Anime Meta-Review
Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne
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Title Info
- seen: 1-12 of 44
- type: TV
- grade: watchable
- genre: magic_girl
- made: unknown
- Review created: Recently, but I didn't record the date.
- mod: none
I had really low expectations for this one, which probably helped it, because it is actually a bit of fun. In addition it also reminded me strongly of Mysterious Thief Saint Tail with some of the annoyances removed, and that is not a bad thing either. Anyway, the story resolves around the fact that demons have learnt to embed themselves in objects of beauty so as to capture the hearts of those who fall in love with their beauty. This enables them to score points in the cosmic wrestling match with god, as well as change the personality of the one possessed, and thus has got to be stopped. Enter the cheerful young schoolgirl Maron, who has been informed that she is the reborn soul of Jeanne of Arc and the only one capable of sealing these demons up again. She has all the magical girl trappings to assist her, easily merchandisable bright pink items of power, angel familiar and magical transformation but it's no worse than any other magical girl show.
And at times it's much better. Most of the gadgets are physical tools, which combines nicely with the fact that she's got some good physical moves. Unlike magic girls who have a `blast of energy' to win the day Maron actually has to do some planning, locate the target and then rely on physical skills to carry out her mission. This adds an interesting `strategy' side to the show, rather than simply focusing on magical combat. In addition Maron herself is a nice character, a touch of tragic background (very well suggested) an unwillingness to take rubbish from anyone and some suprising strength of character. As a more complex character she also has moments of fatigue, of doubt, and a certain irritation at her angel offsider. Fortunately there are no shortage of other characters for her to resonate with, including the angel being quite a character herself. In addition her enemies are normal police, led by her best friends dad with the enthusiastic assistance of her best friend as well. She also has a nemesis character, with his own angel, who promises to be an interesting extension to the story. The action of possession also draws other people into the show, but given that the stories are episodic (although there is background development) there is a limit as to how much can be done with these. Still, since the demons effects are very visible in human terms (such as a father hitting his child) some of the stories are quite good. Thus for those who can cope with the magic girl genre in general I think I can safely say that this is a worthy watch.
One element, similar to its genre sisters, is the use of repeated animation. In addition the animation doesn't have to be too flashy, because after all it is a character based story. This anime has both of these, the animation is fine but nothing amazing, character design has some oddities and there are some repeated sequences. In addition some of the voices get a bit shrill at times, especially when Maron is fighting with her best friend. Still, given the budget, the animation is rich in character and easy to watch. The action scenes, while not always completely logical, are exciting and varied and Jeanne (and her nemesis) definitely have their moments of cool. Top this off with solid writing, dialog, characters you like and some story threads to link it all together and you've got something pretty good.i
I was feeling very lonely, as none of the sites I source has a review of this title. Still, there's lots of entries on the anime turnpike, so at least someone else likes it.
Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:20 WST 2009