Ceres, Celestial Legend

Ceres, Celestial Legend, known in Japan as , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yuu Watase. It was originally serialized in Shōgakukan's magazine "Shōjo Comic" from May 1996 to March 2000, with its chapters collected in 14 "tankōbon" volumes. The manga was licensed for English release in North America by Viz Media. The series focuses on Aya Mikage, who learns on her sixteenth birthday that she is the reincarnation of an ancient and supremely powerful celestial maiden or angel ("tennyo") named Ceres, and her twin brother Aki the reincarnation of Ceres' former husband, Mikagi, the progenitor of the Mikage family, who had stolen Ceres' robe. Ceres' spirit begins manifesting in Aya, and to save her brother she must find Ceres' long-lost celestial robe, while avoiding being killed or captured by family members who want to use Ceres's supreme celestial abilities for their own personal gain.
Pierrot adapted the series into a 24-episode anime television series, broadcast on WOWOW from April to September 2000. The anime series was also licensed by Viz, but has since been re-licensed by Discotek Media.
In 1998, "Ceres, Celestial Legend" won the 43rd Shogakukan Manga Award in the "shōjo" category.
Plot.
Aya Mikage and her twin brother, Aki, are forced to go to their grandfather's home for their sixteenth birthday, unaware that it's actually a test to see if they have angel or celestial maiden blood. Aya learns she is one of many reincarnations of a vengeful and supremely powerful celestial maiden named Ceres who takes over her mind and body only under intense stress or fury. 
When she transforms into Ceres, Aya obtains supernatural abilities of flight, teleportation, telepathy, powerful telekinesis, premonition, and superhuman speed; she can also project destructive pink energy blasts from her hands, and create impenetrable shields of bright pink-colored celestial energy. According to myth, Ceres will ultimately exterminate the entire Mikage family in retaliation for stealing her hagoromo (celestial robe), thus preventing her returning home to Heaven. Because of this, Aya's paternal grandfather and his party attempt to kill her, but she is saved by Suzumi Aogiri, another descendant of a heavenly maiden with incredibly strong celestial and mental abilities of her, and Suzumi's brother-in-law, Yūhi. Aya struggles to control Ceres' influence over her and appease her spirit once and for all. Her brother Aki is eventually completely taken over by the vengeful spirit of "Mikagi", the original ancestor/progenitor of the entire Mikage family who stole Ceres' celestial robe (or "mana"), forcing her to stay with him on Earth. Aya promises Ceres that she will help find the celestial robe in exchange for not killing those who hunt her, especially Aki, since Aya still loves them as family. It's revealed-(in Episode 7, "Celestial Awakening") that "The Hagoromo Legend" not only exists in Japan, but in other countries around the world such as Europe, Africa, all three regions of Oceania, Germany, China, Korea, Russia, and even the United States.
Aya also wrestles with her strong romantic feelings for Toya, a former servant of the Mikage. Toya is trying to kill her as well, and has lost his memory of his past. However, he begins to reciprocate Aya's feelings, and they conceive a child together. Toya regains his memory and learns that he was the immortal humanoid organism, also known as "the manna," that the celestial robe created to help it reunite with Ceres and enable her to reach the full evolution as a celestial maiden. In the end, Aki, having resisted Mikage's spirit, sacrifices himself to save Aya, and Toya sacrifices his own manna and immortality to save Aya and their unborn child. Months later, Aya and Toya await the birth of their child, knowing that Toya may have limited time left to live, although Toya did claim that he will live longer, for his new family's sake.
Production.
"Ceres, Celestial Legend" is the third manga series written by Yuu Watase. She based it on the legend of the "tennin" Ceres and her stolen "hagoromo". This legend is also the basis for one of the most performed Japanese Noh plays, "Hagoromo". It is the Japanese version of the Swan Maiden legend; versions from other cultures are mentioned throughout the series. As with most of her serials, Watase planned the basic story line of Ceres through to the end before beginning work. She notes that it is easier to work this way, but that even with planning sometimes the characters will "move on their own" and refuse to follow her original plans. When she reaches the end of the work, though, she can understand why they did so. Watase noted that one of the hardest parts of writing a serial manga was having to plan for a cliffhanger at the end of each chapter. She wanted each one to make the reader want to know what happened next, so they would want to keep reading.
To accurately depict the many locations used within the series, Watase traveled to Miyagi, Okinawa, and Tochigi to visit the locations where legends say "Tennin" landed. She was able to negotiate entry into some areas normally closed to the public. The characters in "Ceres" are not based on real people, but Watase notes that each one reflects some part of herself, as does the story as a whole. For example, Watase incorporated her thoughts on genetic engineering and other new technologies through the character of Kagami, who shows cruel disregard for the lives of the celestial beings he creates. While she feels such technologies can be useful to society, they should not be abused. Watase purposefully left Ceres' true nature ambiguous in the end, never clearly stating whether Ceres is an alien or truly a being descended from heaven. She notes, however, that part of the reason for this was that it wasn't something she'd thought about. On reflection, she felt Ceres was a symbol. In Japan, men are considered the dominant sex, and Watase notes that as a woman there are things about the system that anger her, such as men saying she is "just a woman." "Ceres" became a story about the relationship between men and women. She also wanted to show that while the "Tennin" and the humans in the story may have come from different origins, and evolved differently, they were still the same living creature in the end, with similar feelings and thoughts.
Media.
Manga.
Written by Yuu Watase, "Ceres, The Celestial Legend" premiered in the May 1996 issue of Shogakukan's "Shōjo Comic", and ran through the March 2000 issue. The chapters were later published in fourteen collected volumes, with the first volume released on December 11, 1996. Starting October 15, 2005, Shogakukan began re-releasing the series in six special edition volumes, with the final volume released December 15, 2005.
In 2001, Viz Media licensed the manga for an English language release in North America. The series was originally released in a flipped trade paperback format. Viz stopped publication after four volumes. In 2003, Viz re-released the first four volumes in unflipped standard manga-size volumes, along with the remaining ten volumes. In the table below, the dates and ISBN numbers given for the first four volumes are for their second edition re-releases.
Anime.
Directed by Hajime Kamegaki and produced by Studio Pierrot, the "Ceres, Celestial Legend" anime adaptation premiered in Japan on WOWOW on April 20, 2000. It ran for 24 episodes until its conclusion on September 28, 2000. It was released to VHS and DVD by Bandai Visual in twelve volumes, with each volume containing two episodes.
"Ceres, Celestial Legend" was licensed for Region 1 release by Viz Media, which also owns the North American license for the source manga. Viz released the series to VHS and DVD in eight three-episode volumes, with the first volume released on July 24, 2001. The VHS editions were dubbed in English, while the DVD volumes offered a choice between the dubbed English audio track and the original Japanese audio, with optional English subtitles. The DVD version also offers extra features, including art galleries, character profiles, and interviews with Yu Watase. In 2003, Viz re-released the series in two-volume collector's edition sets that contained twelve episodes on each disc, and all of the on-disc extras from earlier releases.
The English dubbed version of the series was broadcast in Southeast Asia by AXN-Asia. In 2014, Discotek Media announced their license for the series, and re-released the series in 2015.
Novel.
The "Ceres, Celestial Legend" novels were written by Nishizaki Megumi and illustrated by Watase Yuu, with storylines created by both. The first three novels each tell a side story of one of the characters; the last novels contain a three-part sequel to the main story.
Reception.
"Ceres, Celestial Legend" won the 43rd Shogakukan Manga Award in the "shōjo" category in 1998.