English Dub Review: Ace Attorney “The Stolen Turnabout – 2nd Trial”

This episode will steal your precious time.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

After upsetting Maia by taking on Ron deLite’s case, Phoenix is on his own in court. Not just on his own, but also against Godot, a mysterious prosecutor boasting a no-loss record. As it turns out, though, the reason he has no losses is that this is his first case as a prosecutor, and what’s more, he seems to know who Phoenix is already.

Phoenix opens up the case by presenting a photo where Mask de Masque is missing his trademark brooch, but Godot retaliates by presenting that very brooch, which was found at the scene. It seems like Godot has Phoenix pinned, but Maia comes in to present another witness, Larry Butz, who was working as a security guard at a place called KB security. On his patrol, he found Ron deLite’s wallet around 1 AM, which means Ron couldn’t have been present at the scene of the crime during the robbery.

Maia has another piece of evidence as well, a letter she received from Ron’s wife. Its a ransom note addressed to Ron, which asks that he be at KB security. With this evidence referenced against the key-card logs of who entered and left the building, the prosecution concedes that Ron deLite couldn’t have been the thief. But then who was?

Phoenix believes Luke Atmey to be the actual thief and summons the witness to the courtroom. However, Godot objects that Phoenix is lacking proof, which he is. But just as Atmey is about to get away, Desiree deLite comes in with the Kurain vase, which was in Detective Atmey’s office. Godot counters by saying that Desiree is lying, and brought the urn from her own house. But Phoenix has that covered; since he touched the urn the other day when he reached inside the bag at Atmey’s office, therefore if his fingerprints are there then it must have been found at Atmey’s office.

With this evidence in the court, Atmey breaks down and admits that he is, in fact, Mask de Masque. With Atmey laughing like a madman, Ron is declared not guilty, but all is not well. As soon as the trial ends, Godot arrives to arrest Ron deLite for the murder of Kane Bullard, who was murdered at 1 AM in his office the night of the theft. And, as Phoenix has already established, that’s exactly where Ron was that night. One case’s alibi is another’s damning evidence.

Our Take:

This confusingly titled episode marks the saga of the first trial of the Mask de Masque case, and boy oh boy is it a piece of work. As this show progresses inch by inch into its retelling of one of my favorite games, I’m left scratching my head, wondering how someone could drop the ball so hard on a story that seems fit for the exaggerated styles of an anime. What should be a courtroom drama that blends heart and criminality into one smooth bittersweet blend is instead a complete farce. The plot is rushed and incomplete, more of an abridged version of the story from the games, the characters cheesy and cartoonish, and the style of the show too plain to catch anyone’s eye.

I think this anime’s interpretation of Godot is way too cheesy. The issue here is that Godot is supposed to be, at least in my understanding, cool, collected and somewhat poetic. He’s someone perpetually smirking because he seems to know how things will end before the trial has even begun. Essentially, the inverse of Phoenix, who’s always cheeky and flying by the seat of his pants. In the anime, though, they can’t stop shoving coffee puns into Godot’s mouth, which makes him look a complete loon. In the games, Godot’s coffee drinking was part of his jazzy, sophisticated aesthetic, but here its just a punchline. Godot is supposed to be someone out of Cowboy Bebop, but instead, he feels more like a B character from Space Dandy.

I don’t think the plot of this episode could be any more crammed in if it tried. The courtroom sequences in the game take time and are well planned to last at least an hour or so while the player tries to figure out the mystery. Naturally, in an anime, there is no “player”, so there’s no downtime present to pace out the case. Instead of finding a way to remedy this, however, the show just decides to rush out every bit of the case one after the other, with no time enjoy or digest the turnabouts that these cases are built on. The anime just smacks you in the face over and over again with new information in one 20 minutes long plot vomit.

I don’t know how anyone can enjoy this show, or how a creator thought that it could be enjoyed. Every bit of its style says “Don’t take me seriously”, and every point in its plot says “Don’t pay too close attention.’ I’m amazed that a game series known for its excellent storytelling could be reduced this much to fit an anime series. Do not bother watching this. You are missing absolutely nothing.