Wednesday, December 29, 2021

Yomigaeru Gyakuten Character Blog Entry 3: Leaving It Up To Heaven (2005)

Title: Leaving It Up To Heaven / 「神頼み」

Summary: The official blog of Gyakuten Saiban Yomigaeru Gyakuten (Ace Attorney (1) DS) consisted of two seperate columns. The normal columns were written by director/writer Takumi, producer Matsukawa and the occasional guest writer, but the character blogs consisted of dialogues between Naruhodō (Phoenix Wright) and Mayoi (Maya Fey) as they bantered about all kinds of topics related to the upcoming game release. In the third entry of the character blog on August 19, 2005, Naruhodō and Mayoi talk about the new episode which would be added to the DS release and reveal some of the case ideas Takumi had played with before settling on the story of the episode which would eventually become Yomigaeru Gyakuten (Rise from the Ashes)

Leaving It Up To Heaven

Mayoi: Man, it’s hot today. Here, a cold glass of juice.
Naruhodō: Oh, thanks. I was getting thirsty.
Mayoi: So I was reading a magazine article on Yomigaeru Gyakuten (Ace Attorney 1 DS) just now. You know, wondering what the story would be of that new episode 5.
Naruhodō: You really shouldn’t read those stories.
Mayoi: I just couldn’t help myself! And look, there was this girl.
Naruhodō: Oh, that’s Hōzuki Akane-chan (Ema Skye). She loves scientific investigation, and that's how she helped me out.


Mayoi: Naruhodo-kun! What’s the meaning of this? What were you doing with that cute girl!?
Naruhodō: Wha—what’s up with the theatrics!?
Mayoi: Haha, I was just joking. I thought it’d make things more heated.
Naruhodō: Hmm… I have the feeling we had this same conversation a long time ago.
Mayoi: We did? Anyway, here’s a refill.
Naruhodō: Thanks. I have to say, I was surprised myself too when I first met Akane.
Mayoi: Why?
Naruhodō: Because, you know, she looked so much like you. I guess it’s just a coincidence…
Mayoi: I knew it! I too thought she was me.
Naruhodō: You yourself, of all people?
Mayoi: …
Naruhodō: Wha—what’s the matter? Why the silence?
Mayoi: Huh? Oh, it’s nothing. Had enough juice?
Naruhodō: Oh, yeah, thanks.
Mayoi: I think I have just thought of something amazing…
Naruhodō: And that is?
Mayoi: The perfect crime.
Naruhodō: The perfect crime? You?
Mayoi: Akane-chan looks exactly like me, right? So if I were to go to a restaurant…
Naruhodō: Waitwaitwait, you used that same joke in last week’s blog!
Mayoi: Huh, I did? Oh, your glass is empty. Here’s some juice.
Naruhodō: We have to be careful, or we might see Akane’s bills coming our way…

*****

Mayoi: It’s pretty hard coming up with new ideas each time.
Naruhodō: it sure is. The creator, TakuShū, also seems having trouble each time when he has to think of new stories.
Mayoi: I can guess why. I wonder how he comes up with those stories though.
Naruhodō: He starts off with coming up with an “incident.”
Mayoi: An incident?
Naruhodō: You know, the story won’t be exciting unless an interesting case has happened.
Mayoi: But we could make things fun and exciting even without a case happening!
Naruhodō: …I don’t think that’s the kind of excitement he means.
Mayoi: So for the new episode 5, he started off with thinking about a new incident?
Naruhodō: Yeah. I think he said: “Once I have an incident, I’ll somehow figure out the trick of how it was done.”
Mayoi: Huh, so that’s how it works.
Naruhodō: Look here, I have TakuShū’s creative notebook here.


TAKE THAT!

Mayoi: Oh, a picture of evidence. Lemme see. The first item says: “Case Candidates
Naruhodō: I was thinking of showing the notebook today as a special surprise.
Mayoi: Yay! So if we have a look at this, we’ll have a good idea of what kind of case episode 5 will be about!
Naruhodō: Yes! Let’s have a look.

Case Candidate 1
Location: Race Track.
After the first car makes the finish, the dead body of the driver is discovered inside the car.


Mayoi: Wow, it starts off immediately with an incredible case.
Naruhodō: And they find out something even more incredible after investigating the body.
Mayoi: Which is?
Naruhodō: The victim was run over by his own car.
Mayoi: …Huh? What do you mean?
Naruhodō: So he was run over by the car he was driving, and then made it to the finish.
Mayoi: But how was that done?
Naruhodō: Under the header “Trick”…. There’s just an empty space.
Mayoi: What was that about “somehow figuring out the trick of how it was done?”
Naruhodō: I suppose that somehow, he didn’t manage to figure it out. Let’s look at the next one.

Case Candidate 2
Location: Baseball Field.
The homerun ball hit by the cleanup hitter drives into the forehead of a spectator, who dies.

Mayoi: This… is an incident?
Naruhodō: “Will Prosecutor Mitsurugi (Miles Edgeworth) be able to see through the cleanup hitter’s crafty trick?”
Mayoi: Sounds like a completely different angle.
Naruhodō: I guess that TakuShū realized the same. That leads to the next one.

Case Candiate 3
Location: Dinosaur Museum.
A gigantic complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus. A body is found between its jaws.


Mayoi: …Makes me shudder just imagining it.
Naruhodō: And a witness says they saw the fossil move and chew on the body.
Mayoi: That’s… incredible.
Naruhodō: What’s the matter?
Mayoi: Wouldn’t that make the defendant a pile of bones?
Naruhodō: … You have a point.

*****

Mayoi: All these cases seem a bit farfetched.
Naruhodō: Well, they all start out like this. He basically tries a few things out and leaves it up to heaven.
Mayoi: Right.
Naruhodō: And what’s written under Case Candidate 4, that’s what became episode 5.
Mayoi: Is that episode really going to be okay? After these three?
Naruhodō: I see why you’d worry.
Mayoi: Oh well, I guess he managed somehow. Have another juice.
Naruhodō: Tha—wait, what’s up with your juice offensive?
Mayoi: Oh, you know Yomigaeru Gyakuten will be released soon, right?
Naruhodō: Yeah.
Mayoi: But I don’t own a Nintendo DS.
Naruhodō: So?
Mayoi: I’m collecting the labels of these juice bottles. There’s a raffle, and they’re giving away 100 Nintendo DS.
Naruhodō: Why are you relying on that!?
Mayoi: What are you saying? I’m trying all kinds of ideas and leaving it up to heaven!
Naruhodō: Uuugh… I guess so…
Mayoi: And you know, when in trouble, drink. That’s been the rule for Gyakuten Saiban!
Naruhodō: What do you mean?
Mayoi: Take that!


Naruhodō: What’s this…?
Mayoi: TakuShū only got his good idea after drinking all of this!
Naruhodō: That’s not the same thing!!

2 comments:

  1. This site is so good! I can't thank you enough for your work!

    ReplyDelete