is a magical girl 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 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 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 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.