English Dub Review: Ace Attorney “Northward, Turnabout Express – 1st Trial”

It’s “Murder on the Orient Express”, but with more lawyers.

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Phoenix and Maya are riding aboard the Silver Star, a luxury train whose riders are allowed on by invitation only. Joining them is the judge and Detective Gumshoe, who also have tickets. Once aboard, they meet the train’s steward, Rick Steam, a servant of the train’s owner, Avery Richman. (Jesus Christ) The train soon leaves the station, and Maia is as happy as a clam, wanting to play with Phoenix using a pair of Steel Samurai transceivers. Gumshoe arrives too, and decides to spend time hanging out with his pals.

Meanwhile, suspicion things are afoot on the train, as the stewards discuss a mysterious job they’ve been asked to fulfill, while another pair of shadily dressed passengers have clandestine discussions. Gumshoe and Maia “Bomb Squad” together and eventually make their way to the dining car for dinner, where Phoenix and the judge join them.

A good time is had by all until the train’s power goes out and is mysteriously stopped. Gumshoe sees some kind of torch outside the train right before the train starts moving again. However, once the train gets moving again, things take a turn for the dangerous. The train stewards, armed with machine guns, and accompanied by Avery Richman, take the passengers hostage and lock Gumshoe in a room. They confiscate everyone’s cell phones, and Richman explains his goal.

It turns out Richman had been convicted of murder in the United States and extradited to Japan to serve his sentence. In an effort to prove his innocence and clear his name, Richman wishes to hold a retrial on the train, which is why he invited each of the train’s passengers. Everyone invited is either useful to the court or relevant to Richman’s case, and of course Phoenix is invited to be Richman’s attorney. To act as a prosecutor, a US attorney named Tristan Turnbull is named to be Phoenix’s opponent. With the players in place, the trial is set to begin and to be broadcast over a live feed to serve as a legitimate retrial to the world.

Our Take:

Ace Attorney takes a fun, if not a bit bizarre, turn this week as it enters into its first filler arc of the season. With the last couple cases of the third game in the series on their way, it seems like this season has a few more tricks up its sleeve before it finishes out. Our story this week takes us aboard a snowbound train for a good old fashion murder mystery with a twist; instead of solving a murder on a train, we’re gonna have a trial on a train.

The premise is a bit silly and feels somewhat illegitimate, but it works well enough in the universe of Ace Attorney. One has to wonder if any court of law in existence would respect the result of this trial, but hey, its an anime, one can’t take it too seriously. It’s a fun idea to have a trial on a train, something certainly inspired by classic detective mysteries, namely “Murder on the Orient Express”, but I’m not sure if it really captures the same essence of investigating a murder on a train. The confined space prevents people from leaving, meaning that the results of the investigation are that much more pertinent. However, with a trial for a murder that happened a year ago, that sense of immediacy is somewhat lost.

However, overall, I’m more pleased with this episode than I have been for the other cases in this season. While I think its first half is bogged down in some boring Maia and Phoenix shenanigans, (Does anyone actually find Maia funny?) around halfway through it takes a turn for the better and gets the plot moving. Once it does, it becomes clear that this story is much better structured for the screen than the other ones have been. The biggest complaint I’ve had about this show so far is its poor pacing, confining complicated cases into just three or four episodes, losing the sense of drama that made “Ace Attorney” so exciting in the first place. But since this is a filler arc, it can be tailor-made for this format, and that problem can be avoided. We have yet to see how well the story will play out and how interesting the characters will be, but hopes are fairly high that this will be a solid story.

It’s too early to say how good this episode is in relation to the others. Its certainly functional, and its earned my interest as an “Ace Attorney” fan to stick around and see what happens. Perhaps, for the first episode of an arc, that’s all it really needs to do.