All the crimes committed day by dayNo one try to stop it in any way - Junior Murvin, "Police & Thieves"
Sometimes, you don't have to look very deep for an interesting topic. For example, one of the most curious parts of Kaitō Tenshi Twin Angel is right in the title. That's right, folks, this is a serious post about Twin Angel! Hold on tight!
The kaitō, or phantom thief, is not exactly the most common archetype in Japanese media. These cat burglars, skilled, sophisticated, and with an insatiable eye for priceless works of art, understandably fill a small niche in terms of characters. However, what these classic characters lack in exposure, they make up for with a certain quality of paradoxical timelessness, having found their way into franchises both classic and modern, including Lupin III, Cat's Eye, Kaitō Reinya, and Tantei Opera Milky Holmes.
Twin Angel, though, breaks from the traditional idea of the phantom thief in several ways. For one, the aesthetics of Twin Angel borrow more from magical girls, complete with a fanservice-laden transformation sequence.
Not that I'm one to complain. Ah, my dearest Kurumi!
Another intriguing aspect centers on the fact that the police are seldom to be found in the world of Twin Angel; when they are, it's never as the antagonists of Twin Angel. Isn't that weird? After all, what is a phantom thief without a detective to chase him? Instead, what we see is Twin Angel trying to steal the Seven Amulets back from Black Auction, a criminal organization. Thieves policing thieves. What Twin Angel really presents to us is a world where conventional law is all but irrelevant.
And I don't think it's too farfetched to suggest that some foreign anime fans feel the same. Are fansubbers in the wrong for distributing copyrighted anime? Or are they heroes of justice, making available what the big companies, even more corrupt than the pirates, have hidden from the deserving public?
Is it right to feel this way? That's hard to say. Does it feel right? Oh, does it ever.
Further reading
For those interested in more shows exploring magical girl phantom thieves, the fantastically strange Kamikaze Kaitō Jeanne is probably a fine place to start.
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