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On the day of their sixteenth birthday, Aya and her brother Aki, twins born into the wealthy Mikage family, were driven into their grandfather's estate. Upon arrival, they are made to view a family relic: the mummified hand of their clan's founder. At its sight, Aya starts to manifest a strange aura while bloody images appear on her mind, while lacerations suddenly manifest all over Aki's body. When Aya asks why no one is helping him, her grandfather, supposedly a kindly man, orders her death, disposing of the twins' father when he objects. Suddenly, Aya's aura grows stronger, and in her place appears a blue-haired woman who disposes of her would-be assassins before Aya returns to her body and makes her escape.
Along the way she meets Touya, an amnesiac, crimson-haired young man in her family's employ, who helps her seek refuge in the household of Yuuhi Aogiri, a boy from a well-to-do clan of her age, together with his sister-in-law Suzumi and their retainer Mrs. Q. Suzumi, realizing Aya has the same power as hers (albeit stronger), explains her situation -- her clan descended from a ''tennyo'' ("celestial maiden")... in particular, Ceres, who was trapped on Earth after losing her ''hagoromo'' ("celestial robe") and forced into a marriage, now hell-bent on avenging her misfortunes through her {{reincarnation}}: Aya herself. Though initially at odds with each other, Aya strikes a deal with Ceres -- she will help the latter find her ''hagoromo'' in order to return to heaven, provided she doesn't harm any more people than is necessary. But whereas Aya and Ceres learn to cooperate, Aki is being taken over by his [[{{Reincarnation}} past-life self]]: Mikagi, the ancestor of the Mikages from thousands of years past, who married Ceres, then went insane over trying to protect her and is now on the hunt for her. To make things worse, the rest of the Mikages, led by Aya's cousin Kagami, are trying to create their own army of ''tennyos'' through various scientific methods.
Though not easy, Aya, Ceres and their allies travel across Japan, seeing many places and meeting new friends, enemies and other descendants of ''tennyos''.
''Ayashi no Ceres'' (''Ceres, Celestial Legend'' in English), a 1996-2000 manga by Creator/YuuWatase, draws on ancient Japanese myth and mixes it with a cynical modern perspective to produce a dark yet compelling tale of a young girl caught up in supernatural events beyond her control or understanding. It is also one of Watase's darkest, most violent works, featuring several characters with varying degrees of insanity, from Aya and Aki's mother who was brainwashed into killing her daughter, to Kagami, who's more than willing to attempt to rape Aya in order to release Ceres -- ForScience All in all, not recommended for the easily shocked.
This manga was a big turning point in Watase's career, and many people consider it to be her best work yet.
A 24-episode anime produced by Creator/StudioPierrot premiered in 2000. It was initially licensed by Creator/VizMedia for its U.S. release on VHS and DVD, and has since been licensed by Creator/DiscotekMedia for an upcoming DVD rerelease.
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!!This series provides examples of;
* AdaptationDistillation
* AdultFear: ''Ayashi no Ceres'' might be a dark fantasy drama, but what it all comes down to is a story of [[spoiler:a loving husband who went insane after receiving some of his otherworldy wife's powers in order to [[DeclarationOfProtection protect her]], to the point of [[StayInTheKitchen restricting her behavior]], [[{{Yandere}} locking her up in their house to keep her from talking to other men]], [[DomesticAbuse beating her up]], [[MaritalRapeLicense forcing sex on her]], and even [[OffingTheOffspring killing one of their daughters who he fears could take his wife away]]. Basically, a story of domestic violence.]]
* AMythologyIsTrue: Specifically, the myth of the ShapeshiftingLover; a magical creature who takes the form of a beautiful woman, only to be trapped in that form by a man who steals her magic and [[AbductionIsLove makes her his bride]]. In-universe, they are [[spoiler:a SuperiorSpecies of [[SingleGenderRace women]] from AnotherDimension who reproduce by mating with exceptional human men, preferably ''willingly'', and for a short time - the ''hagoromo'' is OrganicTechnology that enables them to not only shapeshift, but change their genetics at will, without which they cannot survive for more then ten years]].
* AncientConspiracy
* AnyoneCanDie: [[spoiler:On top of a large pile of dead mooks and minor characters, most of the maidens end up dead by the end of the story, including Chidori and Shuro. Then there's majority of the Mikages (save Aya; Kagami's mother doesn't count, seeing she's an outsider). Bonus points for Touya, who manages to die ''twice'' -- one onscreen, and one implied to happen sometime after the series ends.]]
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Aya for Touya, [[spoiler:though she's less attracted to his "bad boy" nature than his drive to protect her ''without'' possessing her, something which she is [[RapeAsDrama threatened with almost constantly]] since her awakening as a tennyo]].
* AllMenArePerverts: Played with. [[WordOfGod Watase said]] in one of her freetalks that all of Yuuhi's behaviour towards Aya is totally normal and that he is not a pervert. He is a teenager, after all, and at the end of the day he never crosses any moral lines, not even when [[spoiler: Aya offers herself to him out of sheer spite]] (although there are times when he gets very damn close). However, in another one, explaining Mikagi's actions and [[spoiler: the intent of a group of schoolboys who try to rape Aya]], she said that "the desire of raping women was part of the male instinct to preserve the species." On the other hand, the heroic Yuuhi shares a disturbing connection with the possessed Aki: both see love as a declaration of ''possession''("I must protect that which is mine.") where Touya sees it more as a declaration of ''service''("You are important to me, thus I must protect you.") [[spoiler:This is what makes Aya choose Touya in the end]].
** This trope is also [[InvokedTrope invoked]] by the tennyo themselves. Being a SingleGenderRace, the tennyo's sole purpose is to pick the strongest men and have children with them. They are well aware that human men lust for their bodies, so they use that to their full advantage.
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Yuuhi and Suzumi pick on each other so much that they seem more like actual siblings than brother and sister-in-law. However, when [[spoiler:the Mikages try to force Suzumi to reveal her ''tennyo'' form]], we see that... well... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin they really do love each other]].
%%* BadassLongcoat
* BareYourMidriff: It's not Aya. It's Tooya.
* BettyAndVeronica: Yuuhi and Touya to Aya.
* BigFancyHouse: Yuuhi and Suzumi's house, TheThingThatGoesDoink included.
* {{Bifauxnen}}: Shuro Tsukasa, raised as a man out of fear of her powers manifesting.
* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: [[spoiler:Aya found out that she was pregnant with Touya's child at the exact same moment that Mikagi emptied a handgun into his head. [[SubvertedTrope Only]] he got better. [[YourDaysAreNumbered Sort of.]]]]
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:At the end of the series, Aya and Touya survive with their unborn child, while the Aogiris return to a normal life. However, most of the ''tennyos'' are dead, and so are the Mikages, their name sullied beyond repair by a record of their criminal activities disclosed at Kagami's request. Aki also has to die in order to stop Mikagi's rampage. And the kicker -- without Ceres's Mana from which he grew, Touya apparently only has a few years to live, but not before entrusting Aya and their child to Yuuhi's care.]]
* BrotherSisterIncest: Played completely seriously ''and'' creepily; suffice to say, Mikagi ''knows'' his physical vessel Aki is a fraternal twin to Ceres' physical vessel Aya... and doesn't ''care''.
* CatapultNightmare: Aya after dreaming about seeing Touya on the beach [[spoiler: only for him to turn into the bleeding, mangled corpse of [[DrivenToSuicide Miori]].]]
* CharacterDevelopment: Aya, from OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent to full-blown healthy YamatoNadeshiko who has to rebuild her life after all the crazy events piling on her.
** Touya evolves his SugarAndIcePersonality to a more empathetic persona.
** Yuuhi starts as a JerkWithAHeartOfGold and ends up being a pretty mature young man [[spoiler:and soon-to-be father-figure for Aya and Touya's unborn child in the event Touya dies]].
* ChildSoldier: Assam was one before he started working for Kagami.
* CleaningUpRomanticLooseEnds: At the end [[spoiler:Touya knows that he will die soon, so he trusts Aya to Yuuhi, who has apparently hooked up with a clone-daughter of Chidori carrying her memories.]]
* ComingOfAgeStory: For Aya particularly, but it also applies to Yuuhi.
* CompanionCube: Ceres's mana acts as such for her, as she is seen talking to it in the extra story at the end of ''[[Manga/FushigiYuugiGenbuKaiden Genbu Kaiden]]'' volume 6.
* CoolBigSis: Suzumi to Yuuhi, and eventually to Aya.
* CrazyJealousGuy
** Mikagi to Ceres -- stalking her across time, [[spoiler:raping her, and killing one of their own children due to jealousy]]. He actually was an UnderstandingBoyfriend [[spoiler:until he made the horrible mistake of asking Ceres to give him a parcel of her power]].
** Turns out Mikagi might not have been the first offender. As seen in an extra story, Ceres was once wed to a man who traveled the world looking for her for ''fifty years''. Except she didn't have any emotional attachment to him, so she didn't unwittingly gave him [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity powers of mass destruction]].
* DangerousSixteenthBirthday: Poor Aya ''must'' die when she turns sixteen, since at that age her powers will awaken.
* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Ayashi no Ceres'' is a darker rendition of the Japanese tradition of the [[ShapeshiftingLover swan maiden legend.]]
* DarkFantasy: The series certainly has its mix of fantasy and horror.
* DeclarationOfProtection: Played straight with Touya and Aya, and also with Yuuhi and Aya. [[spoiler:Horrifyingly deconstructed in the case of Mikagi and Ceres, as Mikagi's desire to help his wife and not just be the UnderstandingBoyfriend makes things go worse when he gets power to do so.]]
* DemotedToExtra: Poor Shuro barely gets to appear in the anime.
* DisguisedInDrag: Yuuhi has to pretend to be a girl when infiltrating the female-only Tsukashima High School together with Aya and Chidori.
* DramaticWind: Quite a lot.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Suzumi]] attempted this in the past following [[spoiler:the death of her husband and her subsequent miscarriage, but was stopped by Yuuhi]]. Later, in a much more malicious case, [[spoiler:Aya's cousin and fellow ''tennyo'' Miori kills herself in a ''very'' gruesome manner, [[MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning purposefully traumatizing Aya]] as revenge for her mother's death at the hands of Ceres.]]
** In Volume 3, we have [[spoiler: Urakawa setting her physics teacher and lover Hayama and herself on fire, after he mocked her and revealed he never actually loved her. She had a FriendlessBackground to begin with and this, along with Aya's supposed betrayal, was just the final straw]].
* EldritchAbomination: If a man tries to touch a ''hagoromo'' [[spoiler:and wasn't chosen by it to be the ''tennyo'''s husband]], he'll get blasted away. If a woman tries to, however, she'll morph into a hideous monster, as shown in Volume 10 of the manga.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas
** Kagami's only PetTheDog moment comes when he's shown visiting his insane, delirious mother.
** Also, the death of [[spoiler: Miori]]'s beloved mother was her StartOfDarkness.
* {{Expy}}: Touya inherited the looks and the fighting skills of his cousin [[Manga/FushigiYuugi Tamahome]].
* EyeScream: [[spoiler:Wei Fei-Li gets one eye ''sliced'' by Touya's dagger in his ''first appearance''.]] Perhaps even more wince-inducing is [[spoiler:the scene near the end of the manga where, ironically enough, Touya ''restores'' Wei's eye.]]
* FakeMemories: This happened to Touya during his [[spoiler:time with Miori]].
* FallingIntoHisArms: Sort of.
* FateWorseThanDeath: The fate of the non-Tennyo woman who put on a hagoromo. She became [[TheGrotesque grotesquely disfigured]] and immortal, meaning that she spent hundreds of years locked in the underground tunnel [[spoiler:until Ceres puts her out of her misery.]]
* FightingFromTheInside: Aki, without much success.
* FingerSuckHealing: Yuuhi to Aya.
* FirstGirlWins: [[GenderFlipped Male version]]: Touya was introduced before Yuuhi, during which time he had already [[ShutUpKiss stolen]] [[FirstKiss a]] [[SacredFirstKiss kiss]] and indefinitely her heart. First ''Guy'' Wins seems to be [[AuthorAppeal a recurring theme throughout Watase's works]].
** This also applies somewhat to Aya, since Chidori could never fully win over Yuuhi since he was always pining after Aya.
** [[spoiler:The mini-sequel shows that yes, Chidori (or at least a clone with her memories) does get Yuuhi.]]
* ForcefulKiss: Aya and Touya's first kiss. How Yuuhi changes Ceres back to Aya...and the majority of Yuuhi and Aya's kisses. Poor Yuuhi.
* ForegoneConclusion: In the extra story focusing on Ceres and Mikagi, we already know what's going to happen eventually, but [[RomanticFalseLead Kumara]] and her brother still warn Mikagi that getting involved with Ceres [[{{Foreshadowing}} would only end in misfortune.]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: When the protagonists first meet Miori, she is stepping into the sea and Yuuhi thinks she's trying to commit suicide. [[spoiler: Miori does eventually kill herself in order to hurt Aya.]]
* ForgottenFirstMeeting: While trying to retrieve the ''hagoromo'' as well as Touya's memories, Aya and Touya find out that [[spoiler:they had met years ago on a beach when Aya was just a little girl and Touya had finished developing from the mana. She gave him a sea shell and then they parted ways, and after that, Touya went off to find her, leading him straight to the Mikages.]]
* FreudianExcuse: Kagami and several members of his team of specialists have this. Wei wants to rid the world of poverty and class differences. Rurik lost his wife and wants to prevent similar tragedies. Assam was raised as a ChildSoldier. Kagami himself was [[WellDoneSonGuy driven too hard by his ambitious mother]] and despised by the Mikage family for not being a blood relation.
* GoOutWithASmile: Well... you gotta give Watase some credit. She kills characters left and right, but at least most of them die with a genuine smile on their faces.
* GoThroughMe: When trying to escape from Mikagi, Ceres's young daughter tried to put herself between her mother and her father when Mikagi caught up to them. [[OffingTheOffspring It didn't end well.]]
* GodivaHair: Ceres, sometimes (seeing how she's naked when Aya has visions of her).
* {{Gonk}}: Mrs. Q/Kyuu
* GoryDiscretionShot: Used in [[spoiler: Miori's suicide.]]
* GroupieBrigade: Manga only.
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Dr. Alec Howell]] eventually defies Kagami in order to save Touya and Aya.
* HeirClubForMen: As far as grandfather Mikage was concerned, any young woman who was destined to have Ceres reincarnated into her was better dead to him, while any young man destined to have the Progenitor reincarnated into him would save the Mikage family line. Too bad the Progenitor could give two shits about what the old man thought.
* HeroicBSOD: Poor Aya gets this a ''lot.''
* HeroicBastard: Yuuhi.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[PapaWolf The fathers do this a lot.]] First Aya's father [[spoiler: [[TakingTheBullet took a bullet for her]] [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight when he defied his family]] instead of shooting her.]] Then, Yuuhi's estranged father [[spoiler: took a bullet for him when the Mikages were after them, [[SubvertedTrope but he survived]].]] Toward the finale, [[spoiler: Touya]] made the ultimate sacrifice of [[spoiler: giving the mana to the pregnant Aya when Mikagi fatally stabbed her, [[YourDaysAreNumbered meaning that he sacrificed his own immortality in order to restore the lives of Aya and their unborn child.]]]]
** Towards the end, [[spoiler:Shuro uses her singing power to blow up the security system in the Mikage building and let Aya/Ceres escape]], even though she knows that [[spoiler:unleashing her power will kill her.]]
** When you really look at it, just about every meaningful death in this series constitutes as a heroic sacrifice.
* HiddenEyes
* HighPressureBlood
* HotForStudent: Yuki Urakawa and her teacher.
* HumansAreFlawed: Kagami literally thinks this, believing that normal humanity is at its end. Ceres is introduced into the series thinking that HumansAreTheRealMonsters, but realizes that humans are just flawed, and that her kind weren't exactly perfect either. By the end of the series, Ceres admits that by being reborn in Aya, [[LoveRedeems feeling the love she had for Touya]], and getting to know [[TrueCompanions Yuuhi, Suzumi, Chidori, and Shuro]] had restored her hope in the human soul.
* IfICantHaveYou: If Mikagi couldn't have Ceres to himself, then nobody could -- [[OffingTheOffspring even their own children.]]
* IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight: Confrontations between the Mikagi-possessed Aki and Aya (who has rather more control over her possession by Ceres) go like this. Each time, Aya tries to keep Ceres from killing Aki, in hopes that he might get free. In the end, since Mikagi will not let Aki re-take control, Aki chooses to let Aya/Ceres kill him.
* IllGirl: Yuki Urakawa. Shōta, Chidori's brother, is a male example.
* ImportantHaircut: [[spoiler:Aya gets one of these when she gets depressed over the idea of Touya leaving her for Miori.]]
* {{Joshikousei}}
* JustFriends: Aya and Yuuhi. In this case, Yuuhi falls for Aya, but she just can't love him back for being already in love with Touya. However, Aya cares for him deeply, and considers him, as she herself says out loud, "[[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming his best friend in the entire world]]".
** The exact same happens with Yuuhi and Chidori, with the genders reversed: Chidori loves Yuuhi, Yuuhi doesn't love her back because he's already in love with Aya, but cares for her as a friend (point drove home when [[spoiler:[[TearJerker Chidori dies in Yuuhi's arms]]]]). Boy! [[FirstGirlWins First Girl/Guy Wins]] indeed!
* KiAttacks: or something close...
* KissingCousins: Played darkly with Kagami and Aya, and in a more positive (albeit tragic) light with Shuro and Kei.
** Kagami mentions that the Mikage family is quite known for marrying their cousins, so as to keep the tennyo bloodline in the family - which has numerous benefits; health, long life, etc - it's actually credited as the source of their wealth and influence. Case in point, Aya and Aki's parents are 2nd cousins. Of course, this actually sets up the whole plot - the reason Aya manifests Ceres so strongly is because after thousands of years, she's essentially Ceres' genetic twin.
* LoveMakesYouEvil: and HOW.
* LoveTriangle: Aya, Touya and Yuuhi. We're talking about Creator/YuuWatase after all.
* MacGuffin: The Celestial Robe ([[spoiler:a.k.a. Mana]]).
* MamaBear: Though she was put through a hellish relationship and refused to retaliate against her husband, Ceres [[BerserkButton finally lost her cool]] when Mikagi brought harm against their children -- [[DeathOfAThousandCuts BIG TIME.]]
* [[spoiler: {{Mana}}]]: Well, the [[spoiler: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin mana]]]], though it acts more as the generic form of LifeEnergy, since a tennyo's [[spoiler: mana]] won't "run out" unless she is separated from it, which if prolonged, will lead to the maiden's death and the disintegration of the [[spoiler: mana]].
* MayflyDecemberRomance: As insinuated in the extra story, tennyo will eventually outlive their partners [[spoiler: if they don't die from being separated from their mana first]].
* MedicalRapeAndImpregnate: [[spoiler: Was done to Chidori when she was captured by the Mikages.]]
** [[spoiler: And then it was subverted due to her untimely demise before they could implant the fertilized embryo back into her.]]
* {{Mooks}}: Anybody working for the Mikages.
** RedShirtArmy: Anybody working for the Aogiri.
* MustMakeHerLaugh: A non-comical version concerning Mikagi and [[StepfordSmiler Ceres]], in which Mikagi just wanted to make Ceres smile from her heart. Aya has shades of this when it comes [[TheStoic to Touya.]]
* MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning: [[spoiler:Miori's suicide, which is her TakeThat to Aya since her beloved mother was killed in the rampage of the beginning.]]
* MyGirlIsNotASlut: To begin, the celestial maidens' sole purpose is [[SingleGenderRace to procreate with human men]] in order to sustain their species, requiring them to bed several men and produce lots of children. [[spoiler: Ceres was no exception, and when she revealed the truth to [[CrazyJealousGuy Mikagi]] -- at the same time egging him on by saying that Touya was a much better lover than he was -- [[WouldHitAGirl he was]] [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown NOT happy.]]]]
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Aya and Yuuhi both react like this during their almost [[spoiler: SexForSolace]] moment. Aya was ashamed at herself for [[spoiler: seducing Yuuhi]] and Yuuhi felt equally ashamed at himself for [[spoiler: taking advantage of her emotional vulnerability in the wake of Touya leaving Aya.]]
* MysteriousProtector: Touya
* NewEraSpeech: [[VisionaryVillain Kagami]] gives a lot of these speeches to justify his C-Project, believing that by making a superior race of humans through tennyo DNA, the world will become a better place.
* NotSoDifferent: When Ceres [[HowWeGotHere finally tells her back story to Aya]], she notices the similar natures of their relationships.
* NothingUpMySleeve: Quite literally, as Touya's dagger isn't really in his sleeve...
* OccidentalOtaku: Alec, an anime/games fanboy from Scotland.
* OffingTheOffspring: Several failed attempts in the series, as well some successful ones pre-series.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Chidori is actually a high schooler (and half a year older than Aya), but looks like a pre-teen girl when not using her powers.
* TheOjou: Aya
* OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent: Aya and Aki, until the beginning of the series.
* ParentalAbandonment: Aya is actually [[OffingTheOffspring set up for death]] by her parents to stop Aya's awakening as a Maiden. Logically, it fails ''big'' time: [[spoiler: the father is killed and the mother is comatose]]. Yuuhi, being an illegitimate son, was abandoned by his mother because she couldn't face Yuuhi's father's family. Chidori lost her parents in a bus crash in her backstory. [[spoiler: Miori]] is driven [[{{Yandere}} pretty much insane]] with grief when Ceres kills her mother.
** In the beginning, the legend of Ceres was told as though she abandoned her earth-born children willingly [[spoiler: and she actually did do this cyclically over time with numerous husbands, but she stopped when she fell in love and settled down with Mikagi]]. However, later in the story, it was revealed that [[spoiler: she died as a result of growing weak from being without her ''hagoromo'', and that she never wanted to leave her children behind.]]
* PleasePutSomeClothesOn: In a side story focusing on Mikagi and Ceres (present at the end of one of the ''Manga/FushigiYuugiGenbuKaiden'' volumes), Ceres is taken to Mikagi's house after he finds her on the beach. There, she removes her robes and more or less [[DoYouWantToCopulate tells Mikagi to have his way with her.]] However, Mikagi refuses, throws her robes back at her, and tells her to reevaluate herself because she seemed so sad. [[ArentYouGoingToRavishMe She's left dumbfounded that a man didn't immediately want to have sex with her.]]
* PluckyComicRelief: Yuuhi, quite often.
* PluckyGirl: Aya. And how!
* PowerMakesYourHairGrow: And darken.
* PreAsskickingOneLiner: "Let me bestow joyful bliss upon you."
* RaisedAsTheOppositeGender: [[spoiler:Shuro]], because her mother thought that if she knew she was a tennyo she'd take the family Celestial Robe and fly away. According to the tie-in novel about her backstory, she figured out she was a girl when she was about eight, but kept up the charade to please her family.
* RapeAsDrama: Looooooots of it, from AttemptedRape to [[MedicalRapeAndImpregnate medical rape]], all the way down to [[MaritalRapeLicense marital rape]].
** RapePillageAndBurn: Mikagi's ''modus operandi'' after he got powers from Ceres, as he began terrorizing nearby tribes and attaining followers who had a thirst for blood.
* RealMenCook: Yuuhi, of course.
* {{Reincarnation}}: Both [[BrotherSisterIncest Aya]] and [[TwinCest Aki]], not to mention all the celestial maidens.
* RefusalOfTheCall: Aya, big time.
* RescueRomance: Aya and Touya's relationship started out like this. Same goes for Mikagi and Ceres.
* RestrainedRevenge: Even after [[spoiler: Alec]] openly defies the Mikages and lets Aya and Touya go, Kagami needs his work and lets him stay on the team. His only punishment is having his anime and video games confiscated. (Of course, he's enough of an [[OccidentalOtaku otaku]] that he legitimately suffers from that punishment.)
* TheReveal: Touya's true origin: [[spoiler:He is Ceres's Mana evolved into a human form]].
* SexForSolace: Subverted with [[spoiler: Aya and Yuuhi.]]
* SexyDiscretionShot: Used in the anime oddly enough, despite the fact that they show full frontal nudity and such. [[CoitusEnsues The manga is entirely different.]]
** RapeDiscretionShot: Used in both the anime AND the manga concerning [[spoiler:Mikagi]]'s [[MaritalRapeLicense marital rape]] of [[spoiler: Ceres]], in which both mediums more or less show [[spoiler: Mikagi]] [[ForcefulKiss forcefully kissing]] or [[ClothingDamage disrobing]] [[spoiler: Ceres]], with the next scene/panel showing [[spoiler: Ceres half-naked and crying on the floor.]]
* ShapeshiftingLover: The myth of the Celestial Maiden has elements of this.
* {{Shojo}}: One of the more cynical series, [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism as mentioned below.]]
* ShownTheirWork: To write this story, Watase went researching to places related to the ''hagoromo'' legend like Miyagi, Tochigi and Okinawa.
* ShutUpKiss: A lot.
* SickAndWrong: Aya thinks this as [[spoiler:the Ancestor, who has possessed Aki since volume 5, tries to rape her in Volume 10.]]
** She has the same reaction much earlier on, when Kagami tries to rape her, in order to lure Ceres to appear.
* SingleGenderRace: The ''tennyo''.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Significantly on the cynical side. And Watase seemed to like it, as ''Manga/FushigiYuugi'''s prequel ''[[Manga/FushigiYuugiGenbuKaiden Genbu Kaiden]]'' can attest to.
* SnowMeansLove: When Suzumi sends Tooya out to do a dangerous mission, Aya runs after him in worry. He reassures her that everything will be fine by giving her a lovebite and then kissing her, at which point it starts snowing. But since this is Aya-slash-Ceres we're talking about, it's a subversion: The snow turns out to be flower petals.
* TheStoic: Touya, though he [[NotSoStoic softens up over time.]]
* SwirlingDust
* TakingTheBullet: Aya's father does this for her early on. Much later, [[spoiler:Chidori does the same for Yuuhi.]] Both cases are fatal. And near the finale, [[spoiler:in the manga, Gladys died shielding Ceres from Mikagi]].
* TogetherInDeath: In the finale, [[spoiler:Ceres and Mikagi share their afterlife together. Despite the things they put each other through, [[DeathEqualsRedemption Mikagi admitted that he just wanted to protect Ceres]]; [[LoveRedeems Ceres in turn admitted that she still loved him]], and so they both decide to finally leave their descendants alone.]]
* TrueCompanions: The friends that Aya meet -- Touya, Yuuhi, Suzumi, Chidori, Shuro and Mrs. Q -- not only helped her through the most tumultuous time of her life, but it also made Ceres [[RestoredMyFaithInHumanity realize that humanity wasn't a lost cause]].
* UncannyFamilyResemblance: Deconstructed during the story arc involving [[spoiler:Miori]]. Since she and [[spoiler:Aya were cousins and therefore had a strong physical resemblance, she was the perfect implement to [[FakeMemories screw up Touya's mind]]]].
* WalkingTheEarth: More like "Wandering Japan" as Aya and her friends transfer from school to school, occupation to occupation, trying to find clues to Ceres's missing ''hagoromo''.
* WasItAllALie: [[spoiler:During [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence their final moments on the mortal plane]], Ceres asks Mikagi if he ever really loved her. His response? [[LoveMakesYouEvil He was so madly in love with her and wanted to protect her so badly that he went crazy.]]]]
* WellDoneSonGuy: [[spoiler:Kagami's backstory.]]
* WhamEpisode: The Miori arc. What seems like another run-of-the-mill journey to one of the legendary tennyo sites results in [[spoiler:Touya supposedly regaining his memory and leaving Aya for Miori, whom he recognises as his fiancée from before his amnesia; Aya almost sleeping with Yuuhi while on the rebound; Ceres taking over Aya's body for a long time while Aya is paralysed with shame over the above; Miori turning out to be another of Ceres' tennyo descendants and killing herself to get revenge on Aya; and Touya walking out of Aya's life for an extended period.]]
* WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove: In the extra story at the end of ''Manga/FushigiYuugiGenbuKaiden'' Volume 6, after her failed attempt at seducing Mikagi, Ceres mentioned how the ''tennyo'' can emulate human feelings to better fit into human society, but that they don't actually empathize with human emotion. [[HumanityIsInfectious This all begins to change]] as Mikagi continues to woo her and show her acts of kindness in order to make her smile.
* WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong: After Mikagi was beaten by bandits, Ceres was perfectly willing to give Mikagi a ''small'' fraction of her power so that he would never be harmed again, hoping that it would protect him. If only she knew what her gift would bring...
* WhatMeasureIsAHumanoid: As stated by Ceres, the ''tennyo'' don't really know what their true form is suppose to be, but they assume a human body for obvious reasons. [[spoiler:Touya]] himself was [[spoiler:made into a human by the mana (sorta making him a [[OurHomunculiAreDifferent homunculus]]).]]
* WhatTheHellHero: At the finale, [[spoiler:as Aya and Touya mourn Aki, Kagami gets a punch from Yuuhi, tearful with rage, chewing him out for the tragic consequences of his experiments]].
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: [[spoiler:Mikagi, a NonActionGuy, wanted to not be a burden to Ceres, so he asked her to give him some of her power so he could protect her. When he had them, he soon went ''[[AxCrazy completely mad]]'' and killed one of their daughters, which prompted Ceres to go MamaBear and kill him.]]
* WomanScorned: Ceres again.
* WorthLivingFor: [[spoiler:Suzumi's suicide attempt following her husband's death and her subsequent miscarriage was stopped by her husband's brother Yuuhi. At this point she realized that had to keep living for Yuuhi's sake, and has since warmed up to him like a real sibling.]]
* WouldHitAGirl: Mikagi. [[MaritalRapeLicense Wouldn't stop at hitting either.]]
** WouldHurtAChild: He wasn't exempt from hurting kids either. First exemplified this [[spoiler:''[[OffingTheOffspring by killing his own daughter.]]'']]
* YamatoNadeshiko: Aya evolves to this [[CharacterDevelopment throughout the story]].
* {{Yandere}}: [[spoiler:Miori goes mad after losing her mother. Mikagi mixes this and WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity.]]
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: The Celestial Maidens in the anime. In the manga they have black hair. And Touya's hair is mentioned to be an unusual shade of red (by a doctor when Touya used a fake personality to work as a doctor, who had lived in America beforehand).
* YouShouldHaveDiedInstead: In a moment of grief-driven insanity, Aya's mother [[spoiler:attempted to kill her and hold her responsible for her father's death. She was stopped when Ceres awakened.]]
* YourDaysAreNumbered: Touya, at the end.
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[[quoteright:316:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/71r3d3ck7l_sy445.jpg]]
On the day of their sixteenth birthday, Aya and her brother Aki, twins born into the wealthy Mikage family, were driven into their grandfather's estate. Upon arrival, they are made to view a family relic: the mummified hand of their clan's founder. At its sight, Aya starts to manifest a strange aura while bloody images appear on her mind, while lacerations suddenly manifest all over Aki's body. When Aya asks why no one is helping him, her grandfather, supposedly a kindly man, orders her death, disposing of the twins' father when he objects. Suddenly, Aya's aura grows stronger, and in her place appears a blue-haired woman who disposes of her would-be assassins before Aya returns to her body and makes her escape.
Along the way she meets Touya, an amnesiac, crimson-haired young man in her family's employ, who helps her seek refuge in the household of Yuuhi Aogiri, a boy from a well-to-do clan of her age, together with his sister-in-law Suzumi and their retainer Mrs. Q. Suzumi, realizing Aya has the same power as hers (albeit stronger), explains her situation -- her clan descended from a ''tennyo'' ("celestial maiden")... in particular, Ceres, who was trapped on Earth after losing her ''hagoromo'' ("celestial robe") and forced into a marriage, now hell-bent on avenging her misfortunes through her {{reincarnation}}: Aya herself. Though initially at odds with each other, Aya strikes a deal with Ceres -- she will help the latter find her ''hagoromo'' in order to return to heaven, provided she doesn't harm any more people than is necessary. But whereas Aya and Ceres learn to cooperate, Aki is being taken over by his [[{{Reincarnation}} past-life self]]: Mikagi, the ancestor of the Mikages from thousands of years past, who married Ceres, then went insane over trying to protect her and is now on the hunt for her. To make things worse, the rest of the Mikages, led by Aya's cousin Kagami, are trying to create their own army of ''tennyos'' through various scientific methods.
Though not easy, Aya, Ceres and their allies travel across Japan, seeing many places and meeting new friends, enemies and other descendants of ''tennyos''.
''Ayashi no Ceres'' (''Ceres, Celestial Legend'' in English), a 1996-2000 manga by Creator/YuuWatase, draws on ancient Japanese myth and mixes it with a cynical modern perspective to produce a dark yet compelling tale of a young girl caught up in supernatural events beyond her control or understanding. It is also one of Watase's darkest, most violent works, featuring several characters with varying degrees of insanity, from Aya and Aki's mother who was brainwashed into killing her daughter, to Kagami, who's more than willing to attempt to rape Aya in order to release Ceres -- ForScience All in all, not recommended for the easily shocked.
This manga was a big turning point in Watase's career, and many people consider it to be her best work yet.
A 24-episode anime produced by Creator/StudioPierrot premiered in 2000. It was initially licensed by Creator/VizMedia for its U.S. release on VHS and DVD, and has since been licensed by Creator/DiscotekMedia for an upcoming DVD rerelease.
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!!This series provides examples of;
* AdaptationDistillation
* AdultFear: ''Ayashi no Ceres'' might be a dark fantasy drama, but what it all comes down to is a story of [[spoiler:a loving husband who went insane after receiving some of his otherworldy wife's powers in order to [[DeclarationOfProtection protect her]], to the point of [[StayInTheKitchen restricting her behavior]], [[{{Yandere}} locking her up in their house to keep her from talking to other men]], [[DomesticAbuse beating her up]], [[MaritalRapeLicense forcing sex on her]], and even [[OffingTheOffspring killing one of their daughters who he fears could take his wife away]]. Basically, a story of domestic violence.]]
* AMythologyIsTrue: Specifically, the myth of the ShapeshiftingLover; a magical creature who takes the form of a beautiful woman, only to be trapped in that form by a man who steals her magic and [[AbductionIsLove makes her his bride]]. In-universe, they are [[spoiler:a SuperiorSpecies of [[SingleGenderRace women]] from AnotherDimension who reproduce by mating with exceptional human men, preferably ''willingly'', and for a short time - the ''hagoromo'' is OrganicTechnology that enables them to not only shapeshift, but change their genetics at will, without which they cannot survive for more then ten years]].
* AncientConspiracy
* AnyoneCanDie: [[spoiler:On top of a large pile of dead mooks and minor characters, most of the maidens end up dead by the end of the story, including Chidori and Shuro. Then there's majority of the Mikages (save Aya; Kagami's mother doesn't count, seeing she's an outsider). Bonus points for Touya, who manages to die ''twice'' -- one onscreen, and one implied to happen sometime after the series ends.]]
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Aya for Touya, [[spoiler:though she's less attracted to his "bad boy" nature than his drive to protect her ''without'' possessing her, something which she is [[RapeAsDrama threatened with almost constantly]] since her awakening as a tennyo]].
* AllMenArePerverts: Played with. [[WordOfGod Watase said]] in one of her freetalks that all of Yuuhi's behaviour towards Aya is totally normal and that he is not a pervert. He is a teenager, after all, and at the end of the day he never crosses any moral lines, not even when [[spoiler: Aya offers herself to him out of sheer spite]] (although there are times when he gets very damn close). However, in another one, explaining Mikagi's actions and [[spoiler: the intent of a group of schoolboys who try to rape Aya]], she said that "the desire of raping women was part of the male instinct to preserve the species." On the other hand, the heroic Yuuhi shares a disturbing connection with the possessed Aki: both see love as a declaration of ''possession''("I must protect that which is mine.") where Touya sees it more as a declaration of ''service''("You are important to me, thus I must protect you.") [[spoiler:This is what makes Aya choose Touya in the end]].
** This trope is also [[InvokedTrope invoked]] by the tennyo themselves. Being a SingleGenderRace, the tennyo's sole purpose is to pick the strongest men and have children with them. They are well aware that human men lust for their bodies, so they use that to their full advantage.
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Yuuhi and Suzumi pick on each other so much that they seem more like actual siblings than brother and sister-in-law. However, when [[spoiler:the Mikages try to force Suzumi to reveal her ''tennyo'' form]], we see that... well... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin they really do love each other]].
%%* BadassLongcoat
* BareYourMidriff: It's not Aya. It's Tooya.
* BettyAndVeronica: Yuuhi and Touya to Aya.
* BigFancyHouse: Yuuhi and Suzumi's house, TheThingThatGoesDoink included.
* {{Bifauxnen}}: Shuro Tsukasa, raised as a man out of fear of her powers manifesting.
* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: [[spoiler:Aya found out that she was pregnant with Touya's child at the exact same moment that Mikagi emptied a handgun into his head. [[SubvertedTrope Only]] he got better. [[YourDaysAreNumbered Sort of.]]]]
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:At the end of the series, Aya and Touya survive with their unborn child, while the Aogiris return to a normal life. However, most of the ''tennyos'' are dead, and so are the Mikages, their name sullied beyond repair by a record of their criminal activities disclosed at Kagami's request. Aki also has to die in order to stop Mikagi's rampage. And the kicker -- without Ceres's Mana from which he grew, Touya apparently only has a few years to live, but not before entrusting Aya and their child to Yuuhi's care.]]
* BrotherSisterIncest: Played completely seriously ''and'' creepily; suffice to say, Mikagi ''knows'' his physical vessel Aki is a fraternal twin to Ceres' physical vessel Aya... and doesn't ''care''.
* CatapultNightmare: Aya after dreaming about seeing Touya on the beach [[spoiler: only for him to turn into the bleeding, mangled corpse of [[DrivenToSuicide Miori]].]]
* CharacterDevelopment: Aya, from OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent to full-blown healthy YamatoNadeshiko who has to rebuild her life after all the crazy events piling on her.
** Touya evolves his SugarAndIcePersonality to a more empathetic persona.
** Yuuhi starts as a JerkWithAHeartOfGold and ends up being a pretty mature young man [[spoiler:and soon-to-be father-figure for Aya and Touya's unborn child in the event Touya dies]].
* ChildSoldier: Assam was one before he started working for Kagami.
* CleaningUpRomanticLooseEnds: At the end [[spoiler:Touya knows that he will die soon, so he trusts Aya to Yuuhi, who has apparently hooked up with a clone-daughter of Chidori carrying her memories.]]
* ComingOfAgeStory: For Aya particularly, but it also applies to Yuuhi.
* CompanionCube: Ceres's mana acts as such for her, as she is seen talking to it in the extra story at the end of ''[[Manga/FushigiYuugiGenbuKaiden Genbu Kaiden]]'' volume 6.
* CoolBigSis: Suzumi to Yuuhi, and eventually to Aya.
* CrazyJealousGuy
** Mikagi to Ceres -- stalking her across time, [[spoiler:raping her, and killing one of their own children due to jealousy]]. He actually was an UnderstandingBoyfriend [[spoiler:until he made the horrible mistake of asking Ceres to give him a parcel of her power]].
** Turns out Mikagi might not have been the first offender. As seen in an extra story, Ceres was once wed to a man who traveled the world looking for her for ''fifty years''. Except she didn't have any emotional attachment to him, so she didn't unwittingly gave him [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity powers of mass destruction]].
* DangerousSixteenthBirthday: Poor Aya ''must'' die when she turns sixteen, since at that age her powers will awaken.
* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Ayashi no Ceres'' is a darker rendition of the Japanese tradition of the [[ShapeshiftingLover swan maiden legend.]]
* DarkFantasy: The series certainly has its mix of fantasy and horror.
* DeclarationOfProtection: Played straight with Touya and Aya, and also with Yuuhi and Aya. [[spoiler:Horrifyingly deconstructed in the case of Mikagi and Ceres, as Mikagi's desire to help his wife and not just be the UnderstandingBoyfriend makes things go worse when he gets power to do so.]]
* DemotedToExtra: Poor Shuro barely gets to appear in the anime.
* DisguisedInDrag: Yuuhi has to pretend to be a girl when infiltrating the female-only Tsukashima High School together with Aya and Chidori.
* DramaticWind: Quite a lot.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Suzumi]] attempted this in the past following [[spoiler:the death of her husband and her subsequent miscarriage, but was stopped by Yuuhi]]. Later, in a much more malicious case, [[spoiler:Aya's cousin and fellow ''tennyo'' Miori kills herself in a ''very'' gruesome manner, [[MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning purposefully traumatizing Aya]] as revenge for her mother's death at the hands of Ceres.]]
** In Volume 3, we have [[spoiler: Urakawa setting her physics teacher and lover Hayama and herself on fire, after he mocked her and revealed he never actually loved her. She had a FriendlessBackground to begin with and this, along with Aya's supposed betrayal, was just the final straw]].
* EldritchAbomination: If a man tries to touch a ''hagoromo'' [[spoiler:and wasn't chosen by it to be the ''tennyo'''s husband]], he'll get blasted away. If a woman tries to, however, she'll morph into a hideous monster, as shown in Volume 10 of the manga.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas
** Kagami's only PetTheDog moment comes when he's shown visiting his insane, delirious mother.
** Also, the death of [[spoiler: Miori]]'s beloved mother was her StartOfDarkness.
* {{Expy}}: Touya inherited the looks and the fighting skills of his cousin [[Manga/FushigiYuugi Tamahome]].
* EyeScream: [[spoiler:Wei Fei-Li gets one eye ''sliced'' by Touya's dagger in his ''first appearance''.]] Perhaps even more wince-inducing is [[spoiler:the scene near the end of the manga where, ironically enough, Touya ''restores'' Wei's eye.]]
* FakeMemories: This happened to Touya during his [[spoiler:time with Miori]].
* FallingIntoHisArms: Sort of.
* FateWorseThanDeath: The fate of the non-Tennyo woman who put on a hagoromo. She became [[TheGrotesque grotesquely disfigured]] and immortal, meaning that she spent hundreds of years locked in the underground tunnel [[spoiler:until Ceres puts her out of her misery.]]
* FightingFromTheInside: Aki, without much success.
* FingerSuckHealing: Yuuhi to Aya.
* FirstGirlWins: [[GenderFlipped Male version]]: Touya was introduced before Yuuhi, during which time he had already [[ShutUpKiss stolen]] [[FirstKiss a]] [[SacredFirstKiss kiss]] and indefinitely her heart. First ''Guy'' Wins seems to be [[AuthorAppeal a recurring theme throughout Watase's works]].
** This also applies somewhat to Aya, since Chidori could never fully win over Yuuhi since he was always pining after Aya.
** [[spoiler:The mini-sequel shows that yes, Chidori (or at least a clone with her memories) does get Yuuhi.]]
* ForcefulKiss: Aya and Touya's first kiss. How Yuuhi changes Ceres back to Aya...and the majority of Yuuhi and Aya's kisses. Poor Yuuhi.
* ForegoneConclusion: In the extra story focusing on Ceres and Mikagi, we already know what's going to happen eventually, but [[RomanticFalseLead Kumara]] and her brother still warn Mikagi that getting involved with Ceres [[{{Foreshadowing}} would only end in misfortune.]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: When the protagonists first meet Miori, she is stepping into the sea and Yuuhi thinks she's trying to commit suicide. [[spoiler: Miori does eventually kill herself in order to hurt Aya.]]
* ForgottenFirstMeeting: While trying to retrieve the ''hagoromo'' as well as Touya's memories, Aya and Touya find out that [[spoiler:they had met years ago on a beach when Aya was just a little girl and Touya had finished developing from the mana. She gave him a sea shell and then they parted ways, and after that, Touya went off to find her, leading him straight to the Mikages.]]
* FreudianExcuse: Kagami and several members of his team of specialists have this. Wei wants to rid the world of poverty and class differences. Rurik lost his wife and wants to prevent similar tragedies. Assam was raised as a ChildSoldier. Kagami himself was [[WellDoneSonGuy driven too hard by his ambitious mother]] and despised by the Mikage family for not being a blood relation.
* GoOutWithASmile: Well... you gotta give Watase some credit. She kills characters left and right, but at least most of them die with a genuine smile on their faces.
* GoThroughMe: When trying to escape from Mikagi, Ceres's young daughter tried to put herself between her mother and her father when Mikagi caught up to them. [[OffingTheOffspring It didn't end well.]]
* GodivaHair: Ceres, sometimes (seeing how she's naked when Aya has visions of her).
* {{Gonk}}: Mrs. Q/Kyuu
* GoryDiscretionShot: Used in [[spoiler: Miori's suicide.]]
* GroupieBrigade: Manga only.
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Dr. Alec Howell]] eventually defies Kagami in order to save Touya and Aya.
* HeirClubForMen: As far as grandfather Mikage was concerned, any young woman who was destined to have Ceres reincarnated into her was better dead to him, while any young man destined to have the Progenitor reincarnated into him would save the Mikage family line. Too bad the Progenitor could give two shits about what the old man thought.
* HeroicBSOD: Poor Aya gets this a ''lot.''
* HeroicBastard: Yuuhi.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[PapaWolf The fathers do this a lot.]] First Aya's father [[spoiler: [[TakingTheBullet took a bullet for her]] [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight when he defied his family]] instead of shooting her.]] Then, Yuuhi's estranged father [[spoiler: took a bullet for him when the Mikages were after them, [[SubvertedTrope but he survived]].]] Toward the finale, [[spoiler: Touya]] made the ultimate sacrifice of [[spoiler: giving the mana to the pregnant Aya when Mikagi fatally stabbed her, [[YourDaysAreNumbered meaning that he sacrificed his own immortality in order to restore the lives of Aya and their unborn child.]]]]
** Towards the end, [[spoiler:Shuro uses her singing power to blow up the security system in the Mikage building and let Aya/Ceres escape]], even though she knows that [[spoiler:unleashing her power will kill her.]]
** When you really look at it, just about every meaningful death in this series constitutes as a heroic sacrifice.
* HiddenEyes
* HighPressureBlood
* HotForStudent: Yuki Urakawa and her teacher.
* HumansAreFlawed: Kagami literally thinks this, believing that normal humanity is at its end. Ceres is introduced into the series thinking that HumansAreTheRealMonsters, but realizes that humans are just flawed, and that her kind weren't exactly perfect either. By the end of the series, Ceres admits that by being reborn in Aya, [[LoveRedeems feeling the love she had for Touya]], and getting to know [[TrueCompanions Yuuhi, Suzumi, Chidori, and Shuro]] had restored her hope in the human soul.
* IfICantHaveYou: If Mikagi couldn't have Ceres to himself, then nobody could -- [[OffingTheOffspring even their own children.]]
* IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight: Confrontations between the Mikagi-possessed Aki and Aya (who has rather more control over her possession by Ceres) go like this. Each time, Aya tries to keep Ceres from killing Aki, in hopes that he might get free. In the end, since Mikagi will not let Aki re-take control, Aki chooses to let Aya/Ceres kill him.
* IllGirl: Yuki Urakawa. Shōta, Chidori's brother, is a male example.
* ImportantHaircut: [[spoiler:Aya gets one of these when she gets depressed over the idea of Touya leaving her for Miori.]]
* {{Joshikousei}}
* JustFriends: Aya and Yuuhi. In this case, Yuuhi falls for Aya, but she just can't love him back for being already in love with Touya. However, Aya cares for him deeply, and considers him, as she herself says out loud, "[[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming his best friend in the entire world]]".
** The exact same happens with Yuuhi and Chidori, with the genders reversed: Chidori loves Yuuhi, Yuuhi doesn't love her back because he's already in love with Aya, but cares for her as a friend (point drove home when [[spoiler:[[TearJerker Chidori dies in Yuuhi's arms]]]]). Boy! [[FirstGirlWins First Girl/Guy Wins]] indeed!
* KiAttacks: or something close...
* KissingCousins: Played darkly with Kagami and Aya, and in a more positive (albeit tragic) light with Shuro and Kei.
** Kagami mentions that the Mikage family is quite known for marrying their cousins, so as to keep the tennyo bloodline in the family - which has numerous benefits; health, long life, etc - it's actually credited as the source of their wealth and influence. Case in point, Aya and Aki's parents are 2nd cousins. Of course, this actually sets up the whole plot - the reason Aya manifests Ceres so strongly is because after thousands of years, she's essentially Ceres' genetic twin.
* LoveMakesYouEvil: and HOW.
* LoveTriangle: Aya, Touya and Yuuhi. We're talking about Creator/YuuWatase after all.
* MacGuffin: The Celestial Robe ([[spoiler:a.k.a. Mana]]).
* MamaBear: Though she was put through a hellish relationship and refused to retaliate against her husband, Ceres [[BerserkButton finally lost her cool]] when Mikagi brought harm against their children -- [[DeathOfAThousandCuts BIG TIME.]]
* [[spoiler: {{Mana}}]]: Well, the [[spoiler: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin mana]]]], though it acts more as the generic form of LifeEnergy, since a tennyo's [[spoiler: mana]] won't "run out" unless she is separated from it, which if prolonged, will lead to the maiden's death and the disintegration of the [[spoiler: mana]].
* MayflyDecemberRomance: As insinuated in the extra story, tennyo will eventually outlive their partners [[spoiler: if they don't die from being separated from their mana first]].
* MedicalRapeAndImpregnate: [[spoiler: Was done to Chidori when she was captured by the Mikages.]]
** [[spoiler: And then it was subverted due to her untimely demise before they could implant the fertilized embryo back into her.]]
* {{Mooks}}: Anybody working for the Mikages.
** RedShirtArmy: Anybody working for the Aogiri.
* MustMakeHerLaugh: A non-comical version concerning Mikagi and [[StepfordSmiler Ceres]], in which Mikagi just wanted to make Ceres smile from her heart. Aya has shades of this when it comes [[TheStoic to Touya.]]
* MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning: [[spoiler:Miori's suicide, which is her TakeThat to Aya since her beloved mother was killed in the rampage of the beginning.]]
* MyGirlIsNotASlut: To begin, the celestial maidens' sole purpose is [[SingleGenderRace to procreate with human men]] in order to sustain their species, requiring them to bed several men and produce lots of children. [[spoiler: Ceres was no exception, and when she revealed the truth to [[CrazyJealousGuy Mikagi]] -- at the same time egging him on by saying that Touya was a much better lover than he was -- [[WouldHitAGirl he was]] [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown NOT happy.]]]]
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Aya and Yuuhi both react like this during their almost [[spoiler: SexForSolace]] moment. Aya was ashamed at herself for [[spoiler: seducing Yuuhi]] and Yuuhi felt equally ashamed at himself for [[spoiler: taking advantage of her emotional vulnerability in the wake of Touya leaving Aya.]]
* MysteriousProtector: Touya
* NewEraSpeech: [[VisionaryVillain Kagami]] gives a lot of these speeches to justify his C-Project, believing that by making a superior race of humans through tennyo DNA, the world will become a better place.
* NotSoDifferent: When Ceres [[HowWeGotHere finally tells her back story to Aya]], she notices the similar natures of their relationships.
* NothingUpMySleeve: Quite literally, as Touya's dagger isn't really in his sleeve...
* OccidentalOtaku: Alec, an anime/games fanboy from Scotland.
* OffingTheOffspring: Several failed attempts in the series, as well some successful ones pre-series.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Chidori is actually a high schooler (and half a year older than Aya), but looks like a pre-teen girl when not using her powers.
* TheOjou: Aya
* OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent: Aya and Aki, until the beginning of the series.
* ParentalAbandonment: Aya is actually [[OffingTheOffspring set up for death]] by her parents to stop Aya's awakening as a Maiden. Logically, it fails ''big'' time: [[spoiler: the father is killed and the mother is comatose]]. Yuuhi, being an illegitimate son, was abandoned by his mother because she couldn't face Yuuhi's father's family. Chidori lost her parents in a bus crash in her backstory. [[spoiler: Miori]] is driven [[{{Yandere}} pretty much insane]] with grief when Ceres kills her mother.
** In the beginning, the legend of Ceres was told as though she abandoned her earth-born children willingly [[spoiler: and she actually did do this cyclically over time with numerous husbands, but she stopped when she fell in love and settled down with Mikagi]]. However, later in the story, it was revealed that [[spoiler: she died as a result of growing weak from being without her ''hagoromo'', and that she never wanted to leave her children behind.]]
* PleasePutSomeClothesOn: In a side story focusing on Mikagi and Ceres (present at the end of one of the ''Manga/FushigiYuugiGenbuKaiden'' volumes), Ceres is taken to Mikagi's house after he finds her on the beach. There, she removes her robes and more or less [[DoYouWantToCopulate tells Mikagi to have his way with her.]] However, Mikagi refuses, throws her robes back at her, and tells her to reevaluate herself because she seemed so sad. [[ArentYouGoingToRavishMe She's left dumbfounded that a man didn't immediately want to have sex with her.]]
* PluckyComicRelief: Yuuhi, quite often.
* PluckyGirl: Aya. And how!
* PowerMakesYourHairGrow: And darken.
* PreAsskickingOneLiner: "Let me bestow joyful bliss upon you."
* RaisedAsTheOppositeGender: [[spoiler:Shuro]], because her mother thought that if she knew she was a tennyo she'd take the family Celestial Robe and fly away. According to the tie-in novel about her backstory, she figured out she was a girl when she was about eight, but kept up the charade to please her family.
* RapeAsDrama: Looooooots of it, from AttemptedRape to [[MedicalRapeAndImpregnate medical rape]], all the way down to [[MaritalRapeLicense marital rape]].
** RapePillageAndBurn: Mikagi's ''modus operandi'' after he got powers from Ceres, as he began terrorizing nearby tribes and attaining followers who had a thirst for blood.
* RealMenCook: Yuuhi, of course.
* {{Reincarnation}}: Both [[BrotherSisterIncest Aya]] and [[TwinCest Aki]], not to mention all the celestial maidens.
* RefusalOfTheCall: Aya, big time.
* RescueRomance: Aya and Touya's relationship started out like this. Same goes for Mikagi and Ceres.
* RestrainedRevenge: Even after [[spoiler: Alec]] openly defies the Mikages and lets Aya and Touya go, Kagami needs his work and lets him stay on the team. His only punishment is having his anime and video games confiscated. (Of course, he's enough of an [[OccidentalOtaku otaku]] that he legitimately suffers from that punishment.)
* TheReveal: Touya's true origin: [[spoiler:He is Ceres's Mana evolved into a human form]].
* SexForSolace: Subverted with [[spoiler: Aya and Yuuhi.]]
* SexyDiscretionShot: Used in the anime oddly enough, despite the fact that they show full frontal nudity and such. [[CoitusEnsues The manga is entirely different.]]
** RapeDiscretionShot: Used in both the anime AND the manga concerning [[spoiler:Mikagi]]'s [[MaritalRapeLicense marital rape]] of [[spoiler: Ceres]], in which both mediums more or less show [[spoiler: Mikagi]] [[ForcefulKiss forcefully kissing]] or [[ClothingDamage disrobing]] [[spoiler: Ceres]], with the next scene/panel showing [[spoiler: Ceres half-naked and crying on the floor.]]
* ShapeshiftingLover: The myth of the Celestial Maiden has elements of this.
* {{Shojo}}: One of the more cynical series, [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism as mentioned below.]]
* ShownTheirWork: To write this story, Watase went researching to places related to the ''hagoromo'' legend like Miyagi, Tochigi and Okinawa.
* ShutUpKiss: A lot.
* SickAndWrong: Aya thinks this as [[spoiler:the Ancestor, who has possessed Aki since volume 5, tries to rape her in Volume 10.]]
** She has the same reaction much earlier on, when Kagami tries to rape her, in order to lure Ceres to appear.
* SingleGenderRace: The ''tennyo''.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Significantly on the cynical side. And Watase seemed to like it, as ''Manga/FushigiYuugi'''s prequel ''[[Manga/FushigiYuugiGenbuKaiden Genbu Kaiden]]'' can attest to.
* SnowMeansLove: When Suzumi sends Tooya out to do a dangerous mission, Aya runs after him in worry. He reassures her that everything will be fine by giving her a lovebite and then kissing her, at which point it starts snowing. But since this is Aya-slash-Ceres we're talking about, it's a subversion: The snow turns out to be flower petals.
* TheStoic: Touya, though he [[NotSoStoic softens up over time.]]
* SwirlingDust
* TakingTheBullet: Aya's father does this for her early on. Much later, [[spoiler:Chidori does the same for Yuuhi.]] Both cases are fatal. And near the finale, [[spoiler:in the manga, Gladys died shielding Ceres from Mikagi]].
* TogetherInDeath: In the finale, [[spoiler:Ceres and Mikagi share their afterlife together. Despite the things they put each other through, [[DeathEqualsRedemption Mikagi admitted that he just wanted to protect Ceres]]; [[LoveRedeems Ceres in turn admitted that she still loved him]], and so they both decide to finally leave their descendants alone.]]
* TrueCompanions: The friends that Aya meet -- Touya, Yuuhi, Suzumi, Chidori, Shuro and Mrs. Q -- not only helped her through the most tumultuous time of her life, but it also made Ceres [[RestoredMyFaithInHumanity realize that humanity wasn't a lost cause]].
* UncannyFamilyResemblance: Deconstructed during the story arc involving [[spoiler:Miori]]. Since she and [[spoiler:Aya were cousins and therefore had a strong physical resemblance, she was the perfect implement to [[FakeMemories screw up Touya's mind]]]].
* WalkingTheEarth: More like "Wandering Japan" as Aya and her friends transfer from school to school, occupation to occupation, trying to find clues to Ceres's missing ''hagoromo''.
* WasItAllALie: [[spoiler:During [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence their final moments on the mortal plane]], Ceres asks Mikagi if he ever really loved her. His response? [[LoveMakesYouEvil He was so madly in love with her and wanted to protect her so badly that he went crazy.]]]]
* WellDoneSonGuy: [[spoiler:Kagami's backstory.]]
* WhamEpisode: The Miori arc. What seems like another run-of-the-mill journey to one of the legendary tennyo sites results in [[spoiler:Touya supposedly regaining his memory and leaving Aya for Miori, whom he recognises as his fiancée from before his amnesia; Aya almost sleeping with Yuuhi while on the rebound; Ceres taking over Aya's body for a long time while Aya is paralysed with shame over the above; Miori turning out to be another of Ceres' tennyo descendants and killing herself to get revenge on Aya; and Touya walking out of Aya's life for an extended period.]]
* WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove: In the extra story at the end of ''Manga/FushigiYuugiGenbuKaiden'' Volume 6, after her failed attempt at seducing Mikagi, Ceres mentioned how the ''tennyo'' can emulate human feelings to better fit into human society, but that they don't actually empathize with human emotion. [[HumanityIsInfectious This all begins to change]] as Mikagi continues to woo her and show her acts of kindness in order to make her smile.
* WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong: After Mikagi was beaten by bandits, Ceres was perfectly willing to give Mikagi a ''small'' fraction of her power so that he would never be harmed again, hoping that it would protect him. If only she knew what her gift would bring...
* WhatMeasureIsAHumanoid: As stated by Ceres, the ''tennyo'' don't really know what their true form is suppose to be, but they assume a human body for obvious reasons. [[spoiler:Touya]] himself was [[spoiler:made into a human by the mana (sorta making him a [[OurHomunculiAreDifferent homunculus]]).]]
* WhatTheHellHero: At the finale, [[spoiler:as Aya and Touya mourn Aki, Kagami gets a punch from Yuuhi, tearful with rage, chewing him out for the tragic consequences of his experiments]].
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: [[spoiler:Mikagi, a NonActionGuy, wanted to not be a burden to Ceres, so he asked her to give him some of her power so he could protect her. When he had them, he soon went ''[[AxCrazy completely mad]]'' and killed one of their daughters, which prompted Ceres to go MamaBear and kill him.]]
* WomanScorned: Ceres again.
* WorthLivingFor: [[spoiler:Suzumi's suicide attempt following her husband's death and her subsequent miscarriage was stopped by her husband's brother Yuuhi. At this point she realized that had to keep living for Yuuhi's sake, and has since warmed up to him like a real sibling.]]
* WouldHitAGirl: Mikagi. [[MaritalRapeLicense Wouldn't stop at hitting either.]]
** WouldHurtAChild: He wasn't exempt from hurting kids either. First exemplified this [[spoiler:''[[OffingTheOffspring by killing his own daughter.]]'']]
* YamatoNadeshiko: Aya evolves to this [[CharacterDevelopment throughout the story]].
* {{Yandere}}: [[spoiler:Miori goes mad after losing her mother. Mikagi mixes this and WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity.]]
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: The Celestial Maidens in the anime. In the manga they have black hair. And Touya's hair is mentioned to be an unusual shade of red (by a doctor when Touya used a fake personality to work as a doctor, who had lived in America beforehand).
* YouShouldHaveDiedInstead: In a moment of grief-driven insanity, Aya's mother [[spoiler:attempted to kill her and hold her responsible for her father's death. She was stopped when Ceres awakened.]]
* YourDaysAreNumbered: Touya, at the end.
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[[quoteright:316:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/71r3d3ck7l_sy445.jpg]]
On the day of their sixteenth birthday, Aya and her brother Aki, twins born into the wealthy Mikage family, were driven into their grandfather's estate. Upon arrival, they are made to view a family relic: the mummified hand of their clan's founder. At its sight, Aya starts to manifest a strange aura while bloody images appear on her mind, while lacerations suddenly manifest all over Aki's body. When Aya asks why no one is helping him, her grandfather, supposedly a kindly man, orders her death, disposing of the twins' father when he objects. Suddenly, Aya's aura grows stronger, and in her place appears a blue-haired woman who disposes of her would-be assassins before Aya returns to her body and makes her escape.
Along the way she meets Touya, an amnesiac, crimson-haired young man in her family's employ, who helps her seek refuge in the household of Yuuhi Aogiri, a boy from a well-to-do clan of her age, together with his sister-in-law Suzumi and their retainer Mrs. Q. Suzumi, realizing Aya has the same power as hers (albeit stronger), explains her situation -- her clan descended from a ''tennyo'' ("celestial maiden")... in particular, Ceres, who was trapped on Earth after losing her ''hagoromo'' ("celestial robe") and forced into a marriage, now hell-bent on avenging her misfortunes through her {{reincarnation}}: Aya herself. Though initially at odds with each other, Aya strikes a deal with Ceres -- she will help the latter find her ''hagoromo'' in order to return to heaven, provided she doesn't harm any more people than is necessary. But whereas Aya and Ceres learn to cooperate, Aki is being taken over by his [[{{Reincarnation}} past-life self]]: Mikagi, the ancestor of the Mikages from thousands of years past, who married Ceres, then went insane over trying to protect her and is now on the hunt for her. To make things worse, the rest of the Mikages, led by Aya's cousin Kagami, are trying to create their own army of ''tennyos'' through various scientific methods.
Though not easy, Aya, Ceres and their allies travel across Japan, seeing many places and meeting new friends, enemies and other descendants of ''tennyos''.
''Ayashi no Ceres'' (''Ceres, Celestial Legend'' in English), a 1996-2000 manga by Creator/YuuWatase, draws on ancient Japanese myth and mixes it with a cynical modern perspective to produce a dark yet compelling tale of a young girl caught up in supernatural events beyond her control or understanding. It is also one of Watase's darkest, most violent works, featuring several characters with varying degrees of insanity, from Aya and Aki's mother who was brainwashed into killing her daughter, to Kagami, who's more than willing to attempt to rape Aya in order to release Ceres -- ForScience All in all, not recommended for the easily shocked.
This manga was a big turning point in Watase's career, and many people consider it to be her best work yet.
A 24-episode anime produced by Creator/StudioPierrot premiered in 2000. It was initially licensed by Creator/VizMedia for its U.S. release on VHS and DVD, and has since been licensed by Creator/DiscotekMedia for an upcoming DVD rerelease.
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!!This series provides examples of;
* AdaptationDistillation
* AdultFear: ''Ayashi no Ceres'' might be a dark fantasy drama, but what it all comes down to is a story of [[spoiler:a loving husband who went insane after receiving some of his otherworldy wife's powers in order to [[DeclarationOfProtection protect her]], to the point of [[StayInTheKitchen restricting her behavior]], [[{{Yandere}} locking her up in their house to keep her from talking to other men]], [[DomesticAbuse beating her up]], [[MaritalRapeLicense forcing sex on her]], and even [[OffingTheOffspring killing one of their daughters who he fears could take his wife away]]. Basically, a story of domestic violence.]]
* AMythologyIsTrue: Specifically, the myth of the ShapeshiftingLover; a magical creature who takes the form of a beautiful woman, only to be trapped in that form by a man who steals her magic and [[AbductionIsLove makes her his bride]]. In-universe, they are [[spoiler:a SuperiorSpecies of [[SingleGenderRace women]] from AnotherDimension who reproduce by mating with exceptional human men, preferably ''willingly'', and for a short time - the ''hagoromo'' is OrganicTechnology that enables them to not only shapeshift, but change their genetics at will, without which they cannot survive for more then ten years]].
* AncientConspiracy
* AnyoneCanDie: [[spoiler:On top of a large pile of dead mooks and minor characters, most of the maidens end up dead by the end of the story, including Chidori and Shuro. Then there's majority of the Mikages (save Aya; Kagami's mother doesn't count, seeing she's an outsider). Bonus points for Touya, who manages to die ''twice'' -- one onscreen, and one implied to happen sometime after the series ends.]]
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Aya for Touya, [[spoiler:though she's less attracted to his "bad boy" nature than his drive to protect her ''without'' possessing her, something which she is [[RapeAsDrama threatened with almost constantly]] since her awakening as a tennyo]].
* AllMenArePerverts: Played with. [[WordOfGod Watase said]] in one of her freetalks that all of Yuuhi's behaviour towards Aya is totally normal and that he is not a pervert. He is a teenager, after all, and at the end of the day he never crosses any moral lines, not even when [[spoiler: Aya offers herself to him out of sheer spite]] (although there are times when he gets very damn close). However, in another one, explaining Mikagi's actions and [[spoiler: the intent of a group of schoolboys who try to rape Aya]], she said that "the desire of raping women was part of the male instinct to preserve the species." On the other hand, the heroic Yuuhi shares a disturbing connection with the possessed Aki: both see love as a declaration of ''possession''("I must protect that which is mine.") where Touya sees it more as a declaration of ''service''("You are important to me, thus I must protect you.") [[spoiler:This is what makes Aya choose Touya in the end]].
** This trope is also [[InvokedTrope invoked]] by the tennyo themselves. Being a SingleGenderRace, the tennyo's sole purpose is to pick the strongest men and have children with them. They are well aware that human men lust for their bodies, so they use that to their full advantage.
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Yuuhi and Suzumi pick on each other so much that they seem more like actual siblings than brother and sister-in-law. However, when [[spoiler:the Mikages try to force Suzumi to reveal her ''tennyo'' form]], we see that... well... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin they really do love each other]].
%%* BadassLongcoat
* BareYourMidriff: It's not Aya. It's Tooya.
* BettyAndVeronica: Yuuhi and Touya to Aya.
* BigFancyHouse: Yuuhi and Suzumi's house, TheThingThatGoesDoink included.
* {{Bifauxnen}}: Shuro Tsukasa, raised as a man out of fear of her powers manifesting.
* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: [[spoiler:Aya found out that she was pregnant with Touya's child at the exact same moment that Mikagi emptied a handgun into his head. [[SubvertedTrope Only]] he got better. [[YourDaysAreNumbered Sort of.]]]]
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:At the end of the series, Aya and Touya survive with their unborn child, while the Aogiris return to a normal life. However, most of the ''tennyos'' are dead, and so are the Mikages, their name sullied beyond repair by a record of their criminal activities disclosed at Kagami's request. Aki also has to die in order to stop Mikagi's rampage. And the kicker -- without Ceres's Mana from which he grew, Touya apparently only has a few years to live, but not before entrusting Aya and their child to Yuuhi's care.]]
* BrotherSisterIncest: Played completely seriously ''and'' creepily; suffice to say, Mikagi ''knows'' his physical vessel Aki is a fraternal twin to Ceres' physical vessel Aya... and doesn't ''care''.
* CatapultNightmare: Aya after dreaming about seeing Touya on the beach [[spoiler: only for him to turn into the bleeding, mangled corpse of [[DrivenToSuicide Miori]].]]
* CharacterDevelopment: Aya, from OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent to full-blown healthy YamatoNadeshiko who has to rebuild her life after all the crazy events piling on her.
** Touya evolves his SugarAndIcePersonality to a more empathetic persona.
** Yuuhi starts as a JerkWithAHeartOfGold and ends up being a pretty mature young man [[spoiler:and soon-to-be father-figure for Aya and Touya's unborn child in the event Touya dies]].
* ChildSoldier: Assam was one before he started working for Kagami.
* CleaningUpRomanticLooseEnds: At the end [[spoiler:Touya knows that he will die soon, so he trusts Aya to Yuuhi, who has apparently hooked up with a clone-daughter of Chidori carrying her memories.]]
* ComingOfAgeStory: For Aya particularly, but it also applies to Yuuhi.
* CompanionCube: Ceres's mana acts as such for her, as she is seen talking to it in the extra story at the end of ''[[Manga/FushigiYuugiGenbuKaiden Genbu Kaiden]]'' volume 6.
* CoolBigSis: Suzumi to Yuuhi, and eventually to Aya.
* CrazyJealousGuy
** Mikagi to Ceres -- stalking her across time, [[spoiler:raping her, and killing one of their own children due to jealousy]]. He actually was an UnderstandingBoyfriend [[spoiler:until he made the horrible mistake of asking Ceres to give him a parcel of her power]].
** Turns out Mikagi might not have been the first offender. As seen in an extra story, Ceres was once wed to a man who traveled the world looking for her for ''fifty years''. Except she didn't have any emotional attachment to him, so she didn't unwittingly gave him [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity powers of mass destruction]].
* DangerousSixteenthBirthday: Poor Aya ''must'' die when she turns sixteen, since at that age her powers will awaken.
* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Ayashi no Ceres'' is a darker rendition of the Japanese tradition of the [[ShapeshiftingLover swan maiden legend.]]
* DarkFantasy: The series certainly has its mix of fantasy and horror.
* DeclarationOfProtection: Played straight with Touya and Aya, and also with Yuuhi and Aya. [[spoiler:Horrifyingly deconstructed in the case of Mikagi and Ceres, as Mikagi's desire to help his wife and not just be the UnderstandingBoyfriend makes things go worse when he gets power to do so.]]
* DemotedToExtra: Poor Shuro barely gets to appear in the anime.
* DisguisedInDrag: Yuuhi has to pretend to be a girl when infiltrating the female-only Tsukashima High School together with Aya and Chidori.
* DramaticWind: Quite a lot.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Suzumi]] attempted this in the past following [[spoiler:the death of her husband and her subsequent miscarriage, but was stopped by Yuuhi]]. Later, in a much more malicious case, [[spoiler:Aya's cousin and fellow ''tennyo'' Miori kills herself in a ''very'' gruesome manner, [[MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning purposefully traumatizing Aya]] as revenge for her mother's death at the hands of Ceres.]]
** In Volume 3, we have [[spoiler: Urakawa setting her physics teacher and lover Hayama and herself on fire, after he mocked her and revealed he never actually loved her. She had a FriendlessBackground to begin with and this, along with Aya's supposed betrayal, was just the final straw]].
* EldritchAbomination: If a man tries to touch a ''hagoromo'' [[spoiler:and wasn't chosen by it to be the ''tennyo'''s husband]], he'll get blasted away. If a woman tries to, however, she'll morph into a hideous monster, as shown in Volume 10 of the manga.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas
** Kagami's only PetTheDog moment comes when he's shown visiting his insane, delirious mother.
** Also, the death of [[spoiler: Miori]]'s beloved mother was her StartOfDarkness.
* {{Expy}}: Touya inherited the looks and the fighting skills of his cousin [[Manga/FushigiYuugi Tamahome]].
* EyeScream: [[spoiler:Wei Fei-Li gets one eye ''sliced'' by Touya's dagger in his ''first appearance''.]] Perhaps even more wince-inducing is [[spoiler:the scene near the end of the manga where, ironically enough, Touya ''restores'' Wei's eye.]]
* FakeMemories: This happened to Touya during his [[spoiler:time with Miori]].
* FallingIntoHisArms: Sort of.
* FateWorseThanDeath: The fate of the non-Tennyo woman who put on a hagoromo. She became [[TheGrotesque grotesquely disfigured]] and immortal, meaning that she spent hundreds of years locked in the underground tunnel [[spoiler:until Ceres puts her out of her misery.]]
* FightingFromTheInside: Aki, without much success.
* FingerSuckHealing: Yuuhi to Aya.
* FirstGirlWins: [[GenderFlipped Male version]]: Touya was introduced before Yuuhi, during which time he had already [[ShutUpKiss stolen]] [[FirstKiss a]] [[SacredFirstKiss kiss]] and indefinitely her heart. First ''Guy'' Wins seems to be [[AuthorAppeal a recurring theme throughout Watase's works]].
** This also applies somewhat to Aya, since Chidori could never fully win over Yuuhi since he was always pining after Aya.
** [[spoiler:The mini-sequel shows that yes, Chidori (or at least a clone with her memories) does get Yuuhi.]]
* ForcefulKiss: Aya and Touya's first kiss. How Yuuhi changes Ceres back to Aya...and the majority of Yuuhi and Aya's kisses. Poor Yuuhi.
* ForegoneConclusion: In the extra story focusing on Ceres and Mikagi, we already know what's going to happen eventually, but [[RomanticFalseLead Kumara]] and her brother still warn Mikagi that getting involved with Ceres [[{{Foreshadowing}} would only end in misfortune.]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: When the protagonists first meet Miori, she is stepping into the sea and Yuuhi thinks she's trying to commit suicide. [[spoiler: Miori does eventually kill herself in order to hurt Aya.]]
* ForgottenFirstMeeting: While trying to retrieve the ''hagoromo'' as well as Touya's memories, Aya and Touya find out that [[spoiler:they had met years ago on a beach when Aya was just a little girl and Touya had finished developing from the mana. She gave him a sea shell and then they parted ways, and after that, Touya went off to find her, leading him straight to the Mikages.]]
* FreudianExcuse: Kagami and several members of his team of specialists have this. Wei wants to rid the world of poverty and class differences. Rurik lost his wife and wants to prevent similar tragedies. Assam was raised as a ChildSoldier. Kagami himself was [[WellDoneSonGuy driven too hard by his ambitious mother]] and despised by the Mikage family for not being a blood relation.
* GoOutWithASmile: Well... you gotta give Watase some credit. She kills characters left and right, but at least most of them die with a genuine smile on their faces.
* GoThroughMe: When trying to escape from Mikagi, Ceres's young daughter tried to put herself between her mother and her father when Mikagi caught up to them. [[OffingTheOffspring It didn't end well.]]
* GodivaHair: Ceres, sometimes (seeing how she's naked when Aya has visions of her).
* {{Gonk}}: Mrs. Q/Kyuu
* GoryDiscretionShot: Used in [[spoiler: Miori's suicide.]]
* GroupieBrigade: Manga only.
* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Dr. Alec Howell]] eventually defies Kagami in order to save Touya and Aya.
* HeirClubForMen: As far as grandfather Mikage was concerned, any young woman who was destined to have Ceres reincarnated into her was better dead to him, while any young man destined to have the Progenitor reincarnated into him would save the Mikage family line. Too bad the Progenitor could give two shits about what the old man thought.
* HeroicBSOD: Poor Aya gets this a ''lot.''
* HeroicBastard: Yuuhi.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[PapaWolf The fathers do this a lot.]] First Aya's father [[spoiler: [[TakingTheBullet took a bullet for her]] [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight when he defied his family]] instead of shooting her.]] Then, Yuuhi's estranged father [[spoiler: took a bullet for him when the Mikages were after them, [[SubvertedTrope but he survived]].]] Toward the finale, [[spoiler: Touya]] made the ultimate sacrifice of [[spoiler: giving the mana to the pregnant Aya when Mikagi fatally stabbed her, [[YourDaysAreNumbered meaning that he sacrificed his own immortality in order to restore the lives of Aya and their unborn child.]]]]
** Towards the end, [[spoiler:Shuro uses her singing power to blow up the security system in the Mikage building and let Aya/Ceres escape]], even though she knows that [[spoiler:unleashing her power will kill her.]]
** When you really look at it, just about every meaningful death in this series constitutes as a heroic sacrifice.
* HiddenEyes
* HighPressureBlood
* HotForStudent: Yuki Urakawa and her teacher.
* HumansAreFlawed: Kagami literally thinks this, believing that normal humanity is at its end. Ceres is introduced into the series thinking that HumansAreTheRealMonsters, but realizes that humans are just flawed, and that her kind weren't exactly perfect either. By the end of the series, Ceres admits that by being reborn in Aya, [[LoveRedeems feeling the love she had for Touya]], and getting to know [[TrueCompanions Yuuhi, Suzumi, Chidori, and Shuro]] had restored her hope in the human soul.
* IfICantHaveYou: If Mikagi couldn't have Ceres to himself, then nobody could -- [[OffingTheOffspring even their own children.]]
* IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight: Confrontations between the Mikagi-possessed Aki and Aya (who has rather more control over her possession by Ceres) go like this. Each time, Aya tries to keep Ceres from killing Aki, in hopes that he might get free. In the end, since Mikagi will not let Aki re-take control, Aki chooses to let Aya/Ceres kill him.
* IllGirl: Yuki Urakawa. Shōta, Chidori's brother, is a male example.
* ImportantHaircut: [[spoiler:Aya gets one of these when she gets depressed over the idea of Touya leaving her for Miori.]]
* {{Joshikousei}}
* JustFriends: Aya and Yuuhi. In this case, Yuuhi falls for Aya, but she just can't love him back for being already in love with Touya. However, Aya cares for him deeply, and considers him, as she herself says out loud, "[[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming his best friend in the entire world]]".
** The exact same happens with Yuuhi and Chidori, with the genders reversed: Chidori loves Yuuhi, Yuuhi doesn't love her back because he's already in love with Aya, but cares for her as a friend (point drove home when [[spoiler:[[TearJerker Chidori dies in Yuuhi's arms]]]]). Boy! [[FirstGirlWins First Girl/Guy Wins]] indeed!
* KiAttacks: or something close...
* KissingCousins: Played darkly with Kagami and Aya, and in a more positive (albeit tragic) light with Shuro and Kei.
** Kagami mentions that the Mikage family is quite known for marrying their cousins, so as to keep the tennyo bloodline in the family - which has numerous benefits; health, long life, etc - it's actually credited as the source of their wealth and influence. Case in point, Aya and Aki's parents are 2nd cousins. Of course, this actually sets up the whole plot - the reason Aya manifests Ceres so strongly is because after thousands of years, she's essentially Ceres' genetic twin.
* LoveMakesYouEvil: and HOW.
* LoveTriangle: Aya, Touya and Yuuhi. We're talking about Creator/YuuWatase after all.
* MacGuffin: The Celestial Robe ([[spoiler:a.k.a. Mana]]).
* MamaBear: Though she was put through a hellish relationship and refused to retaliate against her husband, Ceres [[BerserkButton finally lost her cool]] when Mikagi brought harm against their children -- [[DeathOfAThousandCuts BIG TIME.]]
* [[spoiler: {{Mana}}]]: Well, the [[spoiler: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin mana]]]], though it acts more as the generic form of LifeEnergy, since a tennyo's [[spoiler: mana]] won't "run out" unless she is separated from it, which if prolonged, will lead to the maiden's death and the disintegration of the [[spoiler: mana]].
* MayflyDecemberRomance: As insinuated in the extra story, tennyo will eventually outlive their partners [[spoiler: if they don't die from being separated from their mana first]].
* MedicalRapeAndImpregnate: [[spoiler: Was done to Chidori when she was captured by the Mikages.]]
** [[spoiler: And then it was subverted due to her untimely demise before they could implant the fertilized embryo back into her.]]
* {{Mooks}}: Anybody working for the Mikages.
** RedShirtArmy: Anybody working for the Aogiri.
* MustMakeHerLaugh: A non-comical version concerning Mikagi and [[StepfordSmiler Ceres]], in which Mikagi just wanted to make Ceres smile from her heart. Aya has shades of this when it comes [[TheStoic to Touya.]]
* MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning: [[spoiler:Miori's suicide, which is her TakeThat to Aya since her beloved mother was killed in the rampage of the beginning.]]
* MyGirlIsNotASlut: To begin, the celestial maidens' sole purpose is [[SingleGenderRace to procreate with human men]] in order to sustain their species, requiring them to bed several men and produce lots of children. [[spoiler: Ceres was no exception, and when she revealed the truth to [[CrazyJealousGuy Mikagi]] -- at the same time egging him on by saying that Touya was a much better lover than he was -- [[WouldHitAGirl he was]] [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown NOT happy.]]]]
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Aya and Yuuhi both react like this during their almost [[spoiler: SexForSolace]] moment. Aya was ashamed at herself for [[spoiler: seducing Yuuhi]] and Yuuhi felt equally ashamed at himself for [[spoiler: taking advantage of her emotional vulnerability in the wake of Touya leaving Aya.]]
* MysteriousProtector: Touya
* NewEraSpeech: [[VisionaryVillain Kagami]] gives a lot of these speeches to justify his C-Project, believing that by making a superior race of humans through tennyo DNA, the world will become a better place.
* NotSoDifferent: When Ceres [[HowWeGotHere finally tells her back story to Aya]], she notices the similar natures of their relationships.
* NothingUpMySleeve: Quite literally, as Touya's dagger isn't really in his sleeve...
* OccidentalOtaku: Alec, an anime/games fanboy from Scotland.
* OffingTheOffspring: Several failed attempts in the series, as well some successful ones pre-series.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Chidori is actually a high schooler (and half a year older than Aya), but looks like a pre-teen girl when not using her powers.
* TheOjou: Aya
* OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent: Aya and Aki, until the beginning of the series.
* ParentalAbandonment: Aya is actually [[OffingTheOffspring set up for death]] by her parents to stop Aya's awakening as a Maiden. Logically, it fails ''big'' time: [[spoiler: the father is killed and the mother is comatose]]. Yuuhi, being an illegitimate son, was abandoned by his mother because she couldn't face Yuuhi's father's family. Chidori lost her parents in a bus crash in her backstory. [[spoiler: Miori]] is driven [[{{Yandere}} pretty much insane]] with grief when Ceres kills her mother.
** In the beginning, the legend of Ceres was told as though she abandoned her earth-born children willingly [[spoiler: and she actually did do this cyclically over time with numerous husbands, but she stopped when she fell in love and settled down with Mikagi]]. However, later in the story, it was revealed that [[spoiler: she died as a result of growing weak from being without her ''hagoromo'', and that she never wanted to leave her children behind.]]
* PleasePutSomeClothesOn: In a side story focusing on Mikagi and Ceres (present at the end of one of the ''Manga/FushigiYuugiGenbuKaiden'' volumes), Ceres is taken to Mikagi's house after he finds her on the beach. There, she removes her robes and more or less [[DoYouWantToCopulate tells Mikagi to have his way with her.]] However, Mikagi refuses, throws her robes back at her, and tells her to reevaluate herself because she seemed so sad. [[ArentYouGoingToRavishMe She's left dumbfounded that a man didn't immediately want to have sex with her.]]
* PluckyComicRelief: Yuuhi, quite often.
* PluckyGirl: Aya. And how!
* PowerMakesYourHairGrow: And darken.
* PreAsskickingOneLiner: "Let me bestow joyful bliss upon you."
* RaisedAsTheOppositeGender: [[spoiler:Shuro]], because her mother thought that if she knew she was a tennyo she'd take the family Celestial Robe and fly away. According to the tie-in novel about her backstory, she figured out she was a girl when she was about eight, but kept up the charade to please her family.
* RapeAsDrama: Looooooots of it, from AttemptedRape to [[MedicalRapeAndImpregnate medical rape]], all the way down to [[MaritalRapeLicense marital rape]].
** RapePillageAndBurn: Mikagi's ''modus operandi'' after he got powers from Ceres, as he began terrorizing nearby tribes and attaining followers who had a thirst for blood.
* RealMenCook: Yuuhi, of course.
* {{Reincarnation}}: Both [[BrotherSisterIncest Aya]] and [[TwinCest Aki]], not to mention all the celestial maidens.
* RefusalOfTheCall: Aya, big time.
* RescueRomance: Aya and Touya's relationship started out like this. Same goes for Mikagi and Ceres.
* RestrainedRevenge: Even after [[spoiler: Alec]] openly defies the Mikages and lets Aya and Touya go, Kagami needs his work and lets him stay on the team. His only punishment is having his anime and video games confiscated. (Of course, he's enough of an [[OccidentalOtaku otaku]] that he legitimately suffers from that punishment.)
* TheReveal: Touya's true origin: [[spoiler:He is Ceres's Mana evolved into a human form]].
* SexForSolace: Subverted with [[spoiler: Aya and Yuuhi.]]
* SexyDiscretionShot: Used in the anime oddly enough, despite the fact that they show full frontal nudity and such. [[CoitusEnsues The manga is entirely different.]]
** RapeDiscretionShot: Used in both the anime AND the manga concerning [[spoiler:Mikagi]]'s [[MaritalRapeLicense marital rape]] of [[spoiler: Ceres]], in which both mediums more or less show [[spoiler: Mikagi]] [[ForcefulKiss forcefully kissing]] or [[ClothingDamage disrobing]] [[spoiler: Ceres]], with the next scene/panel showing [[spoiler: Ceres half-naked and crying on the floor.]]
* ShapeshiftingLover: The myth of the Celestial Maiden has elements of this.
* {{Shojo}}: One of the more cynical series, [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism as mentioned below.]]
* ShownTheirWork: To write this story, Watase went researching to places related to the ''hagoromo'' legend like Miyagi, Tochigi and Okinawa.
* ShutUpKiss: A lot.
* SickAndWrong: Aya thinks this as [[spoiler:the Ancestor, who has possessed Aki since volume 5, tries to rape her in Volume 10.]]
** She has the same reaction much earlier on, when Kagami tries to rape her, in order to lure Ceres to appear.
* SingleGenderRace: The ''tennyo''.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Significantly on the cynical side. And Watase seemed to like it, as ''Manga/FushigiYuugi'''s prequel ''[[Manga/FushigiYuugiGenbuKaiden Genbu Kaiden]]'' can attest to.
* SnowMeansLove: When Suzumi sends Tooya out to do a dangerous mission, Aya runs after him in worry. He reassures her that everything will be fine by giving her a lovebite and then kissing her, at which point it starts snowing. But since this is Aya-slash-Ceres we're talking about, it's a subversion: The snow turns out to be flower petals.
* TheStoic: Touya, though he [[NotSoStoic softens up over time.]]
* SwirlingDust
* TakingTheBullet: Aya's father does this for her early on. Much later, [[spoiler:Chidori does the same for Yuuhi.]] Both cases are fatal. And near the finale, [[spoiler:in the manga, Gladys died shielding Ceres from Mikagi]].
* TogetherInDeath: In the finale, [[spoiler:Ceres and Mikagi share their afterlife together. Despite the things they put each other through, [[DeathEqualsRedemption Mikagi admitted that he just wanted to protect Ceres]]; [[LoveRedeems Ceres in turn admitted that she still loved him]], and so they both decide to finally leave their descendants alone.]]
* TrueCompanions: The friends that Aya meet -- Touya, Yuuhi, Suzumi, Chidori, Shuro and Mrs. Q -- not only helped her through the most tumultuous time of her life, but it also made Ceres [[RestoredMyFaithInHumanity realize that humanity wasn't a lost cause]].
* UncannyFamilyResemblance: Deconstructed during the story arc involving [[spoiler:Miori]]. Since she and [[spoiler:Aya were cousins and therefore had a strong physical resemblance, she was the perfect implement to [[FakeMemories screw up Touya's mind]]]].
* WalkingTheEarth: More like "Wandering Japan" as Aya and her friends transfer from school to school, occupation to occupation, trying to find clues to Ceres's missing ''hagoromo''.
* WasItAllALie: [[spoiler:During [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence their final moments on the mortal plane]], Ceres asks Mikagi if he ever really loved her. His response? [[LoveMakesYouEvil He was so madly in love with her and wanted to protect her so badly that he went crazy.]]]]
* WellDoneSonGuy: [[spoiler:Kagami's backstory.]]
* WhamEpisode: The Miori arc. What seems like another run-of-the-mill journey to one of the legendary tennyo sites results in [[spoiler:Touya supposedly regaining his memory and leaving Aya for Miori, whom he recognises as his fiancée from before his amnesia; Aya almost sleeping with Yuuhi while on the rebound; Ceres taking over Aya's body for a long time while Aya is paralysed with shame over the above; Miori turning out to be another of Ceres' tennyo descendants and killing herself to get revenge on Aya; and Touya walking out of Aya's life for an extended period.]]
* WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove: In the extra story at the end of ''Manga/FushigiYuugiGenbuKaiden'' Volume 6, after her failed attempt at seducing Mikagi, Ceres mentioned how the ''tennyo'' can emulate human feelings to better fit into human society, but that they don't actually empathize with human emotion. [[HumanityIsInfectious This all begins to change]] as Mikagi continues to woo her and show her acts of kindness in order to make her smile.
* WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong: After Mikagi was beaten by bandits, Ceres was perfectly willing to give Mikagi a ''small'' fraction of her power so that he would never be harmed again, hoping that it would protect him. If only she knew what her gift would bring...
* WhatMeasureIsAHumanoid: As stated by Ceres, the ''tennyo'' don't really know what their true form is suppose to be, but they assume a human body for obvious reasons. [[spoiler:Touya]] himself was [[spoiler:made into a human by the mana (sorta making him a [[OurHomunculiAreDifferent homunculus]]).]]
* WhatTheHellHero: At the finale, [[spoiler:as Aya and Touya mourn Aki, Kagami gets a punch from Yuuhi, tearful with rage, chewing him out for the tragic consequences of his experiments]].
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: [[spoiler:Mikagi, a NonActionGuy, wanted to not be a burden to Ceres, so he asked her to give him some of her power so he could protect her. When he had them, he soon went ''[[AxCrazy completely mad]]'' and killed one of their daughters, which prompted Ceres to go MamaBear and kill him.]]
* WomanScorned: Ceres again.
* WorthLivingFor: [[spoiler:Suzumi's suicide attempt following her husband's death and her subsequent miscarriage was stopped by her husband's brother Yuuhi. At this point she realized that had to keep living for Yuuhi's sake, and has since warmed up to him like a real sibling.]]
* WouldHitAGirl: Mikagi. [[MaritalRapeLicense Wouldn't stop at hitting either.]]
** WouldHurtAChild: He wasn't exempt from hurting kids either. First exemplified this [[spoiler:''[[OffingTheOffspring by killing his own daughter.]]'']]
* YamatoNadeshiko: Aya evolves to this [[CharacterDevelopment throughout the story]].
* {{Yandere}}: [[spoiler:Miori goes mad after losing her mother. Mikagi mixes this and WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity.]]
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: The Celestial Maidens in the anime. In the manga they have black hair. And Touya's hair is mentioned to be an unusual shade of red (by a doctor when Touya used a fake personality to work as a doctor, who had lived in America beforehand).
* YouShouldHaveDiedInstead: In a moment of grief-driven insanity, Aya's mother [[spoiler:attempted to kill her and hold her responsible for her father's death. She was stopped when Ceres awakened.]]
* YourDaysAreNumbered: Touya, at the end.
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** Kagami mentions that the Mikage family is quite known for marrying their cousins. Case in point, Aya and Aki's parents are 2nd Cousins.
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** Kagami mentions that the Mikage family is quite known for marrying their cousins. cousins, so as to keep the tennyo bloodline in the family - which has numerous benefits; health, long life, etc - it's actually credited as the source of their wealth and influence. Case in point, Aya and Aki's parents are 2nd Cousins.cousins. Of course, this actually sets up the whole plot - the reason Aya manifests Ceres so strongly is because after thousands of years, she's essentially Ceres' genetic twin.
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* SnowMeansLove: When Suzumi sends Tooya out to do a dangerous mission, Aya runs after him in worry. He reassures her that everything will be fine by giving her a lovebite and then kissing her, at which point it starts snowing. But since this is Aya-slash-Ceres we're talking about, it's a subversion: The snow turns out to be flower petals.
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* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: [[spoiler:Aya found out that she was pregnant with Touya's child right when he was about to be killed by Mikagi. [[SubvertedTrope Only]] he got better. [[YourDaysAreNumbered Sort of.]]]]
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* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: [[spoiler:Aya found out that she was pregnant with Touya's child right when he was about to be killed by Mikagi.at the exact same moment that Mikagi emptied a handgun into his head. [[SubvertedTrope Only]] he got better. [[YourDaysAreNumbered Sort of.]]]]
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* {{Badass}}: Touya and, to a lesser degree, Yuuhi.
* BadassLongcoat
* BadassLongcoat
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*
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* AMythologyIsTrue: Specifically, the myth of the ShapeshiftingLover[[note]]known throughout the West as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_maiden "swan maiden"]], but intriguingly common ''all over the world''; Selkies in {{Scotireland}}, wolves in Croatia, buffalo in Africa, birds in China(and Italy), etc.[[/note]]; a magical creature who takes the form of a beautiful woman, only to be trapped in that form by a man who steals her magic and [[AbductionIsLove makes her his bride]]. In-universe, they are [[spoiler:a SuperiorSpecies of [[SingleGenderRace women]] from AnotherDimension who reproduce by mating with exceptional human men, preferably ''willingly'', and for a short time - the ''hagoromo'' is OrganicTechnology that enables them to not only shapeshift, but change their genetics at will, without which they cannot survive for more then ten years]].
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* AMythologyIsTrue: Specifically, the myth of the ShapeshiftingLover[[note]]known throughout the West as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_maiden "swan maiden"]], but intriguingly common ''all over the world''; Selkies in {{Scotireland}}, wolves in Croatia, buffalo in Africa, birds in China(and Italy), etc.[[/note]]; ShapeshiftingLover; a magical creature who takes the form of a beautiful woman, only to be trapped in that form by a man who steals her magic and [[AbductionIsLove makes her his bride]]. In-universe, they are [[spoiler:a SuperiorSpecies of [[SingleGenderRace women]] from AnotherDimension who reproduce by mating with exceptional human men, preferably ''willingly'', and for a short time - the ''hagoromo'' is OrganicTechnology that enables them to not only shapeshift, but change their genetics at will, without which they cannot survive for more then ten years]].
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* AMythologyIsTrue: Specifically, the myth of the "heavenly bride"[[note]]known throughout the West as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_maiden "swan maiden"]], but intriguingly common ''all over the world''; Selkies in {{Scotireland}}, Croatia a wolf, Africa a buffalo, Italy and China as a bird, etc.[[/note]]; a magical creature who takes the form of a beautiful woman, only to be trapped in that form by a man who steals her magic and [[AbductionIsLove makes her his bride]]. In-universe, they are a SuperiorSpecies of [[SingleGenderRace women]] from AnotherDimension who reproduce by mating with exceptional human men, preferably ''willingly'', and for a short time - the ''hagoromo'' is [[spoiler:OrganicTechnology that enables them to change their genetics at will, without which they cannot survive for more then ten years]].
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* AMythologyIsTrue: Specifically, the myth of the "heavenly bride"[[note]]known ShapeshiftingLover[[note]]known throughout the West as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_maiden "swan maiden"]], but intriguingly common ''all over the world''; Selkies in {{Scotireland}}, Croatia a wolf, Africa a buffalo, Italy and China as a bird, wolves in Croatia, buffalo in Africa, birds in China(and Italy), etc.[[/note]]; a magical creature who takes the form of a beautiful woman, only to be trapped in that form by a man who steals her magic and [[AbductionIsLove makes her his bride]]. In-universe, they are a [[spoiler:a SuperiorSpecies of [[SingleGenderRace women]] from AnotherDimension who reproduce by mating with exceptional human men, preferably ''willingly'', and for a short time - the ''hagoromo'' is [[spoiler:OrganicTechnology OrganicTechnology that enables them to not only shapeshift, but change their genetics at will, without which they cannot survive for more then ten years]].
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* AMythologyIsTrue: Specifically, the myth of the "heavenly bride"[[note]]known throughout the West as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_maiden "swan maiden"]], but intriguingly common ''all over the world''; Selkies in {{Scotireland}}, Croatia a wolf, Africa a buffalo, Italy and China as a bird, etc.[[/note]]; a magical creature who takes the form of a beautiful woman, only to be trapped in that form by a man who steals her magic and [[AbductionIsLove makes her his bride]]. In-universe, they are a SuperiorSpecies of [[SingleGenderRace women]] from AnotherDimension who reproduce by mating with exceptional human men, preferably ''willingly'', and for a short time - the ''hagoromo'' is [[spoiler:OrganicTechnology that enables them to change their genetics at will, without which they cannot survive for more then ten years]]. However, HumansAreBastards who lay permanent claim to them, forcing them to sire dynasties - the Mikages are just a particularly powerful and corrupt example.
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* AMythologyIsTrue: Specifically, the myth of the "heavenly bride"[[note]]known throughout the West as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_maiden "swan maiden"]], but intriguingly common ''all over the world''; Selkies in {{Scotireland}}, Croatia a wolf, Africa a buffalo, Italy and China as a bird, etc.[[/note]]; a magical creature who takes the form of a beautiful woman, only to be trapped in that form by a man who steals her magic and [[AbductionIsLove makes her his bride]]. In-universe, they are a SuperiorSpecies of [[SingleGenderRace women]] from AnotherDimension who reproduce by mating with exceptional human men, preferably ''willingly'', and for a short time - the ''hagoromo'' is [[spoiler:OrganicTechnology that enables them to change their genetics at will, without which they cannot survive for more then ten years]]. However, HumansAreBastards who lay permanent claim to them, forcing them to sire dynasties - the Mikages are just a particularly powerful and corrupt example.
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* AMythologyIsTrue: Specifically, the myth of the "heavenly bride"[[note]]known throughout the West as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_maiden "swan maiden"]], but intriguingly common ''all over the world''; Selkies in {{Scotireland}}, Croatia a wolf, Africa a buffalo, Italy and China as a bird, etc.[[/note]]; a magical creature who takes the form of a beautiful woman, only to be trapped in that form by a man who steals her magic and [[AbductionIsLove makes her his bride]]. In-universe, they are a SuperiorSpecies of [[SingleGenderRace women]] from AnotherDimension who reproduce by mating with exceptional human men, preferably ''willingly'', and for a short time - the ''hagoromo'' is [[spoiler:AppliedPhlebotinum that enables them to change their genetics at will, without which they cannot survive for more then ten years]]. However, HumansAreBastards who lay permanent claim to them, forcing them to sire dynasties - the Mikages are just a particularly powerful and corrupt example.
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* AMythologyIsTrue: Specifically, the myth of the "heavenly bride"[[note]]known throughout the West as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_maiden "swan maiden"]], but intriguingly common ''all over the world''; Selkies in {{Scotireland}}, Croatia a wolf, Africa a buffalo, Italy and China as a bird, etc.[[/note]]; a magical creature who takes the form of a beautiful woman, only to be trapped in that form by a man who steals her magic and [[AbductionIsLove makes her his bride]]. In-universe, they are a SuperiorSpecies of [[SingleGenderRace women]] from AnotherDimension who reproduce by mating with exceptional human men, preferably ''willingly'', and for a short time - the ''hagoromo'' is [[spoiler:AppliedPhlebotinum [[spoiler:OrganicTechnology that enables them to change their genetics at will, without which they cannot survive for more then ten years]]. However, HumansAreBastards who lay permanent claim to them, forcing them to sire dynasties - the Mikages are just a particularly powerful and corrupt example.
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* AMythologyIsTrue: Specifically, the myth of the "heavenly bride"[[note]]known throughout the West as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_maiden "swan maiden"]], but intriguingly common ''all over the world''; Selkies in {{Scotireland}}, Croatia a wolf, Africa a buffalo, Italy and China as a bird, etc.[[/note]]; a magical creature who takes the form of a beautiful woman, only to be trapped in that form by a man who steals her magic and [[AbductionIsLove makes her his bride]]. In-universe, they are a SuperiorSpecies of [[SingleGenderRace women]] from AnotherDimension who reproduce by mating with human men, preferably ''willingly'', and for a short time. However, HumansAreBastards who lay permanent claim to them, forcing them to sire dynasties - the Mikages are just a particularly powerful and corrupt example.
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* AMythologyIsTrue: Specifically, the myth of the "heavenly bride"[[note]]known throughout the West as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_maiden "swan maiden"]], but intriguingly common ''all over the world''; Selkies in {{Scotireland}}, Croatia a wolf, Africa a buffalo, Italy and China as a bird, etc.[[/note]]; a magical creature who takes the form of a beautiful woman, only to be trapped in that form by a man who steals her magic and [[AbductionIsLove makes her his bride]]. In-universe, they are a SuperiorSpecies of [[SingleGenderRace women]] from AnotherDimension who reproduce by mating with exceptional human men, preferably ''willingly'', and for a short time.time - the ''hagoromo'' is [[spoiler:AppliedPhlebotinum that enables them to change their genetics at will, without which they cannot survive for more then ten years]]. However, HumansAreBastards who lay permanent claim to them, forcing them to sire dynasties - the Mikages are just a particularly powerful and corrupt example.
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* AMythologyIsTrue: Specifically, the myth of the "heavenly bride"[[note]]known throughout the West as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_maiden "swan maiden"]], but intriguingly common ''all over the world''; Selkies in {{Scotireland}}, Croatia a wolf, Africa a buffalo, Italy and China as a bird, etc.[[/note]]; a magical creature who takes the form of a beautiful woman, only to be trapped in that form by a man who steals her magic and [[AbductionIsLove makes her his bride]]. In-universe, they are a SingleGenderRace of women with superhuman who reproduce by mating with human men, preferably ''willingly'', and for a short time. However, HumansAreBastards who lay permanent claim to them, forcing them to sire dynasties - the Mikages are just a particularly powerful and corrupt example.
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* AMythologyIsTrue: Specifically, the myth of the "heavenly bride"[[note]]known throughout the West as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_maiden "swan maiden"]], but intriguingly common ''all over the world''; Selkies in {{Scotireland}}, Croatia a wolf, Africa a buffalo, Italy and China as a bird, etc.[[/note]]; a magical creature who takes the form of a beautiful woman, only to be trapped in that form by a man who steals her magic and [[AbductionIsLove makes her his bride]]. In-universe, they are a SingleGenderRace SuperiorSpecies of women with superhuman [[SingleGenderRace women]] from AnotherDimension who reproduce by mating with human men, preferably ''willingly'', and for a short time. However, HumansAreBastards who lay permanent claim to them, forcing them to sire dynasties - the Mikages are just a particularly powerful and corrupt example.
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* AMythologyIsTrue: Specifically, the myth of the "heavenly bride"[[note]]known throughout the West as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_maiden "swan maiden"]], but intriguingly common ''all over the world''; Selkies in {{Scotireland}}, Croatia a wolf, Africa a buffalo, Italy and China as a bird, etc.[[/note]]; a magical creature who takes the form of a beautiful woman, only to be trapped in that form by a man who steals her magic and [[AbductionIsLove makes her his bride]]. In-universe, they are a SingleGenderRace of women with superhuman who reproduce by mating with human men, preferably ''willingly'', and for a short time. However, HumansAreBastards who lay permanent claim to them, forcing them to sire dynasties - the Mikages are just a particularly powerful and corrupt example.
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* AllMenArePerverts: Played with. [[WordOfGod Watase said]] in one of her freetalks that all of Yuuhi's behaviour towards Aya is totally normal and that he is not a pervert. He is a teenager, after all, and at the end of the day he never crosses any moral lines, not even when [[spoiler: Aya offers herself to him out of sheer spite]] (although there are times when he gets very damn close). However, in another one, explaining Mikagi's actions and [[spoiler: the intent of a group of schoolboys who try to rape Aya]], she said that "the desire of raping women was part of the male instinct to preserve the species." On the other hand, the heroic Yuuhi shares a disturbing connection with [[spoiler:the possessed Aki]]: both see love as a declaration of ''possession''("I must protect that which is mine.") where Touya sees it more as a declaration of ''service''("You are important to me, thus I must protect you.") [[spoiler:This is what makes Aya choose Touya in the end]].
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* AllMenArePerverts: Played with. [[WordOfGod Watase said]] in one of her freetalks that all of Yuuhi's behaviour towards Aya is totally normal and that he is not a pervert. He is a teenager, after all, and at the end of the day he never crosses any moral lines, not even when [[spoiler: Aya offers herself to him out of sheer spite]] (although there are times when he gets very damn close). However, in another one, explaining Mikagi's actions and [[spoiler: the intent of a group of schoolboys who try to rape Aya]], she said that "the desire of raping women was part of the male instinct to preserve the species." On the other hand, the heroic Yuuhi shares a disturbing connection with [[spoiler:the the possessed Aki]]: Aki: both see love as a declaration of ''possession''("I must protect that which is mine.") where Touya sees it more as a declaration of ''service''("You are important to me, thus I must protect you.") [[spoiler:This is what makes Aya choose Touya in the end]].
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* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Aya for Touya, [[spoiler:though she's less attracted to his "bad boy" nature than his drive to protect her without possessing her, something which she is [[RapeAsDrama threatened with almost constantly]] since her awakening as a tennyo]].
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* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Aya for Touya, [[spoiler:though she's less attracted to his "bad boy" nature than his drive to protect her without ''without'' possessing her, something which she is [[RapeAsDrama threatened with almost constantly]] since her awakening as a tennyo]].
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* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Aya for Touya.
* AllMenArePerverts: Played with. [[WordOfGod Watase said]] in one of her freetalks that all of Yuuhi's behaviour towards Aya is totally normal and that he is not a pervert. He is a teenager, after all, and at the end of the day he never crosses any moral lines, not even when [[spoiler: Aya offers herself to him out of sheer spite]] (although there are times when he gets very damn close). However, in another one, explaining Mikagi's actions and [[spoiler: the intent of a group of schoolboys who try to rape Aya]], she said that "the desire of raping women was part of the male instinct to preserve the species". Make out that what you will.
* AllMenArePerverts: Played with. [[WordOfGod Watase said]] in one of her freetalks that all of Yuuhi's behaviour towards Aya is totally normal and that he is not a pervert. He is a teenager, after all, and at the end of the day he never crosses any moral lines, not even when [[spoiler: Aya offers herself to him out of sheer spite]] (although there are times when he gets very damn close). However, in another one, explaining Mikagi's actions and [[spoiler: the intent of a group of schoolboys who try to rape Aya]], she said that "the desire of raping women was part of the male instinct to preserve the species". Make out that what you will.
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* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Aya for Touya.
Touya, [[spoiler:though she's less attracted to his "bad boy" nature than his drive to protect her without possessing her, something which she is [[RapeAsDrama threatened with almost constantly]] since her awakening as a tennyo]].
* AllMenArePerverts: Played with. [[WordOfGod Watase said]] in one of her freetalks that all of Yuuhi's behaviour towards Aya is totally normal and that he is not a pervert. He is a teenager, after all, and at the end of the day he never crosses any moral lines, not even when [[spoiler: Aya offers herself to him out of sheer spite]] (although there are times when he gets very damn close). However, in another one, explaining Mikagi's actions and [[spoiler: the intent of a group of schoolboys who try to rape Aya]], she said that "the desire of raping women was part of the male instinct to preserve thespecies". Make out species." On the other hand, the heroic Yuuhi shares a disturbing connection with [[spoiler:the possessed Aki]]: both see love as a declaration of ''possession''("I must protect that which is mine.") where Touya sees it more as a declaration of ''service''("You are important to me, thus I must protect you.") [[spoiler:This is what you will.makes Aya choose Touya in the end]].
* AllMenArePerverts: Played with. [[WordOfGod Watase said]] in one of her freetalks that all of Yuuhi's behaviour towards Aya is totally normal and that he is not a pervert. He is a teenager, after all, and at the end of the day he never crosses any moral lines, not even when [[spoiler: Aya offers herself to him out of sheer spite]] (although there are times when he gets very damn close). However, in another one, explaining Mikagi's actions and [[spoiler: the intent of a group of schoolboys who try to rape Aya]], she said that "the desire of raping women was part of the male instinct to preserve the
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* BrotherSisterIncest: Played completely seriously ''and'' creepily.
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* BrotherSisterIncest: Played completely seriously ''and'' creepily.creepily; suffice to say, Mikagi ''knows'' his physical vessel Aki is a fraternal twin to Ceres' physical vessel Aya... and doesn't ''care''.
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[[quoteright:258:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lt/anc.jpg]]
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[[quoteright:316:http://static.tvtropes.
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* AdultFear: ''Ayashi no Ceres'' might be a dark fantasy drama, but what it all comes down to is a story of [[spoiler:a loving husband who went insane after receiving some of his otherworldy wife's powers in order to [[DeclarationOfProtection protect her]], to the point of [[StayInTheKitchen restricting her behavior]], [[{{Yandere}} locking her up in their house to keep her from talking to other men]], [[DomesticAbuser beating her up]], [[MaritalRapeLicense forcing sex on her]], and even [[OffingTheOffspring killing one of their daughters who he fears could take his wife away]]. Basically, a story of domestic violence.]]
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* AdultFear: ''Ayashi no Ceres'' might be a dark fantasy drama, but what it all comes down to is a story of [[spoiler:a loving husband who went insane after receiving some of his otherworldy wife's powers in order to [[DeclarationOfProtection protect her]], to the point of [[StayInTheKitchen restricting her behavior]], [[{{Yandere}} locking her up in their house to keep her from talking to other men]], [[DomesticAbuser [[DomesticAbuse beating her up]], [[MaritalRapeLicense forcing sex on her]], and even [[OffingTheOffspring killing one of their daughters who he fears could take his wife away]]. Basically, a story of domestic violence.]]
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This manga was a big turning point in Watase's career, and many people consider it to be [[MagnumOpus her best work yet]].
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This manga was a big turning point in Watase's career, and many people consider it to be [[MagnumOpus her best work yet]].
yet.
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Mac Guffin Girl is no longer a trope.
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** MacGuffinGirl: [[spoiler: Touya is a male version. And a very literal one since he IS Ceres's Mana evolved into a human form.]]
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A 24-episode anime produced by Creator/StudioPierrot premiered in 2000. It was initially licensed by Creator/VizMedia for its U.S. release on VHS and DVD, and has since been licensed by Creator/DiscotekMedia for an upcoming DVD rerelease.
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unfortunate implications need citations
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* AllMenArePerverts: Played with. [[WordOfGod Watase said]] in one of her freetalks that all of Yuuhi's behaviour towards Aya is totally normal and that he is not a pervert. He is a teenager, after all, and at the end of the day he never crosses any moral lines, not even when [[spoiler: Aya offers herself to him out of sheer spite]] (although there are times when he gets very damn close). However, in another one, explaining Mikagi's actions and [[spoiler: the intent of a group of schoolboys who try to rape Aya]], she said that [[UnfortunateImplications "the desire of raping women was part of the male instinct to preserve the species"]]. Make out that what you will.
to:
* AllMenArePerverts: Played with. [[WordOfGod Watase said]] in one of her freetalks that all of Yuuhi's behaviour towards Aya is totally normal and that he is not a pervert. He is a teenager, after all, and at the end of the day he never crosses any moral lines, not even when [[spoiler: Aya offers herself to him out of sheer spite]] (although there are times when he gets very damn close). However, in another one, explaining Mikagi's actions and [[spoiler: the intent of a group of schoolboys who try to rape Aya]], she said that [[UnfortunateImplications "the desire of raping women was part of the male instinct to preserve the species"]].species". Make out that what you will.
