Plot Summary
Aki and Aya Mikage are twin siblings who are invited in a special family celebration for their sixteenth birthday. Among the whole of their extended family, it is revealed that a celestial being named Ceres is periodically incarnated in the Mikage family, and the family flourishes by the ritual sacrifice of the Ceres incarnation in each generation. As soon as it is discovered that Aya is the current incarnation of Ceres, she is treated as a pariah and arranged to die for the good of the family. In a twist of fate, she falls in love with Toya, a mysterious man hired out to kill her.
Aya is later saved from her fate and hidden away from the Mikage family. It is revealed that there are other celestial beings who are reincarnated in humans, each with various powers and manifestations. These part-human, part-celestial beings are called “C-Genomers”, with Ceres being the most powerful manifestation. Toya manages to hound Aya down, but her love is reciprocated and he cannot find the heart to give her up to her family. Aya manages to reason with her alter ego and have her spare the Mikage family, whom she wants to destroy as revenge, instead asking only for her “celestial robe”, an artifact that will allow her to leave the mortal world.
The two protagonists, aided by various supporters and relatives, make several attempts to infiltrate the archives and facilities of the Mikage family in order to find the whereabouts of the celestial robe. Their chief obstacles are her cousin Kagami, who is obsessed with Ceres for the purpose of researching and analyzing her, and Ceres’ lover and arch-enemy Mikagi, who has been reincarnated into the body of Aya’s twin brother, Aki.
In the end it is revealed that the reason behind Toya’s mysterious past and amnesia is that he is made of the manifest will of the celestial robe, which has been seeking to return to Ceres. Toya gives up his life to protect Aya from death and, in doing so, the celestial robe is released and Ceres is free to return her realm in heaven (after killing and redeeming Mikagi). Aya, bearing the child of Toya, is now supported by her friends and family and ready to give birth in a world filled with renewed hope.
Review
If it can be considered possible, I think that this anime is both too busy and with too little development. Secondary plots are abudant here, and characters are introduced and then brought to a conculsion (whichever that might be) within the span of a few episodes, never to be seen again. This design produces a lot of secondary characters with little depth or development in their screen time, and sadly they never become interesting enough to make the viewer care for their fate. Their only appeal is that they make the setting richer. The premise of the anime is that there is a metaphysical background to the world as we know it, and relatively few people know about it. Introducing additional characters and organizations with new information on the tennyo makes the whole setting a bit more spherical and believable.
For better or for worse, all this parade of secondary plots doesn’t leave enough exposure for the main story to unfold. Aya and Toya’s first meeting is done in a flash, and she leaves her falling in love with him, for reasons that are neither apparent nor explained anywhere during the course of the series. This kind of love at first sight, against all odds and against any obvious emergencies, obstacles or (killing) intents seems too forced to be attributed to destiny. This relationship between the two protagonists is then shown to bloom slowly if a bit clumsily during the first half of the series. It then picks up momentum out of nowhere, with the characters reaching life-changing decisions within the course of single episodes, with no previous foreshadowing or development leading up to their decisions. This kind of progress seems unrealistic even if the characters are blinded by love; the progress and culmination of their relationship should be a bit smoother, even just for the sake of the viewers. The deepest and most heartfelt displays of care and love are actually made by some of the supporting cast, especially Yuhi, who grows and learns to temper his love throughout the series (even though his eventual reward feels like a cop-out).
It should be mentioned here that any deaths and losses that take place in the frame of the aforementioned romance are almost never peaceful or in silent pain, as in other romantic anime. In Ayashi no Ceres, characters are often found splattered in blood (sometimes their own). This amount of gore ties in with the dark atmosphere present in the anime from the very beginning. Although the mood lightens in some degree as the series progresses, the amount of blood and violence is more than usually found in romance anime.
Physically speaking, the characters are very competent for the most part. On the one hand, the character designs are very nice, with beautiful silhouettes and faces displaying a great range of emotion, from comedy to tragedy. Unfortunately, not much effort is put into making each character’s design unique, or at least distinguishable. In the end, the characters seem like a bunch of dolls whose only differentiating feature are the colour and cut of their hair. Whenever one’s hairstyle changes (over time or for plot reasons), there is some confusion in tracking down the character among a cast of similar faces.
The sound section shares a similar fate. As far as the voices are concerned, about half of them are very well suited to their relevant characters, being able to display varying emotion and setting the right tone. Aya’s and Suzumi’s voice actors are among the highlights. The other half of character voices are more or less plain, with Toya’s voice acting verging on being too monotonous.
The sound score fits well the romance genre, but it is nothing out of the ordinary; the same music could have been used any romance anime.
I honestly can’t find the “catch” that will make this anime an exceptional representative of its genre. It has some nice character designs and a semi-interesting metaphysical backdrop. Other than that, it is starting to show its age, so if you have half a mind to view it, do so before it is buried by other anime of the same genre.
Stats
Type: Series
Length: 24 X 20 min
Rating
Production: 8/10
Plot: 5/10
Setting: 6/10
Characters: 5/10
Overall: 6/10
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