You know, if I were Joan of Arc and I ended up reincarnated as a goofy-looking Magical Girl who throws pushpins at paintings to exorcise them and turn them into chess pieces (not kidding here, folks), I'd be pretty embarrassed.

Anyways, Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne appears to be your pretty standard Magical Girl show, with a few weird twists. The pin-throwing and chess piece thing mentioned above, coupled with some really wonky premises and silly names, make KKJ just weird enough to stand out from the Magical Girl crowd for a moment. Only for a moment, however, as there are plenty of things that are lifted straight from Sailor Moon and its ilk. The beginning can throw you a bit, as we're dropped straight into the middle of the story without the usual 'How I Got My Magical Pink Plastic Locket' introduction, but after that it's straight to the formula. Mysterious bishounen moves in next to our heroine and proceeds to tease and come on to her, but turns out to be also magical and after the same paintings she is (what a surprise...). Tuxedo Mask, anybody?

I kept getting Child's Toy flashbacks during this show as Maron looks an awful lot like Sana, and Chiaki (aka Sindbad, the aforementioned Tuxedo Mask wannabe) is like an older, blue-haired Hayama. He was pretty much the only thing I really liked about this show--he's completely ecchi and evil (but in a playful way), just like Hayama. The setup is rather contrived, especially with the 'aren't we clever?' irony of Maron's best friend being the person sworn to bring Jeanne down; that and the total stupidity of announcing when and where she's going to 'steal' the paintings make this show less than it could have been. It is a bit refreshing, however, that Jeanne actually has to use her brains and acrobatic skills to defeat the demons, as opposed to just aiming her magical bludgeon and shooting sparkles or love waves or whatever it is Magical Girls usually shoot.

The rest of the show isn't bad, it's just rather ordinary. Monster-of-the-day storylines, big plastic amulets for transforming, cute sidekick, it's got all the clichés. A pretty average Magical Girl show, the odd quirks make it fairly entertaining and it would make a decent rental choice if it were released commercially.