Of Swords and Parasols

I read the first volume of this a while back, but decided to reread it with the rest. Maron is the teenaged reincarnation of Jeanne d’Arc, and has been asked by an angel, Finn Fish, to become Kaito Jeanne, a magical warrior who saves people from the demons that possess them by exorcising paintings they own. Opposing her is Kaito Sinbad (reincarnation status unknown) who is also collecting the demons in the paintings. According to Finn, the angel assisting Kaito Sinbad, Access, is a demon, and the two are collecting demons for Satan. Unknown to Maron, Kaito Sinbad is actually her neighbor and classmate, Chiaki, who claims to have a crush on her, but who actually knows she’s Kaito Jeanne, and is getting close to her to get her to stop being a kaito.

The first three or so volumes are fluffy “magical girl thief and her boyfriend, who is a rival magical boy thief and their zany adventures” fare. And then suddenly Jeanne d’Arc’s demon possessed boyfriend shows up after waiting a few centuries for her to be reincarnated and characters are secretly in love with Satan and there is angsty-angel-cannot-touch and time travel and “Satan is really *spoiler spoiler spoiler*” and such.

The angel/demon, Heaven/Hell, immortal shenanigans are pretty awesome (except for the attempted rape,  which is thankfully not between anyone who actuslly ends up together) the human stuff…less so. Arina Tanemura is seriously into her “epic all encompassing love” here and while it works with the supernatural characters, it’s rather meh with Maron and Chiaki. Which were actually endearing until Chiaki revealed himself to be the sort of shoujo hero who likes to thrown hissy fits and pin Maron to floors and walls when she, you know, talks to other men. Tanemura seems to think it’s cute and shows how much he loves her. Thankfully, with everything else that was going on, I found him decently easy to ignore most of the time, and Maron remained pretty fun.

Since this is Arina Tanemura and not Kaori Yuki or Clamp, the insanity is more zany and “HA HA WHAT?” and “ZOMG! Plot twist!” then brain breaking or requiring a flowchart. The art is typical Tanemura fare, though less cluttered than her more recent stuff, but with even more terrifying EYES.

So, fairly typical but fun early volumes followed by utter insanity and bizarre plot twists, both of the decipherable sort. The main romance is irritating, but is compensated for by Angsty Angel Cannot Touch and the general insanity.

Maron is a high school girl who is also the reincarnation of Joan of Arc. With the aid of a fairy-or maybe it’s an angel-named Finn, she exorcises demons from paintings as the glamorous thief, Kaito Jeanne. Her best friend/rival, Miyako, doesn’t know about Jeanne’s secret identity, and is determined to catch Kaito Jeanne. When a boy their age named Chiaki moves in next to Maron, Miyako quickly develops a crush on him, but he seems more interested in Maron. This is because he’s actually Kaito Sinbad (Reincarnation status currently unknown!) and Kaito Jeanne’s rival. He’s aided by a demon or fairy named Access.

This is an earlier work by Arina Tanemura, and it shows in the art, and the story is somehow simultaneously more and less insane than that of The Gentleman’s Alliance. Maron is smarter than Tanemura’s other heroines so far, something that makes me greatful. While I like Haine and Kyoko, I’m not fond of how it keeps getting stressed that they aren’t very bright. Chiaki I don’t know about, which is normal for me and Tanemura’s male leads. He seems to be the angsty badboy who will be redeemed by love type so far. As near as I can tell, he’s meant to be a representative of Hell sent to claim as many demons as possible, while Maron is the same for Heaven.

Mostly fun, but I’m not sure where it’s going.