Manga / Phantom Thief Jeanne

"I am Phantom Thief Jeanne, sent down before you by God!"

Phantom Thief Jeanne (known as Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne in its native country) is a Magical Girl manga by Arina Tanemura, published in the Shoujo magazine Ribon from 1998 to 2000. It was adapted into a 44 episode anime by Toei Animation in 1999. It sets itself apart from most Magical Girl series by having a Broken Bird heroine, and being quite a Tear Jerker at times. The manga was originally licensed in English by CMX, but it was later picked up by Viz Media after CMX's closure.

Maron Kusakabe may seem to be an Ordinary High-School Student, but secretly she's the reincarnation of Jeanne d'Arc, Phantom Thief Jeanne! Maron is on a Mission from God to seal demons hiding in works of art, which possess and corrupt pure-hearted people who admire their beauty. Unfortunately, sealing the demon also causes the artwork it inhabits to disappear, making Jeanne seem to be nothing more than a petty thief to most. The police and Maron's best friend Miyako, who dreams of becoming a detective, are dedicated to catching her, but Jeanne has God's blessing and a number of divine tools at her disposal.

Because her estranged parents live and work overseas and never contact her, Maron lives alone in her apartment with a pint-sized "minor angel" named Finn Fish, who serves as her Mission Control. One day, a flirtatious New Transfer Student named Chiaki Nagoya moves into her building, which just so happens to be at around the same time a rival phantom thief calling himself "Sinbad" appears and begins trying to convince Jeanne to quit being a phantom thief. Finn and Maron soon conclude that Sinbad must be Jeanne's opposite – a phantom thief working for the Devil – which might be a bit of a problem when Maron and Chiaki start getting a little closer than anyone anticipated...

This series provides examples of:

Tropes in both versions

• Achilles' Heel: Jeanne's transformation will undo if her ribbon is pulled off, and the same applies to Sinbad and his bandanna.
• Anti-Villain: Sinbad (in the manga) and Access (in both versions) are so friendly that you wouldn't normally think they'd be the type to become the Devil's agents. Access outright has a crush on Finn and is trying to get her attention without even caring about their position as enemies being a deterrent, and the manga has Maron repeatedly observe that Chiaki is too kind-hearted to be someone who's sold himself to the Devil without some other reason. Also, despite having a mission to interfere with Jeanne and stop her from being a phantom thief, Sinbad never directly attacks her despite that probably being a more efficient way to do so than trying to beat her to the checkmate or seducing her. Of course, it's because they were never evil to begin with, and in fact Sinbad classifies more as an Anti-Hero at worst.
• Amusement Park: Amusement parks play a large role in the story due to their relevance to Maron's backstory:
  • Early in the story, Yamato has Maron, Chiaki, and Miyako come to his parents' amusement park, in what would be Maron's first ever trip to one. Maron has a demon-induced mental breakdown that Chiaki helps her get out of, and she later has a conversation with him in the Ferris wheel about how her parents first met via a Meet Cute in front of a merry-go-round. In the manga, the events of this trip result in Chiaki beginning to realize Maron is a Stepford Smiler and feel guilt over manipulating her.
  • When Maron gets word that her parents are divorcing, she flees to the amusement park to cry, and Chiaki manages to figure out she's there based on the aforementioned story. Since Chiaki is the only person Maron had ever willingly told this story to, Miyako sends him to go comfort her. In the manga, this scene serves as both Chiaki and Maron's Love Epiphany, and also Chiaki managing to regain Maron's trust after learning about him being Sinbad; the advice he gives her here ends up having a major impact on her for the rest of the story.
  • Chiaki's father tells Maron that her father Takumi, an architect for amusement parks, had created a structure called the "Maron Dome" and finished it on her birthday, giving her a little hope that he does still love her after all. Given later revelations, it seems he really did love his daughter enough to do that despite being under the influence of Demonic Possession.
  • Midway into the manga, after agreeing to tell her everything he'd been keeping from her, Chiaki suddenly takes Maron on a date to the same amusement park they'd went to earlier, taking her on the same Ferris wheel and giving her a birthday gift. Maron is confused as to why he's bringing her there of all places, and it initially seems like he's dodging the question again, but once the day ends, he drops the Awful Truth of Finn being the Devil's agent on her. He'd brought her on the date because he knew exactly how painful this would be for her and wanted her to at least have some fun and enjoy herself before he had to tell her.
  • Finally, at the end of the manga, Maron's parents recreate their Meet Cute in front of a merry-go-round, leading to them remarrying.
• "Arabian Nights" Days: Sinbad and Access fall under this theme. The manga doesn't have an explanation as to where this comes from (although given Sinbad has an In the Name of the Moon speech, he at least seems to think it's cool), but the anime implies it was based off a Line-of-Sight Name incident.
• Arc Words: Any reference to "wind". God can't interfere in human life beyond creating wind, Maron is described by several people as a gentle wind, and in the end Maron states that she wants to become a healing, challenging or supporting wind in people's lives. Chapter 23, in which Maron meets Jeanne d'Arc herself, is titled "Birth of the Wind". The title of the story itself includes these arc words – "kami kaze" means "divine wind".
• Awful Truth: Maron's been working for Satan all along, her Mentor Mascot is a Fallen Angel who was complicit in the whole thing, and it's all part of a plan engineered to send her over the Despair Event Horizon. Oh, and this has all been happening since she was an infant.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Given that Demonic Possession usually results in the kind of Domestic Abuse that would have definitely broken Maron's spirit much more efficiently, it turns out Maron's parents must have actually loved her and each other a lot if the worst thing they could do was become rather distant and take almost seventeen years to get divorced, with her father even managing to dedicate the Maron Dome in her honor. It's outright confirmed in the manga, with them recreating their Meet Cute and deciding to remarry and go see Maron within one day of being freed from possession, then doting on Maron so affectionately that she's too distracted to even go see Chiaki for a while.
• Batman Gambit: Turns out, the Devil's plan was a lot more complicated than anyone thought: subject Maron's parents to Demonic Possession right after her birth so they'll abandon her and leave her traumatized and lonely, send Finn over so Maron can cling to her as an Only Friend and have her ego stroked by making her into Jeanne, then have Finn betray her and send her over the Despair Event Horizon. The part about demon collection was a bonus. In the anime, it actually works well enough for them to get the desired outcome (shattering her holy barrier), but in the manga, it fails thanks to Chiaki keeping her from falling apart emotionally and Yamato, Access, Miyako, and Finn offering their support; it seems the Devil had underestimated how much people around her loved her.
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: The historical Jeanne d'Arc's military achievements were only a side thing – her real mission was to cleanse the worlds of demons.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: In the manga, this is Finn and Access's relationship in a nutshell, to the point it extends even into their reincarnations. Maron and Chiaki have this dynamic in the anime.
• Chess Motifs: The sealed demons turn into chess pieces, Jeanne seals them while calling "Checkmate", and in the manga, the floor of the Final Battle looks like a chessboard. According to All There in the Manual, it's a reflection of Jeanne's commandeering of an army in France, except in a form more suited to modern society.
• Cooldown Hug: Used in the Final Battle in both versions. In the manga, Maron uses it on her former self now that she understands what it was she really wanted and needed, and in the anime it's with Finn for an "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight.
• Dating Catwoman: They technically aren't formally "dating" for the majority of the story's run, but Jeanne's working under God and the angels, whereas Sinbad is working for the Devil (actually the other way around, but Maron doesn't know that at first), yet they continue to build up their mutual attraction as Maron and Chiaki. How this is handled is different in the anime and manga:
  • In the manga, Maron finds about Sinbad's identity very early on, but she recognizes Chiaki isn't a bad person and decides that he must have his reasons for doing what he's doing, so she treats it as a Friendly Rivalry where they bond as usual outside demon heists but act as a proper rivals while "on the clock". This pays off when Chiaki finally deepens his relationship with Maron enough to tell her the truth about Finn, and he's able to be there to help her get through the shock of Finn's betrayal, after which they're straightforward allies for the rest of the story.
  • In the anime, Maron doesn't find out until around three-quarters of the way into the series, and the shock of him having been deceiving her for so long leaves her unsure how to feel about him for several episodes until Finn reveals herself on her own and thus indirectly proves Chiaki's innocence. Chiaki doesn't manage to get through to Maron as well as his manga counterpart does, but they still form a Battle Couple in the end.
• Dark Is Not Evil: No, there's nothing evil about Sinbad's chess pieces nor Access's wings being black. Quite the opposite, actually.
• Demonic Possession: The demons who hide in pieces of art possess their owners and warp their desires via More than Mind Control.
• Domestic Abuse: One way to tell that a victim of the week is under Demonic Possession is that a normally loving parent or spouse suddenly turns into a hostile abuser out of nowhere. This happens with quite a bit of frequency in the anime in particular.
• Enemy Mine: Both Jeanne and Sinbad benefit from keeping attacking demons at bay, and the only part their rivalry kicks in is in regards to who does the checkmate, so they sometimes cooperate for heists. This is especially the case in the manga, where checkmating is not even a priority for Sinbad in the first place (his goal is to get Jeanne to stop being a phantom thief in the long term, so while it's advantageous for him to get the checkmate, it's not the main issue), and he does actually care about the demon victim, so he's sometimes willing to completely back her up for the entirety of the heist. In fact, protecting Jeanne is also part of Sinbad's job, so it's only natural for him to prioritize keeping her safe during heists over checkmating.
• Erotic Dream: The manga has Chiaki's Love Epiphany about being attracted to Maron be followed shortly afterwards by him having a dream of her sprouting wings like an angel or goddess... before turning around and telling him that she hates him. The dream ends up weighing on his mind even afterwards, both the part about her being an angelic goddess and the part about his fear of her hating him. The anime has a significantly more tame dream where a goddess appears within Chiaki's nightmare and encourages him to reconcile with his father, but it serves a similar Love Epiphany role as Chiaki comes to a similar conclusion about Maron being the "goddess".
• Everyone Can See It: It doesn't take long for pretty much everyone surrounding Chiaki and Maron to see that they're an item, and for anyone involved in the Love Dodecahedron to step aside. This is especially the case in the manga, where anyone not familiar with the unusual pseudo-Friends with Benefits nature of their relationship naturally assumes they're already dating, and those who know the actual situation (Miyako and Yamato) know full well that Maron returns Chiaki's feelings and is only a single Love Confession away from a Relationship Upgrade.
• The Evils of Free Will: The trope is present, and the reason why God doesn't have a lot of power in the human world. The following quote is presented in a positive and hopeful way by Finn in the manga, and sarcastically by Noin in the anime:
  There are only three things that God can do for people. First is to create the souls of all living things. Second is to watch over those souls. Third is to move the air around the Earth.
• Ferris Wheel Date Moment: Maron and Chiaki share a ride on a ferris wheel in chapter 3/episode 15, and serves to build trust between Maron and Chiaki when she tells him about her parents' Meet Cute and her Parental Abandonment. It's less romantic than most examples of the trope, but it sets the foundation for their future relationship. The manga has them revisit the Ferris wheel later in a significantly more romantic context.
• God: With some Artistic License – Religion involved, Maron gets her power from the Christian God.
• Good Wings, Evil Wings: Access's wings are black, since he's Finn's Evil Counterpart. Or not; in fact, they're just black because Access is lower-ranked and less powerful. On the other hand, Fallen Angel Finn also has black wings.
• Haunted House: Early in the story, a possessed picture is hidden in a haunted house in an amusement park. Maron briefly breaks down when the demon starts taunting her abandonment issues and fear of the dark, and Chiaki going to help her in this state is an early major point in their relationship development.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: The Christian church who burned Jeanne d'Arc at the stake was a villain to begin with, but the whole of France including the bishops being possessed by demons invokes this trope.
• In the Name of the Moon:
  • The manga has Jeanne appear during heists with the phrase "I have appeared to seal the evil born of darkness. I am Phantom Thief Jeanne, sent down before you by God!" She also finishes her heists with "Yet again, I have stolen another work of deceptive beauty."
  • Sinbad also gets in on it in the manga, where he has his own introduction he uses if he appears before Jeanne: "The ocean has laid out my destiny. Phantom Thief Sinbad, on the scene!" The anime's version is more of a Combat Pragmatist who doesn't seem to care for that kind of thing, so he simply appears with a blunt "Phantom Thief Sinbad has arrived."
  • The anime gives Jeanne the motto "Strong and earnest; invincible and wonderful; cheerful and courageous!" (originally based on a phrase she uses in chapter 9), which shows up both in her Transformation Sequence and as a general creed she uses for herself. After her Mid-Season Upgrade, she adds the manga's "I am Phantom Thief Jeanne, sent down before you by God!" right after it.
  • In both versions, she has an extra one when she seals a demon: "In the name of God, this evil born of darkness shall be sealed!" It even gets special Stock Footage dedicated to it in the anime post-Mid-Season Upgrade.
• I Need to Go Iron My Dog: When Maron and Chiaki are stuck in a Ferris wheel during a blackout while a demon-possessed painting is outside, Maron, unaware that Chiaki is Sinbad at this point, suggests that they should say absolutely nothing to each other until the lights come back on as a safety precaution, hoping Chiaki won't notice her jumping out of the Ferris wheel car and will just assume she's still sitting there in silence. Chiaki, who also needs to get out of the car as Sinbad, just rolls with the incredibly flimsy cover-up. The manga lampshades it after Maron learns his identity and they revisit the amusement park, with Chiaki pointing out that it would have been obvious even if he hadn't known she was Jeanne already.
• In Medias Res: When the story starts, Maron has been active as Jeanne for about a month already, short enough for Finn to provide Maron and the audience with exposition about Jeanne and her mission, but long enough to spare the audience an origin story of her getting used to her new powers and to get to the action right away.
• Internal Reveal: The audience is informed that Chiaki is Sinbad from the very beginning, so it's all a matter of Dramatic Irony as he tiptoes around Maron/Jeanne until she finds out for herself. The anime also is open about the fact "Hijiri" is actually Noin before Maron finds out about it herself (although the manga hadn't exactly been subtle about it anyway).
• Living Shadow: Most demons lack shape or form, and appear as shadows in the artwork they inhabit or as the shadow of the person they possess.
• Love Dodecahedron:
  • Chiaki and Maron are mutually in love with each other, but Chiaki has Miyako and his former fiancée Yashiro in love with him, while Maron has Yamato and Noin in love with her, and in the manga, it later turns out that Chiaki's family personal assistant Kagura has feelings for Yashiro. The anime only conclusively ends with Chiaki and Maron together, but the manga goes more for Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends: Miyako and Yamato, having bonded over being spares, end up together, while Kagura confesses to Yashiro and the two hook up. The only one left out is Noin, who's determined to have better luck with Maron's next reincarnation, although Silk is trying to keep him company for the time being.
  • The manga also adds a Love Triangle on the angels' side with Access being in love with Finn, while a flashback reveals their mutual friend Toki was also in love with her. After her Face–Heel Turn, Finn claims to be in love with the Devil, but in actuality she'd reciprocated Access's feelings the entire time, and Toki doesn't press the issue again.
• Magical Girl Genre Deconstruction: The protagonist being a Broken Bird and the eventual reveal that the Mentor Mascot was Evil All Along give it a lot in common with works that would normally be associated with the genre, but the manga actually is from the late nineties when such a thing was more of an Unbuilt Trope.
• Meet Cute: Zigzagged in the case of Maron's parents. They met twice in front of the same carousel, years apart and by various coincidences, and fell in love, but by the time of the story, they're working in different countries from each other and their daughter, and are planning a divorce. As it turns out, the Devil appears to have intervened to destroy their feelings of love for each other as part of an Evil Plan to break Maron's spirit. In the manga, defeating the Devil results in them recreating the same Meet Cute scene and deciding to remarry, whereas in the anime, Maron gets a letter from them in her mailbox, implying that they'd gotten back together.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: Both versions have Jeanne temporarily lose her powers in the middle of the story and regain them with a slightly modified outfit. It's not said whether this is actually that much of an upgrade in terms of power, but in both cases she's not as reliant on Finn's powers and can channel into her own, which is in fact a very good thing.
• Mission from God: Finn had come down from Heaven to inform Maron about her being Jeanne d'Arc's reincarnation and to give her the task of stopping demons from weakening God's power by tainting human hearts, thereby curbing the Devil's influence over the world. Or at least, that's what Finn told her, but in actuality she'd been an Unwitting Pawn for the Devil the whole time; Sinbad and Access were the actual ones with a Mission from God, having been instructed to stop Jeanne before it was too late. After Finn's status as The Mole is revealed, Maron/Jeanne eventually gets to fulfill a true Mission from God for real at the end of the story.
• More than Mind Control: Demonic Possession feeds off its victims' insecurities or complexes, making them act on their desires without inhibitions. In the manga, once she's checkmated the demon, Jeanne likes to give the victim of the week a little pep talk on how to deal with their problems in a healthier way.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Yeah, so, about collecting chess pieces to restore God's power and fight against the Devil...
• Only Six Faces: Arina Tanemura's characters look remarkably similar to each other, to the point where only their outfits, hairstyles and color schemes really tell them apart. Later art drawn after the series exhibits a bit of Art Evolution to make it a little easier to see.
• Our Angels Are Different:
  • Angels have a hierarchy based on how much divine power they've collected, and Finn is a pint-sized "minor angel" who's aspiring to reach full angel status. Full angels are normally as big as regular humans, but can still enter Sleep-Mode Size at will. Access is a "black angel", a pint-sized angel like Finn who's working for the Devil. Until it turns out Finn had been misleading Maron (and the audience) about angel lore: in fact, black angels just happen to be angels who are even lower-ranked than minor angels, but there's nothing evil about them, and meanwhile Finn is actually a Fallen Angel who can also get out of Sleep-Mode Size and cause Energy Absorption by touching any divine angel. The manga also adds the rank of "archangel", which seems to be the highest rank reporting under God, but only one (Lil) appears in the story.
  • The manga also adds lore that angels are the souls of "pure" humans (usually as a result of dying before they've used up all their Life Energy), and by gathering enough divine energy over their time as angels, they can eventually reincarnate back into humans on Earth.
• Power Dyes Your Hair: Jeanne's hair is blonde instead of Maron's usual brown, and in the anime, Chiaki's usual hair color is a darker blue that changes to white/pale blue as Sinbad.
  • In the manga, an angel's hair color reflects how much power they have, with the closer to silvery-white the color, the stronger their divinity. Finn's is yellow-green, and she has a bit of a complex about it. It turns out that her previous incarnation Natsuki died with such a pure soul that Finn's yellow-green is even more obscenely powerful than the usual white, to the point cutting it causes a huge explosion that kills large numbers of people in the surrounding area.
• Parental Abandonment: Maron's parents work separately in different countries and never contact her, leaving her alone and isolated in her apartment. Maron considers herself to have been abandoned, and she can't bring herself to contact her parents and reach out to them because she's afraid they'll tell her that they don't want her. Chiaki's father finds that Maron's father, an architect, had named a project in her honor and finished it on her birthday, suggesting that they may be expressing their love for her in their own way, but soon after, she gets a call from her mother informing her (in a rather cold manner) that they're planning to divorce. "Hijiri" later gives Maron a letter checking in on her from her father under the pretense that they'd met when he was studying architecture, but given that Noin was basically trying to seduce her at that point, it's possible the letter wasn't actually real. It eventually turns out that the Devil had induced all of this in order to break Maron's spirit for the last seventeen years. In the anime, it's implied her parents have gotten in contact with her again once Finn is defeated and brought back to normal, and the manga goes even further with the Devil's defeat resulting in her parents recreating their original Meet Cute, deciding to remarry, going back to see Maron immediately, then doting on her so much that Chiaki starts getting jealous of them taking her time away from him.
• Phantom Thief: Both Jeanne and Sinbad fit the bill, down to the Calling Card and appearing at night (it's in the title, after all). Technically speaking, they don't "steal" the pieces of art they checkmate, but because the result involves the painting or picture being wiped away and replaced with another picture, the police treat it as thievery. That said, in the manga, Sinbad explicitly states that his first priority is actually to get Jeanne to quit being a phantom thief, and his ability to checkmate is only there to supplement the first.
• Sadistic Choice: Noin sets up one of these with a demon that's possessed a young boy's failing heart. Sealing the demon will kill him, whereas leaving the demon will end up corrupting his soul. In the manga, Maron tries to Take a Third Option and watch over the boy until he gets his upcoming heart surgery, doing her best to keep the demon at bay without fully exorcising it, but in both versions, the demon ends up corrupting him to the point of no return, leaving a Mercy Kill (from Sinbad in the manga, Jeanne in the anime) as the only remaining option.
• Third-Act Misunderstanding: Chiaki unfortunately just so happens to fall in love with Maron for real before Maron finds out that he'd been trying to seduce her to get her to quit being a phantom thief. In the manga, this happens early and is sorted out early, so it mostly sets the backdrop for Chiaki thinking that Maron still hasn't forgive him for the rest of the series, whereas it does happen late in the anime and causes some serious relationship trouble for the two. It does help that Chiaki had actually been working in her best interest all along, but he still doesn't feel great about the fact he'd still been manipualting her at first.
• Transformation Sequence:
  • The manga includes some panels resembling this the first time Jeanne's first and second forms appear, and Sinbad actually gets a full page dedicated to this when Maron witnesses his transformation.
  • The first season of the anime has a sort of pseudo-sequence in that it doesn't have a dedicated background or effects, but it uses the same Stock Footage of Maron/Jeanne herself transforming. The second season has more dedicated footage that has her outfit appear from roses that intertwine around her. Unlike in the manga, Sinbad never gets one.
• Transformation Trinket: Maron transforms into Jeanne with an object referred to in-series as a "rosary", although it seems to be a mistaken use of the term since a "rosary" is normally supposed to refer to prayer beads (the Viz Media translation of the manga just goes ahead and renames it to "cross", since all of the "rosaries" that appear in it are cross-shaped anyway). In the manga, it also beeps when it detects someone under Demonic Possession nearby (this function is reassigned to the Petit Claire in the anime). Both versions give her different ones before and after her Mid-Season Upgrade:
  • In the manga, she starts off with a palm-sized cross with a red jewel in the center, whereas in the anime it's less of a cross and more like a small wand with large pink wings that's easier to make toys out of. This first one was presumably given to her by Finn when they first met. In the manga, Maron loses it when Finn betrays her and leaves, resulting in it turning to stone, and in the anime, it disappears when Maron and Finn meet their chess piece quota.
  • Her second one is a fancier-looking one with three red orb-shaped gems on it, which has the same design between the manga and the anime. In the manga, it's created from a pendant Chiaki had given her as a birthday gift after Maron receives Jeanne d'Arc's power from an Intangible Time Travel trip, and in the anime, it's transformed from her angel feather by the power of the chess pieces Sinbad and Access had collected. Symbolically, both cases represent Maron actually getting her power and support from Chiaki instead of Finn.
  • Maron can also transform into Jeanne even without the rosary under limited conditions: in the manga, she can "awaken" her holy powers (although this is actually not a good thing, since it breaks the seal on her soul and makes her more vulnerable to the Devil destroying it), and in the anime, she pulls it off after Chiaki brings her into a Heroic Second Wind so she can face Finn.
  • Chiaki has his own in the manga, a much plainer-looking dark one with a blue gemstone in the middle; like Maron's, it can detect nearby Demonic Possession. Maron is bemused to see an agent for the Devil using a cross of all things. Of course, it's because he never worked for the Devil in the first place, and his is actually the real deal, which he uses to expose Finn by throwing it at her. Unlike Jeanne, he doesn't actually wear it on his person after transforming. He doesn't have one in the anime, since it's implied the "Sinbad" form is more of a disguise formality that doesn't actually have to do with his powers.
• Wake Up, Go to School & Save the World: This is Maron's modus operandi as an Ordinary High-School Student by day and phantom thief by night. This is emphasized more in the anime, which focuses more on the school setting that was a minor backdrop in the manga at most.
• Will They or Won't They?: Maron and Chiaki obviously have mutual feelings for each other, but aren't actually in a relationship for most of the story. In the manga, Chiaki is open about the fact that he loves Maron, and she even lets him embrace and kiss her, but while she's returned his feelings since chapter 8, she's dealing with too much emotional baggage and other unresolved issues before she feels ready to ask for a formal Relationship Upgrade. In the anime, it's because it takes much longer for them to be aware they have mutual feelings for each other, with Belligerent Sexual Tension making up most of their interactions, and Maron's not sure how much she can trust Chiaki for being a Chivalrous Pervert she has difficulty reading.
• Wham Episode: Chapters 19-20 in the manga and episodes 41-42 in the anime, which correspond to The Reveal that Maron is actually an Unwitting Pawn of the devil, Finn was Evil All Along, and Maron being a Broken Bird was all part of a huge gambit from the Devil to weaken her emotionally and make her vulnerable to demons.

Tropes specific to the manga

• All There in the Manual: The original Japanese release of the manga includes little bonus comics at the beginning of each chapter that explain background things like the reason for the Chess Motifs, Jeanne's arsenal, Maron and Miyako's family backgrounds, and information about angels and demons. They're also very much subject to Unreliable Narrator, since Finn omits information about black angels and fallen angels when describing the angel hierarchy. They stop appearing after chapter 20 due to the story taking a sharp turn in tone by that point.
• Anger Born of Worry: Maron approaches the Final Battle with such an enthusiastic and chipper attitude that Chiaki assumes Maron is doing her usual Stepford Smiler thing and covering up her fear, and that the only reason she's doing this is out of a spirit of self-sacrifice for his or the Earth's sake, so he chews her out begging her to not do this so she won't have to suffer anymore. Maron responds by finally delivering an Anguished Declaration of Love saying that she's not scared this time, and that she's been in love with him for a long time and wants to spend her future with him. Chiaki, who'd been convinced she was just putting up with him this entire time, is stunned.
• Anti-Climax: After two whole chapters of buildup towards the final battle against the Devil, he makes the mistake of trying to demoralize Jeanne with a Mirror Match of her past self, and Maron understands herself so well that she's able to easily win the entire thing without any need for combat at all, resolving the entire "battle" in around a quarter of the way into the chapter. The Devil's attempt at Taking You with Me and its aftermath ends up becoming the main crux of the chapter instead.
• Bowdlerise: The official Viz Media translation renders the Devil's name with its literal translation "Demon Lord", despite the fact that other references to angels, demons, and even God are untouched (although considering that "maou" isn't actually a common term used for the Devil, it may have been a deliberate choice to give him more of a connection to the regular demons in the story).
• Canon Immigrant: The policemen, who are an Ascended Extra in the anime, appear on manga splash panels and art books, and Arina Tanemura says she enjoys them very much and wishes she'd thought of them.
• Cheap Costume: Brought about when a demon-possessed human gets their hands on Maron's Transformation Trinket and Maron has to pretend to Miyako that she's still capable of helping her. The costume manages to pass just well enough to convince Miyako (albeit with some suspicion), but the text in the manga panel points out all of the makeshift parts of it in detail.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After having been emotionally trampled on for her entire life, Maron finally gets to have her parents back to dote on her, her best friend back on good terms with her, a loving boyfriend (and later husband with daughter), and renewed confidence in herself.
• Easily Forgiven:
  • Nobody who has their paintings "stolen" by Jeanne ever ends up wanting to press charges because it's replaced by a picture of an angel that's so beautiful that they're satisfied with the new one. Part of the willingness to accept the replacement does seem to come from the angel in the picture resembling someone with a personal connection to the victim (for instance, the one in Chiaki's father's painting resembling his late wife).
  • Maron also ends up forgiving Noin for the Attempted Rape incident and for masterminding Zen's death just because she sympathizes with how much he loved Jeanne, even to the point of sleeping next to him during their Intangible Time Travel trip. When he later deliberately omits information about Chiaki being hypnotized by a demon-possessed Miyako so he can have a chance at having Maron, she still lets him off easy just because she sympathizes with his feelings of jealousy.
• Friendly Rivalry: After learning that Chiaki is Sinbad and talking things over with him, Maron figures that Chiaki isn't the kind of person to seriously be devoted to the Devil's cause and starts treating Jeanne and Sinbad's work like this, still maintaining her good relationship with Chiaki and at most refusing to start a relationship with him due to the Dating Catwoman problem. Chiaki, for his part, starts acting more like a Mysterious Protector than a rival, and even tries quitting so it won't get in the way of a potential relationship with her. Things only get hostile when Access tells Chiaki something that immediately makes him go completely in the other direction, intent on preventing Jeanne from checkmating no matter what, acting Cruel to Be Kind, and seriously considering letting Maron hate him to spare her more pain. It takes four more chapters for the audience to learn what the terrible secret was: that Maron continuing to be a phantom thief is playing right into the Devil's hands, and trying to stop her is for her own sake.
• Friends with Benefits: By the time of the second half, while Maron and Chiaki aren't actually dating, they have a tacit agreement that Chiaki can embrace or kiss her (even if a bit forcefully), or at one point even hold her while she sleeps, because Maron Desperately Craves Affection and needs it very badly. Maron points out the one-sidedness of the relationship during a particularly nasty mental breakdown when she attempts to claim she's just leading him on so he can give her affection, but he's honestly happy that she lets him do it regardless of whether or not she returns his feelings. The actual truth is that Maron isn't such an Extreme Doormat that she'd let anyone do that, and in fact she's loved him since the end of chapter 8. Once she's ready to push for a Relationship Upgrade, her Love Confession entails her telling him that she's not just putting up with it, she really wants him to hold her forever, and they proceed to blow up the "friends" part by going all the way.
• Generation Xerox: Apparently, Maron and Miyako's mothers were Childhood Friends in a Love Triangle over Maron's father.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: By the end, all of the recent events the Devil and his mooks had inflicted on Maron in an attempt to make her cross the Despair Event Horizon end up having the opposite effect, and her newfound confidence in herself ends up being what gets her to metaphorically Curb-Stomp Battle the final Mirror Match the Devil tries to fling at her, which he'd thought should be the worst thing for her to be faced with.
• Inconsistent Coloring: An official recolored version of the manga was released in 2013 (after the anime had aired), but some colors (Sinbad's shirt/pants/gloves, the stripe on Access's clothing, etc.) aren't consistent with how they'd previously been portrayed in colored manga art. Some of it can be chalked up to limitations from the manga being originally produced and shaded for black-and-white, with the differences mainly just amounting to a few shades and often changing depending on lighting, but Yamato shows up with blue hair and brown eyes despite having been consistently depicted with green hair and eyes previously (including in a color spread that was still included with the release).
• Intangible Time Travel: After falling down seven floors, Maron finds herself back in fifteenth-century France with Noin, while her body remains mysteriously intact but comatose in the present. She and Noin create a Stable Time Loop, and when Maron wakes up in the hospital, she keeps the divine powers and rosary she'd obtained while on the trip, proving that it wasn't All Just a Dream.
• Love at First Sight: Played with. Maron and Miyako's first encounter with Chiaki is in the mailroom, with Chiaki displaying a cool-headed demeanor that makes both of them instantly enamored with him, but when Chiaki seemingly turns out to actually be a shameless skirt-chaser, Maron is turned off and is happy to offload him on Miyako. In actuality, that first encounter had been Maron getting a brief glimpse of the real Chiaki Beneath the Mask, and once Maron realizes this, she falls in love with him for real. On the flip side, Chiaki had noticed Maron's Stepford Smiler facade slipping when she was checking the mailbox, and while he initially views her as unapproachable for a while, once he finally comes around to accepting that he's in love with her, he admits that the sight of the lonely girl checking the mailbox had left enough of an impression for him to seriously start getting invested in her.
• Love Confession: The story takes the stance that it's important to do this to get closure even when you know you're likely to get rejected. Yashiro confesses to Chiaki, and later Yamato to Maron, for this reason, and Miyako considers doing it with Chiaki at one point (with only plot circumstances preventing her from doing so). Meanwhile, while Maron and Chiaki are aware they have some level of mutual feelings, they can't formally enter a Relationship Upgrade until Maron becomes confident enough to confess from her own end instead of passively accepting Chiaki as her Living Emotional Crutch. Other significant confessions during the story include Toki towards Finn (unsuccessful), Finn and Access trading confessions (successful), Yamato towards Miyako (initially unsuccessful but a good start), and eventually Maron finally delivering it to Chiaki after a whole series of hesitation (very successful).
• Love Epiphany: The incident with Maron's parents' divorce and her conversation with Chiaki at the amusement park ends up becoming this for both of them, with Chiaki getting so emotionally invested in Maron that he starts wanting to embrace her and has a very sensually loaded dream about her shortly after, and Maron realizing that Chiaki truly does care about her enough to go out of his way for her despite technically being her enemy.
• Magic Hair: Angels' power is contained in their hair, which was how Finn accidentally caused a huge explosion that killed a large number of humans when Sagami cut it. Later, Access, Toki, and Celcia manage to purify Finn from being a Fallen Angel by using their hair.
• Mirror Match: The final battle ends up involving the Devil pitting Jeanne against her own past self, back when she was devoid of self-confidence and was his Unwitting Pawn. Maron realizes that solving this via combat isn't the necessary answer here and gives her past self a Cooldown Hug.
• Mythology Gag: Two characters from I-O-N make a cameo appearance, both possessed by demons: Miyako's older brother Subaru is the same Todaiji who was a member of Mikado's research club (lampshaded by Tanemura directly in the Japanese volume releases, where she tosses in an I-O-N sketch in the margins for it), while Tagosaku appears briefly in a side story.
• Pair the Spares: In a rather unusual example, it's not that Yamato and Miyako hadn't been emotionally bonding — in fact, they'd been doing it over the course of the entire story, and there'd even been some Ship Tease hinting at Yamato developing a crush on Miyako — but that said emotional bonding was specifically over them being spares.
• Past-Life Memories: Maron doesn't have memories of her past life as Jeanne or any of her previous reincarnations, and the closest she gets is a brief time-traveling trip to meet her at the time of her execution. Angels also don't seem to have memories of their past lives by default either, although Finn begins remembering her past life as Natsuki when she gets close to Natsuki's brother Sagami. Angels who reincarnate into humans seem to retain at least the memories of their last time as an angel, so Natsuki, who reincarnated via the power Maron gave her, can only recall her past with Access as vague dreams, whereas Shinji has full memories of his past as angel, and Celcia's reincarnation Sara is implied to as well.
• Pre-Climax Climax: Maron finally is able to bring herself to make her Love Confession to Chiaki right before the final battle, resulting in them making love that night complete with two full-page spreads.
• Quest for a Wish: Finn tells Maron that this will be her reward for collecting all of the demons, which she finds appealing due to her life being very lonely. It mostly isn't brought up again as Maron has more important things to worry about for the rest of the story, and it naturally turns out to have been a Motivational Lie on Finn and the Devil's part, but when Maron finally gets to meet God and is offered the wish again, Maron recognizes that he can't actually do that, and by that point her actual wish is simply to be happy with Chiaki.
• Reincarnation: Two flavors are present: the first is Maron's ability to reincarnate without fail and with a certain amount of God's power, all of which originates from his love for Eve. The second is the cycle of humans who die with remaining Life Energy and a pure soul becoming angels, gathering a certain amount of divine energy, and eventually reincarnating into humans around people they were close to in the past. By the end of the story, Maron gives her reincarnation power to Finn to give her a second chance at life, figuring that she's fine taking the long way if she wants; Access reincarnates into Miyako and Yamato's son Shinji, Toki and Celcia into Kagura and Yashiro's twin children, and it's implied Chiaki might be a reincarnation of Adam.
• Reincarnation Romance: Played with. On one hand, Jeanne's lover Noin tries to force himself on Maron for the sake of invoking this trope, but it's repeatedly stated that Maron is a different person and should be treated as such. On the other hand, Maron's current lover Chiaki is hinted to possibly be a reincarnation of Adam, her original incarnation Eve's lover. Noin eventually decides he's still in love with the current Maron anyway and figures he'll still aim for Jeanne's next reincarnation once it's clear she only wants Chiaki. In the bonus chapters, while Natsuki and Shinji hook up based on their past lives Finn and Access, Natsuki worries about what role their past lives have in their current relationship and how obligated they should feel to follow it, whereas Shinji doesn't care because he likes Natsuki either way. Overall, the story's stance is that being lovers in past lives might help a little, but it's ultimately down to what kind of people they are now.
• Sexual Euphemism: Generally averted: "chastity"/"virginity" is explicitly mentioned, and Maron later challenges the idea that "purity" should be tied to Virgin Power in the first place (the relevant Japanese word is "junketsu", a word that's more often than not used to refer to chastity but can also simply mean just "purity"). The Viz Media translation also goes ahead and outright uses the word "raped" in the relevant scene. Meanwhile, when Chiaki says he wants to "embrace" or "touch" Maron very badly, he actually means it literally and just thinks hugging her is very comfortable. On the other hand, when Maron later says "God, forgive me. I too have fallen in love with a man," while it does also refer to her accepting a human man's love instead of completely devoting herself to being God's servant, the fact she brings up the Virgin Power fallacy right after that makes it clear she's referring to having lost her virginity to Chiaki shortly beforehand.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: The scene with Maron and Chiaki consummating their love shows just enough of them for the audience to put two and two together on what's going on, spaced out with shots of the bedroom around them (in fact, even this much was considered to be very unusual for a Ribon manga, let alone a Tanemura work).
• Sheathe Your Sword: The Devil's attempt at making a grand Mirror Match final battle for Jeanne flops on its face when, thanks to all the confidence she'd gained over the series, she recognizes immediately that combat is unnecessary here and shows her past self the affection she'd been craving.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: Once Maron and Chiaki finally become a couple for real, they start doting on each other so affectionately that by the time they're married and with a child, they've become infamous among everyone around them for how ridiculously lovey-dovey they are. While not to the same extreme degree, Yamato also seems to be quite affectionate with his wife Miyako as well.
• Stable Time Loop: Turns out, the one who sealed the demons in France was a time-traveling Maron, who'd received her powers from Jeanne herself, and the demon who'd possessed Noin was himself, which he chooses to do to make sure he can meet Jeanne's next reincarnation.
• Stepford Smiler: The story can largely be summarized as how Maron ends up overcoming this problem, and the take-home of the series is that it's okay to admit to feeling weak or vulnerable and to ask for love from others.
• Sympathy for the Devil:
  • The Devil is actually made out of a manifestation of God's loneliness from Adam and Eve leaving the Garden of Eden. Jeanne sympathizes with him upon learning this, and Finn eventually chooses to die with him so that he at least won't be lonely on his way out.
  • Maron also ends up sympathizing with Noin's feelings for Jeanne d'Arc to the point she doesn't even hold a grudge over him for attempting to rape her or masterminding Zen's death. Chiaki's not very amused about that one.
• Through His Stomach: One of Chiaki's early attempts at flirting with Maron involves him asking her to make him gratin, and at the time Maron's still not sure what to make of him, but she quietly admits to herself that gratin actually does sound kind of good. Later, when Chiaki considers moving out of Maron's apartment because his identity as Sinbad has been exposed, Maron starts negotiating to get him to stay by offering him the gratin. He apparently really wants the gratin enough to negotiate back, and once they figure things out for the time being, Maron goes out of her way to fetch the recipe for him.
• Tonight, Someone Kisses: Make no mistake, the manga is Maron and Chiaki's love story, but you know all of that promotional and chapter header manga art with Jeanne and Sinbad together in romantically loaded positions? It's purely symbolic; even as Maron and Chiaki deepen their relationship, they're still enemies and rivals "on the clock", and the closest you'll get are two pseudo-Bridal Carry moments and a Forceful Kiss that don't end up panning out well. Once Sinbad is revealed to be Good All Along and Maron gets her powers as Jeanne back, Access does actually suggest the possibility of a Battle Couple, but it never pans out because Chiaki is hypnotized and kidnapped shortly after, and once they finally reunite, the following battle ends in the Devil being defeated for good (thus removing the need for demon collection), Maron giving up her powers to save Finn, and Access returning to heaven.
• Touched by Vorlons: Anyone who's possessed by a demon for long enough becomes a demon-human hybrid like Noin, who deliberately let himself get possessed for its Immortality Inducer properties. This would have happened to Zen as well if Sinbad hadn't stepped in with a Mercy Kill.
• Two-Person Love Triangle: Occurs in a bonus chapter: Finn's reincarnation Natsuki has vague dreams with Past-Life Memories of a wonderful lover whom she promised herself to. Unfortunately, she also happens to have feelings for her neighbor and family friend Shinji, who's been trying for her affections since they were little, but she feels like she can't act on them because she has obligations towards her past lover, to the point she's afraid of even sleeping and therefore dreaming about him. One Love Confession later, Shinji reveals to her that he's actually the reincarnation of the lover in question, and is very amused at the fact he was in a love triangle with himself the whole time.
• Virgin Power: Subverted. Using Jeanne's abilities requires being "pure", which is initially interpreted as being a virgin, so Noin tries to rape Maron so that she can't be a "servant of God" anymore. Later, during Maron's brief time travel trip where she meets the actual Jeanne d'Arc right before her execution, Jeanne turns out to have been raped by a guard in her prison cell, making her believe that she's no longer "pure" enough to seal the demons by any method besides releasing her holy powers via her death. Maron immediately questions why people keep thinking having sex means you can't be "pure" anymore, declaring that all you need is to keep having a noble heart to be pure. Sure enough, even after Maron and Chiaki make love right before the final battle, it has no impact on her holy powers or ability to become Jeanne whatsoever, and her conclusion is that she was only able to obtain a "pure" heart because she became able to truly love someone.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Seven years later, Miyako marries Yamato, who's become a businessman, and their son Shinji is Access's reincarnation, while Chiaki is a medical intern and is newlyweds with Maron, with their newborn daughter Natsuki being Finn's reincarnation. Yashiro and Kagura are married with twins implied to be Toki and Celcia's reincarnations, Kaiki is still the same Chick Magnet as ever, Noin's hoping to have better luck with Jeanne's next reincarnation, and Zen's soul gets to start off as a black angel in heaven.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Because she believes herself to have been an unwanted child abandoned by her parents, Maron has difficulty understanding the concept of love and is afraid to trust others out of fear of being hurt. Early in the story, Chiaki tells Maron that being loved requires choosing to love others, which means accepting your own vulnerabilites and choosing to have faith in others instead of blocking yourself off out of distrust. Maron starts following his advice, eventually becoming able to make the phone call to her parents she'd always been hesitant to make, and at the end, she gives a proper Love Confession to Chiaki asking directly for his affection, meaning that, in her words, someone with a "cursed fate" like her was still able to fall in love witih someone.
  Chiaki: You're not being fair, Maron... So many people are watching over you, but in your loneliness you haven't noticed it. Remember what you said to that little girl whose father was taken over by a demon? You told her to trust you. But you don't trust anyone, so it's not fair of you to ask that of others. You must trust them if you want them to trust you. The same goes for your parents. If you find it hard to trust them, wish away your worries. "They didn't really choose to separate," or "there was some other reason behind it." Those wishes will give you courage. Your parents loved you. But that isn't enough to keep them connected to you. You have to love them back too.

Tropes specific to the anime

• Adaptational Badass: Jeanne d'Arc herself, of all people. Both the manga and the anime have Maron meet the historical Jeanne d'Arc. In the anime she reminds Maron of her true purpose, motivates her and helps her get back on her feet. This is entirely the opposite of the manga, where Jeanne had almost completely lost hope and Maron was the one to inspire her to get back on her feet, gaining her own resolve in the process.
• Adaptation Deviation: Although there are a number of other changes (particularly Maron's Adaptational Angst Downgrade and Chiaki's Adaptational Angst Upgrade) that would have impacted the story either way, the point of divergence that causes the biggest shift in the story's direction compared to that of the original manga is the gymnastics competition (chapters 5-6/episode 17), where in the manga, Maron learns Chiaki's identity as Sinbad, whereas in the anime, she doesn't. This creates a domino effect on the major plot points that follow and sends the story in completely different directions; most significantly, the change impacts the events surrounding Chiaki seeking Maron out at the amusement park (chapter 8/episode 20), which is treated as one of the biggest turning points in Maron and Chiaki's relationship in the manga:
  • In the manga, because Maron and Chiaki had managed to sort out the problem before he'd carried on the charade for too long, Maron has a much easier time believing that he's had a change of heart, unlike the anime where Maron realizing he'd been lying to her for three-quarters of the series naturally shatters her faith in him almost entirely.
  • The manga has Chiaki realize something is very wrong and go to see Maron when she fails to attend to her own calling card, which serves as compelling evidence that he's doing this out of genuine concern for her instead of purely for the sake of the phantom thief rivalry. Since Chiaki can't afford to reveal his identity to Maron at this point in the anime, he simply notices Maron is gone from her apartment instead.
  • The manga's version of their conversation at the amusement park has Chiaki and Maron able to talk honestly about being phantom thieves (with Chiaki self-deprecatingly calling himself Maron's "dirty lying rival"), and because Maron realizes that Chiaki is still genuinely trying to comfort her despite being Sinbad, she takes his advice about trusting people to heart for the rest of the story and manages to deepen her relationship with him to the point he becomes integral to helping her get through the second half of the story after the Awful Truth is dropped. However, in the anime, because Maron doesn't know Chiaki is Sinbad nor that he knows that she's Jeanne, the advice Chiaki can give Maron is much more limited in scope, and the rest of the story proceeds with the fact Maron can't trust Chiaki nor Sinbad, therefore preventing many of the events in the manga that relied directly on them cooperating.
  • Thus, by the time Jeanne meets Chiaki after he's taken prisoner by his father (chapter 10/episode 23), the scenes have close enough context that even the visual composition of Chiaki being tied to the wall is identical, but while previous manga plot points with this sort of correlation had generally been adapted with some parts of the topic or dialogue in common, Jeanne and Chiaki's degree of knowledge about each other, dynamic, and level of trust are now so different between both versions that their respective versions of Jeanne and Chiaki's conversation have nothing in common at all.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Other than the major characters detailed on the character page, the manga has Maron meet Jeanne d'Arc with long hair when she's about to get burned at the stake, but in the anime she's short-haired (in fact, the latter might be more historically accurate, given the real Jeanne was known for having short hair). Based on the official colored version of the manga, the colors are still the same (pale purplish-blue hair and purple eyes).
• Adaptational Heroism: In the manga, while Jeanne did still care somewhat about the Mission from God and helping people, she also readily admitted that the main reason she'd become a phantom thief was because she liked how confident it made her, and that she wanted to help Finn become a full-fledged angel. This was also why she was so willing to forgive Chiaki for working for the Devil, because she could tell he wasn't that invested in working for the Devil either (in fact, he'd initially taken the job on an impulsive whim without knowing or caring about whom he was working for), and at most she had concerns about the Dating Catwoman problem. In comparison, the anime has Maron/Jeanne be more genuinely heroic, taking God's protection and blessing seriously and getting emotionally invested in the people she helps, and she's significantly more wary of Sinbad, who likewise is working for a cause he actually believes in rather than just personal loyalties.
• Adaptation Inspiration: The base premise and most of the major characters are shared between the original manga and the anime, as well as the overall theme of Maron learning to have more confidence in herself and certain major plot points such as the Awful Truth that Finn is actually an agent for the Devil, but other than that, they're almost completely different works; the original manga is largely a human drama narrative centered around Maron's insecurities as a Broken Bird and finding her self-worth, while the anime is more of a Lighter and Softer Monster of the Week-type Magical Girl story with more Black-and-White Morality. Several parts of the manga are also heavily dependent on things that probably weren't acceptable for the timeslot the anime aired on, with the resulting changes thus having a rather significant impact on the overall plot.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Maron and Chiaki's relationship in the manga is almost the opposite of their relationship in the anime in many ways, both in terms of their dynamic and their role in the story:
  • The manga has Maron learn Sinbad's identity early; because of that, she and Chiaki are able to be more honest with each other than they were before, and Maron even realizes she reciprocates Chiaki's feelings shortly after. Most of their relationship drama for the first half of the story is about Maron trying to figure out his motives while he struggles under the weight of keeping silent out of fear the Awful Truth will hurt her. In contrast, the anime's version of Chiaki hides his identity as Sinbad until very late in the story, which deals a massive blow to Maron's already shaky trust in him by that point.
  • In the manga, Chiaki tells Maron early on that trusting someone means choosing to believe in them, so Maron chooses to trust him even when there's room for doubt, and the two open up to each other to the point Chiaki himself is the one to reveal Finn's betrayal and emotionally support her in the resulting aftermath. On the flip side, in the anime, much of Maron and Chiaki's dynamic revolves around how much she can't trust him, so it takes the entire series for Chiaki to earn her trust at the level they already had at a very early stage in the manga, and when the Awful Truth comes out, Chiaki isn't able to do much by himself to snap her out of her Heroic BSoD.
  • After a certain point in the manga, Chiaki starts becoming more self-conscious about the idea that Maron has a lot of reasons to hate him and may never return his feelings, and even says outright that he's willing to accept that as long as she still goes to him for affection; meanwhile, Maron is well aware she's in love with him and is just trying to get herself together to make a proper Love Confession. Meanwhile, Maron and Chiaki's relationship is of the Tsundere brand of Belligerent Sexual Tension for the majority of the anime, leaving Maron much more conflicted on how she feels about Chiaki while he actively tries to get her love and trust.
  • Naturally, the end result turns out to be completely different as well: in the manga, since their feelings had been mutual since as early as chapter 8, once Maron is able to move forward, they consummate their love and eventually get married (to the level of becoming Sickeningly Sweethearts, at that). The anime has them only manage to properly fix their relationship after the reveal of Sinbad being Good All Along comes out, and by the time of the final episode the furthest they get is Jeanne giving Sinbad a small kiss on the cheek. The finale ends up being far more about Maron's relationship with Finn, who's pointed out to be the one who knows her better than anyone else.
• Adapted Out: Most of the angel-related backstory is only found in the manga. This includes Finn's and Access' backstory in heaven, angels Toki and Celcia, archangel Lil, and the actual reason Finn started working for the Devil.
• Ascended Extra: The police. Miyako's father is only depicted in Super-Deformed style in the manga, where both he and the police provide Funny Background Event comic relief. In the anime, he and four of his policemen are distinguished characters who are very invested in capturing Jeanne.
• Battle Couple: With Chiaki revealed to have been Good All Along, he and Jeanne form this during the final two episodes.
• By the Power of Grayskull!: Jeanne has two versions:
  • At the beginning of the series, she transforms into Jeanne with "Jeanne d'Arc, lend me your power!"
  • After Finn returns to Heaven but before her betrayal is revealed, she says "Finn, lend me your power! Deliver my wish to Jeanne d'Arc!"
• Costumer: In good old Toei tradition, episode 26 is set in a recreation of an Edo period village.
• Decoy Convoy: In episode 39, Jeanne is after the British ambassador and his wife's jewels. The ambassador devises a plan to hinder Jeanne's robbery by sending two extra empty limousines with full escort so she won't be able to tell which car is he actually using.
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: Maron hums the opening song in episode 5.
• Distinguishing Mark: Episode 21 has the police tag Jeanne's face with a line of red ink that won't wash off for at least three days, allowing them to go on a head-hunt for Jeanne by using the line as an identifier. Maron goes to school with a bandage on her face, getting the other students to accuse her of being Jeanne, so to clear Maron's name (and her own doubts), Miyako gets her to take off the bandage in front of the entire class to reveal... a small wound on her face, which Maron attributes to having been hit by a volleyball the day prior (Chiaki had put disinfectant on it, supporting her alibi). In actuality, Finn had been able to get most of the ink off by scrubbing it really, really hard.
  Finn: God, even though it was to help Jeanne, please forgive me for using Your powers this way...
• Filler: The anime roughly corresponds to chapters 1-20 from the original manga, which means that on top of having a Gecko Ending due to the last few arcs of the manga not being out while the anime was in production, the manga's early plot is stretched out over 44 episodes with more than half of them being Monster of the Week episodes in between. For example, it takes 15 episodes for the anime to reach a plot point that corresponded to what was the third chapter of the manga; in fact, a lot of things that the anime treats as late-stage reveals or major turning points were actually addressed very early in the manga's run.
• Filler Villain: Cute Monster Girl Myst, a Canon Foreigner introduced at the same time as Noin to send out the Monster of the Week for a fashion.
• Gecko Ending: The anime ends right at the end of the Final Battle, with the only other hint at what might happen next being a letter from Maron's parents, a significantly less conclusive ending than that of the manga (which ran for six more months after the anime's conclusion).
• Lighter and Softer: The manga's narrative centered heavily around Maron's heavily unstable Broken Bird mental state and her resulting emotional growth, and includes things like Attempted Rape and an implied attempt at Self-Harm. The anime gives Maron an Adaptational Angst Downgrade and focuses more on lighthearted school/neighborhood life and comedy elements, bringing it in line with a more conventional Wake Up, Go to School & Save the World narrative in a Monster of the Week format.
• Monster of the Week: More than half of the anime's episodes are original capers that serve to make the show largely this formula, simply by having another demon possess another piece of art related to that week's civilian.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The first opening song "Piece of Love" is named after the manga's second chapter.
  • The shot at the end of the first ending (with an angelic Maron looking into the water and seeing Jeanne as her reflection) is based on the header of chapter 5.
• The Power of Family: This theme is emphasized more here than it is in the original manga. Maron's Parental Abandonment makes her more invested in cases that involves bringing families together, whereas Chiaki is more cynical about parents and family due to his relationship with his father being much more hostile. The two end up clashing over the topic a few times, with Maron pushing for Chiaki to reconcile with his father when she can.
• Psychological Torment Zone: Finn subjects Jeanne to one during the final battle, with her parents telling her that their divorce and Parental Abandonment would have happened anyway without the Devil's interference and that Jeanne is unnecessary. It shatters her badly enough that her rosary breaks and she momentarily loses her powers, and Chiaki has to snap her out of the resulting Heroic BSoD. The ending also implies that "the divorce would have happened anyway" was a lie.
• Take a Third Option: Unlike the manga, the anime defines "art" pieces that Jeanne or Sinbad can steal with a much broader definition than just paintings and photos, meaning things like medals and pianos are fair game, and they're not replaced by anything when Jeanne checkmates them. Jeanne would rather not have to ruin people's valuables, so when something has particularly high sentimental value, she usually does her best to find a way to exorcise the demon first; it's not always possible, but she does manage to pull it off a handful of times.
• Tamer and Chaster: The anime removes most of the aspects regarding how physical intimacy and neediness plays into Chiaki and Maron's relationship, so parts discussing Chiaki wanting to hold or embrace Maron are toned down into simply being worried about her, and their dynamic becomes more of a traditional Belligerent Sexual Tension type. It also tones down the plot points related to sex and the question of whether Jeanne's "purity" relies on Virgin Power, most prominently the part where Noin pulls Attempted Rape on Maron to ruin her "purity" so she can't be a servant of God anymore; instead, the anime has Noin try to kill her to "free" Jeanne's soul.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: The anime has a stronger emphasis on this theme, with the finale centering around Maron/Jeanne learning to love and accept herself based on the support she gets from those around her. It also plays a role in Miyako's character arc, since she'd convinced herself that she couldn't be Maron's friend if she was "inferior" to her, despite the fact Maron doesn't care about that kind of thing at all.

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