Kusukabe Maron has one real wish in this world - to be normal. The type of normal with parents and a family and no cares beyond teenage trifles. Living alone in her apartment (in the building "Orleans"), Maron is a seventeen-year old high-school student and a talented rhythmic gymnast. Her best friend, Toudaiji Miyako, is the daughter of a fairly prominent police detective. Miyako's greatest annoyance in her life is the mysterious [Kamikaze] Kaitou Jeanne, a blond, violet-eyed, female thief with the tendency to steal objects (usually paintings, statues, and the like, but not limited to) with absolute perfection. Meaning, she never gets caught. Maron is, indeed, the infamous Kaitou Jeanne - but she isn't actually stealing the objects. Demons from the Devil wander the earth, possessing beautiful or meaningful objects. By taking over these precious items, the demons control the souls of people close to them. A painter to his paintings, a groom to his bride's gown - there are no limits to what they will infect and steal. Maron, as the reincarnation of Jeanne D'Arc (more commonly known as Joan of Arc, Maid of Orleans - get the pun on "Orleans"?) [Editor's note: That is not the definition of a pun :P], has a mission (given to her by miniature little white angel Fin Fish) to find these demons and seal them away. Using a white pin (it looks like an extended pushpin), she throws it with amazing accuracy at the possessed object (in some cases, the demon, which is a purple blob). The demon is sealed into the pin, which becomes a white chess pawn. Unfortunately, when the demon is sealed, the beautiful object vanishes forever - and who would ever believe that it vanished because of a demon? Thus, she is marked as a thief - and one of the best. Chased by her best friend, Miyako is in the dark about Maron's thieving abilities - and there is another one in the picture, Kaitou Sindbad. When he appears, his mission is stated that he will steal all of Jeanne's targets, for he is the better thief. At the same time this thief appears, a boy moves in next door - a teenager named Nagoya Chiaki. Coincidence? Well, no - he happens to have his own little angel (Black Angel Access Time!). Maron doesn't relish the idea of being a thief - but she does understand her mission to save the world. (And maybe have her parents come back to her, too.)
Carefully woven, this story has good points and bad points. If I had never watched any anime before, I would have fallen in love with it immediately - as a matter of fact, I did anyway. Maron is a rather funny heroine - she truly hates the demons for the damage that they do to families. It gives her the ultimate determination that she needs to defeat the demons - along, with of course, Sindbad to make her competitive spirit come out. Maron struck me as rather annoyed in episode one. She had enough trouble in her life as it was, and a fairy-type thing (which no one but her can see) with green hair wearing a rather strange outfit tells her to go out at all hours of the night and seal demons. However, she has a valiant, determined spirit - a nice change from any hero who would rather give up. Her courageous spirit is really evident in episode 20, which was a spectacular look at both her and Chiaki (whom I could just stare at all day long…). As the episodes continue, you get a look at what kind of people all of the main characters are - episode 19 is the most heart-wrenching look at Miyako, and what she really thinks of Maron. (NOT in a yuri sense.) Episodes that you get to see what type of people Maron-tachi are really like are almost always well pulled off, and the comedic affects of this show are pretty funny.
The main plot of the show (in the first twenty episodes) is that of Maron, or Jeanne, sealing demons, as well as Chiaki, Sindbad, sealing her demons and taking them too. Of underlying plots, there are several - Maron, though attracted to Chiaki right off the bat, does not hold to his personality well - he is too flighty for her tastes. Miyako has a tremendous crush on him, and Minazuki Yamato, the class president [Linchou], has a funny little crush on Maron. However, Chiaki, although not in love with Maron (at least, not in the beginning), is determined to flirt with her as much as possible, in hopes of preventing her from making thefts. Their little arguments over each other are one of the funniest parts of the show. The darkest sub-plot would be that of Maron's parents, who left her alone at the age of eight to work overseas. (They were both architects.) Maron feels an immense sadness from that, and often dreams of incidents leading up to that time. The sadness that the viewer witnesses is heart breaking, yet allows you to see how strong Maron is. Despite living alone for nine years, Maron is incredibly strong - how she manages to keep up such a happy lifestyle is far beyond me.
Er, one thing that my sister very pointedly showed me before I even watched this show was its similarities to another mahou shoujo anime, Kaitou Saint Tail (which is also reviewed on this site). In both shows you have - A: A thief who's stealing for good (with the protection of God), B: A detective trying to catch said thief, and C: Challenges. Challenges are really more notices saying that this thief will steal this object at this time. In KKJ, the angels (Fin Fish and Access Time) send out little cards to the owners of the object to be stolen, and in KST, they are from the Saint Tail to the detective trying to catch her. Kaitou Saint Tail has a good reason for sending them - for some odd reason, KKJ does not. Is it a matter of morality? Well, Jeanne and Sindbad have no reason - they have a fairly easy time stealing the object most of the time anyway, so perhaps they're bored. Or maybe it's just a matter of how much more boring it would be if Miyako didn't know and just sat at home all the time. Joan should really write an editorial on this for you to read, which is why I won't get more into it.
I truly adore this anime in all of its 2-D glory - and I still do. I re-watch the episodes and look for adorable little parts and constantly re-watch, which is a joy in my life. Anyone at all should like this - it's an even balance of the good vs. evil fight to the typical, funny humor throughout the show. Not to mention how good-looking Sindbad is, or how brightly colored their eyes are. Neatest thing about Maron's transformation into Jeanne is how her hair splits into three wavy ponytails - and turns bright blonde. (I assume her outfit is supposed to be French, but it looks more Swedish to me.) [EN: Swedish?! ;p]
[ Season 2: Episodes 28-44 ]
Major SPOILERS for 1st (and 2nd...) Arc! Read at your own risk!
Since Maron has sealed all the demons left in the world, Fin has taken the collective power and gone of to God, in order to become a sei-tenshi (great angel). Maron, left alone, is anxiously waiting for Fin to come back. Unfortunately, it seems that Fin was wrong about there being no more demons left - for the very next day, Maron gains a new transformation and power to checkmate the very powerful demons. Hurt and horrified, Maron convinces herself that Sindbad and Access Time are causing these new demons. Her new history teacher, Shikaidou Hijiri, is most interested in Maron as well. And, of course, the people controlling the demons? Mist, a demon that looks a little girl, is determined to kill Jeanne before "Queen" arrives, as well as another demon, one named Noin Claude, who seems obsessive over Jeanne… and for another complication, Maron still doesn't know who Sindbad is, who is going to regret it if he doesn't tell her soon.
The plot in this is all nice and complicated, but they certainly weren't concentrating very much on nice details. They had various filler-filler-filler-BAM! The last few episodes were chock-full of details - so many, it appears that they ran out of time when they got down to the action-packed, full-of-details ending. The show ends after the final battle, with a showdown between Maron and "Queen." But, I'm a bit curious - what happened to the Devil? For since he's orchestrating this entire thing, shouldn't he show up to try to beat God's project into the ground? Well… no.
As my sister kindly pointed out to me earlier, Maron is also getting rather repetitive. We thought that the "I'm alone in this world…" issue had been covered in the first season, but apparently, it hadn't been. It completely dominates the last ten episodes. Not only that, Chiaki suddenly did the exact same thing every episode - and no more personality! Minazuki no longer exists, either. As for Fin - well, I have to say that her reasons for this job are fairly unintelligent, and not exactly powerful, either. (I wouldn't do it for her reasons…) So, overall, most of this season Maron cries, Chiaki runs around looking for Maron (and then yelling at her to listen to him), Miyako runs away from her possessed family, and Minazuki drops off the face of the planet (he has one episode). Overall, they weren't into characterization, except for Maron - and in my opinion, they ran out of ideas. One reason for that may be was that they seemed to be trying to be as un-manga as possible - and the manga took the best possible option for whatever plot-choice or character.
There were, however, some good points. Maron herself has a nice character moment in forty-four, and Miyako has a disturbing, but enlightening revelation of her own in forty-three. One cannot say the entire last arc is without its memorable moments, or character development. As for plot, it unfolds fairly neatly (until the end). Tying in Jeanne D'Arc, the character whom this all started from, it shows you how she connected to everyone else. It also actually gave an answer to the "Who is Sindbad" question that isn't specifically answered in the manga, as well as showing what kind of weirdo everyone in this show is like under pressure.
Despite the first half of the show being mainly fillers, it still made the second season of this show into a disappointment by comparison. Lacking the enthusiasm, humor, and pure essence of KKJ that some episodes of the first half had, the second half was incredibly lacking in depth. Although it is something to watch, it is not something that is cheerful to re-watch, nor is it anything that requires one-hundred percent intelligent thinking.
