Customer Reviews

Ceres, Celestial Legend - Collectors (Vol. 1)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Aya is a teenager girl and her twin brother name Aki, who are members of a wealthy powerful family. On Aya 16th birthday she was given a special present which was a test and she failed. She is found to be the reincarnation of a teenyo (celestial madien), and when shaken, she will transform into Ceres, the tennyo. Due to legend, if left to live, the recarnation of Ceres will bring ruin upon the Mikage family. Aya quickly found out she is haunted by her own family, who plains to kill her.

Okay, I think the previous reviews and product description should give people a good enough idea of what the anime was actually about, so I'll just go on to my opinions.
The plot of this anime is fairly good, and the length (24 episodes total) means there's not much filler. However, it also means that there isn't much room for things like character development, and the story sometimes feels rushed. Subplots that took up a whole book in the manga are condensed into one episode, leaving the viewer saying something like "So she died... tell me again why I'm supposed to care?" or "Wait, what exactly was the point of that?" The main characters are fairly well-developed, but there are some that feel like we hardly get to know them before they die- and die they do, almost without exception. Also, it has less humor than did the manga (though Mrs. Q is still as funny as ever).
The art is okay- very similar to the art from the Fushigi Yuugi anime. The blood looks really fake (though I can't decide whether that's a good thing or not), but the character designs are pretty good.
The dub and sub are both good (insofar as dubs/"official" subs ever are). They didn't do anything horrible to the original script, and the voice actors are mainly pretty good. It bothered me that "ten'nyo" was translated as "angel" most of the time, but that could just be me.
But having said all that, I think I feel this way mostly because I've read the manga. It's not a bad anime, in and of itself. It just isn't as good.
So... if you haven't read the manga and don't ever want to, and you enjoy shoujo-ness and twenty-four episodes of almost-constant angst (well, twenty-three, really, since the first one's not as depressing as the rest), you'll probably like this anime. But if you're not vehemently opposed to reading, why not do yourself a favor and get the manga instead? It's longer (which takes care of most of my issues with the anime, although it may be off-putting to people without much time... but then, they're graphic novels, they don't take long to read) and the art is better. I enjoyed the manga more, overall.

Oh my! Back to the exasperating angst and hair-pulling love triangles we have in Fushigi Yuugi. Ayashi no Ceres is a decent series, with a solid storyline and some plot twists. The music is very good, the animation average. One of my biggest complaints with this series is the fact that Aya & Tooya are like Miaka & Tamahome clones, which really really takes away from the character. I keep associating Aya with Miaka's stupidity and Tooya with Tamahome's bland personality. Some of the episodes feel like fillers to drag out the storyline, but hey, the series moves along at a decent pace and ends pretty well.

This is definetly a must see series. It's become one of my favorite animes and I watched it all in one night. Aya and Aki are twins who upon turning 16, find that they carry within them the spirits of their ancestors- Ceres, a tenyo or sky fairy lives within Aya. Aki carries the spirit of her husband, a power hungry idiot who stole something of great value to Ceres- the series starts off with a bang and the animation is very good. It can get a little confusing watching the transformations and remembering who is who but it becomes clearer after the third episode. Totemo kireii

I really like Ayashi no ceres (ceres,celestial legend)!

This is only the first 12 episodes, but everyone of them is great.

Only Downfall is Touya... hes annoying, and I mean reaaaaaally annoying... More annoying that Aya's dub voice (well i dont know about that)
I really like Yuhi and Chidori's dub voices, fans of Zoids; Chaotic Century will reconize them as Van and Fiona's voice. Another few they'll reconize is the Grandpa's voice (Rosso's voice), Shizumi (Viola's voice), Kagami (prozen's voice) and I think Aki is Raven's voice (i could be wrong). However great those voices are, if you hear Aya's voice it will be a giant turndown for this series, I suggest you watch it in Japanese first (Aya's voice is really good in the Japanese version).

This series has it all, Horror (things that WILL scare you first time you see it), Humor (Oda Kyu is the best, and so is Alex... really funny characters), Romance (Chidori loves Yuhi, Yuhi loves Aya, Aya loves Touya.. its like a soap opera... I think Ceres likes Yuhi too...) Action (what else would you expect from a athletic cook martial artist like Yuhi? Even Touya, I have to admit, kicks arse sometimes... Plus Ceres fights, and Wei ^_^) and blood (Who can resist blood? best part of the series, heh)

Who cant help but resist this serious? Its beautiful, and dark... Much darker than Fushigi Yuugi ever was

Wow, this is really close to being an EXCELLENT series. I will note that I actually would give this a 4.5/5. For a suberb English dub and descent animation.

To start off, the Opening Song is one of the hottest opening gimmicks of all time! This piano piece "Scarlet" is beautiful.

Watase Yuu's is the manga successor behind Fushigi Yuugi. And well, Ceres has proved to be much better.

Somehow, I agree that its somewhat similiar to Sailor Moon. It has fighting, romance...its your Modern-day fantasy drama. Yet, this is definitely not childish like SM. This series gets violent quickly. It just got the same elements of art and romance as the classic SM.

I had only read the books that this show is based on, and I was worried that like with most things they would cut things out for the tv series. However, they did not! The show followed the books almost spot on. The quality was great and if you love the books you will love the show.

I love this series. If you don't mind wanting to literally SCREAM at the characters for their behavior from time to time, especially in the drama and angst department, run, for this is classic shojo anime. The music is all right, could have been better, and the animation was a bit of a let down for me. To be fair...Watase's style in the comics changed quite a bit while drawing Ceres and became much nicer over time. The anime reflects her earlier style, and is reminescent of Fushigi Yuugi. If you're looking for very beautiful art and animation, this might grate on you a bit.

If you're looking for another FY, beware! While this one has just as much drama and angst, it's a different animal. I liked it better than FY. A little more on the mature end. I liked the plot a lot more, too, and it appealed to me much more as an adult than FY did. Characterization is all right. They stayed pretty true to the manga, but didn't flesh out the characters in the anime as much.

I don't know if you're a purist when it comes to dubbing/subtitles. The subs are fine. Aya's voice in the dub killed it for me, so I watched the entire thing subtitled.


As a supplement to the manga, it certainly made me happy, but I agree--the manga does it a lot better and with a lot more care to characters, plot, and so on.

As for themes that might make you decide against this anime:

If the slightest hints of incest gross you out, run. This anime/manga doesn't endorse it, quite the opposite, but the themes are there. There are definitely sexual themes, and a lot of violence. Lots. An epic love...triangle? Rectangle? Octagon? Anyways, yes, there's so much romantic angst that it might put you off. It's dark, but despite the awful things that happen and have happened to Ceres, Aya, and the rest, maintains optimism.

There are Big Questions here--the relationship between men and women, the ethics of eugenics, how do you measure the right to human life, what human rights are and where their boundaries lay, and a definite exploration into the nature of what love is. Honestly! And it's a pretty good exploration into those questions. It's much briefer in its exploration than the manga was. If you pick up this anime and like it, pick up the manga. You'll love it.

The ending--and this is rare, to me, with anime--is very satisfying. If you're tight on a budget, look for decent used copies. The whole collection is well worth having, and you'll likely watch it over and over.

So...I think this series is well worth a rating of 5. The anime has its flaws, though, so I'm knocking it down to a four. But should you give it a try? If you like anime, and you having the slightest liking for shojo, YES!

Anime has become a fast growing form of entertainment here in America and should be looked at with a very different mind-set. While some is indeed far to over the top and completely inappropriate to be classified as cartoons, others are simply there to provide a slightly more sophisticated take on the childish entertaiment of cartoons and animated movies.

Ceres falls in between these two absolutes. While it does not contain some of the more explicitly adult material(sexual content, drugs, etc.), Ceres does have a more graphic element in the showing of violence. There is some sexual reference, but it also provides a medium for the correct questions to be asked about that side of interpersonal relations. The balance brought into the story by well formulated questions posed by the characters allows for continued thought not just simple acceptance.

Viewers need to remember that these are not cartoons regardless of the fact they are animated. If a person can step back and appreciate the difference between cartoons and anime, sound judgment can be made about what should be watched for entertaiment quality and content. And what anime should be avoided based solely on the uselessness of the material.

Though I had rented the first disc of this item, Yu Watase is one of my favorites shojo artists,but Fushigi Yugi is litte better becase that anime has less blood.
Overall this is one of the few shojo anime that action in it.