English Dub Review: Ace Attorney “Recipe for Turnabout – Last Trial”

Not even the Wild Tiger can escape the law.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Phoenix is entering the final trial for the fate of Maggey Byrde, the chronically unlucky police officer who is once again on trial for murder. Things aren’t looking too good, but Phoenix is firmly committed to finding his friend, and Detective Gumshoe’s romantic interest, not guilty.

His first opponent in this trial is Jean Armstrong, who continues to profess that Maggey must have been the murderer. However, Phoenix objects and puts forth the idea that the murder that Armstrong claims to have seen was staged, a fabrication of actual events meant to make Maggey look like the killer. He uses the testimony from Victor Kudo, the old man who says he has a cup of coffee at the cafe at 2 PM every day, which didn’t line up with the time of the radio lottery show that the victim, Glen Elg was listening to. Phoenix presses his advantage, presenting the ear medicine that Elg was using, indicating his ruptured eardrum, and continues to press that Armstrong framed Maggey Byrde because he owed money to Furio Tigre, his loan shark.

This brings Tigre into the courtroom. Phoenix uses the note Viola gave him to place Tigre at the scene. From there, Phoenix reveals the sequence of events: that Glen Elg met with Tigre to sell him the computer virus, “MC Bomber” to pay off his debts. Of course, Elg had just won the lottery during their conversation, which would make his debt square, but Tigre had other ideas. Tigre owed an enormous amount of money to the Cadaverini family, which is why he murdered Elg to get the computer virus he would need to pay his debt.

However, this isn’t enough evidence to put Tigre away, and even though Gumshoe comes to the rescue with some fingerprints on the ear evidence earlier, Phoenix still doesn’t have the smoking gun he needs. However, he manages to trick Tigre by presenting the ear medicine as the poison. Tigre immediately denies Phoenix’s attack, saying that the bottle the poison was in was made of glass. Since there was no way for him to know that without having impersonated Phoenix during the trial, this pins him as the murderer. Maggey is declared not guilty, and justice prevails once again.

Tigre is hauled off to jail before having one final encounter with Viola Cadaverini. Meanwhile, Maggey thanks Phoenix, and forgives Gumshoe while enjoying the homemade lunch he made her.

Our Take:

Ace Attorney has once again failed the capture the blend of charm and mystery that made the original games this show is based on the legendary experiences that they are. This is one of the most creative and interesting trials in the game that I’ve played, but the episode doesn’t even come close to capturing that interest even though it follows the same story from the source material. It’s impossible for the case to have tension when the show is so screwy and cheeky that it can barely get its plot across without slipping on a banana peel.

It occurs to me at a certain point of watching this series that there might just be some properties that shouldn’t get anime adaptations. I see no better example of this than Jean Armstrong’s appearance on the witness stand. In the game, Jean is a flamboyant weirdo, of course, but in the form of a still (Or slightly animated) image, he’s much more tolerable to the player. But given full movement and voice acting, Jean’s faux-French identity is just way, way too much. Ham is one thing, cheese is fine, but it takes precise writing to prevent that cheese from becoming annoying. When we should be getting invested in the climax of this story, we’re getting frustrated with Jean’s shtick, which is only entertaining for 20 seconds at the most.

Continuing on that line of thinking, there’s a moment in the episode that falls completely flat: Phoenix’s final objection, a desperate attempt to trick Tigre into convicting himself. In the games, using the ear medicine to trap Tigre, since he knows that it’s not the right bottle of poison, is a magnificent courtroom trick. It makes the player feel clever and it reinforces that Phoenix’s true strength is in his ability to trip up and defeat judicial opponents who are way more powerful than he is. This, of course, comes from the fact that Don Tigre is truly fierce and frightening individual. But because Tigre, like everything else in this show, is a complete joke, there isn’t much in the way of dramatic tension for that moment.

Don’t get me wrong, Ace Attorney can be funny sometimes, hell, even a bit charming. And there’s some joy in seeing these characters brought to life on the screen, but without committing to realizing the powerful courtroom sequences that made the games so great, this episode is just a disappointment.