The Thief of Hearts

The Japanese seem to have this fascination with all things cute, and it extends to professions we Westerners might not think of as cute. This juxtaposition leads to the gentleman thief, a loner with a heart of gold who steals from the rich to give to the poor, o at least they steal from the rich and give to someone. Sounds familiar right? Shades of Robin Hood? Yeah I thought so. Saint Tail is a manga that had a gentleman thief, only the thief is a young girl.

Enter Meimi Haneoka a high school girl and her friend Seira Mimori a young nun in training. Meimi's father is a magician and Meimi follows in his footsteps using stage magic to steal back items that have been stolen from innocents. Hot on her heels is a young detective named Asuka Jr. who goes to her school. Keeping her secret from Asuka during the evening is compounded by the fact that she grows to care for him. The high school drama amps up with new love interests for both Meimi and Asuka and new police schemes to catch her in the act. While it is a sugary sweet romance, it does have some interesting characteristics. Like Superman before her you worry about how she will get out of her next predicament, and cheer at the inventive ways she does.

Something fairly noticeable is the constant reference to the Christian God. I know most people won't have a problem with this, and will even encourage it, but some secular schools might have a fight on their hands. The only other thing that might should be watched for are the guns sometimes used by the criminal element and Meimi's thefts. But in the later case it really isn't encouraged, and the stolen objects usually are stolen buy others and Meimi returns them to their owners. Still she does find herself on the wrong side of the law.

So that's Saint Tail in a nutshell. It's cute, it's for girls, and other than a few minor things I would recommend it for any age group. Check out the corresponding anime for extra episodes.