History Characters / KaitouSaintTail

* ShipperOnDeck: While they're exasperated at Sawatari's antics (presumably because they can tell Meimi herself isn't all that interested), they get invested in the idea of Meimi and Asuka Jr. going out on a "date", and the anime has them be openly supportive of Meimi's romance prospects in ways such as discussing going out with her to find themselves some nice boyfriends or finding it enviable when a rich man takes an interest in her. [[spoiler:Once Meimi actually starts dating Asuka Jr., they go all-out in speculating what they'll do next as a couple and encouraging them to do romantic things together.]]

* HiddenDepths: [[spoiler:According to Eimi, he actually knows far more than he's letting on; he's just keeping quiet about sensitive topics out of courtesy (to the point that he didn't even give full details about [[spoiler:Eimi's depression over the Star Ruby]] to Seira despite being at a confessional).

* RomanticFalseLead: She doesn't quite make it to the trope because Asuka Jr. is unlikely to return her feelings no matter what she does, and the manga makes it especially clear that he's annoyed and turned off by her advances whenever he does recognize one of her attempts, but her scheming to get in between him and Saint Tail proves to be a legitimate threat to their ability to use their meetings for their FoeRomanceSubtext, and the anime portrays him as [[AdaptationalDumbass more clueless]] towards her advances and thus more amenable to her.

* ToxicFriendInfluence: A rather tragic one, because Seira herself legitimately thinks she's working in everyone's best interest, but her way of going about things effectively boils down to "[[ManipulativeBastard mainipulate others into doing what she wants]] while avoiding any consequences herself because she doesn't want to deal with them". Ultimately, she's the one responsible for enabling Meimi's self-worth problems and indirectly driving her towards a mental breakdown while doing very little to address the issue. [[spoiler:By the time Seira realizes how bad things have gotten, Meimi is now so emotionally dependent on her role as Saint Tail that she can't be convinced to drop it, yet Seira doesn't press the issue beyond the bare minimum.]] Seira does show signs of catching on that she may have put too much of a burden on Meimi in chapter 22/episode 41, and in the manga, [[spoiler:Sawatari eventually convinces her to stop being a CreatureOfHabit and try doing things differently herself.]]

-->'''Takamiya:''' Huh. Somehow, punching this guy always makes me feel better.

* AdvanceNoticeCrime: She sends out warnings to Asuka Jr detailing exactly when she’s going to strike next and what she’ll be trying to steal. But being a stage magician as well, she proceeds to make each one increasingly unique- one might be in an arcade machine’s game over screen, another might be on the side of a blimp.

* HiddenDepths: [[spoiler:According to Eimi, he actually knows far more than he's letting on; he's just keeping quiet about sensitive topics out of courtesy (to the point that he didn't even give full details about [[spoiler:Eimi's depression over the Star Ruby]] to Seira despite being at a confessional).]]

* CerebusRetcon: [[spoiler:Eimi wanting Meimi to "[[FollowInMyFootsteps follow in her footsteps]]" to the point she and Genichiro are even proud of her sneaking out at night initially suggests that they see absolutely nothing wrong with the idea of Meimi being a career PhantomThief like her mother was, moral questionability be damned. Eventually, chapter 21/episode 40 reveals that she actually considered her life back then to be [[DarkAndTroubledPast miserable and unfulfilling]] compared to living a happier life with Genichiro, and that her regret of not being able to return the Star Ruby is still eating at her; she and Genichiro had merely been avoiding talking about all of the negative aspects, and her interest in Meimi "following in her footsteps" had only been in terms of the RequiredSecondaryPowers like stealth and athletic skills. As a result, what had seemingly been [[PermissiveParents excessive open-mindedness]] on her and Genichiro's part had actually been an accidental case of AndThatWouldBeWrong.]]

* GeekPhysiques: He's not very good in athletics and can't run very fast. Meimi even manages to identify him from within a GoofySuit just from his "century-making" clumsiness when falling over.

* BehavioralConditioning: At the beginning of the series, Saint Tail's personality is basically just "Meimi but more playful" to the point she sometimes accidentally says things that are on her mind as Meimi, and she initially identifies herself so closely with Saint Tail that she falls in love with Asuka Jr. by projecting his passion in chasing Saint Tail onto herself, but the dolphin caper (chapter 20/episode 39) suggests that repeated exposure to being [[WorshippedForGreatDeeds treated like an abstract concept]] had started making her ''act'' like an inhuman and detached entity to the point she'd become unrecognizable. The problem is that internally speaking, she ''is'' still Meimi, but being unable to express herself means she's trapped in her own head and can't interact with others as Meimi, unnerving Asuka Jr. because he consciously knows it's likely that Meimi is under there BeneathTheMask yet still has to treat her like a near-complete stranger until he can get proper confirmation.

* AdaptationalJerkass: "Jerkass" would be a strong way to put it, but Meimi's AllLovingHero and occasional ExtremeDoormat nature is a little more pronounced in the manga; she never rubs in Asuka Jr.'s failures even jokingly, and her first proper meeting with Takamiya in chapter 6 has her still trying to make friends with her despite everything she'd just seen her do. In comparison, the anime version is a little more prone to teasing and making fun of Asuka Jr. (albeit mainly because [[AdaptationalAngstDowngrade he doesn't take it as hard]] as his manga counterpart would), and she's more pronounced in her jealousy about other girls like Sayaka and Takamiya approaching him, even getting snippy at him for large portions of the day while he genuinely has no clue what he did wrong.

* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: [[spoiler:Even after her motives for continuing as Saint Tail are completely reduced to doing it [[SamaritanSyndrome purely to help people in need]], Maju ends up making Saint Tail a scapegoat for her own serial thefts because [[HeroWithBadPublicity everyone knows so little about Saint Tail]] that they're still willing to believe she'd betray the town at the drop of a hat. Meimi is left forced to remain silent while everyone blames Saint Tail for terrorizing the town to her face, and Asuka Jr. ends up being the only person willing to stand up for her while she tries to [[ClearMyName recover her reputation]] by getting the stolen goods back.]]

* ProneToTears: Mainly in the manga, where she's so emotionally sensitive and prone to crying easily that she cries even at the sheer sentimentality of a young girl coming to pray for her grandfather. One of the reasons Asuka Jr. has to be careful is that while he doesn't want to coddle her, it doesn't take a lot to get her to start crying, and he ''really'' does not like seeing her sad [[spoiler:(although he does figure out how to properly scold her after they start dating)]].

* KarmicJackpot: As far as she knew at the time, Saint Tail's choice to make ThePromise with Asuka Jr. provided no practical benefit to her and in fact would only endanger her further by increasing the chances of him catching her, but her decision to do so ends up having payoffs when he starts doing a better job at protecting her than catching her, and her allowing someone to come see her on every caper creates a CharacterWitness [[spoiler:who ends up being the only one standing up for her when everything goes to hell in the final arc. It also creates a [[LoveLetterLunacy hard record]] of exactly how long Meimi had loved him, thus communicating her feelings when she'd failed to do so the entire series]]. The flower-and-snow CreationMyth alludes to this by describing it as the snow protecting the flower in exchange for it offering its color.

* AdaptationalJerkass: Zigzagged. In the anime, he starts off cockier and more of a KnowNothingKnowItAll, he's more willing to tease or provoke Meimi, added {{Filler}} episodes in the early stages of the anime portray him as taking longer to develop the level of concern over Meimi he does in the manga, and later episodes have him putting on a front of continuing to be cocky about the FriendlyRivalry when he's actually secretly trying to protect her. On the flip side, he's also more open about his respect for Saint Tail from the get-go, and he's portrayed as more openly friendly and sociable in general; in particular, his HairTriggerTemper is downplayed to the point he's able to have far more casual interactions with others than he would have been capable of in the manga (in fact, he's able to tease Meimi more specifically because [[AdaptationalAngstDowngrade she doesn't take it as hard]]).
** In the manga, Takamiya being a HateSink who did nothing but threaten Asuka Jr. into doing what she wanted made it very understandable why he would treat her coldly and try to keep her away from him, but in the anime, [[AdaptationalNiceGuy she actually does things to show him support]], only for him to continue ignoring her and treating her rudely.

** For a more specific example, [[spoiler:chapter 21/episode 40 involves him going to Seira lamenting that he can tell Eimi is sad but isn't sure what he can do to cheer her up, with it later being revealed that he knows the actual reason she's sad but doesn't want to bring it up for her sake. At the ''exact'' same time, Asuka Jr. happens to be worried about the fact Meimi is clearly miserable and desperate to do something to help her, all while keeping quiet about his suspicions of her being Saint Tail...]]

* MeaningfulName: Her name is written with the word for "pearl" (真珠), but instead of its usual reading "''shinju''", it's read as "Maju", making it a PunnyName that plays on the word "''majutsu''" ([[BlackMagic black magic]]). In addition, it contains the kanji for "truth" (真) in it, which makes it both an IronicName (in that she actually swindles people out of their goods) and a straightforward MeaningfulName (in that she's instrumental in finally clarifying the truth behind Saint Tail that Asuka Jr. wanted).

** The anime's presentation (continuing to use the usual StockFootage, etc.) also downplays the part about the public-facing part of the Saint Tail persona [[BehavioralConditioning becoming progressively more inhuman]] as the series went on, something that was reflected via the manga art depicting her as more detached and distant while Asuka Jr.'s expressions had a clear nuance of him feeling alienated from her.
* AdaptationalJerkass: Aside from her being {{Tsundere}} in the early chapters, the manga version of Meimi was never hostile to Asuka Jr. beyond [[JerkassHasAPoint legitimate callouts for bad behavior]] (at worst going a little overboard with it), and the fact she never treated him as a failure and was actually genuinely supportive of him was [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe the main reason he fell in love with her]]. In contrast, the anime version ''does'' frequently mock him and even rubs in his failures at catching Saint Tail multiple times to degrees that would be unthinakble for her in the manga, although it helps that he also has a corresponding AdaptationalAngstDowngrade and thus clearly doesn't take her mockery as hard (and in an anime-original scene in episode 27, while she does initially rub in his failures, she immediately dials it back once she sees how much it had hurt him).
* AdaptationalHeroism: A minor case, but the anime has her be a little more careful about avoiding collateral damage than she was in the manga, where she was willing to break glass even when her target wasn't an AssholeVictim.

* AgentMulder: She's not as extreme as most cases of the trope, but her background as a StageMagician means she likes encouraging the idea of entertaining hypotheticals and believing in other "mysterious things" in the world, serving as a contrast to Asuka Jr. being an AgentScully who dislikes the idea of believing in anything "unscientific".

* BehavioralConditioning: At the beginning of the series, Saint Tail's personality is basically just "Meimi but more playful" to the point she sometimes accidentally says things that are on her mind as Meimi, and she initially identifies herself so closely with Saint Tail that she falls in love with Asuka Jr. by projecting his passion in chasing Saint Tail onto herself, but repeated exposure to being [[WorshippedForGreatDeeds treated like an abstract concept]] starts making her ''act'' like an inhuman and detached entity to the point she becomes unrecognizable, and she's eventually [[SecretIdentityIdentity unable to identify Saint Tail as herself anymore]]. The problem is that internally speaking, she ''is'' still Meimi, but being unable to express herself means she's trapped in her own head and can't interact with others as Meimi, unnerving Asuka Jr. because he consciously knows it's likely that Meimi is under there BeneathTheMask yet still has to treat her like a near-complete stranger until he can get proper confirmation.

* ClarkKenting: Averted: while the only physical difference between Meimi and Saint Tail is that the latter wears her hair in a ponytail, Saint Tail takes extreme care into not showing her face, and she eventually starts acting different to PlausibleDeniability levels the more she ends up being consumed by her SecretIdentityIdentity problem. In fact, the final arc involves Asuka Jr. feeling tormented because despite all of the signs of Meimi and Saint Tail having the same physical body, he ''can't'' mentally register them as the same person without confirmation because of how unnervingly unrecognizable Saint Tail acts.

* TheDreaded: In the anime, by the second half of the series, the local criminals have begun to fear Saint Tail due to how many of them have been caught as a result of her own capers. In episode 24, the criminals-of-the-week panic when they hear that Saint Tail's target is in a mansion they'd swindled -- only for Saint Tail to mostly ignore them in favor of retrieving a jewelry box while Detective Asuka turns out to have [[CollidingCriminalConspiracies already been chasing them anyway]], driving home the point that most people besides Asuka Jr. don't actually understand how Saint Tail works.

* ProneToTears: She's emotionally sensitive and tends to cry easily, [[spoiler:although it's not until the finale when she finally gets to ''really'' cry out all of her pent-up feelings in Asuka Jr.'s presence]].

* StageMagician: She may seem like a truly magical MagicalGirl, but this is what she really is when she comes down to it. Saint Tail's outfit started out as Meimi's outfit for when she would go professional.

* TomboyishPonytail: This is where the "Tail" part of Saint Tail's name comes from, and it's the one thing the public consistently knows about her. The ponytail being taken down with a clear view of her face is how Asuka Jr. identifies her as Meimi when he sees her reflection in Princess Rosa's mirror. [[spoiler:Rosemary and Maju do it again to confirm her identity to him, and once things are settled, he mentally defines Saint Tail as just "Meimi with a ponytail" because of how little of a distinction he draws between the two (and he also thinks she's very cute in it, Saint Tail or not).]]

* WorshippedForGreatDeeds: This is what Asuka Jr. means when he refers to Saint Tail as an "ideal": she herself claims to be inflicting "divine retribution" on criminals while anyone she helps sees her as "God answering their prayers", so regardless of whether she's on a real MissionFromGod or not, people certainly ''see'' her as part of the will of God and treat her more like an abstract concept than they consider her to be a human being.

* CrazyJealousGuy: Ultimately averted. Part of his inability to admit that [[GreenEyedEpiphany he's getting jealous over Meimi]] is that he doesn't want to be this, since he has no problem stepping in when she's uncomfortable but isn't sure what to do when her own feelings on the issue are more unclear. [[spoiler:He's only able to accept it when he realizes that the feeling comes from [[DeclarationOfProtection not trusting anyone else with her]].]]

* {{Determinator}}: As long as he has an opportunity to work with, he ''will'' see it through to the end, no matter how many tries it takes or how hard he has to work for it. At no point does he ever remotely consider the idea of giving up on the Saint Tail chase; the only thing he asks is that she send the calling cards so he knows where to start. [[spoiler:Eventually, this turns out to apply on an emotional level as well when he decides that he'll do what it takes to make Meimi happy, even if it means having to overcome his own [[InnocentlyInsensitive serious personality flaws]] to do so.]]

* FaithInTheFoe: Even from the beginning, he took Saint Tail's JustLikeRobinHood nature seriously and thus spends every caper observing her closely to confirm that it's true. In the anime, he eventually starts harboring suspicions about the people Saint Tail targets ''before'' he's even figured out the full situation. This ultimately turns into full-on SympathyForTheHero when he realizes that he doesn't even want to arrest her anymore after everything she's going through, [[spoiler:and not only does he end up becoming her only advocate when Maju makes her into the town scapegoat, the DistantFinale also implies he'd been openly referring to her as someone who protected the city]].

* HairTriggerTemper: He starts off this way, easily getting worked up and upset over even the smallest things (although that includes other emotions as well, including [[ProneToTears crying dramatically]]). His temper mellows out significantly as he gets over his inferiority complex, with his only remaining BerserkButton being out of fear of losing Meimi.

* ICantBelieveAGuyLikeYouWouldNoticeMe: Aside from him being [[ObliviousToLove a little dense]] and Meimi being [[MasterOfTheMixedMessage very confusing to read]], the main reason he can't catch onto Meimi's feelings for him is that he assumes by default that she dislikes him (mainly because she really ''did'' dislike him back when he was more of an arrogant jerk), and it takes 12 chapters for him to even consider the idea that she ''doesn't'' hate him. [[spoiler:Even after they start dating, he still can't read exactly what she thinks of him, and his first reaction to confirming her identity as Saint Tail is wondering if she might have been [[WasItAllALie secretly enjoying messing around with him]]; learning that she'd been legitimately in love with him ''the entire time'' is such a shock to him that he's "so happy he might die".]]

* InSeriesNickname: The "Asuka" part is in katakana (アスカ) instead of its usual kanji (飛鳥) and the "Jr." part is in English, meant in the sense of him being a kid AmateurSleuth who intends to succeed his father as a detective (he's not directly named after his father, whose given name is Tomoki). Some people, such as Takamiya, will just call him "Asuka", and he's addressed with normal formalities by a few others, but most of the people in town use the nickname in lieu of any honorifics. [[spoiler:By the time of the DistantFinale eight years later, Seira ''still'' calls him that despite admitting it's a bit weird to do so when he's an adult PrivateDetective now.]]

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: It's implied that a major reason he believes Meimi has the right to hate him is from his regrets over having snapped at her and hurt her in chapter 4 prior to him making [[ThePromise his promise]] with Saint Tail, [[spoiler:which adds more reason for him to be shocked when he eventually learns that she'd reached out to him as Saint Tail despite that because she was ''in love with him'']].

* NotSoDifferentRemark: It's implied that his initial interest in Saint Tail is heavily shaped by the fact she's actually [[JustAKid a girl around his age]].

* ObliviousToLove: He's so terribly insensitive with romance topics that it initially seems he has a bad case of this, but it's subverted when it turns out that it's partially because [[SingleTargetSexuality he only has eyes for Meimi anyway]] and is still ''extremely'' in love with her no matter how bad he is with romantic signals. His inability to catch onto Meimi's feelings is moreso her being [[MasterOfTheMixedMessage very hard to read]] than anything that's really his fault, [[spoiler:and although it takes some prompting from Maju, he ''eventually'' figures out the exact nature of Meimi's feelings before she's ever able to tell him about it]].

* SelectiveObliviousness: His attempt to avoid ParalysisByAnalysis is via a policy of never thinking too hard about things and relying on instinct, meaning he puts anything that would be uncomfortable or confusing to think about in the back of his head and focuses on the immediate task at hand. Thus, his way of coping with his growing suspicion that Saint Tail is actually Meimi is by falling back on [[PlausibleDeniability any excuse to not believe it]] until he sees Meimi in Saint Tail's reflection, which invades his brain so badly that he tries to pour everything into catching her so he can get his answers while shutting out the rest for the time being. Despite that, it still unconsciously influences his behavior to the point of worrying about her as if she were Meimi, and eventually the evidence gets so strong that he can't avoid it anymore. [[spoiler:By the time Rosemary eventually forces the truth in his face, he'd already been assuming they were the same person in practice, merely stalling the uncomfortable questions until he could get the answers himself.]]

* AndThenWhat: Even when Genichiro when he didn't have much money and "producing flowers" was the only magic trick he could do, he'd make sure she had tons of flowers in both hands every time they met, and was altogether tolerant of her selfish and ill-tempered behavior. Eimi decided that everything she'd done as a thief felt hollow in comparison and quit being a thief.

* BerserkButton: The anime has her get ''very'' upset at Genichiro using hypnosis on her at one point, moreso than with Genichiro's usual, and given later events it may be from being reminded of her rival Rosemary.
* CerebusRetcon: Eimi wanting Meimi to "[[FollowInMyFootsteps follow in her footsteps]]" to the point she and Genichiro are even proud of her sneaking out at night initially suggests that they see absolutely nothing wrong with the idea of Meimi being a career PhantomThief like her mother was, moral questionability be damned. Eventually, chapter 21/episode 40 reveals that she actually considered her life back then to be [[DarkAndTroubledPast miserable and unfulfilling]] compared to living a happier life with Genichiro, and that her regret of not being able to return the Star Ruby is still eating at her; she and Genichiro had merely been avoiding talking about all of the negative aspects, and her interest in Meimi "following in her footsteps" had only been in terms of the RequiredSecondaryPowers like stealth and athletic skills. As a result, what had seemingly been [[PermissiveParents excessive open-mindedness]] on her and Genichiro's part had actually been an accidental case of AndThatWouldBeWrong.
* ChallengeSeeker: Her original motive for stealing was that she wanted to test her own abilities, and Rosemary made her only want to one-up her even harder. She only stopped after meeting Genichiro and finding that she enjoyed her life with him more.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: While she's chipper about her past as a PhantomThief, the actual details about it turn out to be this for her, and being reminded of it ends up sending her into a glum mood to the point Genichiro starts worrying about how to cheer her up since he's afraid of bringing it up.

* FollowInMyFootsteps: In an early chapter/episode, she discovers that her daughter is sneaking out at night and is ''very'' pleased that Meimi is taking after her as a phantom thief. It later turns out that, jokes aside, she's not necessarily interested in Meimi succeeding her as a phantom thief per se, but she wants Meimi to take after her in terms of the RequiredSecondaryPowers, because she herself has turned over a new leaf and knows Meimi wouldn't do anything bad.
* GenerationXerox: Detective Asuka was on her tail the way Asuka Jr. is on Saint Tail's now, although with a less personal connection and more hostility. On the other hand, her relationship with Genichiro has parallels to Meimi and Asuka Jr.'s, except with the genders reversed: like Asuka Jr., Eimi is more down-to-earth and pragmatic, and she also happens to be shouldering a painful background that someone open-minded like Genichiro had to pull her out of.

* LoveRedeems: After meeting Genichiro, his [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe unconditional love and kindness]] made her feel that all of her previous thefts were meaningless in comparison, so she decided to retire as a thief and turned over a new leaf to the point she even tried to give back everything she'd stolen.

* StrongFamilyResemblance: She looks almost exactly like an older version of her daughter, except with curlier hair (the anime also gives her green eyes, with Meimi's blue eyes presumably coming from Genichiro instead). According to Rosemary, Eimi basically looked exactly like Meimi when she was around her age.

* YouAreWhatYouHate: Rosemary was her rival whom she despised to death, but they were basically identical in personality until Eimi met Genichiro. [[spoiler:Rosemary even later acknowledges that she might have taken a different path like Eimi if she'd met someone like him.]]

* GenerationXerox: Ironically, although Meimi wants to marry "[[LikeParentLikeSpouse a man like her father]]", her relationship with Asuka Jr. is more like a gender-reversed version of Genichiro's with Eimi, since Genichiro's open-mindedness helped get the more pragmatic Eimi out of her warped mentality and painful past, just like how Meimi's open-mindedness helps Asuka Jr. get out of his InferioritySuperiorityComplex. [[spoiler:That said, him getting Eimi to retire from her life as a PhantomThief by showing her unconditional love ties in more directly to his daughter's boyfriend/future husband ends up doing the same thing; Rosemary's comment about possibly wanting to have met someone like Asuka Jr. "twenty years earlier" implies that she had Genichiro in mind too, and it may have been a factor in why she'd left Eimi alone to enjoy her retired life the same way she'd done for Asuka Jr. and Meimi.]]
** Chapter 21/episode 40 involves him going to Seira lamenting that he can tell Eimi is sad but isn't sure what he can do to cheer her up, with it later being revealed that he knows the actual reason she's sad but doesn't want to bring it up for her sake. At the ''exact'' same time, Asuka Jr. happens to be worried about the fact Meimi is clearly miserable and desperate to do something to help her, all while keeping quiet about his suspicions of her being Saint Tail...
* HiddenDepths: According to Eimi, he actually knows far more than he's letting on; he's just keeping quiet about sensitive topics out of courtesy (to the point that he didn't even give full details to Seira despite being at a confessional).

* LoveAtFirstSight: In the words of his wife, "you took one look at me and fell in love." That the woman who'd fallen on his porch was a ''thief on the run from the police'' who had nothing to offer him besides yelling at him and potentially getting him in trouble apparently wasn't an issue to him at all.

* PermissiveParents: Apparently, the only objection he would have to Meimi becoming a PhantomThief like her mother is that... [[BoyfriendBlockingDad it might influence her love life]]. Other than that, he's incredibly on-board with her doing things like ''sneaking out at night'' because it makes him proud that she's taken after Eimi. It's later subverted when it turns out that he knows full well that Eimi's life as a PhantomThief was miserable, and simply isn't bringing it up for her sake.

* SomethingAboutARose: Conjuring roses was the first trick he learned as a magician, and it proved quite effective in charming his future wife when he used them to hide her from the police. At the time, it was the only one he knew.

* UnderstandingBoyfriend: He didn't mind the fact that the woman he'd met was a PhantomThief who was on the run from the police; he immediately went ahead and hid her in his apartment, and he managed to captivate her so much that she decided to turn over a new leaf.

* GenerationXerox: He also pursued a phantom thief in his youth, and said phantom thief just so happened to be Meimi's mother. Unlike Meimi, Eimi doesn't seem to have thought much of her pursuer, with her own nature as a ChallengeSeeker and her rival Rosemary being more significant issues to her.

* SelectiveObliviousness: He has a tendency to try not to think about uncomfortable things and focus on the immediate task he needs to do first. He'd been considering the possibility of Saint Tail being Meimi as early as the second episode/chapter, but he falls back on [[PlausibleDeniability any excuse to not believe it]] until he sees Meimi in Saint Tail's reflection, making him unable to forget about it even if he ''tries''. His response is to pour everything into catching her so he can get his answers while trying not to think about the rest, but it still unconsciously influences his behavior to the point of worrying about her as if she were Meimi, and eventually the evidence gets so strong that he can't avoid it anymore. [[spoiler:By the time Rosemary eventually forces the truth in his face, he'd already been assuming they were the same person in practice, merely stalling the uncomfortable questions until he could get the answers himself.]]

* VengeanceFeelsEmpty: Because she didn't get to find any meaning in her life the way Eimi did, she's itching to get her revenge by having ''someone'' suffer, so the idea of taking revenge out on Eimi when she's living a happy life doesn't sit well with her because she won't get the "fun" she wants out of it. She tries to take out RevengeByProxy on Meimi under the belief that Meimi's suffering is a close enough substitute for her mother's, but when Meimi also turns out to have someone who actually cares about her enough to offset anything she does to her, she has no choice but to give up because there's just no point anymore.

* AdaptationalBadass: In the manga, all we heard about him was via hearsay from Asuka Jr., who dismissed him as incompetent; Tachikawa's notes imply that that this isn't actually an inaccurate description, but his appearances in the anime portray him as perfectly capable, just OvershadowedByAwesome.

* ForWantOfANail: After seeing Asuka Jr. be so genuinely devoted to Meimi, she wonders if she herself would have been different if she'd met someone like Asuka Jr. or Genichiro twenty years earlier.

* KnowWhenToFoldEm: Her main way of trying to torment Saint Tail is by trying to ruin her relationship with Asuka Jr., but once it's clear that he loves her back unconditionally even after knowing her identity, Rosemary figures that it's pointless trying to push it further, even musing that [[ForWantOfANail things might have been different]] if she'd had someone like that earlier in her life.

* InternalReformist: Episodes 33-36 of the anime imply that by this point, he's already aware that he's probably on the side of [[AssholeVictim the wrong people]] but is limited in how much he can investigate coimpared to his need to focus on keeping Saint Tail safe. Meanwhile, by putting up an act and maintaining his position, not only can he [[TheMole prevent others from catching her in his place]], he can also let Saint Tail take care of the actual problem while he has the police follow up in apprehending any criminals she exposes.

* InternalReformist: Episodes 33-34 of the anime imply that by this point, he's already aware that he's probably on the side of [[AssholeVictim the wrong people]] but can't spend too much time investigating out of lack of evidence and his need to focus on keeping Saint Tail safe. Meanwhile, by putting up an act and maintaining his position, not only can he [[TheMole prevent others from catching her in his place]], he can also let Saint Tail take care of the actual problem while he has the police follow up in apprehending any criminals she exposes.