Loved the breakdown animation of the murderer. Kokone still feels a bit forced though. And what's up with Odoroki's buddy we never heard about before? >_>

He was a she... Am i the only one surprised by this. I mean, she/he had girly eyes, but still...

Chishio Atsui. He's the only one who looks remotely girly.

I haven't watched all of Case 3 yet but now I changed my guess from Atsui to the old man as the killer. Am I right about this?

I haven't watched it all yet, but i also think Means is the killer.

Yes, Principal Means is the killer of Case 3. And his breakdown animation is going to be hell for the translators.

I wasn't expecting Scuttlebutt to be a purple-haired girl but what happened to her after the first trial day?

Is Atsui guilty of anything, serious or just petty, in this case?

Yeah, I wonder how the localization team is going to change Means's breakdown, which by the way was pretty great. And what was the stuff he was writing down on the board during his breakdown?

Err, broke her PC, Kokone promised to lend her's to her if she would try to become friends with the trio

Perjury for confessing to the murder? But nothing more, IIRC. She just put on some pretty clothes...

During his actual breakdown? All kinds of lame alternate sentences like a reduced salary....

Well, that explains the computer in her breakdown...

So Atsui happened to find the victim's body but decides not to tell anyone about her discovering the body, right? I mean, I can't really see her being Means's accomplice.

And I wonder what Means's motive for killing Courte was.

She didn't find the body. Phoenix and Athena were really the first to find it/her. The body was hidden until the mock trial, during which Ichiro (Means?) got the body out of the statue (faking his alibi). His motive was that Michiba (Courte?) had found out that Ichiro had been taking bribes to falsify test results (like those of Rei).

Just to clarify things, what was Atsui's (unintentional?) role in the murder?

And did they actually provide a motive for Juniper supposedly killing her teacher? I don't exactly remember the defendants be arrested because they had a plausible motive.

The case was going a bit in circles during the first trial part because everybody was lying... but I think that the only thing she did was walking around with the cloak and being seen by Atsume-chan IIRC. And I can't actually remember if this was the only motive presented, but it was thought at one point in the trial that Shinobu's script for the mock trial had been rejected in favor of Atsume-chan's script, which led to the murder, I think

This.. might be one of my favourite cases in the series. The whole "sub"plot with Shinobu, Chishio and Rei's friendship was so great.My favourite GS5 original character so far is Rei. I don't normally like cocky characters but I actually liked him a lot, even to start. His great personal theme helped too, haha. I suspected he wasn't really a genius but I didn't think his character would change that much when he showed his true self. Nothing beats Chishio though... That was... wow. I also got a chuckle out of ”０点”　（レイてん）Should have seen that pun coming.

I have to say, if you ignore the spoiler Case 2 opening, it has still been way too easy to know who the killer is. As soon as I saw Biyouin and Ichiro in screens, it seemed like a real obvious guess.

There's no way they would make an under age person (19 and younger) be a killer, so I wish there were more adult characters up to this point to spread the suspicion. Admittedly when it was revealed Rei was 25, I thought for a second "Maybe..." but Ichiro's actions up to that point, or lack thereof, were too suspicious. I also remember noticing he didn't have his globe thing when you first meet him.

Also, did Tell the Truth 2013 ever play during this case...? I don't remember.
And ever since the breakdown of Barashima in case 1, I was hoping each trial would have them (in the dark) confess their crime and motive(s) while Tell the Truth played... I thought it was such a great idea to add to killer breakdowns.

I'll leave you with this:



1) .... Yeah....
2) Why is there a child at... a murder trial?

I'm actually liking Chishio's design and personality a lot more than Rei's although both are very interesting characters. In fact, I'm thinking Chishio may be my favorite character of the case.

I definitely didn't expect Means to bring a chalkboard to court and suddenly change his hairstyle. That was an unexpected breakdown!

What a strange case so far. I did like the trial ending by having everyone confessing to the crime, but I wonder where things are going from here. My gut feeling still says Ichiro did it, but it would be an interesting twist if it really did turn out that Chishio or Rei is guilty. (Oh, and Chishio is a girl! How 'bout that. Loved the Mood Matrix remix they used.)

I definitely liked this case the best of GS5. The friendship between the three nicely mirrors the triumvirate-esque relationship of defense/prosecution/judge, and Rei and Chishio worked great as subvertions of archetype characters. The case-structure was also very nice, making you run around in circles in the first day between the three. Of course it was quite obvious it was Ichiro, but the way the story leads to you to him is great. The problem of the location of the body, and when it appeared, was another greatly plotted problem.

But what I liked best was how it showed what the Dark Times of Law meant in practice, but without being a case superimportant to the overall storyline.

Yumihiko's grades were also bought with bribes, right?

I'm calling it now. Juniper has a thing for Apollo.

Ichiro was a bit of an obvious criminal just because of how out-of-the-way they made him, but his 'transformation' was pretty great. And the Rei/Chishio/Juniper subplot was handled really well. Only complaint is that Klavier really didn't have much to do in the case.

How did Rei hurt his hand? I guess I... read over that part.

Also, can someone explain Ichiro's breakdown to me?

As soon as Ban lowered the flag for us, and I saw the bottom of it tied together, I thought "Okay, obviously the body was placed inside and pushed along the wire. Let's hurry and get this thing over with." So I thought it was so clever how they pushed the fact that the body was moved... only to have it revealed the body hadn't moved from the stage at all.

I was a bit disappointed there was no evidence-presenting in the courtroom lobby after the victory.

Why was Chishio pretending to be male? She seemed pretty okay with being female at the end of the case and her binder was off during the credits.

Her parents raised her as a boy, and also forced her onto the path of a prosecutor. I don't think they gave any explanation why her parents did that, though.

I meant the breakdown of Means, of course. That, and the story behind all the other characters.

Speaking of characters, why did Scuttlebutt change cardboard boxes after the first trial day?

During court, Yugami makes a joke about burning the trash when Atsume is on the stand. In the second investigation you meet Atsume near the school's incinerator. Kokone compliments Atsume on her new box, and Polly wonders if Yugami actually burned the first one.

Don't know if that's what actually happened, but... xP

especially if you answer with a double-hand objection pose.
"But Athena, what about the statue's spiky head?"
"Just pull some hair from Mr. Wright!"
"Objection! Ow! Apollo, stop!"
And then she blames the penalty on Apollo for failing to retrieve the hair.

Mr. Means' Spartan look and how he throws things at misbehaving students.

Only disappointing though was that it was obvious from the start that it was Ichiro who did it. Only time I had some blame was when they really tried and make it look like it was Rei who did it, but as soon as he mentioned the empty balcony the deal was sealed.

Maybe one of the best "independent" cases in the series ever. And Kokones objection theme! Magical.

Considering the ages of Chishio, Juniper and Scuttlebutt, I find it odd that Rei is 25 years old. Can anyone explain why he's still in the academy? And considering his age, surely he must have a part-time job or something. Does he have one?

And how old is Ichiro anyway? I was thinking he might be in his mid 50s but knowing this is Ace Attorney we're talking about, he might be 45 or something.

Rei is just that bad a student. Really. And yes, he has a part-time job. It's actually a crucial plotpoint ;)

He took a part-time job working as a crane operator, as seen in one of the photos of the open stage during preparations.

Also, Ichiro's profile says 46, IIRC.

Rei also claims to be 18 for most of the case.

What, so he can hide the fact he failed that much as a student?

I was wondering, before the big reveal, did Juniper and Rei knew that Chishio was really a girl?

And I'm guessing that the love triangle rumor was created by Scuttlebutt, right? If so, why?

Yeah; he was keeping his true age and job a secret.

I... don't think so. Don't know/remember for sure, though.

Yeah, she wrote the article. It was actually a misunderstanding; Rei said he was going to make "a big confession" to Shinobu if he won the mock trial, which everyone assumed to be a confession of love, but he was actually planning on telling her his real age ^^"