is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Arina Tanemura. The story is about the adventures of a high school girl, Maron Kusakabe, who is the reincarnation of Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc) and transforms into a phantom thief magical girl to collect the scattered pieces of God's power, which are also coveted by demons hiding in beautiful artwork.
The manga was published by Shueisha in Ribon between February 1998 and July 2000. The individual chapters were collected and published in seven volumes. It was formerly licensed for English-language publication by CMX and is now licensed by Viz Media. The series was adapted by Toei Animation as a 44-episode anime television series titled in English as Jeanne, The Kamikaze Thief that was broadcast on TV Asahi from February 1999 to January 2000. The manga was reissued by Shueisha in 2007, with all chapters fitting into only 6 volumes, instead of the original 7; all volumes had new covers.
Plot 16-year-old high-school gymnast Maron Kusakabe is visited by the angel Finn Fish, who gives her a task. God's power is scattered across the Earth, and if He does not gather enough by the turn of the millennium, He will die. To block Him, The Devil had sent out agents to gather His power, which is the beauty in human hearts, in the form of chess pieces. With Finn's assistance, Maron transforms into the reincarnation of Joan of Arc in order to hunt Demons hidden within works of art. When Maron seals a Demon, the artwork disappears, and to the outside world it is as if she has stolen it, and she becomes a phantom thief. Maron's best friend is Miyako, the daughter of a police detective in charge of Jeanne's case.
As the series progresses, Maron and Miyako fall in love with new classmate Chiaki, who wants to stop Maron collecting the chess pieces, for he knew that Finn Fish is the Fallen Angel, but apparently in the form of normal angel. Chiaki at first "fakes" falling in love to get closer to Maron, knowing Maron is Jeanne. Later he falls in love truthfully after realising that Maron is worth the effort, even if she does "hate" him. Maron, on the other hand, is confused and does not know what "love" means because her parents abandoned her when she was around ten years old when they were having problems getting along, so no one taught her. As a result, she does not know how to respond to Chiaki's advances.
The manga relates in detail Finn Fish's background, expounding on Finn's relationships with other angels and the events that led to her becoming Maron's partner. This backstory of the angels is not shown in the anime. Phantom Thief Jeanne has often drawn comparisons to Sailor Moon for the magical girl theme and similarity in appearance between Phantom Thief Jeanne and Sailor Moon.
Characters
Main characters
The protagonist of the series, Maron is a beautiful 16-year-old (17-year-old from chapter 19) high school girl and rhythmic gymnast, who can also transform into the supernatural . Maron lives in an apartment alone—having been left by her parents, who seem to work abroad but are really possessed by demons. She is well liked at school, especially in chapter 11, when many boys from her school offer to escort her home on Valentine's Day, and request chocolate valentines from her. She is also very stubborn and head-strong. Even so, Maron is a lonely young woman who hides her feelings behind a warm smile. Before the series began, Maron had encountered a tiny female angel named Finn Fish, who gave her a mission from God to seal away demons. These demons attempt to steal the beauty in human hearts, in order to increase the Devil's powers. Maron was given a mystical rosary with a large crucifix, by which she could transform into Phantom Thief Jeanne, the reincarnation of Joan of Arc, who then captures the demons. Her theme color is white. Finn delivers Jeanne's advance notices that she will steal the painting to the possessed human's house. Then the police and Miyako come. Then at exactly 9 o'clock, from out of nowhere, Jeanne appears. She captures the demon and disappears into the night. Even though Jeanne does some property damage and steals paintings, the victims report neither the property damage nor the stolen paintings because they like the angel paintings more than the demon paintings. Her crucifix will give off a certain sound when a demon is near. Other than the noise, the possessed human will have fangs – if the person smiles while doing something evil. She even uses it to communicate with Finn when she is not there. Maron finds out that, in chapter 12, her crucifix was to help her be Jeanne, to be invincible, with help from Finn. She actually holds a greater power within her that can make an ocean sparkle and makes the sky turn clear. Then her holy powers awakened. Her ribbon acts as an extra hand. It can help her reach high or far places or items. If Jeanne takes off the ribbon holding her hair together, she becomes Maron. Even though she has her parents' phone number and address, she is afraid she would once again be "thrown away" by her parents, and thus refuses to contact them. The only time she is contacted by her parents is by her mother, in order to tell her they are divorcing. She is afraid of the night and darkness because her parents weren't there to comfort her loneliness, despair, and terror. Maron is very close with her friend Miyako, though she still holds her at a distance. In the beginning, she sees Chiaki as merely a playboy, and refuses to trust him as he had always seemed to be hitting on her. However, after the incident when Maron was told of her parents' divorce, Chiaki found Maron alone in tears, and he encouraged her to believe in herself. This was a turning point for Maron: Chiaki's kindness helped her trust others, and it also sparked romantic feelings toward Chiaki. At first, she was surprised and dismayed about Chiaki's/Sinbad's identity, but she came to fall in love with him even more. Throughout the series, she tries to confess to him, but something always happens. She ends up not confessing before because if she did, she will hurt Miyako's feelings. Finally, in the second-to-last chapter, she confesses to him that she loves him and they sleep together. Seven years later, Maron is 24 years old, married to Chiaki, and has a daughter named Natsuki who is the reincarnation of Finn. Maron ends up going through a time slip in chapter 22. She meets the real Joan of Arc and dragged Noin with her. With her final breath, Jeanne gave Maron her power and transformed in chapter 23. She doesn't need a pin to seal the demon, instead, her "courage" brings forth a sword. Maron gives up her reincarnation power to have Finn reborn. She stops being a thief. She finally sees her parents (remarried to each other) again in chapter 30. Her punch is so strong that she can crack a chalkboard and even break a brick wall. Jeanne has some different physical features from Maron, and also possesses certain supernatural powers. In chapter 29, Maron learns that her first reincarnation was Eve.
Chiaki is a male student at Maron's school, who can transform into , Jeanne's rival, who also collects demons' powers. Maron doesn't realize Sinbad is really Chiaki, but he already knows of her double-identity. At the very beginning of the series, Chiaki moves into Maron's and Miyako's building and transfers to their class, in order to get close to Maron, to stop her from collecting the demons. At first, Chiaki is portrayed as a playboy, whom Maron despises. However, as time passes, he falls in love with her, and he's able to gain Maron's trust, and eventually love, by helping her out of tough situations, and helping her regain her courage-both as Chiaki and as Sinbad. After Chiaki catches Maron staring sadly at her empty mailbox, he begins dropping her "useless" notes, as one of Chiaki's many ways of trying to cheer her up. He is the first person that Maron told about her parents. Like Maron, Chiaki lives alone, having run away because he was tired of his father's continuing to marry new women after his mother's death when he was 5 years old. He later reconciles with his father, after introducing him to Maron. Chiaki, too, is accompanied by a small male angel, Access Time, who gave him the power to become Phantom Thief Sinbad. Like Jeanne, his crucifix helps him transform and is used to communicate with Access. It is eventually revealed that Chiaki had been attempting to stop Maron, because he knew of Finn's being an agent for the Devil, rather than for the God, and was using Maron to help him. He had wanted to seduce her in order to make her stop, but he began to find himself blushing each time Maron smiled to him, which he tried to lie to himself by telling himself that it is just "false affection" (in the manga), or that he was being moody (in the anime). After Maron discovers he was also Phantom Thief Sinbad, and that he was just trying to seduce her to make her stop being a Phantom Thief, he realizes his affection for her, and fights to regain her trust. His theme color is black. If the bandana around Sinbad's head is undone, he returns to Chiaki. From his cross, he can summon multiple pins. He learns that his previous self was Adam. His heart was manipulated by a demon that possessed Miyako in chapter 27. When Maron freed Miyako, he stops being manipulated but he was teleported to the Devil's palace. In the second-to-last chapter, he is overjoyed when Maron confesses her love to him and confesses to her, and they sleep together. Seven years later, Chiaki is 24 years old, a doctor in training, married to Maron, and has a daughter named Natsuki who is Finn's reincarnation.
Miyako is Maron's classmate and friend since childhood, who lives to the left of Maron's apartment (Chiaki's apartment is to the right of Maron's). Miyako and Maron both met in the same kindergarten when they were 5 years old. Miyako's father is a police detective and, desiring to follow in his footsteps, Miyako frequently aids in trying to catch Jeanne, and eventually Sinbad as well. She was sad when Jeanne didn't show up in chapter 7. Because of her personality, she was once accused of stealing the class's lunch money. No one believed that she didn't steal it but only Maron did, and it was the teacher who had it. It then became a habit for her to say the opposite of what she felt. She depended too much on Maron's tenderness and didn't notice her sad tears. When she first started high school, she learns of Jeanne. Her female classmates think that Maron is very similar to Jeanne. Since she knows how it feels to be suspected, Miyako decided, from then on, to catch Jeanne to prove Maron's innocence and to protect her smile. It was revealed in chapter 27 that Miyako knew all along. If her father or the other police caught Jeanne, Miyako would pretend to mess up and let her go. Then they will let it go since she is too young for police work. Miyako knew that Jeanne wasn't there for the money. In the anime adaptation, Miyako is unaware that Maron is Jeanne and is deeply hurt when Maron is forced to transform in front of her. The pain allows Finn to use Miyako to attack Maron, but Maron is eventually able to wake her up. Stubborn and with a fierce temper, Miyako notes during the series that even with her, Maron is sometimes distant and that it bothers her. She drops rhythmic gymnastic balls on top of Maron during unsuspecting moments. She was possessed by a demon in chapter 27. Maron was able to seal the demon. Maron told her everything in chapter 27. Miyako suspected that she was Jeanne since the beginning.