Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

About

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, known in Japan as Gyakuten Saiban (逆転裁判), is a visual novel video game series originally released in 2001 and published by Capcom^[1] for the Nintendo, Windows, iOS and Android platforms. In the games, the player directs the main character through court cases to prove the defendant innocent by using evidence, witness testimony and refuting the prosecution’s arguments.

History

The first three games in the series were released in Japan between 2001 and 2004 for the Game Boy Advance platform, in which the player assumes the role of the attorney Phoenix Wright. During crime scene segments, the player may identify clues and question witnesses in order to use evidence to defend their clients in court. The first three games were ported to the Nintendo DS platform from 2005 to 2007. The fourth game in the series, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, was the first game developed specifically for the Nintendo DS, in which the player assumes the roles of the attorneys Apollo Justice and Miles Edgeworth. Beginning with Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Egeworth and the rest of the Investigations series, the player could control the main character’s movement in non-confrontational situations. The second title in the Investigations series was only released in Japan, with no announcement of an English-language release. The fifth game in the main series, which is set to reintroduce Phoenix Wright, was announced in January of 2012.^[5]

Characters

Phoenix Wright is the original protagonist and most widely recognizable character in the series. He's portrayed as a lawyer who depends on lucky breaks but has a strong sense for inconsistencies.

Miles Edgeworth is a prosecutor in the series who appears on several occasions. He is a direct rival to Wright and is constantly seen in legal battles against him. He is marked by his cold demeanor and ability to be thrown off easily by surprising behavior.

Apollo Justice is the second protagonist in the series and apprentice of Phoenix Wright, who is introduced seven years after Wright loses his attorney license in the storyline.

Anime

In April of 2016, an anime of Ace Attorney premiered in Japan and Crunchyroll. ^[11] The series adapted the first two games in the franchise, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and Justice for All. The series was directed by Ayumu Watanabe and written by Atsuhiro Tomioka. Crunchyroll published a trailer for the original series to YouTube on April 21st, 2016 (shown below). The series has a user rating of 6.4/10 on myanimelist.^[12]

On March 15th, 2018, Capcom announced a second season of the show, set to premiere in Q4 of 2018.^[13] On Reddit, a thread about the new season posted to /r/anime was met with skepticism considering the quality of the first season.^[14] Another thread in /r/AceAttorney gained over 370 upvotes and was also met with skepticism.^[15]

Reception

The series has since gained a considerable fan base in North America, inspiring fanart, videos and fanfiction. The series has performed reasonably well in Japan, selling approximately 400,000 units for the first two games combined, 250,000 united for the third game and 250,000 units for the fourth game one week after release. In the United States, the expectations for the game were initially low, however, the games received surprisingly positive feedback, forcing Capcom to prepare multiple additional runs of the game to meet the demand. As of March 2011, the series has sold over 4.1 million units. Two musicals^[10] based on the game series have been released and Phoenix Wright was featured as a playable character in Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3.^[7]

Online Presence

Fan Sites

The fan-made website Court Records^[8] was launched on April 28th, 2006, which features Ace Attorney-related news, media and forums. The site initially provided basic game information, but has since grown to include forums that have 16,000+ members, many sprites and screenshots of the game and an extensive list of fan works. Objection!^[9] is a website that allows users to make flash animations of Ace Attorney characters with custom text, as seen in this example. Users can choose any of the lawyers in the series and a judge. The site was founded on July 7th, 2006 and currently has over 1,800,000 animation submissions.

Fan Art

Cosplay

Related Memes

Objection!

When the player presents evidence in the series, the attorney often is shown pointing with his finger and shouting the word "Objection!". The "Objection!" word bubble inspired a photoshop meme, in which the bubble is photoshopped next to subjects yelling while pointing their finger.

Phoenix Wrong (Phoenix Wright Parodies)

Phoenix Wrong is a series of fan-made animations featuring various characters from the games. The characters reenact popular internet jokes, movies and TV shows.

Boot to the Head! Parodies

Boot to the Head is a comedy trope and catchphrase mainly associated with the Canadian performance group The Frantics. Since being introduced through the group's classic comedy skits in the 1980s, the joke became a popular subject of parodies and re-enactments on YouTube, the most notable example being CMSPyrowolf's Phoenix Wright rendition of "Last Will & Temperament."

Eat Your Hamburgers Apollo

Eat Your Hamburgers Apollo Is a phrase originating from the Awkward Zombie webcomic strip "Culture Schlock". Within the strip, Phoenix is seen discussing the beauty of Los Angeles, juxtaposed against images of traditional Japanese settings, with Apollo pointing out the inconsistencies, in reference to the many awkward localisation choices in the series. This is similar to the term Japanifornia, the fan nickname given to the setting of the Phoenix Wright Universe.

Search Interest

External References