Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne

Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne (神風怪盗ジャンヌ) is a fantasy shōjo 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 Jeanne D'Arc and transforms into a magical girl kaito—phantom thief— to collect the scattered pieces of God's power which are also coveted by demons hiding in beautiful art works.

The manga was published by Shueisha in Ribon between February 1998 and July 2000. The individual chapters were collected and published in seven tankōbon volumes. It is licensed for English-language release by CMX Manga. The series was adapted by Toei Animation as a 44-episode anime television series that was broadcast on TV Asahi from February 1999 to January 2000. The series was re-issued 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 has sent out agents to gather His power, which is the beauty in human hearts, in the form of chess pieces. With Fin's assistance, Maron transforms into the reincarnation of Jeanne D'Arc in order to hunt Demons hidden within works of art. When Maron defeats a Demon, the artwork disappears, and to the outside world it is as if she has stolen it, and she becomes known as a kaitō ("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 is also secretly a demon hunter, Kaitō Sinbad. Chiaki at first "fakes" falling in love to get closer to Maron, knowing Maron is Jeanne. Later he falls in love truthfully after realizing 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 because 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. Eventually, she realizes that Chiaki is not a bad guy after all. She is deeply hurt, however, when she learns that Chiaki is her rival, Sinbad, and that he only went after her because he knew she was Jeanne.

Adaptation
The manga relates in detail Finn Fish's background, expounding on Fin'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.

Characters

 * Maron Kusakabe (日下部 まろん)
 * The protagonist of the series, Maron is a 16-year-old high school student and rhythmic gymnastic who lives alone having been left by her parents to work at separate jobs. She encounters an angel named Finn Fish who gives her a mission from God to seal away Demons attempting to steal the beauty in human hearts to increase the devil's powers. Through a rosary, she can transform into "Kaito Jeanne" (怪盗 ジャンヌ), the reincarnation of Jeanne D'Arc, and capture the demons. Maron is depicted as a lonely young woman who hides her feelings behind a warm smile. She has no contact with her parents from years until they call during the series to tell her they are divorcing. Maron is close with her best friend Miyako, though she still holds herself at a some distance. Upon meeting her new neighbor, and later rival thief, Chiaki, Maron dislikes him and finds him to be a womanizer. As the series progresses, she falls in love with him and through their love, they are able to stop the devil. At the end of the series, Maron and Chiaki marry and have a daughter named Natsuki, who is a reincarnation of Finn.


 * Chiaki Nagoya (名古屋稚空)
 * Chiaki is a high school student who moves into Maron's and Miyako's building and transfers to their class, for the purposes of getting close to Maron to stop her from collecting the demons. He also met an angel, Access Time, who gave him the power to become "Kaito Sinbad" (怪盗 シンドバッド). 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. He later reconciles with his father after introducing him to Maron. It is eventually revealed that Chiaki was attempting to stop Maron because he knew of Finn's being an agent for the devil rather than God and was using Maron to help him. Initially he tries to seduce Maron to stop her, however as the series progresses he finds that he has actually fallen in love with her, and fights to regain her trust after she discovers he is also Kaito Sinbad.


 * Finn Fish (フィン·フィッシュ)
 * Finn Fish is the semi-angel who helps Maron detect demons and gave her the power to transform into Kaito Jeanne. As the series progresses, it is revealed that Fin is a fallen angel who was banished and sentenced to death after killing a human. The devil saved her from annihilation in return for he becoming his servant, and so she manipulates Maron into gather the chess pieces for the Devil. Later, Fin explains that she really wanted to live so she could see Access again, who she is in love with. During the final battle with the Devil, Finn realizes her wrongs and sacrifices herself to save Maron. She is reincarnated as Natsuki, the daughter of Chiaki and Maron. In the anime adaptation, Fin was kidnapped and brainwashed by the Devil and did not realize she was working for him until all of the demons were collected.


 * Access Time (アクセス·タイム)
 * Access Time is the dark angel who helps Chiaki detect demons and gave him the power to transform into Kaitō Sinbad. He is in love with Finn Fish and worked hard to become a full angel so he could be with her. When Fin is killed by the devil, he gives up his black earring to Finn as a momentum so that once she reincarnated as a human that they would met again in the future. He himself becomes a semi-angel and also dies. He is reborn as Shinji, the son of Miyako and Yamato. He recognizes Natsuki as the reincarnation of Fin by the earring she was born holding, and proposes to her on the spot.


 * Miyako Todaiji (東大寺 都)
 * Miyako is Maron's classmate and best friend, who lives across the hall from Maron. Miyako's father is a police detective and, desiring to follow in his footsteps, Miyako frequently aids in trying to catch Jeanne. Stubborn and with a fierce temper, Miyako has been friends with Maron since childhood, though she notes during the series that even with her Maron is sometimes distant and that it bothers her. Eventually, Miyako reveals that she knew that Maron was Jeanne the whole time and that she only helps with trying to catch Jeanne so she could release her if she were caught. Miyako is initially in love with Chiaki, but gives up on him because she recognizes that he loves Maron. Later, Yamato confesses to her, but she believes he is only joking as he also was in love with Maron. He eventually convinces her of his sincerity and at the end of the series they marry and have a son named Shinji. 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 Fin to use Miyako to attack Maron, but Maron is eventually able to wake her up.


 * Yamato Minazuki (水無月 大和)
 * Yamato is a classmate of Maron, Chiaki, and Miyako and the the class president. Because of his gentle, unassuming nature, he does not get much respect. He initially has a crush on Maron, but later gives up on her and comes to fall in love with Miyako while joining her in trying to catch Sinbad. When he confesses his feelings, Miyako angrily pushes him in a lake, thinking he is toying with her. Eventually he is able to convince her that his feelings are genuine and at the end of the series they are married with a son. In the anime adaptation, Yamato is depicted as being so innocent and pure of heart that he is particularly susceptible to demon possession.


 * Noin Claude
 * Noin is a demon who disguises himself as history teacher Hijiri Shikaido, who teaches at Maron's school. Five hundred years ago, he was a knight who assisted the original Jeanne d'Arc and was in love with her. Unable to protect her from death, he gives his soul to the devil and vows to fall in love with Jeanne's reincarnated form. After he confirms Maron is Jeanne's reincarnation, he does fall in love with her and tries to interfere with her collecting, culminating in his attempting to rape her as she can only transform while she is still a virgin. When Maron travels back in time to meet Jeanne, he goes with her and regrets what he has done. In the anime adaptation, he dies protecting Maron, and is reunited with Jeanne.

Manga
Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne was published in Japan by Shueisha in Ribon Magazine in 30 chapters between February 1998 and July 2000, and collected in seven tankōbon volumes. Starting in July 2007, the series was reprinted kanzenban format in six volumes. It is licensed in North America by CMX Manga, in South Korea by Haksan Publish, in Indonesia by M&C Comics, in Spain by Planeta DeAgostini, in Italy by Planet Manga, and in Germany, Sweden, Poland, and Finland by Egmont Publishing.

Artbook
In June 2000, Shueisha published an artbook for the series entitled Tanemura Arina Irasuto Shū Kamikaze Kaitō Jannu (種村有菜イラスト集　神風怪盗ジャンヌ).

Anime
Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne was adapted Toei Animation as a 44-episode anime television series that was broadcast on TV Asahi from February 13, 1999 to January 29, 2000. The series was directed by Atsunobu Umezawa with music by Michiaki Kato, and starred Houko Kuwashima as Maron Kusakabe/"Kaito Jeanne". The opening themes are "Piece of Love" by Shazna for episodes 1–27 and "Dive into Shine" by Lastier for episodes 28–44, and the ending themes are "Haruka..." (ハルカ...) by Pierrot for episodes 1–27 and "Till The End" by Hibiki for episodes 28–44.