Ayashi no Ceres
Not for anyone who's broken up in the last nine years...
Review by: M.H. Torringjan
Length: 24 episodes
Genre: Romance, Magical Girl
Watched: Every saccharine minute of it subbed!
You thought that Magical Girl animes were all Sailor Moon and Card Captor Sakura? Well, think again. What Magical Girl anime has blood squirting all over the place every five minutes, hot-hot love-love happy-happy squeeze-squeeze bite-bite action whenever you're not watching, badasses in abundance, and female nudity in every episode at least once? Ayashi no Ceres, that's who! Well, at least *I'd* classify this as a magical girl anime, anyway.
Plot Synopsis: This one starts just like any other anime. Normal girl Aya Mikage has normal life with normal brother Aki living in a normal house with her normal parents in normal Tokyo *UNTIL!!!* (insert random life-changing event here). Does she:
a) get a pony.
b) become a circus midget who smuggles drugs across the Pacific to Enrique in LA?
Or c) almost blow up her family?
Well, for everyone who hasn't seen the series, it's (c). Seems that Aya has the spirit of a heavenly maiden, a tennyo, stuck in her body because of a gene passed down through her family for millennia. The tennyo, who's named Ceres, is kinda' pissed at her family for stealing her feathered robe, the hagoromo. As such, she wants to kill them all to find it. Aya doesn't want that, so she vows to help Ceres find the hagoromo. Well, Aki's apparently inherited the leadership of the family in the face of Ceres, so he ends up leading the Mikage corporation, in cooperation with Aya's cousin.
Aya falls in with the Aogiri family, Suzumi, Yuuhi and Kyuu. Suzumi has tennyo blood, Yuuhi wants to have sex with Aya, and Kyuu is just really old. They come across a young-looking Chidori, who wants to have sex with Yuuhi and is actually high-school age. Aya also meets and instantly falls in love with Tooya, the show's resident badass. Yeah, it's another one of those things.
Artwork: Another one of those standard fare artwork series. The character design's fairly normal by anime standards (I mean, I'd hardly call purple hair normal by real standards!), the scenery is normal, even the energy fights are every day quality. I will give it this, though. The artwork stays very true to life, and is good based on the time the series came out. However, do they really have to have the eyes that show out from behind the hair?
Music: The soundtrack is almost entirely instrumental, which is a nice backdrop to the action, instead of overshadowing it. I love the opening theme, Scarlet. The piano melody comes back to put up a big, red flag "THIS IS SENTIMENTAL!!!" Well, it's not that obnoxious, but it's noticeable. The first ending theme, "One" is another track that stays on my tracklist, although the second one is rather generic and easily forgotten.
Characters: This series has a couple of interesting characters in it and a couple of not-so-interesting ones. Aya's a caring girl who just wants to live a normal life with the one that she loves. She cares for her brother, she cares for her family, she cares for her friends. Who cares? I personally thought that Ceres, who was willing to go to any lengths to achieve her goal, but deep down really cared more than she let on, was more interesting. Chidori was an interesting character who, I thought, deserved more screen time than she got. She obviously cared deeply for Yuuhi, who couldn't return the feeling based on her physical appearance. I personally appreciated Yuuhi's character the most, as he tried to show Aya his love, even though she was already in love with Tooya. The willingness to give up his own happiness for what Aya wanted most showed just how much he loved Aya.
Now, every good series has at least one badass. You know, the one character who says impolite things to other characters just to make himself look really, really cool. And that assumes that anything need be said. Usually, these people are easily recognized by the ability to do unbelievable things like it's nothing, and then scoff at their foes just because they can. The resident badass of the series is Tooya. A passionate man with a mysterious past, who has to hunt Ceres, but is in love with Aya. His abilities will leave you gaping, although his attitude is slightly low-key for a badass, and, unfortunately, he goes soft further on in the series. Besides those down-points, he's definitely the most memorable character from the show, and I will steal his identity for myself if I am at all able.
Plot: The plot plays off of an ancient Japanese legend and brings it into the modern era with great story-telling ability. The twist with bringing genetics into the story is definitely a nice touch, which serves to tie in science and magic. Sometimes, the plot borders on episodic, but most of the series flows in a fairly linear fashion. Really, there's not much that can be said about the plot other than that it's pretty nifty.
CHICKS!!! Well, I've already said what I think of Aya. She's eye-candy, and the frequent fanservice shots are always appreciated. Now, Ceres, she's exactly where it is. She's a better character than Aya, and she's in Aya's body. You get the best of both worlds! I mean, why just settle for one when you can get both for the same price?! It's Bargain Barrel Days down at Uncle Ecchi's General Store! Then, we come to the hidden treasure of the show, Chidori. Now, I know what you're thinking. "God, he's got a thing for kids?!" Well, I'd say no, since this kid grows up *so* quickly. When she goes into tennyo mode, she turns into the most babe-a-licious chick this side of Love Hina, and the fact that her clothes don't change to account for her body's new size... errrm... you get the idea. And if not, then I'm providing a screencap to show just *how* yummy this gal is! Now, if only they had evolved her character a bit more...
Overall: This series has everything that anyone could want, all thrown into one big pot! Humor, romance, suspense, other miscellaneous dramatic sentiments, drop-down drag-out beat-down fights, and cute chicks all in one! And, surprisingly enough, it blends very well! The character-driven linear action is a nice change of pace from episodic one-shot series that you can find everywhere else. This series has got it all around, and is definitely one of the best in its genre. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a new series, and I'd force it on people who don't really give a darn.
IN A NUTSHELL:
+ Great plot
+ Excellent drama
+ Tooya's a badass to the nth power
- Some other characters are flat
- Artwork's generic
Overall rating: 9/10
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