Ceres: Celestial Legend, Vol. 6: Shuro

妖しのセレス [Ayashi no Ceres] #6

by Yuu Watase

Hell hath no fury like a heavenly maiden.

Horror, Comedy, and Romance Made in Heaven

Yuu Watase , the immensely popular writer/artist of the shôjo (girl's) fantasy smash Fushigi Yû The Mysterious Play , has turned her creativity and wry sense of humor to the horror genre with her anime/manga hit Celestial Legend . Aya thought she was a normal teenager until she discovered that she can transform into a vastly powerful “heavenly maiden” named Ceres...But Ceres is furious and out for revenge!

Celebrities say all kinds of outragious things, don't they? But when Shuro--one half of Japan's hottest pop duo, GeSang--says on national television that not only is he the descendant of a ten'nyo celestial maiden, but that his family also still has in its possession the ten'nyo's celestial robe or hagoromo , Aya and the others spring into action! There's more waiting for them in Okinawa than sold-out concerts and sightseeing, though. Shuro's claims of celestial heritage may be more than just PR spin. Kei (the other half of GeSang) may feel more for his partner than friendship. And Kagami--still plotting away at his nefarious "C-Project"--may be closer to achieving his goals than anyone thinks...

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Romance, Shojo, Horror, Fiction

200 pages, Paperback

First published March 26, 1998

About the author

Yuu Watase (渡瀬悠宇) is a Japanese shoujo manga-ka. She is known for her works Fushigi Yūgi, Alice 19th, Ceres: The Celestial Legend, Fushigi Yūgi Genbu Kaiden and Absolute Boyfriend. She likes all music, except heavy metal and old traditional music.

She received the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōjo for Ceres, Celestial Legend in 1997. Since writing her debut short story "Pajama de Ojama" ("An Intrusion in Pajamas"), Watase has created more than 80 compiled volumes of short stories and continuing series. Because of her frequent use of beautiful male characters in her works, she is widely regarded in circles[which?] as a bishōnen manga artist.[citation needed] In October 2008, Watase began her first shōnen serialization, Arata: The Legend in Weekly Shōnen Sunday.
Her name is romanized as "Yû Watase" in earlier printings of Viz Media's publications of Fushigi Yūgi, Alice 19th, and Ceres, The Celestial Legend, while in Viz Media's Fushigi Yūgi Genbu Kaiden and Absolute Boyfriend her name is romanized as "Yuu Watase". In Chuang Yi's English-language versions of Fushigi Yugi (spelled without a macron or circumflex), her name is romanized as "Yu Watase".

Reviews

[Coke Fernández · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10

[Leila Anani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Each volume of Ceres seems to introduce new characters - in this one we meet pop idols Kei and Shuro. Shuro has been raised as a boy in order to avoid the fate of females carrying celestial blood. She
has deeply rooted gender issues and is tired of living a lie largely because she is in love with Kei. Kei doesn't want anything to ruin their stardom and wants to keep the secret at any cost.

On top of this we have the wider series arc - The evil Mikage clan unleashing the C-Genome into the general populace trying to engineer a master race and uncaring how many die in the process. And of course the tangled love quadrangle between Aya, Toya, Yuhi and Aki now permanently possessed by the progenitor.

Wow there is so much going on in this volume! It's really impressive how this manages a stand alone story - the tragedy of the two pop idols as well as a deeply emotional and complex series arc. Yuu Watase really is a master story teller.

The other notable thing about this one is the art - I love her style at the best of times but I thought that there were a couple of exceptionally good panels in this volume - At one point, Aya, Yuhi, Chidori and Mrs. Q visit Okinawa and there's a full page panel against a faded photographic montage backdrop - the mixed media here works wonderfully - it's very striking. The final panel as well with assassin Assam Bakti hiding in the foliage is beautifully detailed and really creepy.

So storytelling, art and pacing are all perfect but what lets this down for me is character - I guess I'm not that drawn to them. I hate the split of the hero role between Toya and Yuhi (yes we've seen it before in Absolute boyfriend - where you really can't choose between the two guys - but it's still annoying!) I've also never really warmed to Aya - she's more grounded in the real world than Watase's other heroines - but she's not someone I would be friends with and she lacks charm and humour.

The series as a whole is really dark and other than Mrs. Q it lacks the humour and quirkyness that I liked about all Yuu Watase's earlier stuff. Saying that, the story is interesting, the art is great and there's still heaps of emotional drama.

On to volume 7....

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aya and crew head to Okinawa in pursuit of another legend about the Celestial Maiden only to discover Shuro, a member of a pop band, who has masqueraded as a boy all her life. As the C-Project releases Ceres' DNA all over the country, Shuro finds her powers awakening, although disappointingly, her family's hagoromo turns out to be a fake.

[Bibliothecat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review for complete series



After I didn't enjoy Fushigi Yuugi as much as I had hopped I would, I was a little concerned how well I'd like Ayashi no Ceres - after all, I was much more interested in the former. Now that I have read both, I think the latter is the superior work in terms of story telling. Pacing was one of the biggest issues I had with Fushigi Yuugi and, while the beginning is a little slow, the other all pacing is infinitely better. The flow of the story felt right with neither dragging nor rushing and the order of events made reasonable sense.

Thanks to the good pacing, the relationships between characters were a lot more believable. Yuu Watase writes likeable characters but sometimes fails to connect them - it's not perfect in the case of this series but it is so much better done than I have seen her do in other works. My only issue probably lies with how fast Aya falls in love with Toya. I wouldn't necessary call it instant love but she definitely has her eye on him from chapter one and the extent to which she starts to love him comes around very quickly. As a result, I initially struggled to root for them but I have to say that the story between them was otherwise nicely written. I definitely really enjoyed the friendships that were formed and was sad about many of their fates.

This series has an over all darker and more mature tone than many of Watase's other series. While she's never exactly been afraid of killing off a few of her characters. Some of the deaths caught me off guard but over all this was a borderline slaughter fest, at times I wondered if I'd picked up Angel Sanctuary instead - I do see fans of one liking the other. In this darker plot, Watase tried to include some comic relief in the form of Kyuu (the housekeeper of sorts?). I didn't like this character at all as she had zero substance beyond apparently being so ugly characters feel sick at the site of her. This joke soon became very, very, very old, especially given that it was repeated regularly over a 14-volume series. Not too mention that I found this joke to be in poor taste.

Another thing that makes this series different from Watase's other works is the art style. While it is still recognisably Watase's style, it is over all less cute and I take this as an attempt to match the more mature story. I do generally prefer her usual style over this one, but it's not that there is anything wrong with the style used here - it's simply different and, unlike me, others may prefer it over her usual style.

Over all, Ayashi no Ceres surprised me in a good way. It is an all around well crafted sci-fi manga that keeps most of its secrets for the final two volumes. Sci-fi isn't my main genre and there were a few hiccups along the way (Kyuu and the somewhat rushed romance) that prevent me from giving this a full score but it definitely earns its place among shoujo manga classics.

[Ryofire · Rating 3 out of 5]

The central plot for this volume focuses on love, honesty, and identity, like a lot of overall manga. It's interesting in that a central new cast member is Shuro, a trans or perhaps genderfluid man. It's still buried under the prevalence of sexual assault, though Aya does an admirable job of fighting her way through all the characters. There's a neat message here about gender fluidity and transness, though I think it was handled more interestingly in "Fruits Basket". And all in all it's kind of buried in a badly paced and largely uninteresting plot.

Another neat part of this volume is how everyone is coming out to support Aya. Everyone encourages her to do her best and that they believe in her. It's nice. She deserves it.

Still a kind of boring volume, though.

[Lau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es en tomos como éste donde se siente la diferencia si estás amando la historia o no. En mi caso, eh, no, así que salvo por algún que otro momento clave lo sentí muy cerca del relleno.

La historia de Shuro me dio pena, pero la vi un tanto similar a un personaje de Fushigi Yuugi. De todos modos me gusta que Watase (ya en esa época) incluyera semi abiertamente personajes LGBT.

Lo que NO me gusta, si bien se le puede encontrar una lógica enferma por la sangre de Ceres bla bla, es que haya tantos intentos de violacion haya Aya. Solamente en este tomo hubo tres. Basta.

[Kasumi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Con el primer antepasado liberado, Aya cree que lo único que puede devolver a Aki y a ella misma su vida es encontrar el manto de la doncella para que Ceres regrese al cielo, pero los Mikage deciden acelerar el Proyecto C y liberar la encima en todo Japón para despertar a los portadores del gen C, aunque eso signifique la muerte para muchos de ellos.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yet another high quality, highly addictive installment of Ceres. With Vol. 6 th race is on to find not only the celestial robes but to find other C-Genomes/Celestial Maiden ancestors. Aya and Toya are my favorite characters and the slow but steady build in their relationship has me hooked. Great messages about accepting yourself and the love you have for others. Can't wait for the next volume.

[Eleanor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why are literally all the men in these books creeps? Even Shuro who isn't even a man is still a creep when she's pretending to be one!!! Aghhhhh. Other than that, I do really enjoy the Shuro/Kei/GeSang plotline and it is also getting to a very chaotic place.

[Serena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Technically a 4.5 stars for me. So much went down in this volume oh my goodness. From meeting Shuro and learning more about Aki to Aya being basically on the run from the Mikage family even so because of Aki. It is just insane. And the romance between Aya and Tōya too gets intense.

[Maria del Mar · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 estrelles.
Tot i que al final ha millorat una mica, és el volum que m'ha agradat menys de moment.
Hi ha hagut algunes escenes "eròtiques" sense sentit que no venien al cas i que m'han incomodat.
Tot i així, la sèrie m'enganxa i vull continuar.

[Aurelie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a particularly interesting volume, I would love to get more into the lore of Tennyos from different regions across Japan!

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yuu Watase is an amazing storyteller and draws some gorgeous artwork! She is one of my favorite manga authors and I love everything she has done. The characters in Ceres are amazing and imaginative and extremely easy to relate to. She is able to capture the character’s emotions amazingly with a realistic outlook on life. Aya’s reaction to finding out about her supernatural powers was real and her ongoing fight through all of her problems strikes the reader as something that would ring true. My favorite character was Touya, hot and mysterious with a little bit of attitude thrown in. The series has gory moments and is dark but everything about life is not always peachy as Yuu Watase truthfully is able to point out.

Note: this review is about volumes 1-14 .

[Shannon (Twilight Sleep) · Rating 5 out of 5]

First manga I started collecting. Watase-san is a literary genius. I love her works. Ceres is an incredible story.

[Danyka · Rating 5 out of 5]

I watched and loved the Anime version of this since I was a kid. It also landed on my favorites.

For now, I got no plans for buying a copy.

[Jen Keyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Waiting on my request from the library to come through to continue the series. From now Sailor Moon it is.

[Abbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread again. Love this series!

[Ella · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel bad for Aya and Ceres. All Ceres is looking for are her robes, and Aya just wants to live as a normal girl.

[Liz Licata · Rating 3 out of 5]

we have now hit 5 guys who like Aya. This isn't overkill. Nope. What are you talking about?

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another 4.5. Love this series!