is a

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

and

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

series. Originally a twenty-four part manga by

Megumi Tachikawa is a Japanese '' shōjo'' manga artist, best known for the manga ''Saint Tail'', which was also adapted into an anime series. She made her manga debut in 1992 with ''16-sai no Tiara'', which was nominated for the 'New Face' manga award. Works *' ...

, the story was adapted into an anime television series by producer

Tokyo Movie Shinsha , formerly known as the , also known as or , is a Japanese animation studio established on October 22, 1946. TMS is one of the oldest and most famous anime studios in Japan, best known for numerous anime franchises such as ''Lupin the Third'', ...

, with forty-three episodes and one short, broadcast by

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

Tokyopop Tokyopop (styled TOKYOPOP; formerly known as Mixx Entertainment) is an American distributor, licensor and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa and Western manga-style works. The German publishing division produces German translations of licensed J ...

translated the manga series, and subtitled and partially dubbed the anime series. Video games were released for the

Sega Saturn The is a home video game console developed by Sega and released on November 22, 1994, in Japan, May 11, 1995, in North America, and July 8, 1995, in Europe. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it was the successor to the succ ...

Master System The is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was originally a remodeled export version of the Sega Mark III, the third iteration of the SG-1000 series of consoles, which was released in Japan in 1985 and ...

and Game Gear in Japan, and are considered collectors' items by Saint Tail fans. The

book summary states that it is " Robin Hood meets

Sailor Moon is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Naoko Takeuchi. It was originally serialized in Kodansha's ''shōjo'' manga magazine ''Nakayoshi'' from 1991 to 1997; the 52 individual chapters were published in 18 volumes. The seri ...

Plot

Middle school girl Meimi Haneoka transforms into the mysterious thief Saint Tail and steals back random belongings that were stolen using magic tricks. She's assisted by her best friend, classmate, and sister-in-training, Seira Mimori, whose position in the church after school each day allows her to hear the troubles of those who have been wronged and have come to pray to God. While Saint Tail steals to right the wrongs done to innocent people, she's considered a thief by the police force. Her classmate, Daiki Asuka Jr.—called Asuka Jr.—and son of Detective Asuka, is hot on her trail. Saint Tail delivers notices of her planned capers to Asuka Jr., to give him a fair chance to catch her.

Media

Anime dubbing

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

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

2017 contest

In 2017,

Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...

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.

References

External links

* {{Nakayoshi 1994 manga 1995 anime television series debuts Asahi Broadcasting Corporation original programming Crime in anime and manga Discotek Media Fictional gentleman thieves Game Gear games Kodansha manga Magical girl anime and manga Master System games Sega Saturn games Shōjo manga TMS Entertainment TV Asahi original programming Tokyopop titles Tomy games Video games developed in Japan