Why Ace Attorney Is A Classic

Pinned comment question: If you were an Ace Attorney character, what would be your horrible pun-laden name? Edit: Probably should have clarified I haven't played AA5 or 6 yet, before tons of comments spoiled the latter for me but oh well, lol.

I have a HUGE soft spot for the first case in Ace Attorney because my favorite teacher had us as a class play it to show us how persuasive writing worked. Show how our thesis is the argument and evidence backs it up like it did in the game. The whole class was stumped at the clock being off and I was the one that gasped and said "She Just Got Back From Paris!" I felt so smart and I have never forgotten that or my amazing teacher

Still can't believe there were two times in this game where Phoenix basically went: "Hey, you murdered someone! And I have the receipts!" "... So not only are you confronting me alone, but you say that this is the only copy you have?" "Yup!" "And you didn't show this to your detective friend or ANYONE else with authority at all?" "Hmmm. No, why?" "... Say, how do you like the taste of extreme violence?"

The underappreciated Arc of Gumshue: giving us an Autopsy report Ch2: Mhh, alright Alright, pal, I'm not really supposed to do this, but here's the report Ch3: Yeah alright here's the report. Ch4: Oh here I already made a copy of the report just for you

"Mia is still M.I.A in more ways than one" is a genius bit of writing

Gotta love that Case 2 is Phoenix forgetting to turn over a piece of paper and Case 5 is Phoenix finally learning to turn pieces of evidence around 😁

The mutilation of Japanese culture into "Japanifornia" or "Los Japangeles" is something that's grown on me over the years. I actually love the stupid localisation choices now, and wish they'd stuck with it in later installments. The writers even came up with a backstory for why Japanese immigration would have caused this in Ace Attorney's alternate history. God I love this series.

For what it's worth, I always figured Von Karma took Edgeworth in and mentored him because he wanted to turn Edgeworth against his father's ideals, driving the knife into his old rival even further by tainting Gregory's legacy and replacing it with his own.

When you started voicing the characters at the beginning i legitimately thought "Oh these must be voice lines from the anime or something" like wow your good at voice acting

There's a great moment in case 3 where you realize that you've convinced Edgeworth of Vasquez's guilt, and he's subtly trying to back you up. He can't directly accuse her, but he can keep her on the stand so that you can continue to poke holes in her story. It does a lot to make Edgeworth more likeable (which is important going into case 4), not to mention it's just extremely hype

Fun fact, Von Karma's common tic of grasping his arm is actually a pretty clever bit of physical foreshadowing in hindsight. He's actually grasping the same arm that has the injured shoulder. With a little bit of symbolism tied in about how he's still obsessed all this time with the stain on his record. Just figured I'd share that tidbit since it's probably one of the more subtle details a lot of people tend to miss regarding the character. Also, your voice acting for Gant was top notch. Probably my favorite performance of yours in this video, and that's saying something given the great stuff you have in here. Bang-up job. - Quick edit note, I sadly made the mistake of saying he was grabbing the arm with the injured shoulder when that is not the case (the foreshadowing detail is still technically the same, but this is enough of an important distinction to point out the discrepancy I made above). Many people have pointed this out so I felt the need to add this correction. TY to everyone who brought it to my attention!

2:01:45 I always assumed Lana telling Ema to go to Mia was a bit of general advise, like a few years ago she gave her sister a name address and phone number and now that Lana's accused of murder Ema decided to get help using old information. Something to that effect and less Lana telling her sister to go to a dead person for help.

That voice acting for Karma was actually pretty horrifying, I FELT his actual blood lust and rage there. well done to whoever did it.

It’s pretty insane to think that everything that happened in this game could be traced back to Von Karma deciding to shoot Edgeworth’s father.

Gant is such a good villain, and what i also like is that Gant is how he used to be a genuine good person. The judge knowing him personally, the fact that he warns Edgeworth about how people are willing to to take down criminals, and how he is respected police member. To me, it oozes a lot of compelling nature and tells a lot more about Gant as a character

on the matter of the receipt in turnabout sisters, what i find more unbelievable than phoenix being unable to turn over a receipt is that phoenix, who has been working for/with mia for at least a month at this point, wouldnt know that the glass light stand was a much more recent addition.

What I love most about Rise From The Ashes is the fact that up until the very end, Lana doesn't smile once, only when you unmistakenly prove that she and Ema are not guilty of murder is the moment when she smiles for the first time on screen and not gonna lie, I got emotional after that. Also the recurring gag of Gumshoe interrupting serious moments during Trial recesses

Your voicing of the von karma meltdown went so hard oh my lord that was immaculate

“It isn’t a sin to ask for help and it isn’t a bad thing to need it either.” That is one deep quote. Great video.

PhD legal student in Japan here (and who, coincidentally, wrote his thesis on the relationships between Criminal Law and media - including both fictional and non-fictional media, with a specific chapter devoted to Ace Attorney). I very much agree with the video when it states that Ace Attorney is not meant to be taken as satire. Rather, the reason why the game is focused on the defence side is not as a denouncement of wrongdoing by the Japanese criminal system, but as a way to provide an outlet for real-life experiences that resonate with the viewership for the game (and that they cannot directly address otherwise). If we were to consider the viewpoint of media in Japan vs. most western countries, we can clearly identify that the role taken by the protagonist is often reversed in these jurisdictions: American shows tend to emphasise the investigative or prosecutorial side (CSI, Law and Order, NCIS) and perhaps even stories in which a person who does not belong to a governmental force acts as an enforcer for law when legally there is no justification to prosecute (Dexter), whereas Japanese shows frequently portray lawyers as their main characters. Yet, few would dare say that CSI or Law and Order are satirical shows. Rather, they serve as a way to represent some acts the general public perceives as unfair, even when based on law (e.g., someone being declared as innocent because relevant issues surfaced in the chain of custody, or evidence was obtained through illegal methods). The core of those programs is the ever-present duality between legality and morality, and the overall feeling that a legal decision may be at odds with what's generally regarded as socially desired. Ace Attorney serves to sate the same kind of social hunger, but on the opposite side of the spectrum. Yes, it is true that the Japanese prosecutorial system is highly stacked against defendants, particularly in light of its emphasis on confessions and the possibility to coerce a defendant into admitting the "existence" of a crime in exchange for a perceived sense of social absolution or a return to normalcy ("sign these papers and we won't need to detain you any longer" / "sign these papers, so when - not if - you are convicted, at least people will think you're someone decent enough who owned up to your mistakes"), and that these events are perceived as condemnable by some Japanese people... ...and yet, satire requires a deliberate desire to exaggerate, to mock an entire system rather than just bring forward the possibility of criticism and rational discussion without necessarily resorting to a personal attack. Ace Attorney does the latter, and it is for that very reason that issues regarding the burden of evidence are not the only focal point of the game: one may consider the legal issues posed by the second game's last case as yet another example of very pressing question covered by it, and one that definitely subverts the thesis that the game is a mere parody of Japan's courts. In short, Ace Attorney is not satire. It's a game that brings forward important questions for the most savvy viewers, but pointing out the flaws of a system and mocking that system are two completely different things.