[Mari-Detective] Brimming with memory-filled stories the fans had longed to hear! A report of the Gyakuten Saiban 10th Anniversary Special Court, where the new title Gyakuten Saiban 5 was also announced! (2012)

Title: [Mari-Detective] Brimming with memory-filled stories the fans had longed to hear! A report of the Gyakuten Saiban 10th Anniversary Special Court, where the new title Gyakuten Saiban 5 was also announced!  / 「【まり探】『逆転』ファン垂涎の思い出話がてんこ盛り！ 最新作『逆転裁判5』も発表された“逆転裁判10周年特別法廷”レポート」
Source: Dengeki Online 

 

Summary: The special event “Gyakuten Saiban Tenth Anniversary Special Court” to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) franchise was held on Sunday January 29, 2012. Marizō writes about mystery and suspense adventure games in the Marizō Detective Agency corner of Dengeki Online and has interviewed the developers of the Gyakuten Saiban franchise multiple times, so he was present at the event too, reporting from the scene. At the venue, senior staff members Takumi Shū, director of the Gyakuten Saiban series), Yamazaki Takeshi, director of Gyakuten Kenji (Ace Attorney Investigations) series, Eshiro Motohide, producer of Gyakuten Kenji series and more guests appeared on stage to talk look back together at the franchise together with the audience. They talked about the development of the original GBA games, but also about cut content for the Gyakuten Kenji games. They also looked at upcoming projects like the crossover game with Professor Layton on the 3DS and the live-action film which was going to premiere in a few weeks. There were also live band performances of familiar songs and the event ended with the reveal Gyakuten Saiban 5 (Ace Attorney 5 – Dual Destinies) was in development. The translated article below is a report on the event written by Marizō for Dengeki Online’s Marizō Detective Agency corner.

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

This is how the characters from the popular game Gyakuten Saiban were born. An interview with illustrator Iwamoto (2009)

Title: This is how the characters from the popular game Gyakuten Saiban were born. An interview with illustrator Iwamoto /「人気ゲーム「逆転裁判」シリーズのキャラクターはこうして生まれた。イラストレーター 岩元氏を直撃インタビュー」
Source: Wacom (article down)

Summaruy: On February 4th, 2009, Wacom, known for its graphics tablets, posted an interview on its official website with Iwamoto Tatsurō, one of the main character designers of the Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) franchise. In this interview, Iwamoto tells about how he first got into drawing, why he became a freelance illustrator after working at game developers, the thinking process behind creating characters like the ones we know from Gyakuten Saiban and of course, how the drawing tablet plays a work in his life as an illustrator.

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

Twitter: Box of Memories (2017)

Title: Box of Memories
Source: Takumi Shū 's Twitter

Summary: On October 11, 2017, Takumi tweeted that his extended leave after finishing Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2 was now over, and that his very first job was to move offices. Takumi made use of the occassion to clear up some of the boxes with all kinds of files and other things related to his projects, and he decided to tweet photographs of some of those documents, including the original notebook he used to plan the very first Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) game in, but also the initial scenario plots he had for Gyakuten Saiban 2 (Ace Attorney 2 - Justice for All). Reading those notes shows how Takumi's plots take shape, as these prototypes are quite different from the final product

In the translation below, each paragraph is a seperate tweet. Images are taken from the source tweets. Copyright belongs to their respective owners.

Iwamoto Column Entry 8: Little Jokes And I (2004)

Title: Little Jokes And I / 「ボクと小ネタ」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 3 official site (down)

Summary: In the eighth column for the official Gyakuten Saiban 3 (Ace Attorney 3 - Trials & Tribulations) website for the Game Boy Advance, character designer Iwamoto Tatsurō writes about hiding little jokes and other stuff in the background images for the games. Because the images are first drawn on a higher resolution, and later shrunk down for the Game Boy Advance, a lot of these jokes were hard to see when they were originally released, though more recent HD releases have changed this.

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.

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.

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.

Gyakuten Saiban 2 Blog Entry 12: Curtains (2002)

Title: Curtains / 「終幕」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 2 official site (down) 

Summary: The twelfth column for the official website for the original GameBoy Advance version of Gyakuten Saiban 2 (Ace Attorney 2 - Justice For All) is also the last, so director Takumi looks back at the beginning of the project, and tells the reader about what he had in mind when he first started working on the game and how they are already getting feedback of the game (which was released several weeks before the publication of this column). Unlike other columns for this series, this column does not feature a 'backstage' segment.

Gyakuten Saiban 2 Blog Entry 8: The Lost Turnabout (2002)

Title: The Lost Turnabout /  「失われた逆転」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 2 official site (down)

Summary: In the eight column on the official website for the original GameBoy Advance version of Gyakuten Saiban 2 (Ace Attorney 2 - Justice For All), director and writer Takumi talks about how he came up with the plot and ideas for the first episode in the game: The Lost Turnabout. As always, the 'normal' column is followed by a backstage column, where Naruhodō (Phoenix Wright) and Mayoi (Maya Fey) comment on Takumi's column, revealing for example the hardships artist Iwamoto had to suffer throughout this case or how Takumi came up with the iconic opening scene of this episode.

Gyakuten Saiban 2 Blog Entry 5: Psyche Locks (2002)

Title: Psyche Locks / 「サイコ・ロック」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 2 official site (down)

Summary: In the fifth column posted on the official Gyakuten Saiban 2 (Ace Attorney 2 - Justice for All) website, director Takumi talks about the new mechanic introduced in this game, the Psyche Locks. He explains why they were added, how he came up with them and the difficulties they had actually creating the system. As usual with the columns of this game, Naruhodō (Phoenix Wright) and Mayoi (Maya Fey) have fun 'backstage', looking back at Takumi's column and commenting on that.

Gyakuten Saiban 2 Blog Entry 10: Turnabout Circus (2002)

Title: Turnabout Circus / 「逆転サーカス」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 2 official site (down)

Summary: In the tenth column for the Gyakuten Saiban 2 (Ace Attorney 2 – Justice for All) website, director Takumi writes about the third episode in the game: Turnabout Circus (Turnabout Big Top). The story features many personal elements, like a character with a love for (bad) jokes, as well as trick magic (Takumi has always claimed that his performance during his job interview with Capcom got him hired). But he also notes that this was an episode with more focus on drama: many years later, when he was working on the anime adaptation of this very episode, he still remained firm in his opinion that this was one of the most touching episodes he had created. In the backstage part of this column, Naruhodō (Phoenix Wright) and Mayoi (Maya Fey) talk a bit about some scrapped ideas for this episode.

Gyakuten Saiban 2 Blog Entry 7: Combing for Bugs (2002)

Title: Combing for Bugs / 「しらみつぶし」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 2 official site (down)

Summary: Story, character and art design are by the topics most often discussed on the Gyakuten Saiban developer's blogs and some parts of the development cycle are practically never mentioned. In the seventh blog post for Gyakuten Saiban 2 (Ace Attorney 2 – Justice for All, director Takumi decided to write about a group of unsung heroes: the bug checkers. The people who have to play the game again and again in search for bugs. And that's not just programming bugs: they also need to look out for story bugs: contradictions that would mess up the story. Takumi explains why these people are so important, especially when he's working on a game. As always with the Gyakuten Saiban 2 blog, the post is followed by a section where Naruhodō (Phoenix Wright) and Mayoi (Maya Fey) add their own comments to Takumi's post.

Gyakuten Saiban 2 Blog Entry 11: Farewell, My Turnabout (2002)

Title: Farewell, My Turnabout  / 「さらば、逆転」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 2 official site (down)

Summary: In the penultimate column for the Gyakuten Saiban 2 (Ace Attorney 2 – Justice for All) website, Takumi writes about the final episode of the game, Farewell, My Turnabout. Because of the problems described in the column titled The Meteorite Brothers, Takumi had to do a lot more in this episode than he had originally planned and he also forced use an idea for a story he wanted to sit on a bit longer. Because of the total chaos while working on this final episode, he made a lot of mistakes in the scenario and he didn't even manage to clean all of them up. In the Backstage part, Naruhodō (Phoenix Wright) and Mayoi (Maya Fey) have their usual commentary on Takumi's comments, talking about how Obachan (Oldbag)'s design was made, showng some examples of the mistakes Takumi made in the initial version of the story and they even reveal The Seven Mysteries of the Courthouse.

Gyakuten Saiban 2 Blog Entry 6: The Meteorite Brothers (2002)

Title: The Meteorite Brothers / 「メテオ兄弟」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 2 official site (down)

Summary: In the sixth blog entry for the original Game Boy Advance version of Gyakuten Saiban 2 (Ace Attorney 2 - Justice for All), Takumi talks about two big problems they encountered during the development. One was a character-related problem. The popularity of Mitsurugi (Miles Edgeworth) had consequences for the way in which Takumi could use him in the game. Another problem was one of space: they didn't have enough on the cartridge to do all five episodes they had initially planned. In the Gyakuten Saiban 3 (Ace Attorney 3 - Trials & Tribulations) blog, it is eventually revealed that the cut story was in fact Turnabout Recipe (Recipe for Turnabout), which was used as the third episode in that game.

As always with the Gyakuten Saiban 2 blog, Takumi's own article is followed by a 'backstage' skit, where Naruhodō (Phoenix Wright) and Mayoi (Maya Fey) add their own comments to Takumi's story.

Interviewing Gyakuten Saiban 123 Designer Iwamoto Tatsurō (2014)

Title: His Favorite is Godot! Asking About The Memories Of How the Characters Were Created And Development Back Then. Interviewing Gyakuten Saiban 123 Designer Iwamoto Tatsurō / 「お気に入りはゴドー検事！キャラ誕生の経緯や開発当時の思い出に迫った「逆転裁判 123」デザイナー・岩元辰郎氏へインタビュー」
Source: Gamer

Summary: In this interview published on May 3, 2014 about Gyakuten Saiban 123 (Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy), Iwamoto Tatsurō tells about the work he has done on the original three Gyakuten Saiban games. While he was the secondary character designer (and all-round graphics artist) for the first game, he became the main character designer from the second game on after Suekane Kumiko left Capcom. He talks about desiging characters, about how the development went on the first games and about his favorite character and even about how he voiced Mitsurugi (Miles Edgeworth).

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

Mitsurugi Reiji - This Is The Character Everyone Imagines Him To Be!? Takumi's Comments (2005)

Title: Mitsurugi Reiji - This Is The Character Everyone Imagines Him To Be!?!? Takumi's Comments /  「御剣怜侍　みんなが考えた御剣はこな感じ！？ 巧氏コメント」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban Fanbook

Summary: The Gyakuten Saiban Fanbook, originally released in 2005 just before the Japanese release of Gyakuten Saiban Yomigaeru Gyakuten (Ace Attorney DS), featured a couple of character profiles with information that was imagined by the fans themselves! From bloodtype, type of mobile phone and even the places where they live, the fans had thought off all kinds things for the main characters of the Gyakuten Saiban series. In return, director Takumi, producer Inaba and character designers Suekane and Iwamoto also responded to those 'fan-theories/head-canon' and also talked about their own 'head-canon'. In his reaction to Mitsurugi (Miles Edgeworth)'s profile, Takumi added a couple of (unofficial) background ideas to the character, including a pet dog, a surprising sense in music and a habit of singing karaoke.

Twitter: Spirit Channeling in Mystery Stories (2016)

Title: Spirit Channeling in Mystery Stories
Source: Takumi Shū 's Twitter

Summary: On July 22, 2016, Takumi started writing about the reason why he used the theme of spirit channeling in the second episode of Gyakuten Saiban 2 (Ace Attorney 2 - Justice for All) on his Twitter account. In a series of tweets posted on July 29, 2016 (which starts with this tweet), he continues his explanation of why a seemingly supernatural element made its way in a fair play mystery story. While Takumi has already talked about this in the original Gyakuten Saiban 2 developer's blog, this series of tweets forms his most recent exposition on the topic and it also includes a little bit of his own views on mystery fiction in general.

In the translation below, each paragraph is a seperate tweet.

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

Title: Gyakuten Saiban / 「逆転裁判」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 2 official site (down)

Summary: In the second blog entry (dated October 11, 2002) for Gyakuten Saiban 2 (Justice for All) for the Game Boy Advance, director Takumi Shū talks about the warm messages they received in reaction to the first game, and about how Takumi intended the game to be less of a game, but more like 'just a mystery story', so even people who didn't often played games could have fun with it. He uses his mother as an example. In the Backstage side of this post, Naruhodo (Phoenix Wright) and Mayoi (Maya Fey) once again have fun by commenting on Takumi's post.

Gyakuten Saiban 2 Blog Entry 1: Greetings (2002)

Title: Greetings / 「ごあいさつ」
Source: Gyakuten Saiban 2 official site (down)

Summary: the first entry of the official developer's blog of Gyakuten Saiban 2 (Justice for All) for the Game Boy Advance. This entry was originally posted on September 20th, 2002, ten days after the official site was opened. The blog entries consist of two parts: one where planner/scenario writer/director Takumi Shū talks about the game, and the backstage parts, where the Gyakuten Saiban characters comment on Takumi's latest entry. In this first entry, Takumi talks about how it was decided that they were going to make a sequel to the 2001 Gyakuten Saiban.