Celestial Geekery
Sep. 15th, 2008 02:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
azuriteSo, being that sleeping is elusive and I've read every book and manga in my room backwards and forwards, I decided to opt for reading Ceres: Celestial Legend *again*, since it's good and I've been on a Yuu Watase kick lately anyway AND because before all the "mayhem" went down, I was watching the anime series, which I'd finally completed my collection of on DVD (shoulda bought the collector's edition... D'oh! There's no lyrical subtitling for the songs, the audio track is sometimes off --like, I'll hear the English voice and not the Japanese one, even though I always set it to Japanese audio w/ English subs before selecting "Play"-- and sometimes the timing is off, too).
I finished the series last night. Bawled my eyes out. Watase never fails in that respect; I don't think she's done a single series that I've read/watched (this would include the J-Drama adaptation of "Absolute Boyfriend," even though the similarities to her manga were slim) that DIDN'T make me cry. It's a good thing, though. Her stuff's very thought-provoking.
So, with the hesitation of someone about to step in potentially icy water, I tread into fandom. Just for shits and giggles, and because I've always been more of an Aya x Yuuhi fan than an Aya x Tooya one. (Funny, since normally I'm all about "respect the canon!" but every now and again, I like bizarre pairings. At least Aya x Yuuhi has canon POSSIBILITY, vs. say, Usagi x Seiya or Anzu x Kaiba. That's what makes writing those latter two pairings more FUN!)
I immediately discover two things: fans often will take the tiniest detail and run far, far away with it, never bothering to stop and double-check their facts. They'll spread their "knowledge" far and wide, thereby perpetuating FANON. Now, don't get me wrong, I've seen scanlation groups do jobs 10000x better than some of the so-called professionals, but the one thing Viz got right is that "Shiso" is not Mikagi (yes, with an i)'s name. "Shiso" is the Japanese word meaning "Forefather" or, as the translations often put it (and is technically more English-grammatically and genetic field-language correct): "Progenitor." NOT A NAME! The guy's 10,000+ years old anyway; they didn't exactly have a system of given names and surnames in ancient Japan, yanno! And the way the series page is on Wikipedia (*shudder*), it makes it look like "Shiso" is his name. No wonder why the page is marked for so many revisions!
Also: Ceres, the original goddess? Pronounced "series," not "Seh-re-su," like the Japanese romaji. Considering the asteroid is pronounced the same way as the goddess, this is, again, a flub of the Japanese-- perhaps the language, or perhaps Watase, the same way Kazuki Takahashi called a "torque" (toruku) a "tauk," or the way Naoko Takeuchi altered so many of the origins of Senshi names like Aluminum Siren (instead of Sai-ren, it was Se-i-ren-- which may be closer to the original Greek, I've no idea, but it's not the modern pronunciation by any stretch of the imagination).
I also found out that, despite my initial belief, Suzumi Aogiri (née Sakuradai) does not have a C-Genome name. It's probably because her ten'nyo blood is "watered down," so to speak, and she never made a full cellular transformation. But if she did, I think she would be Iris, rather than Hebe, who comes before her in order. *shrug* Dunno why.) As for the others, they are:
Ceres: Aya Mikage, Miori Sahara -- telekinesis
Pallas: Chidori Kuruma, Kumi Akiyama (the girl in Vol. 11) -- thunder
Juno: Shuro Tsukasa -- voice
?: Maya Hirobe (probably Astraea, goddess of justice) -- spiritual conjuration
?: Yuuki Urakawa (probably Vesta, goddess of the hearth) -- fire
I used those names for Maya and Yuuki based on the timing of their appearances, not any Roman goddess connection to their powers (conjuration of spiritual creatures and fire conjuration, respectively). It's also got nothing to do with their magnitude of power, which I figure the Type-A, Type-B system covers. Miori was pretty powerful, but she's still a Ceres Type-B. There are at least 26 C-Genomes aside from those that died by Vol. 13 (Chidori, Shuro, Miori, Yuuki) and those not shown (Maya, Suzumi). There were at least 29 more, since that's the number that supposedly rejected the vector and died from that just within the C-Project. There had to be at least 58 when the Project was at its height, because if 29 died and it reduced C-Project to less than half their original amount... well, you do the math.
The Pomeranian-type Celestials (Note: not necessarily actual Pomeranian Celestials, from near the Baltic Sea, but possibly their descendants, activated with the vector medication) with the power over water weren't classed or named, but there are at least five of them, as that's what we're shown in Vol. 11 when they try and get a reaction from the Pomeranian Hagoromo. There's also another artifact-- we don't know where from-- that Kumi Akiyama tries to activate, but she's apparently the only other Pallas-type out there besides Chidori (who is a Pallas Type-A, meaning she's more powerful than Kumi), and she couldn't do it on her own.
It stands to reason that the reason why there were so many celestial legends is because there were so many celestial maidens. Each different family descended from different ones, and Kagami's C-Project named them according to the asteroids found (aka the Roman goddesses). But what's interesting is, even though other maidens got screwed over when they came to Earth, many of them losing their hagoromo/mana (at least four, including Ceres; two "artifacts" were found, there's Tooya, and then there was the human-turned-monster that dared to don the hagoromo she found), Ceres was the only one whose SOUL reincarnated. Chidori, Shuro, etc. all have full cellular transformations, but they never have an issue with a vindictive celestial maiden taking over their mind and actions. They always are conscientious of their actions as celestial maidens, a fact which they use to their advantage, but Aya can't-- because turning celestial for Aya means her consciousness gets shunted aside and Ceres "takes over."
It's actually a bit like Yuugi and Yami no Yuugi in "Yu-Gi-Oh!," because it's only later on, when Aya acknowledges Ceres and agrees to work with her that she can be somewhat aware of the things that Ceres sees/says/does when she's "taken over." Likewise, Ceres is aware of Aya's doings (Aya asks Ceres why she didn't interrupt her and Tooya when they were going at it; this implies that Aya KNOWS Ceres could have, if she wanted to). But there are points when Aya doesn't "pay attention" to the outside world, for whatever reason. This happened when she relinquished control to Ceres after she tried to seduce Yuuhi, and also when she gave control to Ceres to see if the Tsukasa family hagoromo was the real deal. Aya didn't remember the events at the Tsukasa household at all, either because she wasn't aware or because Ceres chose not to share them with her.
It would be interesting to discover the stories of the OTHER Celestial Maidens that clearly stayed on Earth for whatever reason and created families. Since that was their prerogative, and Ceres is supposed to be unique, again, it stands to reason that they all just procreated and either moved on or died (because they somehow/eventually got separated from their mana). None of them "fell in love," and even those that were separated from their mana didn't die with a vindictive wish in their heart. Their attachment to the mana wasn't, for whatever reason, as strong as Ceres' was to hers. Clearly Ceres got around a lot, because Tooya was created because the mana itself --apparently sentient and/or symbiotic-- wanted to get back to Ceres and needed a vessel for doing so. It used data based on what it absorbed and saw (why this part of the manga shows dinosaurs, I have no idea; Ceres first visited Mikagi 10,000 years ago, not SEVERAL MILLION YEARS AGO) and on all of Ceres' previous relationships.
Since the mana is what evolved (not sure if that's the right word, since Ceres says that the celestial maidens CAN'T evolve, and they're not sure if they came from mana or if mana came from them, as a primordial sort of progeny/symbiote-- maybe it's like Trill from Star Trek?) to tell Ceres whether or not a man was a potentially worthy mate, whenever a man was able to touch the hagoromo without being harmed and bring it back to Ceres, it collected his data. And I'm sure that she didn't have the issue with the men stealing her robes prior to Mikagi, and so she might have even had the mana within her/part of her when she mated with them man in question. She probably stuck around long enough to birth the child, but then vanished a few weeks later, taking a new form.
Thing with Aya is, Aya's a human body --not a celestial one. Ceres is just a "soul" inhabiting her, but a soul at the cellular/molecular level. So, were Ceres to try and do that with Aya, it would kill Aya, because she'd be leaving "the body" behind. She never had that issue before, because, as a celestial maiden, she could clearly change form at will. In the latter 2 volumes (I think), there's a part where Ceres is explaining that the concept of the maidens seeking to create progeny and then leaving was not new. Mikagi was not her first, nor would he be her last. He was also not the first man she granted her powers to-- but he was the first one that went NUTS trying to keep her. Maybe that's because the other men didn't necessarily "love" Ceres, because her attitude from the get-go was "I'm just here for the sex."
But her relationship with Mikagi started with him SAVING her, then giving back her mana, then courting her. It all started to crumble when he felt emasculated when she saved them both from a rival tribe that tried to kill them (or at least Mikagi). She didn't realize the danger of giving him power when his whole reasoning for it was "to protect her." Were she still in the "here for the progeny only" mindset, she wouldn't have cared about being protected, because she knows she can do enough on her own. But because she had fallen in love, she granted him her powers, he went on a bloody rampage, and when his bloodlust, selfishness, and arrogance became too much, and she tried to run away with her children and he KILLED their firstborn, well... Ceres ripped him. (At least their relationship's progression MADE SENSE; I never liked Aya and Tooya's because I felt it didn't progress right. But maybe because it's one of those "predestined" and "first love" things, it's not meant to follow any sort of standards of conformity.)
She hated herself for having fallen in love with him, and so whenever she reincarnated into her descendants, she said that he forced her to marry him. Mikagi, when he finally reincarnates, remembers it differently, but still has the psycho-I'm-powerful-she's-mine thing. He's like any typical villain that, once given a GIFT of power, abuses and takes prisoner the giver of the gift. Instead of being grateful, he's selfish and overly concerned with the possibility that someone else could possibly get that same gift, or perhaps even a better gift from "his" woman. In his twisted mind, he saw it as protecting her, but at least part of him had to acknowledge that he simply didn't want to let her do what she wanted. He didn't want to register the possibility that, as a celestial maiden, she would simply want him for his seed and move on. He probably knew about this possibility even though the signs that she was in love with him were there. He didn't want to acknowledge them for fear he'd start loving her back and then WILLINGLY let her go. So he never told her his feelings, and I don't think she ever told him hers, though they both "showed" it, in their own ways.
In modern times, since Ceres had NEVER admitted that she loved Mikagi, when he accused her of lying about her being forced to be his wife, he countered with the memory that she gave herself freely. Ceres countered back-- just because she gave herself freely doesn't mean she loved him. More self-hatred. She did love him, she undoubtedly remembers loving him, but she hates what she did to him (give him powers so he won't feel powerless compared to her; she later calls it "enhancing him" in order to enhance the offspring-- in other words, not a "gift" for him at all, but a gift for her eventual progeny!), what he did to her and their family, and what she did to him as a final "revenge" (which was just as much revenge against herself as it was against Mikagi for becoming such an asshole).
The longer Ceres spends away from her mana, the more muddled things get. I think because, in modern times, she exists only as a spiritual/cellular component of girls who closely match her original genetic makeup, that's why she doesn't take on her original appearance as a complete celestial maiden until she (as Aya) gets her mana back.
In that part, within Ceres' memories of men she gave knowledge/power to in exchange for their seed include the silhouettes of a Grecian, a Chinese Emperor (or maybe a Japanese one) AND AN EGYPTIAN PHARAOH! Tell me that's not a plotbunny if you've ever seen one. (I'm talking to you, Yu-Gi-Oh! fans...!) Actually, to be honest with you, what Ceres says about her power being a matter of "will," and allowing her to think whatever she wants and have it happen-- well, that all fits in with an idea I already have a for a fic that's already started... but I shall say no more! Tee-hee!
And even when she DOES get it back, it means the vessel (Tooya) is on borrowed time. It's implied that Tooya's around to raise their son (the baby was given a gender in Watase interviews, but not in canon) for two years, tops, but Tooya asked Yuuhi to take over then. :P
Oh, another interesting thing: the Guardinals (Alec, Ryurik, Tooya, Assam, Gladys, and Wei) are revealed by Kagami in Vol. 13 to be the ones selected to breed with the C-Genomes. So, Tooya succeeded on that front, but there were never any successful male C-Genomes (we saw a bunch reject the vector, so I wonder why Kagami et. al. assumed men could take the vector at all?) for Gladys, Assam's a bit young, and I thought Ryurik joined the C-Project out of grief after losing his wife to an illness? Would he really willingly jump into the sack with some random young C-Genome? Or is more like, they'd take the genetic data of the Guardinals, for in vitro? I'm assuming that's it-- it's more of a Kagami-ish thing to do.
Are there Ceres novels, I wonder? Because for every question answered in the last two manga volumes, there are bunch that are raised. Like, why didn't Ceres try and TAKE BACK her powers from Mikagi? Was it simply because she still loved him so much --despite what he'd become-- that she couldn't bear to do that to him, knowing he'd probably still go out and try and dominate and kill, and get himself killed in the process? (Somehow... I held onto a belief... a hope... that the man I loved... would return. Yeah, well, hate to break it to you Ceres, but HE DIDN'T.)
And whatever happened to the other celestial maidens? Would they live forever if they kept procreating, or do they have lifespans? It's not as if we see Ceres separate from Aya in the end; she simply goes to sleep "with Mikagi," and everyone goes "to heaven." But it's not as if Aya's genes would have changed, right? Ceres simply became DORMANT, the way Yami no Yuugi is dormant when the Millennium Puzzle is either in pieces or not on Yuugi's neck! So somehow, there'd likely be a way for Ceres to wake up again, whether it was through her own accord, Aya calling her, or some other outside force....
Plus, why is it that half-celestials don't need mana or anything like it, but full celestial maidens do? Why is it that no other maiden developed the sort of relationship with her mana the way Ceres did? Was it because the other maidens didn't have emotional reasons enough to allow them to awaken within their descendants, or because Ceres was an older/more evolved celestial maiden, or something else?
Wow, this post ended up a lot longer than I thought it would. I probably repeated myself a lot too. But at least it wasn't a whole post devoted to the fact that I nearly slept all day today and can't sleep normally because everything seems FUCKED UP. Nope, not at all. :)
I finished the series last night. Bawled my eyes out. Watase never fails in that respect; I don't think she's done a single series that I've read/watched (this would include the J-Drama adaptation of "Absolute Boyfriend," even though the similarities to her manga were slim) that DIDN'T make me cry. It's a good thing, though. Her stuff's very thought-provoking.
So, with the hesitation of someone about to step in potentially icy water, I tread into fandom. Just for shits and giggles, and because I've always been more of an Aya x Yuuhi fan than an Aya x Tooya one. (Funny, since normally I'm all about "respect the canon!" but every now and again, I like bizarre pairings. At least Aya x Yuuhi has canon POSSIBILITY, vs. say, Usagi x Seiya or Anzu x Kaiba. That's what makes writing those latter two pairings more FUN!)
I immediately discover two things: fans often will take the tiniest detail and run far, far away with it, never bothering to stop and double-check their facts. They'll spread their "knowledge" far and wide, thereby perpetuating FANON. Now, don't get me wrong, I've seen scanlation groups do jobs 10000x better than some of the so-called professionals, but the one thing Viz got right is that "Shiso" is not Mikagi (yes, with an i)'s name. "Shiso" is the Japanese word meaning "Forefather" or, as the translations often put it (and is technically more English-grammatically and genetic field-language correct): "Progenitor." NOT A NAME! The guy's 10,000+ years old anyway; they didn't exactly have a system of given names and surnames in ancient Japan, yanno! And the way the series page is on Wikipedia (*shudder*), it makes it look like "Shiso" is his name. No wonder why the page is marked for so many revisions!
Also: Ceres, the original goddess? Pronounced "series," not "Seh-re-su," like the Japanese romaji. Considering the asteroid is pronounced the same way as the goddess, this is, again, a flub of the Japanese-- perhaps the language, or perhaps Watase, the same way Kazuki Takahashi called a "torque" (toruku) a "tauk," or the way Naoko Takeuchi altered so many of the origins of Senshi names like Aluminum Siren (instead of Sai-ren, it was Se-i-ren-- which may be closer to the original Greek, I've no idea, but it's not the modern pronunciation by any stretch of the imagination).
I also found out that, despite my initial belief, Suzumi Aogiri (née Sakuradai) does not have a C-Genome name. It's probably because her ten'nyo blood is "watered down," so to speak, and she never made a full cellular transformation. But if she did, I think she would be Iris, rather than Hebe, who comes before her in order. *shrug* Dunno why.) As for the others, they are:
Ceres: Aya Mikage, Miori Sahara -- telekinesis
Pallas: Chidori Kuruma, Kumi Akiyama (the girl in Vol. 11) -- thunder
Juno: Shuro Tsukasa -- voice
?: Maya Hirobe (probably Astraea, goddess of justice) -- spiritual conjuration
?: Yuuki Urakawa (probably Vesta, goddess of the hearth) -- fire
I used those names for Maya and Yuuki based on the timing of their appearances, not any Roman goddess connection to their powers (conjuration of spiritual creatures and fire conjuration, respectively). It's also got nothing to do with their magnitude of power, which I figure the Type-A, Type-B system covers. Miori was pretty powerful, but she's still a Ceres Type-B. There are at least 26 C-Genomes aside from those that died by Vol. 13 (Chidori, Shuro, Miori, Yuuki) and those not shown (Maya, Suzumi). There were at least 29 more, since that's the number that supposedly rejected the vector and died from that just within the C-Project. There had to be at least 58 when the Project was at its height, because if 29 died and it reduced C-Project to less than half their original amount... well, you do the math.
The Pomeranian-type Celestials (Note: not necessarily actual Pomeranian Celestials, from near the Baltic Sea, but possibly their descendants, activated with the vector medication) with the power over water weren't classed or named, but there are at least five of them, as that's what we're shown in Vol. 11 when they try and get a reaction from the Pomeranian Hagoromo. There's also another artifact-- we don't know where from-- that Kumi Akiyama tries to activate, but she's apparently the only other Pallas-type out there besides Chidori (who is a Pallas Type-A, meaning she's more powerful than Kumi), and she couldn't do it on her own.
It stands to reason that the reason why there were so many celestial legends is because there were so many celestial maidens. Each different family descended from different ones, and Kagami's C-Project named them according to the asteroids found (aka the Roman goddesses). But what's interesting is, even though other maidens got screwed over when they came to Earth, many of them losing their hagoromo/mana (at least four, including Ceres; two "artifacts" were found, there's Tooya, and then there was the human-turned-monster that dared to don the hagoromo she found), Ceres was the only one whose SOUL reincarnated. Chidori, Shuro, etc. all have full cellular transformations, but they never have an issue with a vindictive celestial maiden taking over their mind and actions. They always are conscientious of their actions as celestial maidens, a fact which they use to their advantage, but Aya can't-- because turning celestial for Aya means her consciousness gets shunted aside and Ceres "takes over."
It's actually a bit like Yuugi and Yami no Yuugi in "Yu-Gi-Oh!," because it's only later on, when Aya acknowledges Ceres and agrees to work with her that she can be somewhat aware of the things that Ceres sees/says/does when she's "taken over." Likewise, Ceres is aware of Aya's doings (Aya asks Ceres why she didn't interrupt her and Tooya when they were going at it; this implies that Aya KNOWS Ceres could have, if she wanted to). But there are points when Aya doesn't "pay attention" to the outside world, for whatever reason. This happened when she relinquished control to Ceres after she tried to seduce Yuuhi, and also when she gave control to Ceres to see if the Tsukasa family hagoromo was the real deal. Aya didn't remember the events at the Tsukasa household at all, either because she wasn't aware or because Ceres chose not to share them with her.
It would be interesting to discover the stories of the OTHER Celestial Maidens that clearly stayed on Earth for whatever reason and created families. Since that was their prerogative, and Ceres is supposed to be unique, again, it stands to reason that they all just procreated and either moved on or died (because they somehow/eventually got separated from their mana). None of them "fell in love," and even those that were separated from their mana didn't die with a vindictive wish in their heart. Their attachment to the mana wasn't, for whatever reason, as strong as Ceres' was to hers. Clearly Ceres got around a lot, because Tooya was created because the mana itself --apparently sentient and/or symbiotic-- wanted to get back to Ceres and needed a vessel for doing so. It used data based on what it absorbed and saw (why this part of the manga shows dinosaurs, I have no idea; Ceres first visited Mikagi 10,000 years ago, not SEVERAL MILLION YEARS AGO) and on all of Ceres' previous relationships.
Since the mana is what evolved (not sure if that's the right word, since Ceres says that the celestial maidens CAN'T evolve, and they're not sure if they came from mana or if mana came from them, as a primordial sort of progeny/symbiote-- maybe it's like Trill from Star Trek?) to tell Ceres whether or not a man was a potentially worthy mate, whenever a man was able to touch the hagoromo without being harmed and bring it back to Ceres, it collected his data. And I'm sure that she didn't have the issue with the men stealing her robes prior to Mikagi, and so she might have even had the mana within her/part of her when she mated with them man in question. She probably stuck around long enough to birth the child, but then vanished a few weeks later, taking a new form.
Thing with Aya is, Aya's a human body --not a celestial one. Ceres is just a "soul" inhabiting her, but a soul at the cellular/molecular level. So, were Ceres to try and do that with Aya, it would kill Aya, because she'd be leaving "the body" behind. She never had that issue before, because, as a celestial maiden, she could clearly change form at will. In the latter 2 volumes (I think), there's a part where Ceres is explaining that the concept of the maidens seeking to create progeny and then leaving was not new. Mikagi was not her first, nor would he be her last. He was also not the first man she granted her powers to-- but he was the first one that went NUTS trying to keep her. Maybe that's because the other men didn't necessarily "love" Ceres, because her attitude from the get-go was "I'm just here for the sex."
But her relationship with Mikagi started with him SAVING her, then giving back her mana, then courting her. It all started to crumble when he felt emasculated when she saved them both from a rival tribe that tried to kill them (or at least Mikagi). She didn't realize the danger of giving him power when his whole reasoning for it was "to protect her." Were she still in the "here for the progeny only" mindset, she wouldn't have cared about being protected, because she knows she can do enough on her own. But because she had fallen in love, she granted him her powers, he went on a bloody rampage, and when his bloodlust, selfishness, and arrogance became too much, and she tried to run away with her children and he KILLED their firstborn, well... Ceres ripped him. (At least their relationship's progression MADE SENSE; I never liked Aya and Tooya's because I felt it didn't progress right. But maybe because it's one of those "predestined" and "first love" things, it's not meant to follow any sort of standards of conformity.)
She hated herself for having fallen in love with him, and so whenever she reincarnated into her descendants, she said that he forced her to marry him. Mikagi, when he finally reincarnates, remembers it differently, but still has the psycho-I'm-powerful-she's-mine thing. He's like any typical villain that, once given a GIFT of power, abuses and takes prisoner the giver of the gift. Instead of being grateful, he's selfish and overly concerned with the possibility that someone else could possibly get that same gift, or perhaps even a better gift from "his" woman. In his twisted mind, he saw it as protecting her, but at least part of him had to acknowledge that he simply didn't want to let her do what she wanted. He didn't want to register the possibility that, as a celestial maiden, she would simply want him for his seed and move on. He probably knew about this possibility even though the signs that she was in love with him were there. He didn't want to acknowledge them for fear he'd start loving her back and then WILLINGLY let her go. So he never told her his feelings, and I don't think she ever told him hers, though they both "showed" it, in their own ways.
In modern times, since Ceres had NEVER admitted that she loved Mikagi, when he accused her of lying about her being forced to be his wife, he countered with the memory that she gave herself freely. Ceres countered back-- just because she gave herself freely doesn't mean she loved him. More self-hatred. She did love him, she undoubtedly remembers loving him, but she hates what she did to him (give him powers so he won't feel powerless compared to her; she later calls it "enhancing him" in order to enhance the offspring-- in other words, not a "gift" for him at all, but a gift for her eventual progeny!), what he did to her and their family, and what she did to him as a final "revenge" (which was just as much revenge against herself as it was against Mikagi for becoming such an asshole).
The longer Ceres spends away from her mana, the more muddled things get. I think because, in modern times, she exists only as a spiritual/cellular component of girls who closely match her original genetic makeup, that's why she doesn't take on her original appearance as a complete celestial maiden until she (as Aya) gets her mana back.
In that part, within Ceres' memories of men she gave knowledge/power to in exchange for their seed include the silhouettes of a Grecian, a Chinese Emperor (or maybe a Japanese one) AND AN EGYPTIAN PHARAOH! Tell me that's not a plotbunny if you've ever seen one. (I'm talking to you, Yu-Gi-Oh! fans...!) Actually, to be honest with you, what Ceres says about her power being a matter of "will," and allowing her to think whatever she wants and have it happen-- well, that all fits in with an idea I already have a for a fic that's already started... but I shall say no more! Tee-hee!
And even when she DOES get it back, it means the vessel (Tooya) is on borrowed time. It's implied that Tooya's around to raise their son (the baby was given a gender in Watase interviews, but not in canon) for two years, tops, but Tooya asked Yuuhi to take over then. :P
Oh, another interesting thing: the Guardinals (Alec, Ryurik, Tooya, Assam, Gladys, and Wei) are revealed by Kagami in Vol. 13 to be the ones selected to breed with the C-Genomes. So, Tooya succeeded on that front, but there were never any successful male C-Genomes (we saw a bunch reject the vector, so I wonder why Kagami et. al. assumed men could take the vector at all?) for Gladys, Assam's a bit young, and I thought Ryurik joined the C-Project out of grief after losing his wife to an illness? Would he really willingly jump into the sack with some random young C-Genome? Or is more like, they'd take the genetic data of the Guardinals, for in vitro? I'm assuming that's it-- it's more of a Kagami-ish thing to do.
Are there Ceres novels, I wonder? Because for every question answered in the last two manga volumes, there are bunch that are raised. Like, why didn't Ceres try and TAKE BACK her powers from Mikagi? Was it simply because she still loved him so much --despite what he'd become-- that she couldn't bear to do that to him, knowing he'd probably still go out and try and dominate and kill, and get himself killed in the process? (Somehow... I held onto a belief... a hope... that the man I loved... would return. Yeah, well, hate to break it to you Ceres, but HE DIDN'T.)
And whatever happened to the other celestial maidens? Would they live forever if they kept procreating, or do they have lifespans? It's not as if we see Ceres separate from Aya in the end; she simply goes to sleep "with Mikagi," and everyone goes "to heaven." But it's not as if Aya's genes would have changed, right? Ceres simply became DORMANT, the way Yami no Yuugi is dormant when the Millennium Puzzle is either in pieces or not on Yuugi's neck! So somehow, there'd likely be a way for Ceres to wake up again, whether it was through her own accord, Aya calling her, or some other outside force....
Plus, why is it that half-celestials don't need mana or anything like it, but full celestial maidens do? Why is it that no other maiden developed the sort of relationship with her mana the way Ceres did? Was it because the other maidens didn't have emotional reasons enough to allow them to awaken within their descendants, or because Ceres was an older/more evolved celestial maiden, or something else?
Wow, this post ended up a lot longer than I thought it would. I probably repeated myself a lot too. But at least it wasn't a whole post devoted to the fact that I nearly slept all day today and can't sleep normally because everything seems FUCKED UP. Nope, not at all. :)
