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SUMMARY

Meimi is a typical student at Saint Paulia's Private School. She like to hang with her friends, hates school work, and take care of little animals.  Her best friend is Seira, a young nun in training who also attends Saint Paulia's.

Sometimes, visitors at Seira's church come to her with tales of woe and sorrow.  These people usually have a common theme, something dear and precious to them has been stolen.  When Seira decides to help them, she calls on Meimi to become the mysterious thief Saint Tail, and steal the items back.

Unfortunately, stealing is still stealing , no matter the reason. The police, headed by Detective Asuka, attempt to track her down and arrest her.  Much to their chagrin, the only one who has come close is Asuka Jr, the detectives son.  Due to Asuka Jr's tenacity, the Mayor appoints the young lad as a Junior Detective.  His mission, to capture Saint Tail!

Thing is, he does not know that fellow classmate Meimi is Saint Tail!

DVD VISION TEST

VIDEO: The video is very well done. No pixels , color bleeding, or rainbows to be found. No clean up from the source material has been done, so any defects you see are from the print they used.

AUDIO: The 2.0 audio on the English version is nicely done.  It is a little soft, so you may want to up the treble on your system to add some sharpness.  Also, don't expect a lot of cool surround sound from this release.

The Audio on the Japanese 2.0 track is the original broadcast audio.  While the purists will rejoice, the audiophiles will be very disappointed.  There is a lot of mono hiss, and at times the echo makes it sound like they recorded Saint Tail in a garage.

EDITS: The opening and ending theme are only used once, at the beginning and the end.  For some reason, the opening theme on the English track only had music, no vocals.  For the episodes themselves, they opted to use poor overlays and freeze frames to eliminate any Japanese text.  Also, episode titles have been changed.

EXTRAS: Well, we have a gallery and that's it.

WIDESCREEN REVIEW

STORY: Saint Tail is based off the girls manga "Kaito Saint Tail" by Megumi Tachigawa.  This series is very similar in tone to "Sailor Moon". It's typical school girls romance with a dash of action thrown in.  Despite having a number of writers, each episode is pretty much the same.

ACTING: Pretty evenly matched on both sides of the coin although Mela Lee's voice is a little to old for a 13 year old girl.

Fans of Kikuko Inoue (Belldandy in Oh My Goddess) will enjoy her low key portrayal of Seira.  Other than that, no one really stands out.

FAN SERVICE: None.  Thank goodness since almost everyone in this show is 13 years old!

CONCLUSION

I normally don't like shojo. I don't like the whinny female characters, the soap opera dramatics, and the romance novel feel. While "Sailor Moon" represents everything I hate about the genre, Saint Tail comes close. It is nothing more than the typical "Robin Hood" rip off we have come to expect from this genre.

Let me say this first...it's okay to let children watch this series.  While Saint Tail's character may be morally ambiguous, Saint Tail is harmless. Compared to most of the characters in animation, she is an okay heroine.  All she wants to do is the right thing. She is not thrilled about causing problems for the police as well as her (boy) friend Askua Jr.  She never uses violence to make her point.  No one dies, and the bad guys always get "theirs" in the end.  While it may not be a sterling example of anime, it is a harmless way to introduce young kids to this exciting genere.

Now, having said that, this is where I tear into this series. Please keep in mind, I am not complaining about TOKYOPOP's selection of this series.  I am merely voicing my dislike of a rather silly anime.  If you are a fan of this series, I encourage you to read a different review.  You may not like what I have to say. 

Okay, while I said I dislike shojo, actually, I hate most shojo.  I don't understand the appeal of these kind of series.  Why do people like tales of girls pining over total jerks who could care less if a woman was in front of them.  Why must every heroine in these kind of shows wear a short skirt. Most of all, why 13 year old girls?  At least in "Kamikaze Kaito Janine" Malon and her friends were 16 and they had cooler outfits.

Another thing, why is a nun commissioning theft?  I don't seem to remember anywhere in confirmation class about "Thou shall not steal, but it's okay if someone else stole it first."  Could you imagine the scandal if this got out?  "Nun implicated in theft of priceless artifacts!"  I don't think God will approve.  At the very least, the Archdiocese.

As far as the series goes, the stories are the same, episode after episode.  Okay, so are most anime series, but at least there is a story arc.  Each episode (at least on this disc) can stand on it's own.
 Disc wise, it's fine. The lack of extras, the rather sloppy edits, and the poor overlays really did not help sooth my displeasure.  Also, there is something wrong with the menu.  It's a little blurry.  

Frankly, Saint Tail is nothing more than pure fluff.  With it's cookie cutter stories, saccharine characters, and silly "cat and mouse" games, you can leave this one on the shelf.  Only fans of shojo, or people who enjoy harmless anime need watch. 

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