History Heartwarming / KaitouSaintTail

*** Asuka being revealed to have attained FirstNameBasis with Meimi and proposing to her, [[ImportantHaircut who has cut her hair as a sign of retirement from being a phantom thief]].
** A meta version: in the Japanese Blu-ray commentary for the episode, Meimi, Seira, and Asuka Jr.'s voice actors (Sakurai, Inoue, and Okano) reasoned that Asuka Jr. being so reliant on SelectiveObliviousness regarding the possibility of Saint Tail being Meimi was probably at least partially that it'd been his own way of respecting her, because [[HonorBeforeReason he'd have seen any other way of uncovering her identity as too underhanded]] compared to catching her fair and square and [[ThePromise fulfilling his side of the promise]].

** Asuka Jr. takes Meimi to a fortune-teller despite absolutely ''hating'' things like fortune-telling, not because he actually believes in it now, but because he's hoping it'll help him figure out what Meimi needs to make her happy. Then, when Maju trash-talks their relationship by claiming it's doomed to fail, he's ''so'' livid at the suggestion that he drags Meimi out and trash-talks her. Bonus points if you take the specific wording of Maju's "prophecy" into account, since she'd just implied that he's such an insensitive jerk that he'd cut Meimi off on the spot for hiding something from him (something we find out to very much not be true when the final chapter/episode comes around).

** The one in the final episode/chapter that ''finally'' breaks through Asuka Jr.'s [[ObliviousLove infamous denseness]] and gets him to realize everything, which also retroactively gets the previous calling cards to click as "love letters" for him. It's also notable in that Saint Tail sending it at a time like this meant she had ''everything'' to lose by going through danger to get him and willingly submitting herself to him to get arrested; naturally, he follows up by protesting that he's not going to sit around waiting for her to "take" him (read: [[AllTakeAndNoGive one-sidedly cater to him]]) this time.

* The fact Saint Tail "inviting" Asuka Jr. to her capers is framed like her wistfully trying to see them as dates means that her calling cards really can be framed as her asking him out ([[spoiler:to the point they really do end up labeled as "love letters" at the end of the series]]):

** In chapter 22/episode 44, [[spoiler:Saint Tail sends him her first calling card after Meimi and Asuka Jr. have started dating, and it's... another lunchbox, this time not out of jealousy but because she wants him to eat well, with her having even gotten out a cookbook for it. On the flip side, Asuka Jr. is in an obviously awkward situation with his classmates thinking he's getting a lunchbox from another girl in front of his own girlfriend, while he himself is confused at how he's supposed to be reading this gesture from someone who may-or-may-not actually ''be'' his girlfriend... but a FunnyBackgroundEvent in the manga version indicates that he actually swallowed his HairTriggerTemper so he could eat it, meaning he really didn't want something Meimi/Saint Tail made for him to go to waste.]]
** [[spoiler:The one in the final episode/chapter that ''finally'' breaks through Asuka Jr.'s [[ObliviousLove infamous denseness]] and gets him to realize everything, which also retroactively gets the previous calling cards to click as "love letters" for him. It's also notable in that Saint Tail sending it at a time like this meant she had ''everything'' to lose by going through danger to get him and willingly submitting herself to him to get arrested; naturally, he follows up by protesting that he's not going to sit around waiting for her to "take" him (read: [[AllTakeAndNoGive one-sidedly cater to him]]) this time.]]

** Asuka Jr. finally notices enough of Meimi's presence in Saint Tail that he actually blurts out a half-formed LoveConfession at her at the end of the chapter/episode, [[spoiler:kickstarting the process of his proper LoveEpiphany]].

** [[spoiler:We're shown the first encounter between Eimi and Genichiro: Eimi, as a thief, was trying to escape the police, and Genichiro had spontaneously decided to hide her in his apartment. She was wounded and he had nothing to treat her, and she was threatening to make him pay if she got caught... but then Genichiro hid her under a mountain of roses conjured specifically for the occasion, [[DefrostingIceQueen and her heart melted]], so much that she [[AndThenWhat realized how meaningless being a thief was]]. Eimi tells this entire story with a FallingInLoveMontage, capped by Present!Eimi having a dreamy and squishy look on her face.]]
** [[spoiler:Eimi reveals that Genichiro is ''exactly'' aware of whatever pain she has associated with her former life as a thief and simply isn't saying it out of courtesy.]]

** [[spoiler:After having spent too much time suppressing his feelings for Meimi out of self-consciousness, Asuka Jr. finally hits the switch on a LoveEpiphany and decides that Meimi is his "treasure", realizing he does ''not'' want anyone to take her away from him because of how precious she is to him, and goes ahead and gives her a straighftforward LoveConfession.]]

** [[spoiler:While it's partially to save her pride, ClingyJealousGirl Takamiya decides to be a GracefulLoser about Asuka Jr. and Meimi getting together, claming that they should have gotten together earlier anyway.]]
** Asuka Jr. takes Meimi to a fortune-teller despite absolutely ''hating'' things like fortune-telling, not because he actually believes in it now, but because he's hoping it'll help him figure out what Meimi needs to make her happy. Then, when Maju trash-talks their relationship by claiming it's doomed to fail, he's ''so'' livid at the suggestion that he drags Meimi out and trash-talks her. Bonus points if you take the specific wording of Maju's "prophecy" into account, since she'd just implied that he's such an insensitive jerk that he'd cut Meimi off on the spot for hiding something from him [[spoiler:(something we find out to very much not be true when the final chapter/episode comes around)]].

** [[spoiler:Rosemary and Maju are framing Saint Tail for their thefts... And yet Asuka Jr. ''knows'' she's innocent because she didn't send any calling card, therefore becoming [[CharacterWitness the only person defending her against the class]] when he'd originally been the only one in class to despise her. All because he took ThePromise really, ''really'' seriously.]]
** [[spoiler:After finally having Saint Tail's identity forced in his face, Asuka Jr. is absolutely ''livid''... at Rosemary, because he's now thinking about the fact that this means his own girlfriend is in terrible danger and he can't do anything about it.]]

** [[spoiler:Takamiya conforting Meimi (in her own unique way) when Asuka Jr. is found missing.]]
** [[spoiler:Meimi decides to get Asuka Jr. back, not because she'll get anything out of it (and, in her view, is about to ''lose'' everything), but because she just really wants to bring him back.]]
** [[spoiler:In a twisted way, Rosemary's willingness to renounce her revenge against Saint Tail if she'll join her and Maju into stealing their way to prosperity. That, and the reveal that she adopted Maju: given she was already a talented enough thief to catch Rosemary's eye at her young age, she probably didn't have a good life beforehand. This is followed up by Saint Tail's reply: Asuka Jr. is her jewel, and Rosemary ''must'' give him back.]]
** [[spoiler:Asuka Jr.'s head is so full of Meimi that as soon as he realizes she's sent him a calling card, he clearly wants to see her ''right away''.]]
** [[spoiler:Asuka Jr.'s reaction to Maju pointing out that Saint Tail's calling cards are "love letters" and realizing what exactly Saint Tail had been doing for him leads him to angrily yell that he's ''not'' going to let her "take" him without him getting a say in the matter, or in other words, that he's sick and tired of her slowly destroying herself for his sake.]]
** [[spoiler:Asuka Jr. finally fulfills his side of the promise by catching Saint Tail, [[ExactWords quite literally]], which in the manga is accompanied by the snow from the flower-and-snow CreationMyth, representing his feelings of understanding the full truth of what she'd been doing for him and finally getting to do something for her for once. Literally ''seconds'' after he grabs her, he clamps his hand down on her head and shields her with his body as much as possible, like he'd been wanting to do this his entire life, and once he calms down a crying Meimi by holding her tightly, the manga even has him say that he's "so happy he might die".]]
** [[spoiler:Rosemary seeing the above scene and renouncing her revenge, a bit envious of both Meimi and her mother having met someone who would love them no matter what.]]

*** [[spoiler:The main cast is revealed to all still be good friends, with Asuka having decided to join up with Seira, Takamiya, and Sawatari in helping the town together [[TakeUpMySword in Saint Tail's name]] so that Meimi won't have to carry the burden herself anymore.]]
*** [[spoiler:Asuka being revealed to have attained FirstNameBasis with Meimi and proposing to her, [[ImportantHaircut who has cut her hair as a sign of retirement from being a phantom thief]].]]

** [[spoiler:Despite all of Meimi's fears of Asuka Jr. seeing her as worthless compared to Saint Tail, Asuka Jr. is ''so incapable'' of seeing any difference between them now that he can only distinguish them via "whether she's wearing a ponytail or not". Oh, and he thinks she looks really cute in it.]]
** [[spoiler:Instead of physically going to fetch her like Meimi had wanted, Asuka Jr. proves that "Meimi" means more to him than just "a worse version of Saint Tail" by making an [[SayMyName absolute huge scene]] yelling at her to get back, thus also letting her know that he does actually have faith in her to take care of herself to some extent. Meimi finally accepts his feelings by coming back as Saint Tail one last time to drop by his window and kiss him.]]

** [[spoiler:Sawatari puts aside his philandering ways to get Seira a necklace she wants, even skipping school for it, despite knowing she's celibate and is unlikely to return his feelings.]]

** Asuka Jr. finally notices enough of Meimi's presence in Saint Tail that he actually blurts out a half-formed LoveConfession at her at the end of the chapter/episode, kickstarting the process of his proper LoveEpiphany.

* Chapters 18-19/Episodes 28-29, or basically MutualPining: The Two-Parter, during which Meimi becomes worried about Asuka Jr. losing his position on the case (both because she knows he wants it that badly and because she wants to see him) while Asuka Jr.'s pent-up protectiveness regarding Meimi spirals into panic and gets him to decide he does ''not'' want the police near Saint Tail, therefore solidifying his need to catch her as a full-on DeclarationOfProtection by that point.

* Chapter 12/Episode 11 has Saint Tail follow up on the St. Paulia good luck charm tradition by asking Asuka Jr. for his lock while they're on a caper, which he haphazardly lets her take out of being too dense with romance matters to understand the meaning of. The charm is supposed to get a boy to ask the respective girl to dance with him, but the way this ends up actually happening is that Asuka Jr. pulls Meimi away from a boy who'd been invasively trying to force her to dance with him, then berating her for not standing up for herself, thus revealing that he'd actually been secretly worried about her the entire time... and also that [[WhamLine he'd been convinced she hated him]] and thus hadn't been staying away from her out of distaste, but because ''he respected her boundaries that much''.

** [[spoiler:After having spent too much time suppressing his feelings for Meimi out of self-consciousness, Asuka Jr. finally hits the switch on a LoveEpiphany and decides that Meimi is his "treasure", realizing he does ''not'' want anyone to take her away from him because of how precious she is to him, and goes ahead and gives her a straighftforward LoveConefssion.]]

* Episode 27 has Asuka Jr. attempt to work past his usual insensitivity to convey his concern about Meimi becoming an idol by appealing to her, using her claim of her ideal type being "someone like her father" to say "if I were your father..." Even despite [[ObliviousToLove not getting the full implications]], Meimi is at least touched by the concern.

** [[spoiler:The one in the final episode/chapter that ''finally'' breaks through Asuka Jr.'s [[ObliviousLove infamous denseness]] and gets him to realize everything, which also retroactively gets the previous calling cards to click as "love letters" for him. It's also notable in that Saint Tail sending it at a time like this meant she had ''everything'' to lose by going through danger to get him and willingly submitting herself to him to get arrested; naturally, he follows up by protesting that he's not going to sit around waiting for her to "take" to him (read: [[AllTakeAndNoGive one-sidedly cater to him]]) this time.]]

* Following up on this, in chapter 13/episode 13, Asuka Jr. starts getting ''really'' nervous when Meimi seemingly starts showing signs of having fallen for Sawatari, but is self-conscious to want to excuse himself... ''right up until'' Sawatari starts invasively flirting with her, immediately getting Asuka Jr. to burst in without hesitation and slam a bucket on Sawatari's head.

** Seira tells Meimi that if her capers ever become too painful, then she can [[PassingTheTorch Pass The Torch]] to Phantom Thief Saint Seira.