Ceres, Celestial Legend
A high school girl battles her family and a vengeful celestial spirit.
The third manga series authored by Yuu Watase is Ceres, Celestial Legend, and this entry discusses its vehicles and objects.[1] Yuu Watase's Ceres, Celestial Legend draws from the story of the tennin Ceres and her stolen hagoromo, a narrative that also appears in the Noh performance Hagoromo.[1]
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Drama, Supernatural
Facts from the source article.
How it changed
Ceres became a story about the relationship between men and women.[2] She gained permission to access certain locations that are typically off-limits to visitors.[3] No real individuals served as models for the characters in Ceres; instead, each character embodies a facet of Watase's own personality.[3] Through the character Kagami, Watase expressed her views on genetic engineering and emerging technologies.[3]
She believes these technologies have beneficial uses but must not be misused.[4] Watase deliberately kept Ceres' true origin unclear, not definitively indicating if Ceres is an extraterrestrial or a heavenly being.[4] A contributing factor to this ambiguity was that she had not given it any consideration.[2] Upon further thought, she concluded that Ceres represented a symbol.[2]
What the maker and period sources say
Watase notes that as a woman in Japan, there are things about the male-dominated system that anger her, such as men saying she is "just a woman"[2] She wanted to show that Tennin and humans, despite different origins, were still the same living creature with similar feelings and thoughts.[2] According to a Viz Media interview, Yuu Watase had the complete storyline of Ceres mapped out before she started drawing.[1] She finds this method simpler, yet characters sometimes "move on their own" and deviate from her intended plot.[5]
Upon finishing the story, she can comprehend the reasons for their independent actions.[5] Watase mentioned that crafting a cliffhanger for every chapter was one of the most challenging aspects of writing a serialized manga.[5] Her goal for each cliffhanger was to compel the reader to continue reading to find out what happens next.[5]
References
- Wikipedia, "Ceres, Celestial Legend" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Ceres, Celestial Legend: Volume 1 - Yuu Watase Interview, Introduction", Viz Media, 2003-09-16; Kinoshita, "Gateway to Japan", Kodansha International, 1998-04-14, p. 121; Tyler, "Japanese No Dramas", Penguin Classics, 1993-06-01, p. 96; "Ceres, Celestial Legend: Volume 1 - Yuu Watase Interview, Introduction", Viz Media, 2003-09-16 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Ceres, Celestial Legend" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Ceres, Celestial Legend: Volume 1 - Yuu Watase Interview: What is 'Ceres'?", Viz Media, 2003-09-16 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Ceres, Celestial Legend" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Ceres, Celestial Legend: Volume 1 - Yuu Watase Interview: Ceres Settings", Viz Media, 2003-09-16; "Ceres, Celestial Legend: Volume 1 - Yuu Watase Interview: Creating Characters", Viz Media, 2003-09-16 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Ceres, Celestial Legend" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Ceres, Celestial Legend: Volume 1 - Yuu Watase Interview: New Technologies", Viz Media, 2003-09-16 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Ceres, Celestial Legend" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Ceres, Celestial Legend: Volume 1 - Yuu Watase Interview: Story Planning", Viz Media, 2003-09-16 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Ceres, Celestial Legend (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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