Phantom Thief Jeanne is a magical girlshōjomanga 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 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 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 was formerly licensed for English-language publication by CMX Manga and is now licensed by Viz Media. 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 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 Jeanne D'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 kaitō. 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 Da-Tenshi, 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. Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne has often drawn comparisons to Sailor Moon for the magical girl theme and similarity in appearance between Kaitou Jeanne and Sailor Moon.
Characters
Main characters
;Maron Kusakabe ;Chiaki Nagoya ;Miyako Todaiji ;Finn Fish ;Access Time
Phantom Thief Jeanne is written and illustrated by Arina Tanemura. It was serialized in the monthly magazine Ribon from February 1998 to July 2000. The chapters were later released in 7 bound volumes by Shueisha under the Ribon Mascot Comics imprint. Beginning July 2007, Phantom Thief Jeanne was republished in 6 kanzenban editions with new cover illustrations. Later, beginning June 18, 2013, Shueisha republished again in bunkoban editions under Shueisha Bunkoban imprint. Phantom Thief Jeanne was initially licensed in English for North American distribution by CMX Manga in 2004, where it was published under its original transliterated title Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne. After CMX Manga became defunct, in August 2013, Viz Media announced they had acquired the English license and began republishing the 2013 bunkoban reprint for North American distribution, with the first volume published in March 2014.
''Tankōbon'' editions
''Kanzenban'' editions
''Bunkoban'' editions
''Dōjinshi''
Under the pseudonym "Meguro Teikoku", Tanemura has also self-published unofficial dōjinshi of the series and sold limited copies exclusively at Comiket in August 2014.
Artbook
In June 2000, Shueisha published an artbook for the series entitled.
Light novels
A light novel adaptation written by Shuka Matsuta was released under the Shueisha Mirai Bunko imprint, with illustrations by Tanemura.
Anime
Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne was adapted by 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/"Kaitou 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..." by Pierrot for episodes 1–27 and "Till The End" by Hibiki for episodes 28–44.
