This is a general discussion thread for episode one of the Ace Attorney anime, "The First Turnabout"!



The episode will be available on Crunchyroll at 4 AM Pacific on April 2nd.

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Just finished watching it. I honestly thought I'd have more to say about it, but imo it's an okay adaptation of an okay case. The body proportions being more realistic than traditional anime makes it stick out, and they tone down the uses of "objection". It's very faithful otherwise, and since this episode matches the quality of the in-game case, I'm hoping the same will hold true for the second episode, seeing as it tackles my favorite AA case, and introduces my favorite characters too.

e: I also love how the ending credits is all Maya imagery even though she hasn't appeared yet. Not too fond of the opening or ending themes either, but oh well.

Last edited by Lone on Sat Apr 02, 2016 9:07 am, edited 1 time in total.

This clearly not-primetime stream time is gonna make me either A) not go to sleep until 5 am or B) wake early at 4 am ever Saturday and frankly I'm totally fine with that. (Gotta watch the episodes as early as possible ya know??)

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First episode was... decent. The animation's pretty wonky from time to time, and it's sticking pretty darn close to the game. I did like that they show "re-enactments" of the testimonies and of what really happened. Soundtrack was nice but the balance felt a bit off, and I was surprisingly distracted by how different it was from the game themes (I think it was totally different save for two songs.)

I can't see this being a great intro to the series for a newcomer though. The First Turnabout doesn't have much meat to it in the first place, so compressing it to an anime kinda removes what little impact it has.

Anyway I took a bunch of low-quality caps on Twitter

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You're a blessing. Thank you.

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That running animation during the opening looks kinda awkward. Good thing this isn't an action show XD.


Also, that's Trucy next to the Steel Samurai in the chalk drawing?

Even for how quick The First Turnabout is in the game, that was pretty fast

All in all though, pretty great. Music being part of the series is nice, but I'm guessing they're saving Pursuit - Cornered - 2001 for later cases. Also noticed the shitty sweater at Phoenix's place. Nice reference, but you'd think after what happened, he'd toss it

Preview for Turnabout Sisters looks interesting. I'm happy that Redd White seemingly looks like Redd White and not Professor Snape, too. Movie hit all the right notes, but whoa dude.

Not a big fan of the opening, though. Just your typical "anime running" thing.

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The JP version can be viewed here:
http://www.ytv.co.jp/mydo/gyakuten/
(Available free for 1 week)

Some of the expositions and evidence was well done. And Yahari was well drawn. The less said about the CG courtroom the better I guess. I'm not sure what Capcom's philosophy on asset usage/rights is, but maybe it would have been more cost effective to use the anime from the pachinko:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i32UIoara_M

Anime part starts here:
https://youtu.be/i32UIoara_M?t=5m17s

In addition to the great animation and voice acting, the pachinko also has great 3D models of famous areas from the games. If Capcom owns the rights to those assets, they could make a really impressive remake of the original trilogy. ( looks way better in the pachinko than he ever has in the games.)

Last edited by ouboros on Sat Apr 02, 2016 1:21 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Well, the first episode of the Ace Attorney anime is out. And I can say that I didn't like it that much.

Well, I may as well start with the positives. The music was pretty okay by itself (I'll come back to it's integration later). I don't remember much of it, but it never bothered me. I would have liked if they played the cornered theme at some point but, oh well. The voice cast was fine, no problems there for me. The opening and ending song I did enjoy greatly. The opening was very 90's in tone and was just a lot of fun, even if the animation was... of questionable quality. The ending song however was fantastic. The vocals were very pleasant to listen to and it was really pretty looking... unlike the rest of the show.

*sigh* I guess I'll start with the animation.

To say the animation quality was 'underwhelming' would be a understatement. The characters are very undetailed in terms of shading and highlights, which makes everything look flat. The show also has a serious problem staying on model. A-1 Pictures and the time slot this show runs in combined don't exactly come out with the best looking of TV shows *cough* Denpa Kyoushi *cough* but at least the first episodes of the shows usually look passable for a low budget show. This show was just terribly produced, the characters were consistently off model (even in the opening of all things), and the only place in the episode where I could say the animation was "okay" was when Phoenix objected, it had a pretty cool 3D camera move towards his face before zooming out, which also look pretty decent. Then it went straight back to being completely bleh.

Speaking of 3D, they decided to use it on not only the court room, but the gallery too, and it looks terrible. Especially the gallery, oh god they look bad. They make their presence so easily known too. Since they are so much more fluidly animated than everything else and are jagged and weirdly put together. Eww.

A kind of nitpicky thing to point out about the visuals is how the backgrounds and characters were integrated. The moment this really hit me was when I saw that the characters weren't reflecting off of the obviously reflective floor, which yeah, is very nitpicky and is a problem with anime in general as of late, but it's the fact that everything else is reflecting off the floor, aside from the characters which is just inconsistent and bothersome to me.

Another thing that really bugged me was how the director decided to follow the example of another director, Seiji Kishi, and take elements from the game and integrate them into the show itself. I hate this. It looks so tacky. Having them overlay objection over the screen, having characters be introduced through text boxes rather than actual character interactions, which is just a lazy cop-out by the way, and them using the "testimony" and "cross examination" introductions, feel so awkwardly placed. Really all of these callbacks to the game feel awkwardly integrated into the show just to get some nostalgia out of the fans and I just don't like it. At all.

On the note of directing the way the case was done was so weird to me, and felt lacking in impact. Not that I wanted this case to go any longer than one episode, but I feel that it was just so lacking in so many ways, it felt so short, when the case ended I was just kind of like "okay? That's it?" and was incredibly underwhelmed. It had no impact what so ever. On top of that some of the things that happened were just downright goofy and impossible to take seriously. The one that immediate sticks out like a sore thumb was Sahwits stupid bloody finger point, which blew phoenix back. Seriously, what!? How did that happen? It was so stupid!

And even though I thought the music by itself was fine, I felt the integration was pretty bad in places, for example, at the very end of the episode where Phoenix is monologuing about how he couldn't keep his promise to Mia, the usage of the upbeat main theme to the anime was so unfitting and badly placed, the scene is supposed to be serious but the music is far too upbeat for the scene.

I wasn't expecting much from this anime, considering the staff behind it. But it didn't even meet those expectations.

5/10

Also Crunchyroll you didn't use the English names. Much disappoint.

Last edited by RoyalTanki on Wed May 04, 2016 12:02 pm, edited 2 times in total.

You can switch to the alternative English subs and voila!

It was more of a joke than anything else, but, there are alternate subs?

Yup:

Not going to make a long post detailing my problems with the episode, as RoyalTanki did a good job saying them, but yes, I agree with him, I did not like this episode.

Loved it, it was exactly what I wanted to see from an Ace Attorney anime and so far it's off to a great start imo.

If I have any issues I'd probably say I'm not a huge fan of the over exaggerated force field like things that both Phoenix and Sahwit did (the whole blue beam that blew off Sahwits toupee or the force thing that blew Phoenix into the evidence desk).

8/10

I thought it was really good!

It was definitely as I expected it to be, with no deviation from the content of the first case, but that's okay. The characters were well done, it was appropriately absurd (Sahwit magic finger point! The sheer magnitude of the breakdowns! The crazy lighting during the intro! Loved it all), and I liked how they handled Phoenix struggling to get things sorted out. I love this franchise in part for the bits of ridiculousness and this show definitely had that.

I don't watch any anime (the only other one I've seen is the Danganronpa one), so I couldn't compare its visual quality to other shows, but I'm happy with what I had. I watch a lot of old Disney TV animation, I'm used to weird, off-model shenanigans.

I'm excited for next week.

(and now that I have a Crunchyroll subscription, perhaps I'll try some more anime. Not that I need more things to be obsessed over at present.)

What I did like is how they changed things. Or rather, how they kept things, yet at the same time made needed changes.

What I mean by this is how they managed to eliminate the standing around and talking parts, yet kept the dialog. Just the small detail of the characters walking while talking helps prevent boredom and allows the transitions between scenes to be handled much better.

Then there is the other condensing they did to fit things in the episode time. It felt like they generally did an ok job, but it feels a little too fast. Just a little.

I really did like the new evidence, the photo really helps sell the visit much better than the passport. This is a clear improvement from the game.

And I am a little disappointed that the subtitles didn't do the songs. I don't expect fancy karaoke, but it's not too much to ask for a simple translation.

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Eh, overall i found it rather mediocre, animation and pacing were sub-par.
Still, looking forward to future installments.

If nothing else it makes for a good graphical resource.

Fairly solid first episode yada yada yada but why wasn't the toupee tossed onto Phoenix's face???

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Finished watching it.

Well... It was okay, nothing too good or bad.
Also.

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My style is to always start with the negatives first then the positive. Here goes.

Opening Statement

When I first watched the preview, I thought the animation quality won't be too high. So I watched it with a lower general expectation. It made my experience much more pleasant. The case was spot on in a sense, and stayed true to the game. But as a normal human, I have pet peeves.

Prosecution Argument

1)Some OSTs not from the game
As a fan of the game, I feel like they should've used more OSTs from the game as it had more feel that was already embedded within my memory. I feel like the main theme should've been taken from the game instead of being a new OST. (Pursuit or Objection might've worked) Maybe And, I feel like it doesn't fit Gyakuten Saiban. For instance, they should've used Beginning Overture during court begin scene.

2) Animation
RoyalTanki has said this, but the animation in clunky and not fluid, or spot on. I can't say much more than that. But it sure feels lacking to me. And could've been improved. Maybe because of the shading. It's definitely the shading. It doesn't match the rest of the scene/background. The opening too, ugh.

3) Character design
This is another one of the "I can't help but feel something is wrong somewhere". What I may say to be the fault is the lack of detail in the character's design. (*sigh* this is why I shouldn't have watched the Gyakuten Saiban pachinko videos). Also, the judge seemed too clumsy. He seemed way funnier in the game.

4) System
The aura was fine. It's just the part where Yamano-san/Sahwit pointed and showed at Ryuuichi/Phoenix and pushed him back bothered me. The way evidence is presented was also lacking. The way Ryuuichi/Phoenix remembered details (The death time and reported time) was so-so. But they could've just used something similar to Edgeworth's Logic System

Defense Rebuttal

1) The OSTs from the game and some new ones
That cross-examination theme was epic enough as it is. Objection too sounds just right. No more, no less. The new OST used when Ryuuichi/Phoenix met with Chihiro/Mia at the court sounded nice. Waiting theme when they entered the court (one before the judge came in, and before Yahari/Larry was introduced) sound fitting for me :3 Anyway, I think the OSTs that were used except in the courtroom sounds nice, except when the end part, song when Ryuuichi/Phoenix left Chihiro/Mia to get his bike)

2) Episode as a whole
I am surprised how much it stayed true to the game. This one should stay. I like the series' progress and added a few details here and there made the story transition smoother from one scene to the other. The way Chihiro/Mia acted in court, letting Ryuuichi/Phoenix handle the case completely was exactly like how I imagined. Keeping what was needed and removing what was not, adding what was supposed to was great.

3) Game imports
The text box that shows when changing the locations and time was a nice touch. As well as the way Igiari!/ Objection! was shown on screen was nice too, instead of just a static objection. The cross examination scene also took reminiscence of the DS style, where the Attorney and Prosecutor's face was shown. The visualized testimony scene was also a nice touch. The moving text could've used a different color though.

4) OP and ED song
I love the OP and ED song. But naught can be said for the opening scene. Ending was really nice though.

Verdict

Since this is only the first episode, I won't say I lost expectation for the series. But I definitely think it would impact the expectation fans a bit..
I'd give the first episode a 7/10
with hopes that things would improve.

Also, can we not mention how THIS was a thing:




What an awfully disappointing adaption

Strangely, I think it looks better, but I missed the confetti. Also, they're on opposite sides?

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I think it's actually better. They mentioned the defendant's chair being a thing in the games, but you never saw it. Now we do, and that one witness stand won't have about five to ten people going back and forth on it.

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Actually, I think that change makes sense, becuase it would be kind of weird in an actual courtroom if the defendant and witness stood in the exact same spot during the trial. I'm not sure why there seem to be two of those defendant's chairs though...

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I don't have a problem with that, I wasn't insinuating a problem with the Defendant chair, what I DO have a problem with the defense and prosection benches being flipped

It's consistent for over 10 games, defense is right side, pro is left, and the perspective we see them from is the Judge's Bench

Courtrooms are generally designed for all sorts of cases. That other seat may be for the plaintiff in a civil case.

They could use a different room for civil cases, but all the courtrooms we know of the AA universe are of this style.

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The first episode was... okay. I'd say underwhelming, but I didn't have any expectations going into it anyways. The animation was overall lackluster, the story felt rushed (though given it's an anime adaptation of a game, it's something to expect), and the 3-d models in the courtroom felt a bit off, especially compared to awkward animations of the characters. The opening felt underwhelming as well. I get it Phoenix. You like to run.

I did somewhat enjoy the music, I can't speak a lick of Japanese, but I thought the VAs were alright. And I did like how they put little bits of easter eggs here and there in the show. I did like how the evidence was given a bit more detail and I do like the overall courtroom design.

I'll still continue to watch this, just because I enjoy Ace Attorney, but I honestly feel if the anime keeps going the way the first episode did, it's not gonna turn out very well in my opinion. I always felt that the first episode of the anime is supposed to show off some of the best you can muster to help bring in viewers and such. In that sense, it was disappointing.

If I had to give a rating, I'd probably say about a 5 or 6 ,if I'm feeling generous, out of 10.

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Hmm... what if there's more than one defendant on trial for the same crime? We've never had such a situation in the AA universe so far (at least, not that I remember), but I think it's plausible that the extra seat is there for that purpose.

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This must be the penance Edgeworth faces for bragging to him about his games where he can walk everywhere.


But trials are held so that each defendant gets their own trial. Aside from the security violations, putting two defendants in the same trial isn't fair to either. Even in the case that these two people simultaneously killed one person (not sure how that'd happen anyway), they are two different people that require different, though related, cases built against each and the appropriate sentences to match.

It may come down to technical jargon, but that's how most countries' judicial systems are run. (To be honest, such a scenario could have been an idea for a case in PLvsAA, since those witch trials aren't nearly as orderly.)

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Well, that's strange: as far as I know, if two people, for example, have robbed a jewelry store together, they're going to be tried together, because they have cooperated in doing so; and that goes for all the crimes in which two or more people have cooperated.

You can even have a single trial when the cases are different, but the crimes are somehow related (the most striking example of this would be organised crime trials).

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Last edited by Slammer on Wed Apr 06, 2016 10:13 am, edited 3 times in total.

I'm not saying I'm a law school grad or anything, but it should also depend on the type of crime. There's a difference between a trial for a crime and a trial for a crime organization. Should there be a charge laid against the group, the entire group is tried, but members of the group themselves are not necessarily on trial. However, should a charge be laid against specific individuals, proceedings move separately.

But it may be different from country to country. I'm recalling this info based on studies done in the US.

Edit: Ugh, even in the US, it differs from state to state. I can't find a solid consensus on these things.

Edit edit: Say, would this imply there's an unspoken rule in Japanifornian courts that defendants must be tried one at a time?

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...I loved it. It was everything I could've realistically wanted. I was watching with some friends who haven't played Ace Attorney (but have watched anime) and they were actually disappointed at the end when I said there were no more episodes for now

Also didn't really like the opening or ending, but I did like the cheesy part of the opening with Nick and Edgeworth. This probably won't end up being the only opening anyway (and was that Trucy on the chalk drawing. I saw the Steel Samurai but wasn't sure about her). Nick's voice is kind of generic too but it's passable. So excited for more!

I actually really like the direction the first episode of the anime went. First of all, shout out to Crunchyroll for the alt subs option.
And I noticed that bit with Nick's sweater right away, very nice.

Nothing stood out to me as far as animation, positive or negative. The opening song wasn't wow-inducing, but the visuals were nice. The visuals of the golden chain linking Miles and Phoenix was a very good metaphor for the different paths they took but still being very much like the other, possibly even still needing each other. The sexier parts of my mind intruded there a bit, but that's just the handcuffs - Death Note made the same mistake and the fans ran with it!

: Yaoi!

No, Maya!
(NicoB, anyone?)

Anyway... the ending, not much different. Wonderful visuals, a lot to do with Maya. Nothing note-worthy of the actual song.

The story, as I'm sure we all know, has a lot to grow from what the tutorial case had to give us. I honestly didn't think it was really rushed at all. I mean, that case took like an hour tops in the first place, right? All of the key details were covered and, while I was watching it, I couldn't think of anything from the game that was missing during the trial. Meaning, any detail or contradiction that WAS missed was probably not vital in the slightest. I mean, of course cases down the line will have to have more time to care of said details, but The First Turnabout was not nearly one of them.

I liked how smoothly the Testimonies and Cross-Examinations were presented. I mean, there was a big TV screen in the court room, but at least they aren't holograms. The confetti was there, but not focused on too much. Very good characterization of Larry, a sometimes-annoying but all-round there-for-comic-relief character.

The only things I saw that possibly got in the way was the very-anime moments:

-Phoenix messes up and Mia gives him a hard smash on his foot in her high heels (um, OUCH)
-the guy yelling at Phoenix so hard he flies back across the court room
-All. Those. Cut In. Animations.
-Phoenix is an optimistic person on his first day of work, so therefore he must cheerfully ride his bike there and back like a teenager, right? Oh, and have him forget it on his way back too! Pure gold! /sarcasm

Just... Japan's tropes. I feel like less of that, a more suspenseful look at the trial at hand (maybe with better balance on the music? Idk, it seemed very soft to me) would have been a more effective introduction. Instead it will be like episode 1 to any of the seasons of Black Butler or Acts 1-4 of Homestuck where the fans just keep saying "Trust us, it gets better later!"

Everything is just... average. A couple good things going for it. Hopefully it will become a new favorite as the episodes progress.

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As for the negative comments regarding the usage of 3D on the court room.... EXCUSE ME?! I was blown away! It looked great!

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Everything I wanted to say has already been said, so just one more thing:

The lawyers wearing gloves while handling evidence. I've been waiting for an adaptation that features this. Good thing they didn't mess up on this one.

The voices were great! I had my misgivings regarding Kaji, but that's gone now. Great job, Eren!

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Overall it was...okay-ish . I honestly feel that if I wasn't an Ace Attorney fan to begin with, I might not come back to this show just because it was all a little underwhelming. Obviously gonna keep watching just to see how it goes, but there overall it was just meh.

The animation was really not great. I wasn't a fan of the remixed themes. The 3D court models felt off as well. The opening sequence was so cheesy and made me laugh aloud but I actually really liked the ending song. It was nice and very Maya-centric (which I'm a sucker for) .

I am disappoint.

Pacing is way off, only one Objection, fucking Yuki Kaji is in it, and as if that wasn't bad enough, he's completely miscast, colour palette is weird and looks particularly low-budget, the CG gallery sticks out like a sore thumb, and the directing is bad in general.

Honestly it's not horrendous or anything, but it's FAR from what this series deserved.

Also why are they on the wrong sides of the court? There was literally no reason to change that.

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just wanted to put my two cents in:

Having played the games multiple times I concur that the pacing was way off. The only time you feel a thrill or an urgency is near the end when Phoenix finally figures out the trick the killer uses.

The art style is also off. It always seemed very simplistic. Its as if the artists of this show decided to only keep the barebones visual attributes of each character so that we can recognize them. I don't think too many people were impressed, but I think we can get used to it with time

As far as the way the story has been adapted is concerned: I think too much got cut from the game. The flow of the testimonies and conversations in general felt like it got disrupted at a number of points, especially when they are trying to transition from a joke to a serious tone.

Also. while nostalgia is great, I think there were too many nods to the games. At points the show felt like the animators just decided to add additional animation to the games.

I'm willing to continue watching the show just because of how big of a fan I am, the fact that it's the first episode, and there were a fair number of portions I enjoyed, but this show has really got to get its act together.

A well-formed argument, RoyalTanki. While I agree that it could've been handled a lot better, I thought this was just "okay." You brought up a lot of good points about the game elements as visuals and also impact through the use of pacing and music. The series seems to be going in a more upbeat tone, but perhaps the second episode will prove to be better. That's usually the real test.

As for shockwave finger pointing... Well, that seems to be a thing in the Ace Attorney world, huh? Nevertheless, that was odd to me. And no toupee thrown in Phoenix's face. Bah hambug. As a fan of the games, it was pretty faithful to 1-1, but I feel like this kinda failed to appeal to any newcomer. Too fast-paced and not really strong art/animation quality, which is a must for a first episode to engage the audience first.

If I had to pick one thing that bothered me the most? The way they revealed Mia's death for the next episode. There's just no impact. It feels very nonchalant. Like, "Next episode: Phoenix searches for Mia's killer!" which will get a "Wait, what?" response. Like if they just casually threw out that Darth Vader is Luke's Skywalker's father in passing during Empire Strikes Back.

Also, aside from the defense/prosecutor bench flip, they changed the date of the case too? In the game, 1-1 takes place in August, but this took place on March 26. Can't imagine why.

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I agree with the sentiment that Mia's death shouldn't have been spoiled, but honestly, she was very forgettable in the show. The best way they could have previewed the next episode was to introduce Maya as the defendant, reveal the episode title, and say something along the lines or "what crime has she been accused of?"

Based on the way the preview was done, I can't help but think the creators of the show know that their audience are AA fans,so Spoilers don't matter that much.