Monday, February 27, 2017

Iwamoto Column Entry 3: Gyakuten Saiban 2 And I (2004)

Title: Gyakuten Saiban 2 And I / 「ボクと逆転裁判2」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 3 official site (down) 

Summary: In his third column for the official Gyakuten Saiban 3 (Ace Attorney 3 - Trials & Tribulations) website (of the GBA version), character designer Iwamoto Tatsurō writes about his work for the second game in the series. He had already worked in the first game, but he was made the main character designer for the second entry in the game. Iwamoto confesses he went a bit too far actually, and that it was his fault that Gyakuten Saiban 2 ended up with four of the originally planned five episodes, because his animations and designs were just too big to store on a GBA cartridge.

Images are taken from the source column. Copyright belongs to their respective owners.

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Drunkard Takumi Shū X Final Boss Inaba Atsushi X Adult Men Lover Iwamoto Tatsurō (2005)

Title: Drunkard Takumi Shū X Final Boss Inaba Atsushi X Adult Men Lover Iwamoto Tatsurō -  A Discussion Interview Where They Can Finally Talk All They Want About The Characters / 「酔いどれ 巧舟氏 X ラスボス 稲葉敦志氏 X オヤジLOVE  岩元辰郎 今だからこそキャラクターのことが言いたい放題対談」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban Fanbook

Summary: Gyakuten Saiban Fanbook was the first fanbook published for the Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) series. Besides summaries for all the three original games, character profiles and art, you'll also find two long interviews in this book, one of them a developer interview with director Takumi, producer Inaba and character designer Iwamoto. In this interview, the three talk about their favorite characters and about designing them. They also talk about the influence of the Boys' Love genre on Gyakuten Saiban. While the Gyakuten Saiban Fanbook was published just before the DS port of the first game, this interview does not contain any references to that game, the reason being that this book was actually delayed for half a year (the book was originally slated for a March release, but was released in September), meaning this interview was probably taken long before any substantial news about the DS release had been released for the public.

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Gyakuten Saiban Blog Entry 25: Finale (2001)

Title: Curtains /「終幕」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban official site (down)

Summary: The final column for the official website of the Game Boy Advance version of Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney GBA) has director and writer Takumi looking back at what the game means to him at a pesonal level. He also reveals a bitter childhood memory, which inspired the class trial featured in the backstory of this first game.

Gyakuten Saiban Blog Entry 24: Family (2) (2001)

Title: Family (2) / 「ファミリー (2)」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban official site (down)

Summary: The penultimate column for the official website of the Game Boy Advance version of Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney GBA) has director and writer Takumi continue his two-part series on how he named the characters in the main cast of the name, this time talking about  Mitsurugi Reiji (Miles Edgeworth) and Itonokogiri Keisuke (Dick Gumshoe). He also reveals the problems with his own (real) name, which is a combination of two fairly rare names.

Gyakuten Saiban Blog entry 23: Family (1) (2001)

Title: Family (1) /「ファミリー (1)」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban official site (down)

Summary: In the twenty-third column for  the official website of the Game Boy Advance version of Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney GBA), director and writer Takumi explains how he came up with the strange names for the members of the main cast. In this first part, he discusses why he gave Naruhodō Ryūichi (Phoenix Wright) and the Ayasato (Fey) sisters their names.

Saturday, February 11, 2017

Gyakuten Saiban 2 Blog Entry 9: Reunion, and Turnabout (2002)

Title: Reunion, and Turnabout /  「再会、そして逆転」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 2 official site (down) 

Summary: The ninth colum for the official website for the original GameBoy Advance version of Gyakuten Saiban 2 (Ace Attorney 2 - Justice For All) is about the second episode in the game, Reunion, and Turnabout. Director and writer Takumi explains why he decided to make an episode revolving around the theme of spirit channeling. He also reveals the origin of the name Kurain Village, hometown of Mayoi (Maya Fey) and what the original Ayasato Harumi (Pearl Fey) was supposed to be. In the backstage segment, Naruhodō (Phoenix Wright) and Mayoi comment on Takumi's column, revealing some old mystery stories Takumi wrote at high school and a surprising link between Chihiro (Mia Fey) and Harumi.

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Gyakuten Saiban 2 Blog Entry 4: Battlefield (2) (2002)

Title: Battlefield (2) /  「修羅場(2)」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 2 official site (down)

Summary: In the fourth column posted on the official site for the GameBoy Advance release of Gyakuten Saiban 2 (Ace Attorney 2 - Justice for All), director Takumi explains the basics of writing a mystery story, and about how hard it was coming up with the basic plots for this second game in the series, as he was given little time for writing the scenario. As always for the columns for this game, the column is followed by a backstage segment where Naruhodō (Phoenix Wright) and Mayoi (Maya Fey) comment on Takumi's column, this time revealing Takumi's rather troublesome love for the bottle.

Gyakuten Saiban 2 Blog Entry 3: Battlefield (1) (2002)

Title: Battlefield /  「修羅場(1)」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 2 official site (down) 

Summary: In the third column director Takumi wrote for the official site for the GameBoy Advance release of Gyakuten Saiban 2 (Ace Attorney - Justice for All), he explains how the project first started. As revealed in an earlier column, it was only decided after the team had finished the first game that this would become a series, and Takumi had nothing prepared when the producer (Inaba) gave the start sign for this second installment. In this column he explains how things got rolling. It is followed by a "backstage" segment, where Naruhodō (Phoenix Wright) and Mayoi (Maya Fey) comment on Takumi's column, this time talking about how forgetful Takumi can be.