As with most manga series, the first volume is the most gripping. I was just describing the plot of this volume to a friend recently and it ended up sounding pretty interesting. The characters however, are pretty typical for shoujo, and of course the fact that they're 16 years old explains a lot about their emotional state. Nevertheless, Aya and Aki's fates pull on the reader's heartstrings and Toya's charisma is unmistakable. Not a bad beginning! ( )

"This volume contains the Ceres, celestial legend installments from Part 1, issue 1 through Part 1, issue 6 in their entirety"--Added t.p. verso
"First published by Shogakukan, Inc. in Japan as Ayashi no Ceres – Added t.p. verso

1. Horror comic books, strips, etc. 2.Comic books, strips, etc.--Japan. 3. Twins -- Comic books, strips, etc. I. Leach, Gary, 1957- . II. Olsen, Lillian, Translator.

Annotation: On her sixteenth birthday, Aya Mikage experiences some very strange and frightening events. She goes to a fortune teller, but is angered by what she hears, "They say her predictions are dead-on. But all I got was a bunch of dorky horror movie crap!"

Then on her way home with her friends she falls from a pedestrian bridge over a highway, yet she floats – not falls – to the ground. She’s swept out of the path of an oncoming car by a mysterious stranger.

Then she and her twin brother Aki go to their grandfather’s house for a party. Their present is a mummified hand that covers Aki with bloody slashes. Then Grandfather Mikage tells Aya that she must die to save the family. Her parents are led away by her other relatives and an uncle tries to strangle her.

Watase writes a series of sidebars throughout the books where she talks directly to readers about what is on her mind at the time of writing. It is much like reading a blog. In volume 1, page 25 (1:25) she writes about how she will use Ceres to tell a story that she first thought of when she was still in high school, but it would be a “different kind of horror” story.

Some of her musings in volume 1 indicate a departure from the traditional shojo (girl’s) comic:

My work is said to be ‘positive and enthusiastic’ but there is actually another side to it… Even if it’s over-the-top, there would have to be ‘love.’
My innocent readers are going to run away. Darn! (1:147)

But I think ‘love that’s gone just short of insanity” is really sublime in some respects. Eros and Thanatos…There could be a dark side to it too, so I know there’s danger in depicting it. I think the world of ‘Ceres’ … is… modeled after the idea of ‘pairs.’ Man and woman, love and hate, light and shadow, good and evil, past and future, etc. (1:165) ( )