What I Watched: Ace Attorney - Episode 1

Note: I will be using the English names throughout this post, because those are the ones I know.

I've been putting off watching the Ace Attorney anime, but I finally manned up and watched the first episode. I didn't know if it was going to stay faithful to the plot of the original game, or deviate and do its own thing. Either way would have been fine, but at least in the first episode it's as close to the original plot as it possibly can be. The debut episode covers the entirety of the tutorial case from the original Ace Attorney.

See, I was scared to watch this because of how much I love Phoenix Wright as a character. He's a dork who doesn't know what he's doing at first, but as time progresses he learns to become an excellent attorney. More than that he's not willing to sell out. He has an unflinching sense of personal justice, which is why I think he's so cool. Lucky for me the series seems like it's going to get the characters and the world right.

So far the characterization seems on point.

For the uninitiated this initial case is the first time Phoenix is entering the court room as an attorney. His childhood friend Larry Buttz has been accused of murdering his girlfriend. Phoenix decided to become an attorney because of Larry, but that's something that will be elaborated on later in the series.

Phoenix knows that Larry is an idiot, and there's no way that he'd ever be able to kill anyone. Since it's the first case the whole thing is relatively simple. The girl was found dead in her home next to a bloody golden statue. Turns out that the statue is one that Larry made her as a gift. Since Larry made it, obviously his fingerprints are all over the thing. To make matters worse a newspaper salesman claims he saw Larry leaving the apartment shortly after the victim's time of death! Can Phoenix save Larry from this cruel fate!?

Phoenix needs to find the contradiction.

I'm not here to rehash the plot, but I will tell you all about why I thought this initial episode was so good. To begin with they do a wonderful job of introducing the characters. Mia, Phoenix, and Larry are all characterized by their actions. You can immediately tell how experienced Mia is in the court room. She jumps to Phoenix's aid when he begins to struggle and feels like hope is lost. That's the fear I have about adaptations like this. The characters are so central to the enjoyment of the series, if their characterization isn't done right, then it might as well not exist. So far the show seems to be doing a good job.

People new to the series may not get as hype as I did. I waited the entire episode to hear some of the classic Ace Attorney songs come into play, and when they did I ended up squealing like a little girl. As far as I could tell two songs from the games were remixed and used in this episode, and I can only imagine that more will be done down the road. To go along with the classic jams Phoenix yelled objection and I got so hype I almost fell out of my chair. In the games I couldn't wait to find contradictions in people's statements, and the excitement is not lost in this adaptation. I mean, come on. It's his catchphrase!

OBJECTION!

Overall I think that this initial episode is a great introduction to the series. Since it's a court room drama it's likely to pull in people who aren't familiar with the world or the characters. Then, for people like me, there's all kinds of stuff to get excited about and see happen all over again. I can't wait to continue watching the series now. I'm glad I ended up giving it a shot, or I would have missed out on this seemingly great adaptation. Yes, this is only the first episode, but I have faith that it'll continue on the right path.