When his mentor Mia Fey is murdered and the only culprit appears to be her younger sister Maya, Phoenix does what he can to see that she gets a proper defense. Meanwhile, we're introduced to genius prosecutor Miles Edgeworth, a man described as willing to do anything to win a "guilty" verdict.

I am starting to think they lack a consistency checker. It's nice that they want to show Edgeworth's office. But they need to remember when he got those objects they are showing off. Hint: it's way after this episode in the games.

And what's up with the episode name? "1st trial"? We don't even get the opening statement!

I am starting to think they lack a consistency checker. It's nice that they want to show Edgeworth's office. But they need to remember when he got those objects they are showing off. Hint: it's way after this episode in the games.

I am starting to think they lack a consistency checker. It's nice that they want to show Edgeworth's office. But they need to remember when he got those objects they are showing off. Hint: it's way after this episode in the games.

One change story wise I thought was kind of a bad one was relating to Maya's phone. Nick just... finds it in the Charlie's plant pot? How did the police not find that? A team of investigators and no one noticed it? Sounds very, very far fetched to me. While I don't think Gumshoe giving it up sounds very believable either, at least it makes more sense than the police not finding it at all.

Also, there were one too many shots of Edgeworth than there needed be. He only needed to show up when Nick was recalling the rumors about him and when they arrived in court. (That sick drift to park tho... and right in front of the courthouse! Disrespect, yo.)

There is no such thing as too much Edgeworth!


Ahem, leaving my character preferences aside for the moment, which scene is it you thought should be removed?

I highly doubt they'd squeeze 1-3 and 1-4 into 2-day trials; they each went on for 3. This does suggest we're looking at another 2/3 episodes to finish 1-2 and another 4/5 episodes for 1-3, maybe with 1-4, they'll go in-depth a bit more with 6/7 episodes. But that's already one full cour, so I do not see RftA making the cut unless as a single OVA, but even that is cutting out too much.

If AA is successful enough to reach a 2nd season, they ought to continue from GS3 and add in RftA then, like following the order of game releases. By the game script alone, RftA is long enough by itself that it could fill an entire GS1, the GBA ver.

The scene with him driving on the highway. Why? I mean, I really love the part where he swerved right in front of the courthouse, but that's all we need as a nod to his amazing driving skills. Instead, they could have taken those few seconds for a montage to add a bit more to Nick's struggle of going door-to-door to find another law firm. I think it would have been better allocation of their time.

I also couldn't care for the sequence of watching Edgeworth walk into court, but I suppose to build up hype for the next episode, it had to be done.

I highly doubt they'd squeeze 1-3 and 1-4 into 2-day trials; they each went on for 3. This does suggest we're looking at another 2/3 episodes to finish 1-2 and another 4/5 episodes for 1-3, maybe with 1-4, they'll go in-depth a bit more with 6/7 episodes. But that's already one full cour, so I do not see RftA making the cut unless as a single OVA, but even that is cutting out too much.

If AA is successful enough to reach a 2nd season, they ought to continue from GS3 and add in RftA then, like following the order of game releases. By the game script alone, RftA is long enough by itself that it could fill an entire GS1, the GBA ver.

The scene with him driving on the highway. Why? I mean, I really love the part where he swerved right in front of the courthouse, but that's all we need as a nod to his amazing driving skills. Instead, they could have taken those few seconds for a montage to add a bit more to Nick's struggle of going door-to-door to find another law firm. I think it would have been better allocation of their time.

Well, not necessarily. They used the Edgeworth driving his car vs Nick bicycling montage to show us how much more privileged and of higher status Edgeworth is due to being an esteemed prosecutor vs Nick being a lowly attorney. It's a really funny metaphor too IMO.

I definitely have a more positive outlook on this anime after having seen this episode, but I'm not sure it's a positive outlook in the way I'm enthusiastic about. As a fan of the games I'm actually finding quite a lot of interesting new stuff to appreciate (the parallelism of the flashback to Maya's situation, the book with all the names crossed out), and I do think hinting at Nick's past with Edgeworth this early allows for some juicy foreshadowing that the game couldn't really use since it didn't bring up the issue much if at all until 1-3/1-4. And I do happen to enjoy the little moments of chitchat between characters and the in-depth fleshing out of certain game events - they're making good on the fact it's an anime and doesn't have to have all its exposition squeezed into small text boxes, so a lot of the interactions feel more organic. This was actually one of the biggest hurdles video games tend to have in the transition to anime, so I'm glad it was able to overcome that.

Unfortunately, I don't think this does very well as an "adaptation". Mood and themes aside, Ace Attorney is still a murder-mystery series, and the playdown of the investigation sequence in this episode is not making me look forward much to the upcoming trial. If 1-1's adaptation was any indication they're also not really prioritizing what made the trials so appealing (the complete sanitation of the cross-examination was a huge letdown; Phoenix being suddenly intelligent and the lack of much suspense was a huge mood killer), so even though there's a lot for me, as a currently existing fan who's already played the games, to observe, I'm not feeling like it's going to end up standing as its own work. The characters are "nice", but if I forget the game's context I don't feel they're being very "unique", and I even feel like some of the characters got made into somewhat more boring variants - is it just me, or does Nick feel way too obliging and polite? Him cheerfully playing along to Gumshoe's verbal tic just feels really out of place, and the way my friend put it at this point Maya might call something a ladder and this Nick might agree. (I understand that the Japanese version is a little different from the localized version, but I do have a passing familiarity with the Japanese version and a certain degree of comprehension, and it still feels out of place.) Nick was interesting as a protagonist because he was basically getting everyone thrown at him while he had an implicit :| face through a lot of it, but this anime's "justice-minded nice guy" is a rather generic model. And even though initially Yuuki Aoi sounded like a good fit for Maya in vocal range, I don't know if I like the voice direction they're giving her; even the Maya on the phone seemed like a lot more naive/immature than the sort of upstart troll we know her as, so she seems a lot more like a generic moe girl. (I hope they'll change my mind later, of course; it's only episode 2 and we haven't seen much of her yet.)

I also don't know if I agree with being so revealing about Redd White being the killer right now; it was certainly obvious in the original as well, but if they continue to be so blasé about revealing their murderers it's not going to be interesting as a murder mystery anymore. Even if the anime does better in certain ways the game didn't do as well with, "slightly more appealing character narrative with lackluster murder mystery" isn't going to cut it. And unfortunately the anime is still on a kids' slot with low budget, so although the writer clearly has a lot of narrative and artistic ideas, the studio doesn't seem to have the capacity to execute it, so a lot of scenes that should be coming off as emotional look rather pathetic with faces falling halfway off. Since a lot of the reason people wanted an AA anime so badly was to see some of the more emotional scenes executed in a visual manner, that's a pretty serious blow.

So in the end I don't know what to really say. I can see myself enjoying this anime in the following episodes for the further character depth and inside look on the characters' domestic lives, and I particularly trust this anime's writer (he specializes in kids' anime, some of which are video game adaptations themselves, and has quite a knack for good character writing), but with its level of pacing and questionable execution I don't think I could recommend this at all to my friends who haven't played the games to show them why I like Ace Attorney. I'm not particularly expecting it to have everything from the game, but I feel like it ends up suffering more from being an adaptation than anything else - in fact, if it had eschewed the adaptation factor and been made up entirely of original cases in Phoenix and Maya's life, or if it had tried to invent its own distinct take on the mood and suspense like the Miike film did, it might have even been better.

The characters are "nice", but if I forget the game's context I don't feel they're being very "unique", and I even feel like some of the characters got made into somewhat more boring variants - is it just me, or does Nick feel way too obliging and polite? Him cheerfully playing along to Gumshoe's verbal tic just feels really out of place, and the way my friend put it at this point Maya might call something a ladder and this Nick might agree. (I understand that the Japanese version is a little different from the localized version, but I do have a passing familiarity with the Japanese version and a certain degree of comprehension, and it still feels out of place.) Nick was interesting as a protagonist because he was basically getting everyone thrown at him while he had an implicit :| face through a lot of it, but this anime's "justice-minded nice guy" is a rather generic model.

I also don't know if I agree with being so revealing about Redd White being the killer right now; it was certainly obvious in the original as well, but if they continue to be so blasé about revealing their murderers it's not going to be interesting as a murder mystery anymore. Even if the anime does better in certain ways the game didn't do as well with, "slightly more appealing character narrative with lackluster murder mystery" isn't going to cut it.

I think in the game he actually imitates Gumshoe's verbal tic too; However, Gumshoe would scold Nick after imitating his "endearing character trait".

I played this case again just a week ago, and it does not really give off the "murder mystery" vibe suited for a medium like anime. I could be wrong here, since I also watched the movie about 6 years ago, but cannot quite remember how the director executed it.

Also, making the anime seem shounen is fine for me as well so that its unique themes can reach a wider audience. Showing a different take on themes like friendship (that eventually leads to pursuit of truth, which is what makes Nick's and Miles's bond special) and believing in one's self (and in your client's innocence when no one else can trust them) and then showing more mature themes like fighting against injustice brought about by the flawed legal system and giving up perfection in pursuit of truth will add charm to the show. I don't think a lot of anime today are like that- or should I say, no other anime is like that.

I am just not very fond of the oversaturation of cherry blossoms. Is this a mystery or a romantic comedy? It is heavily leaning toward the latter so far.

At this rate, by the end of this series, Gumshoe and Pearl will compete in throwing around cherry blossoms instead of confetti.

April 4th -April 6th datew doesn't even closely match the September dates(to be honest, this doesn't bother me too much, but it still does annoy me )

Next episode is the debut of the infamous updated autopsy report. I look forward to seeing how it's handled, and Phoenix's response ("I'm a sham!")

This is based on the Japanese version of the game. Pretty sure they use the settings used in the Japanese version, too. (Cindy Stone going to New York, etc.)

No, the dates were changed intentionally to parallel the start of Nick's legal career with the sakura blooming season. All these cherry blossoms are going to stay stuck on him and his suit, and by the end of the series, he will dress in pink.