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Okay, I figured I might as well include this series on my page because I like it so much, and I think I mention it a few times during summaries for other series, most notably the other series by Arina TANEMURA on this site, Ion. Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne is a magical girl story that is currently running in the shoujo manga monthly Ribon as well as on TV as an anime series. I am a big fan of both. The artwork in the manga is so detailed. I couldn’t believe they thought to try to animate the manga series when I first heard about it. There are so many lines, especially in the depiction of Maron and Jeanne’s hair, that I thought the process of simplifying it for animation would be too difficult!
Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne is the story of 16 year old high school girl Maron KUSAKABE. Maron is cute, with shoulder length brown hair that she usually puts up into 2 ‘rosette’ like twists at the sides of her head. Maron is not your typical high school girl. For the last month she has been taking the town by storm at night as the magical girl ‘thief’ Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne. It turns out that Maron is the reincarnation of the great Jeanne D’arc (Joan of Arc) and is thus the only person who cannot be taken over by evil. With the help of a cute little angel-in-training named Fin, Maron transforms into the blonde Jeanne and saves people from being taken over by evil forces that have recently been manifesting in objects of art or music. Fin guides Jeanne on her mission and provides the power necessary for Maron to transform.
Things are going pretty well for Jeanne. She is gaining a reputation as a thief because when she banishes the evil from the objects of art, it is necessary to wipe them out, but she always leaves behind a beautiful picture of an angel, and saves the person’s soul from the devil. Jeanne’s only problem until now has been dealing with her best friend Miyako. Miyako lives across the hall from Maron, and is the daughter of a police detective. It is apparently Miyako’s main goal in life to capture Jeanne, and to become a police officer like her father. So far Maron has managed to keep her secret from Miyako. However the story takes a twist when a new boy moves in to the apartment next door to Maron’s. His name is Chiaki NAGOYA, and he has his eye on Maron. Why? because he knows exactly who she really is…and he has a secret of his own… Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne is filled with magic, adventure, romance, and a lot of great artwork. I also like it a whole lot for my personal favorite character, Access Time, a male version of Fin, with cute black wings and purple-black hair. Access is so cute! The anime is also very good. The opening and ending songs are bouncy, Fin’s voice is adorable-personified, and the animation quality is pretty good. My only complaint about the anime is the horrendous color palette that they use for Miyako and Maron’s clothing. Ugh, most of their clothes clash badly ^_^ Anyway, I highly recommend the manga, check it out!
This series has been licensed for release in English in the US! It can be purchased HERE!