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Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne 1: A Series Tour
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This series was based on a manga by Arina Tanemura (of Full Moon wo Sagashite fame). The story line is an interesting fusion of the magical girl concept with Christian apocalyptic prophecies. It focuses on the typical high school magical girl, who encounters a magical helper and gains the power to do a henshin or transformation into a more powerful being with enhanced abilities.
The distinctive twist is that her quest is part of the cosmic battle between the Christian God and his adversary, the Devil. Diabolical forces are inhabiting beautiful (and, incidentally, expensive) objects, enslaving the human souls that own them. Without a steady supply of blessed souls, the storyline goes, God’s powers will be weakened, and Satan will take control of the universe.
So Maron, who is the reincarnation of St. Jeanne d'Arc, must become a kaitou, or master criminal, to steal the possessed objects and overpower the demons inside. The premise is similar to that the better-known St. Tail manga/anime, but is clearly aimed at an older audience and becomes quite dark in the second season.
It was produced in 44 episodes by Toei Animation in 1999-2000, one of the first fully computer-generated (CGI) Japanese anime. Atsuhoshi Umezawa, a Toei regular, was the overall series director. Tanemura says she was very dubious about allowing her story to be adapted to anime, but was persuaded by Umezawa's enthusiasm. "I'm aiming for an anime that’s never been done before," he told her, "a story about a beautiful young girl that busts all the cliches we know about the genre" (manga, v. 2, p. 59). Umezawa had previously served as episode director in Dragon Ball Z, Fist of the North Star, Boys over Flowers, Marmalade Boy, and various installments of the Precure franchise. In addition, he was overall series director for Ghost Sweeper Mikami (1993-94) and the Toei light romantic series Gokinjo Monogatari (Neighborhood Stories, 1995-96), and has more recently been involved in planning for some of the One Piece movies.
Hisashi Kagawa was the series’ character designer. His credits for other Toei projects are extensive, including a great deal of work for Sailor Moon (original series, plus R, S, and SuperS), plus Pokemon and Precure. Kagawa also worked on Angelic Layer, Love Hina, Fullmetal Alchemist, Gankutsuou and Code Geass. He continues to work for Toei, most recently contributing Character Design and Animation Direction to the 2016 Tiger Mask W.
Overall animation supervision was done by Katsumi Tamegai, also a veteran of Sailor Moon and Precure (plus Serial Experiments Lain!) Lately he has served as episode director for several installments of Naruto.
Although the amount of artwork needed for the 44 episodes must be extensive, it has been surprisingly difficult to locate. However, from 2006 to 2008 several lots appeared on the market. My curiosity had already been piqued by an earlier lot, for which I’d been outbid, and through a combination of patient lurking and quick bidding I managed to pick up a good selection of sketches, including all the main characters.
This gallery briefly surveys the cast, then gives a tour of the episodes for which I have art. The tour highlights specific information about the artists who probably executed the sketches.
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