Gyakuten Saiban, The Meaning of Design (2006)

Title: Gyakuten Saiban, The Meaning of Design / 「逆転裁判、デザインそのココロ」

Source: Gyakuten Saiban Official Fan Book

Summary: Gyakuten Saiban Official Fan Book  was released in 2006, in the period between the release of Gyakuten Saiban Yomigaeru Gyakuten (Ace Attorney 1 DS) and Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Ace Attorney 4 - Apollo Justice). As a book aimed at fans of the series in this interim period, the book contains an interview with series writer/director Takumi, in which he looks back at the six years in which he has worked on the series until now. He talks about working on the first game and the difficulties they experienced during its development, from him not knowing how to write characters to the composer having to leave the project mid-way. He also talks about how it's almost miraculous how the three games formed one cohesive story, as he was always more concerned about making the next deadline and thus could not actually plan forward.

Gyakuten Saiban, The Meaning of Design (2007)

Title: Gyakuten Saiban, The Meaning of Design / 逆転裁判、デザインそのココロ
Source: Gyakuten Saiban Official Fan Book 3

 

Summary: Gyakuten Saiban Official Fan Book 3 was released in 2007 coinciding with the release of Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Ace Attorney 4 - Apollo Justice) and therefore contains some pages about the development of that game. One of the segments includes is an interview with Yamazaki Takeshi, who worked as planner on Gyakuten Saiban 4 and the previously released Gyakuten Saiban Yomigaeru Gyakuten (Ace Attorney 1 DS). This is a unique interview, because it is a rare interview with Yamazaki in his role as a planner on a game directed by someone else, before he went on to become the director of the Gyakuten Kenji (Ace Attorney Investigations) series and later on the director of the mainline games. In this interview, he explains about the work of a planner. In his case, he was deeply involved with the English localization of the Nintendo DS port of the first Gyakuten Saiban, while he had more responsibilities for Gyakuten Saiban 4. He is also asked about working in the Gyakuten Saiban team and about how own future plans.

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

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

 Source: Gyakuten Saiban Yomigaeru Gyakuten official site

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)

Creator Interview - Yamazaki Takeshi (2012)

Title: Creator Interview - Yamazaki Takeshi / 「クリエイター・インタビュー　山崎剛」
Source: Hayakawa's Mystery Magazine, March 2012
 

Summary: The March 20212 issue of Hayakawa's Mystery Magazine had a Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) special titled “No objection to Gyakuten Saiban”, featuring essays and in-depth looks at the Gyakuten Saiban series and legal mystery fiction in general, a preview of the live-action film adaptation and interviews with the two main writers of the series: Takumi Shū, director and writer of the main series, and Yamazaki Takeshi, director and main writer of the Gyakuten Kenji (Ace Attorney Investigation) spin-off series. In the interview with Yamazaki, he talks about the mystery fiction that inspired him, his first encounter with the series and how his first tasks at Capcom, working on the Gyakuten Kenji series and about what kind of mystery games he’d like to work on.

Forty Questions and Forty Answers As Told By The Staff (2005)

Title: Forty Questions and Forty Answers As Told By The Staff / 「スタッフがココまで語った40問40答」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban Fanbook

Summary: In this segment in 2005's Gyakuten Saiban Fanbook, series director Takumi and character designer Iwamoto answer no less than forty questions asked by the fans. While some of the questions relate to the development process, a great number of them are also questions you'd normally never seen in an official interview, that pertain to the story and characters, for example a question about whether detective Itonokogiri (Dick Gumshoe) can get married, what his salary is, or whether Mayoi (Maya Fey) goes to school. Note that this article was published in 2005, right before the release of the first DS port of Gyakuten Saiban (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney DS) and some of the elements mentioned here eventually found their way in later Gyakuten Saiban games.

Turnabout Interview 2 – Development Staff Discussion (2005)

Title: Turnabout Interview 2 – Development Staff Discussion / 「逆転インタビュー②　開発スタッフ座談会」
Source: Turnabout Crossover

Summary: A discussion interview about the first DS release of the Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) series with director Takumi Shū, producer Matsukawa Minae and character designer Nuri Kazuya. The interview was included in the booklet Turnabout Crossover (2005), which was part of the Limited Editon of the Nintendo DS release of Gyakuten Saiban Yomigaeru Gyakuten (Ace Attorney DS). This was the first game in the series to be released abroad, and the three talk about this new challenge for the series in the interview. Other topics include Takumi definitely not wanting to do anything for the DS port, looking back at the first game, the things they changed for the DS version, character design and more.

Yomigaeru Gyakuten Blog Entry 3: vs. Planner (2005)

Title: vs. Planner / 「vs. 企画マン」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban Yomigaeru Gyakuten official site

Summary: This is the third entry in the official blog of Gyakuten Saiban Yomigaeru Gyakuten (Ace Attorney (1) DS). It was posted on August 16, 2005 and written by Takumi Shū. The first part is a bit teasing an upcoming project, but the second part is an interesting mini-interview with Yamazaki Takeshi, a planner at the time, but also the person who'd become the head writer and director of the main series and the Gyakuten Kenji (Ace Attorney Investigations) later. The last question Takumi asks Yamazaki is quite interesting, as this proposal sounds kinda familiar to a game Takumi himself made many years later! The entry ends with a little promotional talk by producer Matsukawa.

Turnabout Interview 1 - Suekane Kumiko (2005)

Title: Turnabout Interview 1 - Suekane Kumiko / 「逆転インタビュー①　スエカネクミコ」
Source: Turnabout Crossover

Summary: An interview with Suekane Kumiko, character designer for the first Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) on the Game Boy Advance. The interview was included in the booklet Turnabout Crossover (2005), which was included with the Limited Editon of the Nintendo DS release of Gyakuten Saiban Yomigaeru Gyakuten (Ace Attorney DS). Suekane, now a freelance artist, talks about how she designed some of the characters, but also how she had a lot of influence on the role of the characters within the story. She also comments on the special comic she drew for Turnabout Crossover as well as simply how she does her work.

Suekane Kumiko
For GBA Gyakuten Saiban 1, Suekane worked on the character designs and other art-related work, and was responsible for commenting on the story. She has left Capcom now and is now ‘drawing comics and illustrations and stuff’ as a freelancer.