Cereza (RoT: The Witch Hunts)

Cereza is a time-displaced young girl first encountered in Chapter II in the first game, Bayonetta. She's the younger version of the present Bayonetta, who was brought into the present timeline by Balder. She accompanies her older self throughout her adventure, mistaking her for her mother, Rosa.^[1]

She is first introduced as the playable character during the Records of Time prologue chapter.

In the animated film, Bloody Fate, it is explained that he brought her back from the past through a portal created from space-time distortion from the influence of the impending return of Jubileus and had the younger Cereza accompany her in an effort to help return her memories and activate the Left Eye of Darkness.

Personality[]

Initially, when met, Cereza is a shy, sweet girl who easily cries, even described as a "cry baby" by her older counterpart. She initially gets frightened by the hordes of angels that pursue her and would often cling to her "mother", Bayonetta, in response. After being misplaced in time, she followed her older self under the assumption that she was her mother, and throughout their journey, is inspired by her and gains the confidence to live up to be as good as her. Because of her great love and adoration to her mother, Cereza would often copy stances made by Bayonetta. She also developed a fixation for lollipops after receiving one from Luka. Thanks to her adventures with her older self, she was able to reawaken her Left Eye of Darkness. When she returns to her original timeline, she is inspired by Bayonetta's words to be strong and becomes braver as she grows up.

Appearance[]

As shown and given in the first game, Cereza has a similar appearance to Bayonetta, other than being her younger self. She has grey eyes, long black hair worn in braids with red ribbons in them, and a bang sweeping to the right side of her face. She wears a small pair of glasses, a pink nightgown with floral designs, and brown slippers with white fur inside.

History[]

Cereza was born from the result of a forbidden relationship between the sage, Balder, and the witch, Rosa. With her mother imprisoned and father exiled, she was meant to be kept away from being taught the Dark Arts, with her only companion being a cat doll named Cheshire.^[1] However, when Balder of 500 years later conspired to resurrect Jubileus by using both of the Eyes of the World, he used his power to take the Cereza of the past.^[1]

Bloody Fate[]

Balder would create a portal from space-time distortion, bringing the child version of his daughter to the present in an effort to jog the present Cereza's memory and reawaken her left eye.^[2]

Story[]

Bayonetta (Past)[]

Cereza is first encountered by Bayonetta in a building in Vigrid, before a scene where she fights Fortitudo. She is seen again at the Umbran Training Ground Ruins, where Bayonetta saves her from a group of Angels. Upon being asked where she is from, she tells her that she is from "my house", and went to the ruins because her "daddy told her to". From there, she calls Bayonetta "Mummy", and follows her through the ruins and then through Paradiso, where she is temporarily separated from her after a Beloved is endeared with her innocence and she is subsequently rescued by a Joy, in disguise as Bayonetta. Later the real Bayonetta and the Joy encounter each other and face off. Once the real Bayonetta winks to her, Cereza bites the Joy and flees back into the human world.

There, she meets Luka, who believes that Bayonetta murdered her parents and has put Cereza under a spell to believe that Bayonetta is her mother. Bayonetta decides to leave Cereza with Luka, who takes her in a hijacked military vehicle to Prominence Bridge, trying to get to Isla Del Sol. After that plan is foiled by the destruction of the bridge, Luka takes her back to the Vigrid Air Force Base, where Cereza enchants her glasses to allow Luka to see Bayonetta fighting in Purgatorio. She then asks for them back, and when Luka asks where she got such magical glasses, she informs him that she doesn't need them to see the Angels.

As Luka attempts to sneak aboard a Valkyrie Military Transport, Cereza becomes lost inside and is found above the ocean by Bayonetta, after a fight with Jeanne. She hands her back off to Luka to kill Sapientia, though she makes it onto the helicopter before they do, much to Cereza's delight. After the helicopter is destroyed, they fly a missile onto the Isla Del Sol, and Cereza is taken away from a fight between Jeanne and Bayonetta, in which Bayonetta learns that Cereza is herself as a child.

Cereza, after the reunion of Luka, herself, and Bayonetta, wakes up and runs off in the Ithavoll Building to find Balder, who she calls Daddy. Upon finding him, he tells Bayonetta of the resurrection of Jubileus and absorbs Cereza and her power as a witch to try and defeat Bayonetta.

Bayonetta (Present)[]

After Balder's defeat, Bayonetta rescues Cereza and returns her to her own time, singing to her as she tucks her into bed. This chain of events ends up creating a new universe, which this version of Cereza inhabits.^[3]

In the new altered timeline, she instead wears the Umbran Watch on her at all times. Because of this, the stab which sets off the ritual that sealed her failed and instead strikes the watch. Instead of losing her will to fight, she is inspired by her future self, whom she had met and mistaken as her authentic mother. As a result, she retains her fighting spirit after witnessing her actual mother's death and fights off the angels and people of the Witch Hunts alongside Jeanne.

This change allows her to awaken the power of the Left Eye, which affects both the parallel universe the time-displaced Cereza inhabits, and the Main Universe's counterpart.^[1]

Abilities[]

Cereza, due to her age, possesses no formal training with the Umbra Witches, yet has innate magical abilities. She can use her magic to a limited degree, such as gifting others a way to see what happens in Purgatorio with her glasses as she does with Luka.

Quotes[]

• "Mummy is a witch, and witches protect people and are very strong!"
• "Mummy!"
• "Mummy, you're the best!"
• "The glasses aren't magic, silly, I can see the monsters without them."
• "Get them, Mummy! Get them!"
• "Ok Mummy!"
• "Mummy, are you looking for something?"

Gallery[]

For more pictures and screenshots of Cereza, click here.

Trivia[]

• Cereza means cherry in Spanish.
  • Similarly her mother, Rosa's name is Spanish for rose.
• Cereza is voiced by actress Joy Jillian in English, and by Miyuki Sawashiro in Japanese, for both the games and film. Her motion capture was performed by Stephanie Sheh.
  • In the audio commentary for Bayonetta: Bloody Fate, it was revealed that the voice actress for Cereza in the game was initially unknown even to developers. When attempting to re-hire the cast from the game for the film they had no way of finding who did Cereza. All that was known is that she was a 7-year-old child when she recorded. However it was later revealed in a podcast that Hellena knew who Cereza's Voice Actress was, and was able to get Platinum Games in contact with her to reprise her role.^[4]
    • Cereza's voice actor in the film, Bloody Fate, Miyuki Sawashiro, also shares her voice with Rin Rin from the Anarchy Reigns Japanese version and Sakura Suzuhara from Neon Genesis Evangelion Q.
• The game's stage maps feature Cereza moving tumbler dolls that look like the playable characters. In his developer's commentary, Kamiya says this represents Cereza after she returns to the past, reliving her memories of her time in the present.^[5]
• According to Kamiya's commentary, Cereza is intended to be about 4 years old.^{[citation needed]}
• Cereza's dress is, in fact, her nightgown, as she was spirited away from her sleeping chambers at night.
• In any one of several "out of body" scenes where the player must protect Cereza by astral projection, they can earn the trophy/achievement, "A Mother's Love" by ensuring that no damage is dealt with her whatsoever.
• On the map where Bayonetta moves, the hand that we see that moves her can be seen with a shirt that looks identical to Cereza's.
• There are several hints in the game that makes the player guess that Cereza is the young Bayonetta from the past; among these hints are:
  • Both Bayonetta and Cereza have the same sort of British accent and they are similar in appearance.
  • Cereza calls her toy cat Cheshire, the same name that Bayonetta calls Luka.
  • At one point in the game Luka gives Cereza a lollipop that is similar to the "Bloody Rose Lollipop; Luka says the flavor is strawberry, the same flavor lollipop Bayonetta has throughout the game. This act of kindness on Luka's part has a profound effect on Cereza's future, as Bayonetta is often seen utilizing them.
  • Finally, in Bayonetta's last flashback it shows her saying "I'm not afraid anymore Mummy". Cereza called Bayonetta "Mummy" throughout the game, so this proves that Cereza is Bayonetta as a young girl.
  • Also, Balder directly explains to Luka that he needed his daughter (Bayonetta/Cereza) when she was still young and saw the world through "innocent eyes". Balder also tells Bayonetta to call him "father", while Cereza does the same.
• Because Bayonetta looks very similar to her mother, it would give a reason why Cereza would confuse her future self for being her "Mummy".
• Although Cereza is pretty similar to Bayonetta in appearance, she lacks the beauty mark that Bayonetta has on the lower left of her lip. Ironically, the beauty mark is present in Bayonetta's child form when fighting Jubileus, and can only clearly be seen when viewing her 3D model.
• Cereza is actually the youngest playable character in the entire Bayonetta series, younger than even Loki. However, since she was Bayonetta herself, and her playable appearances only occur when facing Jubileus and Resentment, Loki is considered the youngest playable character.
• Cereza will slowly toddle towards Bayonetta when she is too far away. However, as long as your camera does not have her in view, she secretly teleports nearby then toddles towards you. This can be clearly seen during Developer Commentary part 24.
• A Cereza trophy is available for Bayonetta's appearance in Super Smash Bros.
• It is shown throughout Bayonetta 3 that the main Bayonetta in the game resembles a grown-up version of this Cereza, including how she looks and how certain characters interact with her.

References[]

Characters
Bayonetta Bayonetta (Gallery) Jeanne (Gallery) Enzo Rodin (Gallery) Luka (Gallery) Cereza (Gallery) Rosa Father Balder (Gallery) Jubileus the Creator
Bayonetta 2 Masked Lumen Loki Loptr Lord Aesir Reborn Aesir
Bayonetta 3 Viola Midmyers Sigurd Singularity Variants
Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon Cereza Jeanne Morgana Prince Lukaon Colm Ignis Púca
Other characters Antonio Redgrave Umbran Elder Angel of Paradiso Infernal Demons More characters