Sorry about the delay,I'm a ditz some days,well most days but whatever.
Arina Tanemura month is off to a rocky start with I.O.N and its' romance overtaking the more interesting aspects of the story. Maybe today will be better with the first volume of Phantom Thief Jeanne. I mean after all today is the greatest day of all. So by this logic this will be the greatest book if today is the greatest day. Though I could be wrong and this is the worst day ever and thus this the worst book ever. I'm not sure really anymore,so lets just start talking about this book and hope I remember which one it is.
Phantom Thief Jeanne was her first work
after I.O.N and there is noticeable improvement in the short one
year span. The man story is better interlaced with the romance. The
love square we seem to be in actually works. Instead of relying on a
ton of forgettable characters,she trims it down to three major
characters and some hopefully developing supporting cast. Even the
one off characters that appear during heist scenes are interesting
enough.
The leads of our story are Maron a.k.a
Phantom Thief Jeanne and her rival/love interest Chiaki a.k.a Phantom
Thief Sinbad. Maron is the reincarnation of the historical figure
Jeanne D'Arc and is tasked with exorcising demons from paintings
which puts her at odds with Sinbad who is recapturing demons for the
Demon Lord. Most of their core problems are laid out on the table
over the course of the volume. We learn why these characters are
acting the way they do and grow closer to them as a result. Maron's
fears of loneliness and abandonment may hit close to home for some
people,myself included. Her hesitation to trust Chiaki whose working
through his own problems related to being his own person,feels
natural. Especially given his devil may care attitude belying his
genuine compassion. Their is the possibility that the romance can
over take the main plot completely in later volumes but here it works
as their tumultuous relationship adds to the plot instead of
controlling it.
The rest of the main cast are not as
well developed as they could be but given more time they have the
potential. Maron's best friend Miyako is constantly trying to outwit
and capture her Jeanne persona as an amateur police officer with her
police chief father and is pursing Chiaki to no avail. The love
square is rounded out by Minazuka,the student council president, who
is trying to become a stronger person and maybe capture Maron's
heart. Everyone plays off each other in different ways:ranging from
playful to hostile to sweetly intimate etc. It also helps that the
Maron and Chiaki actually have chemistry as romantic leads compared
to the pieces of card board known as Ion and Mikado. Again the
aforementioned playing well off themselves and their friends lends
the romance some creditably. The only two characters we don't know
much about are the angel helpers of Maron and Chiaki,Finn and Access
respectively. This works out for the best though as going too deep
into their histories may be playing some cards too early in terms of
plot.
Speaking of the plot,it is stranded
early magical girl plot with lack of a clear arc. The building blocks
are there with a demon lord and God being background players and
Sinbad in general. However the plots so far are mostly Jeanne finds
demons hiding in paintings and Chiaki and Miyako try to stop her in
their own ways because shes an honorable thief that announces her “
heists”. There is interconnection between stories via characters
which works to develop them properly,so it's not really boring.
The one major element I'd like to touch
on briefly in case I ever do a full review for the series is the
concept of demons corrupting people via beautiful paintings. It
brings with two possible connotation: that art is of the devil and
that humanity is weak. The first one is semi dispelled by the fact
that not every painting is evil. However Jeanne replaces the art with
the picture of an angel once she takes the demon away. Implying that
its the art itself that's demonic which is not a great message in
general. Though it may be completely unintentional,as that would be a
weird message to put in a book full of drawings.
Alternatively, the idea that humanity
is inherently weak gains a little more credibility when realizing
that it's the weakness in the human heart that invites the demon in.
The obsession with the paintings and our own hang ups are what cause
the problems. This is reflected in the main characters that are all
hurting but at the same time hopeful that things will become better
and they learn to grow. While this does paint humanity in a poor
light it does offer hope in that if you can change then things will
become better. Again this is more guessing than anything else based
off of one volume.
Character development is the name of
the game here,along with some fun plots. It does what a good
introduction should do, build the characters and their world up.
There isn't much in the way of an overarching plot,however there is
so much potential for a great story with excellent characters that I
can't help but adore it and want to read more. Well this turned out
to be a good book so hopefully this correlates to the quality of the
day. Hopefully this begins a plateau of better written martial for
Arina Tanemura month. Next time Time Stranger Kyoko.
Till next time:Stay Positive
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