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High school student Maron Kusakabe has a secret: she’s Phantom Thief Jeanne. She sneaks into private art collections to steal paintings in which demons reside. Jeanne’s task is to seal the demons before they can devour human hearts. So far she’s been able to evade the police on her midnight outings, but now another thief has come onto the scene—Phantom Sinbad—and he’s trying to take the paintings before she does!

258 pages, Paperback

First published June 18, 2013

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About the author

Arina Tanemura

213 books1,005 followers
Name in Japanese: 種村有菜 (Tanemura Arina)
Western Zodiac: Pisces

Arina Tanemura was born on March 12, 1978. She's the author of Full Moon O Sagashite, Time Stranger Kyoko, Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne, The Gentlemen's Alliance Cross, Sakura Hime Kaden, and more.

Her favorite hobby is Karaoke. One song that she sings is Smile, originally by Myco. She has two cats, named Riku and Kai. She has one elder and one younger sister and one brother. She's the type who hates to lose in anything. She also likes Ribon.

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5 stars
201 (34%)
4 stars
202 (34%)
3 stars
130 (22%)
2 stars
34 (5%)
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15 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews
Profile Image for Mark.
2,295 reviews200 followers
August 1, 2020
I think upon re-reading this, and having recently put myself through the first volume of Sailor Moon Eternal, I would have to give this 3.5, though I don’t like it enough to round up.

Maron is the reincarnated Joan of Arc and her job is to seal away demons hiding in paintings aided by her fairy friend and rhythmic gymnastics skills, which might be one of the most anime/manga summations ever written. In her thief guise she butts heads with her best friend as well as Sinbad, a rival thief who happens to be her attractive (?) next door neighbour, Chiaki.

Part of the problem here is that I like Maron and can’t stand anybody else. Chiaki is a borderline bully who is also, by his own admission, toying with Maron’s feelings. Yeah, they’re going for the whole ‘sleeping with the enemy’ vibe, but his minimal efforts to be a decent human being hardly balance the scales.

The art is amazing when it wants to be (I have always liked Tanamura’s style when she does her detailed drawings), though anatomy is variable at any given moment or panel. I don’t mind the extreme lurches to comedy and SD art - looking at Sailor Moon it is clearly a genre staple, but here it tends to undercut its serious moments far more than it should. A little confidence in the story would be nice.

Maron gets damselled a bit more than I would like, but she is still resourceful and independent and far more capable than many heroines of her era and, if anything, most of her problems stem from being overconfident. Any attraction she has to Chiaki I cannot fathom, but I assure you I have never understood teenage girls in my life.

A good example of early magical girl manga. I don’t love this style a ton, but overall it was pretty solid. If you DO like these stories, however, I think you’ll really dig this one.
Profile Image for Alexa (Alexa Loves Books).
2,349 reviews13.2k followers
November 15, 2023
3.5 stars. This is genuinely delightful! Very much gives me the vibes of Sailor Moon and Card Captor Sakura, but with its own twists and I’m definitely eager to see how it all plays out.
Profile Image for Azet.
1,061 reviews269 followers
June 2, 2024
I am so happy i Started this manga series 💖 i have literally grown up reading Arina Tanemura’s Manga Creations and i love her illustration and story telling and characters. Always depth and growth in her characters.

Phantom Thief Jeanne starts off awesome with her stealing deceptive beauty art and getting away with it every midnight.Now we have Phantom Thief Sinbad entering this story…her new rival and pursuer in love ❤️
I felt the same vibes i got from another stories like ”Cardcaptor Sakura” and ”Full Moon ” and ”Miracoulus Ladybug”
Profile Image for Joseph Young.
869 reviews11 followers
February 28, 2017
Started reading this because I thought it might be related to D.N.Angel. Romantic plot seems somewhat predictable. Author builds a fairly coherent world for the first volume in terms of Jeanne's motivations and ultimate goals, but focuses more on the relationships. Hopefully the world expands to include other elements.
Profile Image for Meghan.
417 reviews1 follower
Read
January 10, 2022
Not rated, as manga is not my cup of tea & I wouldn't want to lower its overall ratings for fans of the medium.

One qualm I have about this book is the concept of consent. A male character "stole" a kiss two or three times throughout the story. While we knew Phantom Thief Jeanne/Maron was conflicted, the scenarios were off-putting. I'm not sure if my grade 5 & middle school students are able to take in these situations with a critical eye.
2,067 reviews
February 4, 2016
Recommended to me by a favorite teen patron so I gave it a shot. Arghh, I don't have the patience for manga! I had to read it twice to understand what was happening. All the characters look the same with their pointed chins and big eyes, and then the illustrator changes their appearances when they feel a strong emotion. And all the sound effect words thrown in which really didn't mean much to me: vish, chak, pnnt, poik, etc. Confusing! Call me not a true manga reader!
Profile Image for Satangan.
316 reviews56 followers
December 29, 2018
I checked this book out from my local Joint-Use Library and this was my first time reading this series. The cover interested me because it reminded me other other manga that was similar to other characters as a phantom thief stealing beautiful or priceless things, along with love along the way and hijinks. The reincarnation of Jeanne d'Arc was a nice touch for a character and I didn't expect to have the character Sinbad in this series that was a nice surprise. The story development went at a smooth and good pace with a little fast pace of reading through. But, I did take my time with it because of the great artwork. I haven't read a manga in this style in a long time. The more I read, I became fascinated with the story progressing and I thinking that these two main characters don't really hide their faces (except sometimes when Sinbad does) and is easy to tell their identities. But, where would the fun be if it ended all too quickly? There is a lot of cute humor in this series and I already started rooting for Maron and Chiaki (Jeanne and Sinbad) from the start, besides their mixed or complicated relationship development thus far. Even though they are supposedly enemies, I still root for their love and I slight ship Fin (Angel with white wings - to become a full-fledged angel) and Access (Angel with black wings) together as wellMaron's friend Miyako to me is slightly a bit annoying at times, but I feel like she is a great friend to her. The ending surprised me and Chiaki's father looks so young. I felt bad that Chiaki was starting to develop feelings for Maron, but it ended so terribly when the truth all came out.

The first page of the full-color illustration by ARINACCHI was loveable and beautiful. I loved the type of blue that was used it helps it all balance out together in harmony and blue is one of my fave colors.

I am curious about Maron's past and parents. I felt really bad about her parent's breakup and leaving aboard as they had a wonderful story of how they meet and love each other. I now know why she felt sad and sighed every time her mailbox was empty or no phone calls or messages. They just up and left her with her best friends family. I slightly think that there could be more to this story of why her parents never respond to her. Hopefully, besides them ignoring her. I also, want to point out that the small figure of Miyako's policeman father is cute. I didn't expect him to be tiny or in chibi form. It made me laugh to think he would stay that way, but I liked his character.

I am looking forward to continuing on with this series because I want to know what happens next with the story and the relationship between Maron and Chiaki. I am also in and out of starting and finishing other manga series along the way.
Profile Image for Popuri ⍟.
87 reviews26 followers
December 26, 2020
This was amazing? Alright, I might be a bit biased, seeing as Full Moon wo Sagashite, another series by Arina Tanemura, is one of my favorite things in the whole world, but I really enjoyed this! This gave me the vibe of a more grown up version of Sakura Cardcaptor, which is to say that as a mahou shoujo manga, it has its own flavor, which I appreciate. I love Sakura Cardcaptor and how different it is, since a lot of mahou shoujo follows the Sailor Moon formula. I think Phantom Thief Jeanne so far deals really well with both the mahou aspects and the shoujo aspects of the story. The fact that Maron, the main character, has a little angel in training partner and she has to seal demons really makes me think of the paranormal side of Full Moon wo Sagashite and it was so much fun here. Maron is the reincarnation of Joan of Arc, how cool is that?
It also does everything you could ask of a shoujo; it gives you all the fuzzy feelings and cuteness you could ask for. It touches on a lot of tropes we've seen before, but what can I say? Shoujo is my thing. However, I must note that even if it does the amusement park date thing, even if the characters themselves can be associated to a stereotype we've seen before, even then Arina Tanemura goes a little deeper, not failing to give our characters struggles, flaws and touching on deeper, more complicated topics. I've always loved how unique Full Moon was and how even being shoujo, it was nothing like the others I've seen. For one, it doesn't have the typical high school setting, but also it deals with a lot of tough subjects, which it handles beautifully, while remaining upbeat for the most part but not being afraid to have sad moments. On top of that, it added a paranormal element to the story you don't normally see, balacing the slice-of-life stuff and the magical stuff perfectly. I'd say the same thing happened in this first volume of Phatom Thief Jeanne. All of the elements presented were really well balanced and it was just a delight. I can't wait to keep reading.
Also, I can't stress this enough: the art is beautiful. I always thought Arina Tanemura has a great art style and always will. It's no wonder she became successful.
Profile Image for Daniella.
191 reviews9 followers
October 24, 2020
I don't know if I'll do individual reviews for each volume in a series as it's pretty easy to spoil things that way. Most probably will do a proper review on the final issue of each series to get a feel for the series as a whole.

As someone who grew up on Cardcaptor Sakura, Sailor Moon, Tokyo Mew Mew and Magic Knight Rayearth 90s magical girl series speak to me on a whole other level. I wouldn't for a second say that Phantom Thief Jeanne holds up to those bastions of maho shojo culture but it hits all the sweet spots for me as well as managing to be subversive in a few other aspects.

I do have to start off with a disclaimer however that this has some pretty heavy religious tones, absolutely not true to source and gets pretty buckwild, so I think this has the effect of probably putting off people that aren't religious and aren't interested in angels and fighting for God. But also turning away people that are as the religious themes are...pretty wild. I think that not being reglious myself did help me to enjoy it a little more to be honest.

The other disclaimer is that this is absolutely a product of its time and so has messy ideas about women and is pretty sexist in some areas. The main character is strong and tough and doesn't need anyone until she starts to struggle and then can't do anything without the male lead who is constantly rescuing her. This isn't particularly uncommon in shojo manga but the extent to which it is portrayed in this series gets pretty tiring.

That said, the art style is gorgeous. All the hallmarks of 90s shojo with adorable clothes, flowing hair and giant eyes. The idea of angels and reincarnation is an interesting slant for a magical girl series and, while as I mentioned it gets pretty wild, has its moments. This is definitely more pushed towards romance than anything else, while romance is often a big trope in magical girl series, it seems to be the predominant focus of Jeanne, even pushing aside Maron (the lead characters) job as phantom thief, I found that grating at times.

I think over all this is great for a nostalgia trip but alot of tropes are out dated, and in some places outright damaging (there's an absolutely wild idea behind using gods power and its ties to your virginity which...yeah.) but if you're able to overlook these things and suspend your disbelief for what is a pretty short series you might find enough in it to enjoy. I can absolutely see alot of people being turned off by this series though.
Profile Image for Brandon.
2,244 reviews35 followers
July 15, 2023
I was considering not continuing this series until the third chapter, which hit some strong points I wasn't expecting. I like Maron and the different sides of her we get to see, and this series has some nice jokes throughout as well. I don't like Chiaki as a love interest or rival but I'm sure there's something else there I'm waiting to see.

There's a sadness in Maron I really like seeing, with her talking about her parents, and a strong theme from this first volume is insecurity and overconfidence. She is lonely, she doesn't know what it's like to feel loved, she doesn't trust others when they say they have her interests at heart, but she pushes through thinking she's strong enough to win anyways. Sometimes she's wrong and needs help, sometimes she oversteps and the villain of the week can take advantage of that. It's like she's overcompensating out of this need to prove she's strong despite the world telling her she isn't and making mistakes because of it, but at the same time her pure intentions and desire to help people are a strong pillar that changes the lives of people around her. Which is cool! She's an interesting character and now that the first volume is out of the way I'm excited to see how Arina Tanemura develops on this premise.
Profile Image for Beth.
1,206 reviews179 followers
September 25, 2017
I've read almost twenty of Ms. Tanemura's manga volumes by now. This is one of her earlier series, perhaps even her first after some standalone stories, and this first volume of Phantom Thief Jeanne has many of the same strengths as her more recent titles. The art is beautiful, with plenty of dynamic character movement and flowing cloth. Floral highlights and screen tone add a girly, sparkly effect. It's worth a look for the art alone, although I wouldn't recommend this to someone new to manga, since it's more stylized than many other titles.

Marron's emotions and facial expressions are front and center; her schooldays troubles and her superhero adventures play off of each other well, whether funny or poignant. So far Marron seems to be avoiding the melodramatically self-destructive impulses of Tanemura's later heroines, so that's good. The story is this manga's weakness. It feels more-or-less stream of consciousness from episode to episode, without a strong narrative throughline. And the "magical girl" formula, fresh and interesting to the fans of twenty years ago, comes across as stale and repetitive now.
Profile Image for Cintia.
93 reviews
November 6, 2022
This is one of those mangas I've been meaning to read for years. I actually read most of Tanemura's works years ago, but I can't remember ever reading this one because I wanted to watch the anime first. I guess I'm fond of the magical girl genre from back the 90's, as I grew up with it, so maybe I'm a little biased, uou could say.

This manga is about angels and demons, and Jeanne d'Arc is a Saint, so there are some religious elements, but Tanemura handles it in a way that doesn't make me uncomfortable. And why, of course, the art in this manga is gorgeous as always with Arinacchi!
Profile Image for Mairead.
109 reviews
April 23, 2022
So far the plot reminds me a lot of Cardcaptor Sakura. I know that is to be expected considering they’re both magical girls, but specifically the romance and rivalry between Maron and Chiaki in comparison to Sakura and Syaoran. Now that I think about it, this could extend to Sailor Moon too. Anyway, I really liked this first volume. It’s a classic magical girl story and I adore Arina Tanemura’s art!
Profile Image for Sid.
19 reviews
June 23, 2022
ah, childhood nostalgia. a little questionable now that I am older, but I was willing to forgive this because its a shojo manga published in *checks notes* 1998. either way, I still love it. the art is just ridiculous and sparkly enough for me. some people see the art as a detractor but COME ON!
well, onto the next four!
(truth be told, I only read the first two when I was young. I did not know about my inter-library loan system yet. now I do. thank goodness my library has the full series.)
Profile Image for David Doel.
1,825 reviews4 followers
February 11, 2023
This is volume 1 of 5. My sense is that this could be a good story if I knew what was going on. Jeanne and Sinbad are like superheroes with alternate identities, but too little information is provided to understand the reasons. Characters show up and I don't know who they are. These books would benefit by adding a section describing the characters and their backgrounds at the beginning or end of each volume.
Profile Image for Remy.
360 reviews31 followers
June 25, 2020
I really love this author. The art is so pretty and the characters are cute.
“Phantom Thief Jeanne” is a fantasy story about a high school girl named Maron who also happens to be Phantom Thief Jeanne. The story follows Maron as she navigates her nightly adventures as well as her daily life of a high schooler, including her interactions with frenemy Miyako, new boy Chiaki, and mysterious “Sinbad.”
Profile Image for Barbara.
478 reviews41 followers
January 3, 2023
Lovely manga,the plot was very creative,as the reincarnation of Joan of Arc tries to exorcise demons from paintings that lure human hearts to darkness.

She also has to compete against Sinbad,who wants the demons for himself,but we don’t know yet why.

The supporting characters are very well crafted too,with Minazuki,Miyako,Finn and Access rounding out the opposing teams.
Profile Image for Kathleen.
3,167 reviews6 followers
April 16, 2019
I'm glad this got re-released, as it was pretty much impossible to find a full set from the original English publisher. Not sure if it's more of a romance or action story, but I'd lean toward romance with a side of paranormal activity. Lots of old-school style sight gags!
Profile Image for Aqua.
363 reviews13 followers
May 15, 2022
Starts off kinda weak and Chiaki is a bit of a creep, but it got more interesting as it went along. Definitely going to pick up the next one.

Reminds me of Saint Tail, one of my favorite manga, though not quite as strong.
Profile Image for Sal.
462 reviews25 followers
December 31, 2023
I watched the anime so long ago in my very early days. It recently crossed my mind but the power of the Internet means I get to read this digitally now instead. A different experience and well... I see more flaws than my child self once did. But it's still good fun. Ridiculous. But fun.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews

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