Phantom Thief Jeanne - Reviews

Wow. I seriously created an account on this website just so I could review this anime. I don't mean to bash it, but if I come off too demanding, it's because I've read the manga and so many people only watch the anime and think "yeah, it's good, but I've seen better". Or worse: they think "this is awesome". And that's where you all don't know how wrong you are. Tanemura Arina is an amazing mangaka, but her animes, for some reason, never turn as good as the mangas (such as this and Full Moon wo Sagashite).
It's not like the anime is particularly bad...but it lacks almost everything that makes the manga interesting, and becomes only a normal "girl falls in love with the guy, they have some conflicts and get together". It's much more than that. It teaches you about love, yes, but not only as a couple. It teaches about family, friendship and even to love youself and everyone around you.

The only thing I think it's actually decent on the anime is the twists to the plot, since they come off as unexpecting and in the manga.

My first critique is on the side-stories. I mean, why - WHY!! - would someone cut off one of the most amusing and intense parts, which is Access and Finn's? It doesn't even make sense to just ignore this background between them, since Access is constantly saying he loves Finn (which is something totally random for someone who's only seen the anime) and that "she was like this and like that in the past". Then you may be thinking "oh, but if they followed the manga that closely, it would have too many episodes and they don't have that much". Yeah, that's true, so my solution is that they, literally, cut the crap at the beginning. Okay, we need to see all the Chiaki x Maron development and Miyako's and other character's parts on it all, but there are a lot of episodes that only have Jeanne chasing the demon, sealing it easily and done, that's it. So, WHY? Of course they need to show some of those to get the viewer into it and for us to get the mood of it all. But don't you think the character's backgrounds are much more important than all the fillers? Especially since a lot of the situations Jeanne has to solve on the anime don't even exist in the manga - and that's why I called it filler, though it's technically not.

Then comes my second critique. I think we get a pretty clear view on the main characters' personalities - but by that I mean only, exclusively Maron and Chiaki. Who's Miyako? Maron's friend, right? No. She is much more than that. She is an important part of it all, and even what she did for Maron - giving up on Chiaki and not making a fuss about it so that Maron could be happy - is something that isn't given enough importance on the anime. Then comes the other question about her: does she end up with anybody? No? In the manga she does. I'm not spoiling it, so you'll have to read it to find out, but I can only say it is someone unexpected.

And from then on, Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne's anime only follows the pattern and makes the same mistake over and over again. We don't get to see half of Noin and Jeanne's love - and I mean BOTH Jeannes, because yes, in the manga he falls for Maron. We don't get to know Takazuchiwa Zen, and that's why we barely care for him at all. He also falls for Maron. Did you get even a glimpse of that on the anime, other than "you're my wind"?

Also, I don't know if it's because it's been some years since I read KKJ and I've just seen the anime now, but everything seems much more superficial and too dramatic. Again, I'm pretty sure that's the anime's fault, because in the manga you get every characters' feelings straight, so you actually relate to them and feel for them.

But then comes the worst and most horid, disguting end of the anime (and don't worry, I'm not giving spoilers). So Maron makes whoever turned bad, good again, and that's it? Oh, so what about the Devil? He's just there and everything is okay? Wrong. So what about God? And what about even Chiaki and Maron's relationship, where did it go? And Miyako's fine when she gets ALL of that information? It doesn't make any sense on the anime, like everything else. They even screwed it up, since the ending of the anime has nothing to do with the manga's. Not only it ends on a cliffhangers and leaves thousands of unanswered questions, it was so distorted from the original that they couldn't continue it even if they wanted to. And even their future, about fifteen or so years later, we don't get the slightest view of it on the anime.

If the artwork could save...but it can't. The truth is the anime underrates Tanemura's beautiful art, which has so many details and ornaments in the manga.

So I hope, whether you liked this or not, that you'll reconsider it - AND JUST READ THE MANGA!

This was a very good anime, probably one of my favorites. The story line is clear but, the begining was sort of unnessasary, but animation is done well, the sound is good and I like the charaters.

Ive seen this Anime so many times and I think I should write a Review now. This is my first review to an anime so I hope it helps you to decide to see the show or not. 

Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne is that kind of anime I really enjoyed watching. The characters are great and especially Maron/Jeanne goes through a bog change in the anime. Her friend Myako can be pretty annoying from time to time and the policeman seem to be really dumb too but its still fun to watch. 
I really like the love story between Marron and Chiaki. She is the typical shy girl which doesnt like boys and he is the typical casanova who flirts whenever he can. But both of them go through changes all over the anime which is nice. The annoying love and hate relationship evolves more and more and I started to love them both together.
Also Chiaki is hot as hell thats why you totally should watch the anime :D

Animation and sound were totally fine. You can see, that this anime isnt the newest one but the style is still nicely drawn :) Im giving this Anime an overall 9.5. 

So, i came here to write a very long review of this series. As a fan of the manga, i can say, i was very dissapointed when i first watched this back when i was in middle school. The first time i read this series was in middle school, and it completely pleased me. The manga was a oldtime masterpiece for me, but then i remembered i attempted to watch the series based on it, aka this show, and omw, i was so DISSAPOINTED. 

I cant even say how boring this was. The manga was so good and interesting, the anime, oh gosh.

I had watched Phantom Thief Jeanne to make comparisons with the similar anime Saint Tail.  To make this portion complete let’s offer up the results of the side-by-side (this being IMHO):

The better thief: Both had differing goals, Meimi to retrieve stolen goods, Maron to defeat the demons twisting souls.  On realism alone, I put Meimi over Maron.  And she’s cuter, too.

The superior detective:  Both were really slow to discover the identities of their respective master thief.  But, because one was slack due to loyalty towards a friend, I declare Miyako over Asuka Jr.

The preferable third wheel: Come on!  I got to go with the nun.  Sorry Sinbad!  Sister Seira over Chiaki.

Better transformation sequence:  I give the nod to PTJ since the series had two, the blast from the pink flames in season one and the more salacious transformation in series two.

Better plot: Both suffer from irregularities, but ST less so.

Better resolution: PTJ rushes at you in the last two minutes.  ST has a time lapse leading to the engagement of lovely couple.  ST edges PTJ out on this one.

No more comparisons.  Let’s focus on Phantom Thief Jeanne.  This series would have problems with committed Christians who would take the 44 episodes as bunk and nonsense, and that for wild-eyed stabs at theology.  Something like reading a chapter on Roman Catholicism and hauling forth (Saint Tail had this issue as well, but not to the depth of PTJ).   The series had trouble with dualism (God superior to Satan, not equal, and definitely not capable of losing the universe to Lucifer), angelology, demonology ... but, remember this series is nothing more than a work of fiction.  There must be a lot of allowance to view this series without all those ‘aw, come on!!!!’ 

The anime followed the work of the manga Kamikase Kaitou Jeanne by Arina Tanemura.  But it did not follow it closely.  I’ve read a synopsis of the manga, and it makes wildly imaginative twists to the plot.  Phantom Thief Jeanne veered widely of that complicated plot line, trying to 1) uncomplicate it and 2) give it a more palatable ending.  It struggled to gain any of these goals.  It seems that in quality anime derived from quality manga, you can’t have it both ways.

As for the music … yikes!  ‘Piece of Love’ appealed to the Weird Al Jankovic who resides in the deep, dark recesses of the back of my mind.  After ten episodes, I had a parody ‘Pizza Love’ where the mountains crumbled into dust and buried the pleasant pizzeria which was cursed by its bad selection of pepperoni.  While the second season didn’t last as long, it was a matter of a few episodes before ‘Dive Into Shine’ transformed into ‘Dining On Swine.’  Please, if one wishes to place snatches English into Japanese, have them make sense.  And the lyrics in general … downersville.  The universe is reduced to cosmic dust and rapidly being sucked into the oblivion of a black hole ... but with you holding my hand ... it's doable.  It fails to attain the highest praise of 'It had a good beat ... I could dance to it ... I give it an 85 (an ancient and mystic incantation in the world of music.  Oh, young brave-hearts ... google it!).

My greatest criticism of PTJ is the amount of emotional and psychological torture inflicted on Maron.  Of course, this comes from the ultimate force of evil.  But in the end ... neither believe in God or the Devil; believe in yourself.  There is much to assert about self-confidence.  False confidence is another matter all-together.  In this case, a vote for neither is still a vote against God, and rah-rah for the other side. 

A plot with no clarity or logic, but still a happy enough ending to make it suitable for recognition as mediocre at best.