An old legend tells of how a fisherman stole the wings of an angel, so that she could not return to heaven. Instead she stayed on the earth became the fisherman's wife. Ayashi no Ceres is based upon this legend. The souls of the angel (or tennyo "heavenly maid") and the fisherman have been reborn in the bodies of the twins Aya and Aki. Aya carries the Tennyo named Ceres, who seeks her wings so that she can return to heaven, and Aki carries the evil soul of the fisherman, who stole Ceres' wings and forced her to become his wife. Aya flees from the people who wish to kill her and Ceres, and she flees from her brother Aki, who now carries a darkness inside him. She meets Touya, a mysterious amnesia-stuck hitman sent to observe her, and slowly they fall in love.
I got lost in the plot a couple of times, since the anime covers a very large manga series in relatively few eps, but it was still a wonderful show with movie quality animation. As could be expected coming from the crew behind Fushigi Yuugi, there was a lot of romance, but it seemed more true and more beautiful than anything shown in Fushigi Yuugi, mainly because the heroine, Aya, is much more sympathetic than that annyoing brat Miaka with the ugly Princess Leia-style hairdo. We get to follow Aya from the first attempt on her life, through a great adventure of love, sadness, laughter, tears, life and death. There is a love triangle, very skillfully handled, and many subplots that brings a great depth.
This show is NOT for children! It is very realistic in its style, and includes some really nasty scenes where people get hurt in very cruel ways. It's also confusing, as it tries to tell a very long story with very few episodes, but overall it's beautiful and amazing with an almost surreal fairy-tale color.
Highly recommended!
