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7 Thief Characters That Could Steal the Shirt Off Your Back

by Lynzee Loveridge,

Fiction has always had a love affair for charming rogues. They steal from the rich and elude bumbling detectives who are always two steps behind. In many cases the story is written around their crime; the victims are corrupt or the items in question are fakes. This way the burglars are anti-heroes instead of straight criminals and the audience can root for them after they pull off the big heist.

7. Cat's Eye (Cat's Eye) Cat's Eye is really three people, the sisters Hitomi, Rui and Ai. Like the name implies, the trio are cat burglars specializing in art theft. The girls run a cafe during the day but they began moonlighting as art thieves to track down their missing father who was an art collector. Their prizes are all pieces that previously belonged to their missing dad and might serve as clues to find his location. Hitomi does much of the physical legwork, specializing in both cracking safes and gymnastics that let her dodge security systems. Rui is the groups mastermind but is also very physically adept while Ai engineers gadgets to make the heists go smoothly.




6. Jing (Jing: King of Bandits) Jing's reputation far precedes his age. He travels the world with a talking, magical albatross and armed with a knife and his keen intellect. Throughout the series he's able to steal things using unorthodox methods like using a giant bird to scale a tower and capture prizes both animate and inanimate including "time" itself.




5. Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne (Kamikaze Kaitō Jeanne) Maron Kusakabe was a regular 16-year-old until she got dragged into a battle between God and the Devil. God is apparently dying and needs his power returned to him as it's been scattered far and wide across the Earth in the form of chess pieces. The Devil's demons are also looking to capture the pieces by hiding in works of art, so Maron must transform into a magical version of Jeanne d'Arc to "steal" the artwork and defeat the demons. She uses a magic ribbon to scale walls and tie up the demons possessing people.




4. Dark Mousy (D.N.Angel) Daisuke Niwa comes from a lineage of thieves and thus has been training to take up the profession his entire life. His mother sets up traps and obstacles to test his skills the moment he arrives home from school. However, Daisuke was less than enthused. It wasn't until his second persona, Dark Mousy, awakens that Daisuke finds himself stealing cursed works of art. Dark Mousy is able to use magic to grow wings and interact with Wiz, his rabbit-like familiar.




3. Happosai (Ranma 1/2) Happosai is both a formidable martial artist and sexual deviant. The pint-sized grandpa roams through the neighborhood with a handkerchief tied on his face, leaving empty underwear drawers in his wake. This hobby is treated in the series with an "aw, shucks" attitude rather than outright hostility. Besides, no one could defeat him in a fight, anyway. In fact, the only thing shown as coming anywhere near killing the ancient master is depriving him of his ability to steal lingerie and be a pervert.




2. Kaitō Kid (Case Closed/Magic Kaito 1412) The ever-dapper, monocle-wearing thief is the nemesis to Detective Conan. A magician by trade, Kaitō Kid is in search of his father's murderer and uses almost as many gadgets as Batman to help him. His entire stint as an art and jewelry thief is merely a ruse to lure out his target and he usually returns whatever he steals afterwards.




1. Lupin (Lupin the 3rd) There is no object Lupin cannot steal except maybe Fujiko's heart. Agile and always scheming up a good disguise, Lupin's adventures take him after the lost gold of Babylon, has him steal the Statue of Liberty, trying to recover treasure buried with the Titanic, fighting crime bosses, and even teaming up with the police on occasion. There's no other character more synonymous with "thief" than Lupin the 3rd.








The new poll: What anime character would make the best boss? Would you pick someone strict, kind, or with great leadership?

The old poll: Last week we asked which what your anime special move would be. Here's the full results (entries under 1% omitted):

  1. Alchemy (Edward Elric/Fullmetal Alchemist)
  2. Accelerator (Accelerator/A Certain...Series)
  3. Time Magic (Homura/Puella Magi Madoka Magica)
  4. Teleport (Shirai Kuroko/A Certain...Series)
  5. Kamehameha (Goku/DBZ)
  6. Railgun (Mikasa Mikoto/A Certain...Series)
  7. Bankai (Zanpakutō/Bleach)
  8. The World (Dio)
  9. Joestar Secret Technique: RUN AWAY!(JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)
  10. Gate of Babylon (Gilgamesh/Fate/Zero)
  11. Various Magic Spells (Aladdin/Magi)
  12. The Imagine Breaker (Kamijo/A Certain...Series)
  13. Titan Shifting (Eren/Attack on Titan)
  14. Psychic Power (Mewtwo/Pokémon)
  15. Psychic Powers (From the New World)
  16. Welsh Dragon Over Booster (Issei/High School DxD)
  17. Starlight Breaker (Nanoha Takamachi/Lyrical Nanoha)
  18. Death Scythes Soul Eater)
  19. Starburst Stream (Kirito/Sword Art Online)
  20. Full Counter (Meliodas/Seven Deadly Sins)
  21. Sword of Dios (Utena/Revolutionary Girl Utena)
  22. Stop Time (DIO/JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders)
  23. Gomugomu Pistol (Monkey D. Luffy/One Piece)
  24. Super Saiyan Mode (Dragon Ball Z/GT)
  25. Rasengan (Naruto/Naruto)
  26. Fairy Law (Makarov/Fairy Tail)
  27. Gigaslave (Lina Inverse/Slayers)

When she isn't compiling lists of tropes, topics, and characters, Lynzee works as the Interest Editor for Anime News Network and posts pictures of her son on Twitter @ANN_Lynzee.

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