Saint Tail

Saint Tail (怪盗セイント・テール, Kaitō Seinto Tēru, Mysterious Thief Saint Tail) is a manga and anime series. Originally a seven volume manga by Megumi Tachikawa, the story was adapted into an anime television series by producer Tokyo Movie Shinsha, with forty-three episodes and one short, broadcast by ABC. Tokyopop translated the manga series, and subtitled and partially dubbed the anime series.

Saint Tail
Cover of the first manga volume (Kindle edition) featuring Meimi Haneoka as Saint Tail.
怪盗 セイント・テール
(Kaitō Seinto Tēru)
GenreMagical girl[1]
Manga
Written byMegumi Tachikawa
Published byKodansha
English publisher
MagazineNakayoshi
DemographicShōjo
Original runOctober 1994 – December 1996
Volumes7
Anime television series
Directed byOsamu Nabeshima
Written byShinzō Fujita
Music byHayato Matsuo
StudioTokyo Movie Shinsha
Licensed by
Original networkABC
English network
Original run 12 October 1995 – 12 September 1996
Episodes43

Video games were released for the Game Gear and Sega Saturn in Japan, and are considered collectors' items by Saint Tail fans.

The Tokyopop book summary states that it is "Robin Hood meets Sailor Moon!"[2]

Plot
Main article: List of Saint Tail characters

Meimi Haneoka, the daughter of a former phantom thief and a stage magician, is an ordinary middle school student by day but the vigilante hero "Phantom Thief Saint Tail" by night. Using information obtained from her friend and classmate Seira Mimori, a sister-in-training, Saint Tail steals illegitimately obtained items and returns them to their proper owners. While Saint Tail gains a reputation as a local hero in her small town of Seika City, Meimi's classmate Asuka Jr., the son of a police detective, condemns her with the words "a thief is still a thief" and declares himself to be the one who will catch Saint Tail; however, when Saint Tail sees him assisting the police during her capers, he acknowledges her honorable motives and even steps in to protect her from physical harm.

While Meimi is initially off-put by Asuka Jr.'s arrogance and insensitivity towards others, she begins to find his genuine sincerity in chasing Saint Tail to be attractive and sends him calling cards in order to challenge him. Asuka Jr. responds well to the challenge, wanting to impress his classmates to satisfy his inferiority complex, but after an incident in which she fails to send him a calling card for a caper, Asuka Jr. contacts her and desperately pleads for her to send them again, fearing that someone else will catch her in his place if she performs a caper without him. Saint Tail agrees to make a promise with him to always send a calling card every time she embarks on a caper, and to not allow anyone else to catch her before him. As the Saint Tail chase continues, Meimi begins to fall in love with Asuka Jr., even telling him that if she were to get caught, she would want him to be the one to do it.

Eventually, it is revealed that Asuka Jr. had secretly been worried about Meimi's well-being the entire time, but is unable to fully express it due to his poor social skills and belief that Meimi dislikes him. After one of Saint Tail's capers causes him to suspect that Saint Tail may actually be Meimi, Asuka Jr. realizes how little he knows about Meimi and develops an extreme obsession with catching Saint Tail in order to learn the truth. Meanwhile, Meimi begins to fear that Asuka Jr. would hate her if he were to learn about her identity, causing her to go into emotional isolation and withdraw from him further.

After repeated observation of Saint Tail's capers, Asuka Jr. comes to sympathize with her to the point he no longer believes she should be arrested, but still intends to "catch" her in order to protect her from the police or anyone else who would harm her. After concluding that Saint Tail has become an "ideal" who is treated more as a concept than a human being, Asuka Jr. realizes that his current stake in the Saint Tail chase is an extension of his feelings for Meimi, leading to him confessing his love to her.

Even after entering a romantic relationship with Asuka Jr., Meimi continues to fear that Asuka Jr. would hate her for being Saint Tail and remains unable to open up about her identity or feelings to him out of guilt; however, when Seira suggests that she retire from being Saint Tail, Meimi refuses, feeling that she has a duty to help people in need. Shortly after, a rival phantom thief kidnaps Asuka Jr. and forcibly reveals Saint Tail's identity to him. Meimi decides to perform her "last theft" as Saint Tail in order to rescue him, believing that her relationship with him will be permanently ruined by doing so; however, when she arrives, Asuka Jr. physically "catches" her in free fall and metaphorically "catches" her by relieving her of her duty as Saint Tail, having figured out her feelings for him through her final calling card.

Eight years later, Asuka Jr. carries on Saint Tail's desire to protect Seika City by working as a private detective, and proposes to and marries Meimi.

Media

Anime dubbing
Main article: List of Saint Tail episodes

The first four volumes (15 episodes) were dubbed to English as well as subtitled. Volumes 5-8 were released on DVD with English subtitles only. In the English dub, the first seven episodes removed references to God in a possible anticipation of a TV broadcast. This is especially awkward, "considering Seira Mimori spends half of the time in a nun's habit, one wonders why they thought they could do Saint Tail without references to God". According to producer Kenneth Lee, who took over starting with Volume 3, the remaining episodes will not have this restriction.

In the Italian dub, when Asuka Jr. reads a notice from Saint Tail, rather than display the notice written in Japanese, a short scene of Saint Tail running in the dark is shown while her voice reads out the notice's message. The notice scenes are cut from the Korean dub. In Korea, several episodes were cut entirely and not broadcast. Additionally, the twelfth episode was broadcast after the third episode to match with the real Christmas season.

Manga

Tokyopop licensed Saint Tail for an English-language translation in North America, and published it from April 23, 2001 to December 10, 2002.[3][4] This translation has since gone out of print.[3]

2017 contest

In 2017, Kodansha held a contest through pixiv for fans of Megumi Tachikawa's Saint Tail to become the artist for the "next generation" version of the manga. The contest asked fans to create the story of a new phantom thief who appears in Seika City.[5][6]

References
  1. Frost, Marc (March 29, 2014). "Saint Tail". The Anime Guide. Retrieved September 22, 2020.
  2. "Saint Tail, Volume 4." Google Books. Retrieved on March 31, 2012.
  3. "Saint Tail Volume 1". Tokyopop. Archived from the original on December 12, 2005. Retrieved April 4, 2015.
  4. "Saint Tail Volume 7". Tokyopop. Archived from the original on December 12, 2005. Retrieved April 4, 2015.
  5. "Saint Tail Holds Contest to Create Manga's 'Next Generation'". 9 August 2023.
  6. ""Mysterious Thief Saint Tail" Manga Sequel Recruiting New Artist".
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