, dream to fly. While at the hospital they investigate the illness that is spreading around and Aya tries to get Tooya to admit his love for her. Ceres does end up taking Tochigi flying, but is hit and begins to fall. It turns out that Chidori is also a Tennyo and has a crush on Yuuhi.

Aki feels the other spirit in him attempting to take hold, so he writes a letter to Aya explaining everything that the Mikage family is doing and has it delivered to Aya through Tooya. The other spirit in Aki finally awakens causing him to kill his grandfather and demand to be taken to Aya, who he calls his wife Ceres.

While in search of the harogomo they find a girl named Miori that bears an uncanny resemblance to Aya. She claims that Tooya is her childhood friend and lover and that Aya must leave him with her now. Aya reluctantly does so, and in her grief cuts her hair off and hides allowing Ceres to take full control. Ceres goes to find if Tooya is friend or enemy and when she is held at knife point by Tooya, Miori appears and transforms into a Tennyo as well and blames Aya for all that has happened to her. Miori attacks Ceres calling for Aya to come out, but Aya is still grief stricken over loosing Tooya. Tooya learns that the past with Miori was a lie and escapes to tell Miori. Aya returns to herself and Miori learns the truth. Miori decides to get the ultimate revenge on Aya, and commits suicide right in front of Aya standing on the street below the building they are on. In the last second Yuuhi attempts to shield Aya from seeing and holds her tightly.

Chidori and Tochigi are then kidnapped by Kagami and his men. Yuuhi and Tooya go to save them. As they are leaving a guard attempts to shoot Yuuhi and Chidori takes the bullet. As she is dying she attempts to tell Yuuhi that she loves him, but dies before she could. Tochigi appears without Tooya, they assume Tooya is dead and escape. Aya realizes she is pregnant with Tooyas baby and is approached by Kagami and his men. Hoping to preserver her life and the life of her child she goes with them back to the laboratory. There she sees all of the Ceres clones that Kagami has made, but they soon all start to die. Aki then runs into Ceres and demands that she tells the truth, that she was not forced by him to do anything. Aya demands the true story from Ceres and she tells her. Tooya is captured by Aki, who is fully controlled by the original Mikagi, and shoots him to death. Alec not wanting them to dissect him for their experiments throws his body into the sea.
Ceres and Mikage
Enlarge
Ceres and Mikage


The projects funders believe this to be a failure and demand Kagami stop and hand over all that he has. Kagami refuses and moves everything to his boat to continue, along with his cloned hagoromo. Aya finds out that Tooya was killed and has her necklace she gave him returned as proof. They all go after Kagami and Alec points them to where his boat is. As they arrive on the boat there is a huge light that emerges from the sea and a man with wings flies towards the boat. The guards on the boat attempt to shoot him but find that it does no good. The man, everyone sees, is Tooya.

He tells Aya that he is the mana, the hagoromo, that Ceres has been looking for. That he must give up his life to return to her. She tearfully tells him that she is pregnant with his child and that she wants to live with him. Aki becomes the full reincarnation of the Mikagi and goes looking to kill both Tooya and Aya. He finds Tooya and they engage in a fight with Tooya falling into the ocean, he then comes across Aya and stabs her through the chest. Tooya comes back and gives Aya the mana to save her life. Mikage has fused with the created hagoromo but it is destroying him. Mikage attempts to kill Ceres but is held back by Aki who has separated himself from the Mikage. Aki begs Ceres to kill Mikage and himself so that there can be peace again. She does and both Ceres and the Mikage ascend away. Ceres askes Mikage if he had ever really loved her, and Mikage replies “was there ever any doubt” to which Ceres replies “I loved you too...”. Aya and Tooya settle on Hachijou Island, but they all realize that Tooya is not long for this world. Tooya approaches Yuuhi and explains to him that he will die soon, and that it is Yuuhi’s responsibility to care for Aya after he is gone. The realize that finally the cycle is over, and they have a chance at a new beginning.

Characters

Aya Mikage (御景妖)

Aya is a 16 year old girl who love to sing. She is the twin sister of Aki Mikage. Aya soon learns that she is the rebirth of the tennyo Ceres. She strikes a deal with the tennyo she shares her body with to recover Ceres's lost harogomo and finally save the Mikagi family from the threat of destruction. aya is hunted by her family for different reasons; her grandfather wants to kill her, her cousin Kagami wants to user the tennyo DNA to make a superior race, and her twin brother Aki wants his "wife" back. Aya falls in love with Tooya and becomes pregnant with his child. Japanese Voice Actor: Yumi Kakazu

Ceres (セレス)

Ceres is a tennyo who fell in love with and married the original Mikage. she seeksrevenge on the Mikage family for keeping her harogomo from her and killing her reincarnations before she can reach full power. While she seems angry and full of rage she looks out for aya's best interest. while married to Mikage she gave him some of her tennyo powers when he was unableto protect the family from invaders. This drove Mikage insane and he killed their child when he caught Ceres trying to escape. This caused Ceres to kill him. In the end she admit that she always loved him. Japanese Voice Actor: Junko Iwao

Aki Mikage (御景明)

Aki is a 16 year old boy who adores his twin sister Aya. On their 16th birthday he learns that he is the reincarnation of the original Mikage. Throughout the story he fights a battle within himself to keep Mikage from taking over his mind. Eentually Aki will sacrifice himself to hold back Mikage from killing Aya, Ceres, and Tooya. Japanese Voice Actor: Susumu Chiba

Tooya (十夜)

Tooya's entrnce is as myterious as the character. He appears suddenly to save Aya as she falls off a bridge, disappears, only to appear again to help her escape when her family tries to kill her. in the course of the story he falls in love with Aya and they concieve a child together. It turns out that Tooya is the embodyment of the harogomo that Aya and Ceres are searching for. Having the harogomo gives him immortality, so he survives being shot by Aki and thrown into the sea by Alec. He give this immortality up to save Aya when Aki stabs her. Japanese Voice Actor: Katsuyuki Konishi

Mikage

Mikagi is the "father" of the entire Mikage clan. He lived during the Jomon period in Japanese history. He saw Ceres bathing and fell in love with her. They eventully were married. They had several children and he was infused with some of Ceres's powers ter he was unable to protect them from an opposing clan. The power made Mikage obsesed with Ceres to the point he would attack any man who looked at her. Fearing for the life of her children Ceres runs from Mikage. He finds them and kills one of their children. Seeing no other option Ceres kills Mikage. Mikage reincarnates in Aki and is still obsessed with finding Ceres and keeping her. He was the one that stole Ceres's harogomo and threw it into the sea so that she would be unble to leave him. Japanese Voice Actor: Shinichiro Miki

Yuuhi Aogiri (梧雄飛)

Yuuhi is the younger brother-in-law of Suzumi. He moved in with her shortly after his older brother, Suzumi's husband, died. He does not get along well with his father or other brothers. His mother was a servant in the Aogiri household and had an affair with Aogiri producing Yuuhi, because of this his brothers have always treated him poorly. Only Suzumi's husband was nice to him, which is why Suzumi felt obligated to take him in. Yuuhi make very obvious his feelilngs for Aya even though she does not love him back. He also happens to be an amazing cook, and cooks most of the means around Suzumi's house. He is also a martial arts expert. Japanese Voice Actor: Kentarou Itou

Suzumi Aogiri (梧納涼)

Suzumi is the head of one of the Aogiri schools of dance, and just like Aya she is the decendant of a tennyo. Although she cannot transform the tennyo blood does give her some psychic and telekenetic abilities. She also can make protective charms like the one she makes Yuuhi. She is Yuuhi's sister-in-law, as she married his older brother. Her husband died shortly after their marriage and ended up having a miscarriage of their child. She hides the whole ordeal, but it allows her to be brainwashed by the Mikage clan when they attack her. Japanese Voice Actor: Mayumi Asano

Chidori Kuruma (来間千鳥)

Chidori is a 16 year old girl who looks about half her age. She, like Aya and Suzumi, is a decendent of a tennyo and can transorm at will. The most important thing to Chidori is her younger brother Shouta, which she will do anything for. So she comes to Aya to ask Ceres to take Shouta flying, its his life's dream. She also is in love with Yuuhi and ends up jumping infront of a bullet for him. She attempts to tell him that she loves him but dies before she can completethe sentence. Japanese Voice Actor: Ayako Kawasumi

Mrs. Q (小田玖)

Mrs. Q is the maid of Suzumi's home. Her appearance is extremely ugly, even though she constantly claims she is beautiful. She is also an abhorrent driver hitting nearly everything and everyone she drivesby. She even has a child like crush on Tooya. Japanese Voice Actor: Kujira

Kagami Mikage

Kagami is one of Aya's cousins. As a child he was mistreated by his mother and as a result he wants no children of his own. Also, when he was younger he stumbled upon a picture of Ceres in the attic and has been obsessed with her ever since. Kagami hopes to use Ceres's DNA to create the next step in humanity with the C-Project. At first his experiments are done with DNA from the past manifestations of Ceres, but he hopes to bring her out in Aya to complete his research. He also clonesthe harogomo from a small piece found. Japanese Voice Actor: Tomokazu Sugita

Alexander(Alec) Howell

Alec is an extremely smart scottish scientist hired by Kagami to work on the C-Project. He ends up betraying the Mikage family when after Aki kills Tooya, instead of allowing Kagami to dissect him, he takes the body and dumps itinto the sea. He is much more moral than Kagami. Japanese Voice Actor: Tomozaku Seki

Anime Episode List

  1. – The Day of the Star and Moon of Sixteen Meet
  2. –Tennyo’s First Kiss
  3. –She who fell from the Heavens
  4. –Stolen Hagoromo
  5. –Tooya’s Destiny
  6. –C-Project
  7. –Awoken C-Genoma
  8. –The Mikage Conspiracy
  9. –Tennyo’s Vow
  10. –Chidori’s Flight
  11. –Heart Coming to Life
  12. –Silver choker
  13. –Godly Body of the Mikage
  14. –Awoken Ancestor (Shiso)
  15. –Tooya’s Past
  16. –Another Ceres
  17. –Loves Being Drawn Together
  18. –Brief Happiness
  19. –Chidori’s Unspoken Confession
  20. –The Death of Tooya
  21. –Tennyo in Ancient Times
  22. –Song of Revenge
  23. –Mikagi Awakens
  24. –Time of The End

Links

Personal tools