Characters / Ace Attorney: Prosecutors and Judges

Ace Attorney | Main Character Sheet
Wright Anything Agency (Phoenix Wright, Apollo Justice) | Defense Attorneys & Assistants | Main Prosecutors (Miles Edgeworth, Franziska von Karma) | Prosecutors & Judges | Law Enforcement | The Fey Clan | Troupe Gramarye | Kingdom of Khura'in
Witnesses and Other Characters (Original Game | JFA | T&T [Dahlia Hawthorne] | AJ | DD | SoJ | Manga | Anime | Novels | Theater) | Victims
Investigations (AAI | AAI2) | TGAA (Major | Minor)
PL vs. PWAA

---

Other prosecutors and judges in the Ace Attorney series. The main ones can be found here.

For Jacques Portsman and Byrne Faraday, two prosecutors from Investigations, see here. For Blaise Debeste, a prosecutor from Investigations 2, see here. For Ga'ran Sigatar Khura'in, who used to be a prosecutor in her youth, see here. For the judges and prosecutors of The Great Ace Attorney (including the final prosecutor of The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve, whose identity is a major spoiler), see here. For the judges and prosecutors/inquisitors from the Layton crossover, see here.

---

Other Prosecutors

Manfred von Karma (Go Karuma)

Manfred von Karma (Go Karuma)

Voiced by (Japanese): Masakazu Sugimori (OT, AAI), Kiyoyuki Yanada (trailers), Akio Ōtsuka (anime)

Voiced by (English): Brandon Gay (OT, AAI), Bill Jenkins (anime)

Played by: Ryo Ishibashi (film)

Debut: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

"I set my ATM card's number to '0001' because I'm number one!"

A legendary prosecutor, Manfred von Karma is obsessed with 'perfection' in all aspects of his life, and went forty years without a single defeat in court prior to the beginning of the series. Manfred appears as prosecutor in only one case in the first game, but his influence is felt long after he is gone. He is the father of Franziska, and was Edgeworth's mentor for most of his life.

---

• Abusive Parents: Seemingly not to Franziska but certainly to Edgeworth since he has no issues with prosecuting him for murder. This becomes worse when you learn that he took in Edgeworth just so he could do this and is the one behind both murders Miles is accused of, which includes Miles' biological father. It also turns out in Investigations that he was also abusive to Franziska, just more subtly, by withholding his approval and constantly pitting her against Edgeworth.
• Achey Scars: He has a conspicuous habit of grabbing his right shoulder when he gets stressed or angry. Why? He's been carrying a bullet in it for fifteen years.
• Adaptational Badass: An unusual example in both the anime and movie as it actually does not involve von Karma's skills as a prosecutor, but taking six months of vacation in the game to only taking a day off to heal a wound caused by a bullet he still had in his shoulder still counts as such.
• All There in the Manual: The circumstances of his death are only vaguely hinted at ingame, but the official Japan-only guidebook for Trials and Tribulations explicitly lists his cause of death as execution for his crimes.
• Ambiguously Related: To a former apprentice of the Asogi clan in The Great Ace Attorney, who became so in awe to the family sword Karuma that they took it up as their surname, which is a reference to Manfred's Japanese name.
• Arc Villain: Despite arguably being the most influential villain in the series and the Final Boss of the original game, he's held back from being considered a true Big Bad by the fact that he has no direct influence on the plot outside of 1-4.
• Artistic License – Law: Even for Ace Attorney, Manfred von Karma's tactics would never fly in a court of law. He withholds evidence, coaches and intimidates witnesses, threatens the judge, and uses bogus terminology to silence the defense attorneys he faces. Not to mention the fact he's prosecuting his own protégé, which is a serious conflict of interest even if he wasn't framing him. Needless to say, Von Karma would be disbarred in less than three minutes in a real court of law. His tactics are so bad that Phoenix internally complains about him basically taking over the court from the judge.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: While every prosecutor (with the possible exception of Klavier) leans towards this, Manfred stands above all others with zero tolerance for even the slightest sign of imperfection in himself or his proteges; he regards himself as the best prosecutor in the legal system, and that all attorneys merely exist to be defeated by him. He spends most of his time in court flagrantly taunting Phoenix about how utterly outclassed he is by Von Karma's witnesses and evidence, only dropping this attitude once things spiral out of his control.
• Badass Finger Snap: One of his trademark gestures, complete with an almost metallic ring to it.
• Bad Boss: He treated Detective Badd with the same disdain Franziska would eventually do towards Gumshoe.
• Bad Samaritan: Took in Miles Edgeworth and raised him to be a highly skilled prosecutor after his father died, but only to finish his revenge against Gregory Edgeworth, since the man put a black mark on his perfect record and drove him to murder.
• Blatant Lies: In the anime-exclusive episode, "Sound the Turnabout Signal," von Karma tells reporters, "I don't care about my record. I fight for justice. That's my duty." Viewers already know that he cares about his record so much that he murdered the defense attorney who got him penalized, since the episode is shown after the "Turnabout Goodbyes" arc.
• Broken Pedestal: Franziska and Edgeworth used to look up to him as the pinnacle of prosecutors. When they realise how evil he really was, the two end up with nothing but contempt for him.
• Broken Win/Loss Streak: One of the most epic and satisfying ones in the entire series. He had a forty-year long winning streak, all made possible by controlling the trials with rigged testimonies, controlling the evidence, and intimidation. The only time he came close to losing at the time was Gregory Edgeworth exposing a forgery, and even then that was only a penalty. It wasn't until Phoenix Wright came along that he would meet another defense attorney who would stand to oppose him and in the end, Phoenix beat him against all odds, and Manfred not only lost twice on the same day but paid for his villainy with his life.
• Bus Crash: He's never seen again after the end of 1-4's trial. It's implied in 2-2 and later confirmed off-hand near the very end of 3-5 that he died some time after the events of 1-4. How he died, be it from natural causes, execution, suicide, or being killed by another inmate is never explained ingame, but the official Japan-only guidebook for Trials and Tribulations states that he did indeed receive the death penalty.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: When Phoenix and Maya run into him outside of court, he doesn't recognize them, despite spending half of the past two days in the same room as them. When pressed about how he could possibly not know them, he claims that defense attorneys are just bugs for him to squash, why learn the faces of vermin? At least, he says that; he could simply be lying to demean them.
• Character Tic:
  • Has a habit of balling his hand around his sleeve and grimacing when he folds his arms, mostly to demonstrate his extreme impatience. Counts as foreshadowing when we find out that he still has the bullet from the DL-6 incident in his shoulder.
  • When caught off guard by an argument presented by the defense, he tends to clutch his shoulder and turn slightly to the side. It's shown that he gained this habit due to his bullet wound from the DL-6 Incident; in Ace Attorney Investigations 2, during the flashback scenes featuring Gregory Edgeworth as the player character, he simply clenches his hand into a fist instead of grabbing his shoulder when Gregory's arguments catch him off guard.
• Classic Villain: Manfred von Karma represents Pride. He murdered a man who dared stain his perfect win record (which ruined his reputation as the best of the best), then groomed said man's son and essentially blackmailed him by making him believe he was responsible for the murder. The first game is about Phoenix taking him down to save Miles, exposing von Karma's blackmail over him, and the latter's character development is partially about growing past von Karma's wrong teachings and pursuing the truth instead.
• Clock King: Predicts on the third day of 1-4 that it will end in three minutes, and checks his watch until he's proven wrong. It's impossible for him to be proven right, as the time is up before Phoenix begins cross-examining the witness.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Downplayed; his randomly deciding that the trial will end within three minutes shows he has shades of this. Him blurting out his ATM card number in court further proves it. (Though he could have been lying about his card number as it was to argue against one of Phoenix's claims) Of course, these examples don't really stand out among the rest of his characterization, which is just him being an evil perfectionist.
• Complexity Addiction: There are definitely more pragmatic and more stress-free ways of getting Revenge for being penalized than killing the attorney responsible, raising their son to become his own father's antithesis, and then trying to frame said son for two different murders.
• Crazy-Prepared:
  • He has secured his flawless record by considering all the angles of his cases and preparing his prosecution accordingly. The crowning moment of this is that he retrained a parrot on the off chance it would be called as a witness. If that's not Crazy-Prepared, the term has no meaning.
  • It's deconstructed in one instance where his crazy-preparedness actually bites him back. He never got the bullet removed from his shoulder in order to not create a witness in the form of a surgeon. That same action allows Phoenix to prove he killed Gregory Edgeworth by using a metal detector on von Karma's shoulder.
• Create Your Own Hero: A instance that took over a decade to play out. The absurd lengths he went through to exact revenge on Edgeworth and his father create a domino effect that leads to Phoenix becoming a lawyer, joining forces with Maya, and both of them going up against him in court, which directly leads to his plan failing and his heavily implied death sentence. Had he never killed Gregory Edgeworth and covered it up the exact specific way he did, the Fey clan would've never fallen apart, Mia would've never become a lawyer, Phoenix would've likely never become a lawyer as a result of not meeting her or Dahlia Hawthorne or witnessing Edgeworth's Start of Darkness, and Maya wouldn't have been around to save Phoenix and Edgeworth multiple times in the trial. The result is the entirety of the first game's finale is dedicated to demonstrating his Meaningful Name play out in Laser-Guided Karma fashion at every step.
• Crippling Overspecialization: He's a genius at manipulating a case his way and perfectly predicting his opponents' actions, and has his entire case prepared, evidence and testimony, by the time he reaches court. However, this leaves him vulnerable and unable to adapt properly when there's a Spanner in the Works.
• Devil in Plain Sight: When people discuss him, all they ever mention is how great he is. But... have you looked at the guy?! He's terrifying! He even dresses like an Evil Overlord! The fact that he has the voice of Satan really does not help.
• Didn't See That Coming: He never expected Larry Butz to suddenly remember he was a witness to Robert Hammond's murder, and then call into question everyone's assumptions about when and where it took place, eventually unraveling everything Von Karma had worked so hard for.
• Disc-One Final Boss: He became this in the Nintendo DS version and all subsequent rereleases, as it would add a fifth case to the original game, Rise from the Ashes.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Once, while competing in court against Gregory Edgeworth, Manfred got a single black mark on his record, for (unknowingly, though he'd done it willfully on other occasions) using forged evidence. Later the same day, a gun accident caused by Gregory's son Miles caused Manfred to be shot in the shoulder, scarring him. Manfred responded to this turn of events by murdering Gregory while he lay unconscious, leaving an innocent man to take the blame for the crime. Then, as an added spit on Gregory's memory, he took Miles and raised him to be everything his father wasn't. Then, fifteen years later, to get back for the accidental gunshot wound, he framed Miles for a new murder (which he arranged) specifically so he could use that frame up to retroactively frame Miles for Gregory's murder, making Miles think he killed his own father by accident! Maybe he gave Kristoph lessons on overreacting?
• Dragon-in-Chief: There is a reason Blaise isn't as feared as him, despite being behind some of his crimes and even more vile. Manfred is more competent.
• The Dreaded:
  • During 1-4, Edgeworth continuously urges Phoenix not to pick up the case because of Manfred being the Prosecution. Literally no other defense attorney is willing to dare defend the disgraced prosecutor against Von Karma. Without Phoenix laying his career on the line, the only way Edgeworth was going to get legal defense was when the state would provide him an attorney, i.e. force an attorney to do it.
  • On a more comical side, Edgeworth states often that no one ever wears their Prosecutor Badge in the office, yet he's often unsure of why. It's easy to believe that, based on what Manfred himself says and what Kay adds on into during the fourth case of Investigations, that Manfred would straight-up rant at anyone he caught wearing the badge, yelling at them for wearing the badge because appearance is worth more than a badge and that it's ruining their clothing because it's a pin. He also hammered it into Edgeworth and his daughter that it was "more fashionable" to put it in your pocket instead of flaunting it around.
• Education Mama: A rare male example and justified owing to the fact that it's law school he's pressing his children to excel in. Manfred accepts nothing short of perfect success from his charges, including Edgeworth. His daughter passed the bar exam at age 13 as a result of the overwhelming pressure to succeed imposed on her by her father.
• Establishing Character Moment: When the Judge asks both sides if they're prepared for the trial, von Karma says, "Fool... You seriously think that I would stand here were I not completely prepared?" showing his arrogance and contempt for others, the former of which he admittedly is able to back up.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: Manfred Von Karma may be one of the most loathsome characters to come out of the Ace Attorney franchise but even he had his admirers. While Miles Edgeworth held a great deal of respect for him, he saw Von Karma as more of a mentor and a legal guardian than as a father. Franziska, on the other hand, admired her father and vehemently defended him, doing everything she could to earn his affections, even after his death. Manfred, being the person he was, saw his two children as nothing more than the continuation of his legacy, clearly having little affection for either of them.
• Evil Is Petty: He is one of the prime examples of this trope. If someone is so unhinged at being bested in court that killing the man who did it, then torturing him after death by twisting his son into their father's antithesis, then framing said son as an adult is the only way to complete one's revenge, there isn’t much deeper to go.
• Evil Mentor: To Edgeworth and Franziska, who inherit his methods, his gestures, and even his classical fashion sense.
• Evil Old Folks: 65 years old, and still as sharp and deadly as a razor.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Has the deepest "Objection" of the series, so deep he sounds like a demon. This carries over to the anime in both Japanese and English.
• Evil Virtues: Determination. Manfred Von Karma never gives up. He will spend years on a single case doing everything he can to get the outcome he desires. He even spent 15 years planning the downfall of Miles Edgeworth, going so far as to plan an extremely complicated murder to frame him.
• Faux Affably Evil:
  • In The Movie. He advises Edgeworth not to just do whatever he wants in court and kicks off the trial against Edgeworth by cordially introducing himself to Phoenix. And then, of course, it's revealed that he murdered Gregory Edgeworth and set the entire trial up to get back at Miles.
  • The anime paints him as a strict father figure towards Miles, making occasional gestures of kindness towards him when he was still a boy, and viewing Gregory as something of a Worthy Opponent. It also shows that, if not for nothing, he was a caring father to Franziska who supported her decision to follow in his footsteps. In the end, however, he still prizes his record above all else, simply hiding his obsession behind the facade of an honorable lawyer, and took Miles on as a protege not out of guilt for murdering his father, but out of some morbid curiosity to see where his own "karma" would take him.
• Fatal Flaw: His perfectionism. His refusal to even risk going under the knife and having the bullet in his shoulder removed bites him HARD. As he correctly points out, there would be a witness had he underwent surgery for his "alleged" bullet wound, but Phoenix would have to produce the surgeon who removed the bullet in order to prove his guilt. This would be difficult enough on its own, but there's virtually no way he could have done so before the statute of limitations on DL-6 ran out. Since the bullet is still in his shoulder, Phoenix is able to prove his guilt on the spot, and just in time. Furthermore, his revenge on Gregory Edgeworth was operatically perfect—too much so. Karma had not that supreme gift of the artist - the knowledge of when to stop. Murdering the man for landing a blemish on your otherwise spotless record? Okay, he got away with it. Raising his son to be the exact opposite of what his father was? Extreme. Trying to pin Edgeworth for his own father's murder in the most public way possible? Small wonder he was caught, he pushed his luck way too far. This also gets brought up again in Investigations 2 as he had what looked like an easy case for him, only to discover that the victim's body was missing, which threatened his perfect record as he had already indicted someone for the murder and they would've possibly been able to walk away due to insufficient evidence, which drives him to get a forced confession from the defendant and gets set up by Blaise Debeste for the former and a forged autopsy report.
• Final Boss: Rise from the Ashes aside, he is the final prosecutor of the game. He's also the culprit of DL-6, which makes him the final killer, as well.
• Finger Wag: His signature gesture, which Edgeworth adopted during his rookie years, aided by a Tsk sound.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Grips his right arm and clutches it while grimacing as his "impatient" animation, along with never using that same arm for anything in court. It's not just him being supremely impatient, it's a visceral reaction from squeezing on the bullet wound from DL-6! It could also be the wound being inflamed when he's stressed out and squeezing it helps. This detail is retained in The Movie. Notably, when he appears in a flashback case in AAI 2, prior to receiving the wound, his animations are changed, making it clear that this is deliberate.
  • While Phoenix is cross-examining Polly the parrot, when it's suggested that her owner Yanni Yogi named her after his late wife, Manfred sarcastically jokes this means that his granddaughter named her dog after Phoenix, indicating he has children. His daughter Franziska von Karma appears in the sequel, but isn't the mother of the granddaughter.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Part of the reason why Von Karma is one of the most oppressive prosecutors in the entire series is that he doesn't just oppose Phoenix as a prosecutor of his client, he also opposes players' compulsion to read every last snippet of dialogue. Virtually every time the player presses a statement, Von Karma can object and tell Phoenix to cut the irrelevant questioning, walling the player out of collecting information and preventing fun character interactions unless they can prove that the questioning is relevant.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Nearly everything in the original trilogy can be traced back to Manfred. His murder of Gregory Edgeworth caused the Police to hire Misty Fey out of desperation; this resulted in Yanni Yogi being falsely accused. Redd White discovered what had happened and leaked the seance to the public, resulting in his rise to power. Misty was exiled and the Kurain Technique was disgraced, motivating Mia to become an attorney when she was older. Dahlia (and Iris) were thrown out, kickstarting Dahlia's life of crime and leading to her poisoning of Diego Armando. Mia then takes Phoenix Wright under her wing, and is later murdered by Redd White to cover up his crimes. Diego came back as Godot, and killed Misty, who was being possessed by Dahlia... All because Gregory got Manfred his first ever penalty, ruining his perfect record.
• Germanic Depressives: He doesn't show happiness often at all - and trust us, you really don't want him to.
• Germanic Efficiency: As a German prosecutor that had been undefeated for forty years, he makes a great example of the trope.
• Get It Over With: Once he regains his composure, he orders the Judge to end the trial and give the verdict, since there's nothing left for him except jail and a broken record.
• Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: Often points and wags his finger when he thinks that he has a perfect counterpoint, a habit Edgeworth picked up on.
• Graceful Loser: Has shades of this when he calms down after his Villainous Breakdown and snaps at the Judge for not delivering the verdict fast enough.
• Hated by All: Von Karma may initially be respected, but few people can stand him. He's loathed by fellow prosecutors, feared by civilians, and seen as corrupt by defense attorneys. After being revealed as a murderer and corrupt lawyer, Franziska eventually comes to resent him and Miles Edgeworth loses all respect for him. If he's mentioned by anyone, it's almost always in a negative light.
• Hate Sink: Does nothing but demean, bully, and shut you up at every turn. Even his very few comedic moments serve to highlight how egotistical, petty and belligerent he is. You'll fast grow sick of his antics and want to stick it to him as satisfyingly as possible. Thankfully, he's the murderer in the DL-6 case so you'll be doing just that. Investigations 2 goes a step further and reveals that his methods for getting guilty verdicts went beyond just simple corruption such as having Jeff Master subjected to months of inhumane interrogations just to make him confess.
  Phoenix: (von Karma, I think I hate you.)
• Head Desk: As part of his Villainous Breakdown, von Karma repeatedly bashes his head into the wall behind the prosecutor's bench while cursing Edgeworth's name.
• Hypocrite:
  • In the fourth case of Investigations, Manfred tells Edgeworth it's not a good idea to go after the Cohdopian Smuggling Ring, for you'd have to go above the law to catch them. Considering what he's done in court for decades, it's difficult to take this at face value.
  • In the flashbacks of the third case of Investigations 2, if Gregory Edgeworth presses him in one of the sentences, he tells Gregory to let him finish speaking by interrupting him.
• Hypocritical Humor: Shouting that yelling is not allowed in court while loudly slamming his cane.
• Indirect Serial Killer: It's heavily implied that several people were falsely executed as a result of his corruption.
• I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: In the anime, he claims that the bullet in his shoulder wasn't from DL-6, rather an accident involving inspecting a gun as evidence from a different case several years ago that was still loaded. Phoenix doesn't buy it.^note This story wouldn't match up with the bullet still in his shoulder regardless, as in contrast to the DL-6 bullet, the alleged accidental bullet would've been a legitimate excuse to have it surgically removed years ago.
• Ironic Name: "Manfred" means "man of peace" in German.
• Irony:
  • In Investigations 2, his dickery in Jeff Master's trial and Gregory Edgeworth's final one led to it being dragged out for an entire year. This ends up being the final key to acquit Jeff and close Gregory's unsolved case since this gave it the few extra months needed to extend the Statute of Limitations.
  • His revenge on Gregory Edgeworth was meant to conclude with his son Miles becoming everything the former hated. Thanks to Phoenix, Miles develops into Von Karma's antithesis instead.
  • In a rather tragic example, his Start of Darkness happened because of the one piece of forged evidence he wasn't responsible for. Blaise Debeste, the true culprit, used Von Karma as a scapegoat to cover his own tracks.
• It's All About Me: The only thing in a trial that matters to him is him winning, getting his guilty verdict in the shortest amount of time, and that people don't cause him delays in his pursuit of victory. He doesn't care if the defendant is innocent or guilty, and especially doesn't care if he has to rig the evidence to spin the case to his favor.
• Jerkass: Speaks to virtually everyone with varying degrees of contempt in his voice, up to and including the Judge. This is about the least Jerkass thing he does, and also one of the few that can be mentioned that's spoiler-free.
• Jerkass Has a Point: In Investigations, he warns Edgeworth that some people are above the law. While at the time this just seems like his usual jerkass way of viewing everything as cold transactions rather than caring about the truth, the very next case in-game has Edgeworth go up against someone who abuses their diplomatic immunity to nearly avoid prosecution.
• Kick the Dog:
  • As if he weren't bad enough already, Investigations 2 manages to do this to him recursively through the flashback part of Case 3: He ruthlessly interrogated Master for months until he completely broke down and falsely confessed. The fact that Japanese prosecutors have been rumoured to do this in Real Life makes it even more terrifying.
  • The first Investigations game has von Karma repeatedly badmouth Byrne Faraday for being incompetent, and even continuing to do so after Faraday is found dead. Faraday is far more competent than von Karma makes him out to be, having failed to convict Cece Yew's killer because the decisive evidence was inadmissible, and even pre-Character Development Edgeworth and Franziska respect Faraday.
• Large and in Charge: Has a broad-shouldered frame like Redd White, and swiftly takes control of the courtroom in Turnabout Goodbyes as soon as the trial starts.
• Laser-Guided Karma: One of the most epic ones in the series, though one that continued over a span of several years. Manfred trained Edgeworth since he was a child, attempting to corrupt him into becoming the antithesis of his father with the intent to have him executed to further tarnish the Edgeworth name. Not only did that not succeed, Phoenix Wright, a rookie attorney with only three victories, demolished his forty-year win streak in three days, using his dimwitted childhood friend and a parrot to put the final nails in Von Karma's coffin. A few years later, Edgeworth used what Von Karma had taught him to pursue the truth and fix the corruption in the legal system, undoing all of Manfred's accomplishments, arresting all his associates and removing his influence from the legal system. Edgeworth then became the chief prosecutor, acting as the polar opposite of Von Karma and bringing to the prosecution what his dad brought to the defence stand. In short, Manfred's attempt to get revenge at the Edgeworths brought an end to the dark age of the law, got him and all his subordinates arrested, and destroyed his legacy. Humiliating as that may be, it's safe to say he absolutely deserved that.
• Made of Iron: In the anime. After being accidentally shot in the shoulder in the DL-6 incident, Manfred takes several months of vacation (the only time he had a vacation in his life) to heal. This was in the games - in the anime, he only has a day off before carrying on with his activities.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: Look at this man and his Classy Cravat and his nice suit. Of course he's this.
• Meaningful Name: His name, at least in the English translation, is a reference to Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron. Both of them were brought down by a single bullet. Also, he has bad karma. Meanwhile, his Japanese name, Go Karuma, means (as far as the pronunciation goes) "the effect of karma". The kanji in his name, meanwhile, means "great demon."
• Misplaced Retribution: Blaise Debeste was the person most responsible for getting Von Karma his first penalty while Gregory Edgeworth was merely presenting evidence to weaken Von Karma's arguments. Guess who Von Karma decided to murder?
• Murder Is the Best Solution: There are certainly better ways to handle taking a minor penalty in court than murdering the man who gave you that penalty, but Von Karma kills him anyway.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Pity any defendant who has to encounter a man named Karma when they go to trial, particularly if they weren't actually guilty. His name is even scarier in the Japanese version, where "Gou Karuma" translates to "great hunter-demon".
• Narcissist: A textbook example, to the point where a minor blemish upon his previously perfect record is enough to drive him to murder the man he blames for it.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • What did Manfred have to do in order to avoid being caught as Gregory Edgeworth's murderer in Case 1-4? Literally nothing. The whole reason he was defeated is because he couldn't wait until the statute of limitations of the DL-6 incident passed and wanted to frame Gregory's son, Miles, as the murderer of Robert Hammond and in turn have Miles believe he murdered his father as one more spiteful nail in Gregory's coffin. This despite the fact he had already gotten his revenge against Gregory by turning his son into his antithesis. This desire to frame Miles ultimately allows Phoenix to prove that Manfred was the real murderer and destroys his reputation.
  • During the trial everything is going Manfred's way until its revealed that he sent Yanni Yogi a handwritten letter with the instructions on what to do on December 24th, which allowed Phoenix to realize the truth before Manfred removed the DL-6 evidence. And, well, until Larry realized he was a witness of Hammond's murder.
  • Manfred mentions the idea of "cross-examining the parrot" as a joke to bring the defense to its knees. Sure, he retrained the parrot, however the idea actually WORKED (albeit because of two pieces of information he didn't take into consideration) and the case continues. He also mentioned the ballistic test much earlier, in order to mock Maya's ignorance on the subject. This doesn't come into play until you look into DL-6 case, and along with a metal detector, you can finally bring him down.
  • In the anime, he angrily grabs his injured shoulder when Phoenix starts realising what actually happened in DL-6. This clues him into where exactly the missing bullet went and still is.
• Not Me This Time: The evidence Gregory Edgeworth accused him of forging? For once, he had nothing to do with it (though that did not stop him from taking advantage of it). The penalty he received? It was given by the one who had the evidence forged in the first place.
• Obviously Evil:
  • He almost always has a cold stare on his face, and when he doesn't, it's either an infuriating or terrifying smirk. His outfit is the very definition of Wicked Cultured. Not to mention his voice sounds like a demon. Is it really that much of a stretch to believe he'd murder someone?
  • Mocked in case 4 of Investigations when a younger Kay tries to get change for a dollar from him. He immediately turns his fierce glare on her and asks "What is it, little girl?" She immediately hides behind Edgeworth and says "You're scary, mister!" Manfred responds by actually feeling hurt.
• Odd Friendship: Supposedly with Ernest Amano. Though considering they're both wealthy men with a history of corruption, it could just as easily be a pragmatic decision on Von Karma's part, despite Amano seeming to actually like the man.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Marvin Grossberg mentions that after Gregory Edgeworth stained his perfect record with a penalty for forged evidence, he took a vacation for several months, and describes this vacation as the first and last of his career. In actuality, he spent the time recovering from the bullet Miles accidentally put in him.
  • For a man that much of a perfectionist, him not objecting to the Not Guilty verdict Edgeworth gets from the murder of Robert Hammond seems strange... until Edgeworth confesses his guilt in the DL-6 incident, explaining why von Karma was calm all along.
• The Password Is Always "Swordfish": He admits to this in the quote above regarding his ATM PIN.
• The Perfectionist: To the point that Gregory Edgeworth threatening his record with one tiny penalty — during a case he won, mind you — was enough to drive him to murder Edgeworth in cold blood!
• Persecuting Prosecutor: The embodiment of this trope. Manfred would do anything, even killing the (then) only defense attorney that caused him to receive a penalty, to keep his perfect record. There is a good reason he is the page image on Amoral Attorney.
• Pet the Dog: Interestingly in both the anime and games, Manfred von Karma shows some genuine kindness in the flashbacks. This also proves to highlight that by the present day, he's become so consumed by pride and vengeance that any little glimmers of humanity he may have once held have sunk into the depths of his empty heart.
  • As we can see in case 4 of Investigations, Edgeworth and Franziska seem to have genuine respect for him and think his methods are honorable. Edgeworth's interactions with him are stiffly formal and you can tell he's being very careful not to cross a line — Franziska is less formal but still guarded.
  • Then again, von Karma openly sets the two of them against each other. For example, he goes out of his way to launch Edgeworth's career as a prosecutor and makes Franziska fight just to be involved in the related investigation. Conversely, von Karma verbally abuses Edgeworth at one point to shut down his request to continue investigating the crime scene, but relents when Franziska asks instead. It seems that Edgeworth's respect has a touch of fear mixed in, while bold Franziska knows he's always her "Papa." Case in point: when Franziska asked if he would go to her first trial next, his "I'll consider it" answer looks like a light-hearted way to say "yes." Also, whenever Franziska asked if she could do something, he said yes without hesitating. So his relationship with his daughter was relatively warm, all things considered. (Of course, given what we know von Karma to be, any real kindness is going to be Pet the Dog at best. Even if he was a kind parent, it certainly didn't make him a good parent).
  • In a similar manner to Franziska's encounter with Pearl, he seems genuinely taken aback when Kay calls him "scary".
  • He also seems to think highly of his wife's cooking, comparing it favorably to the food being judged at Jeff Master's mansion.
  • The anime-exclusive flashback episode Sound the Turnabout Melody shows him treating Franziska and Edgeworth to pancakes at the mall as children.
• Psychotic Smirk: He does these whenever things go according to plan.
• Punny Name: He not only has a Meaningful Name as mentioned above, but also a punny one as well. His name can be read as "Man fled from karma", and given the nature of the DL-6 Incident, it can be said that running from Karma is what he did for so long.
• Red Baron: Edgeworth refers to him as the "God of Prosecution".
• Refuge in Audacity:
  • His courtroom behavior is a mix of this and sheer intimidation, ordering the Judge around and then repeatedly declaring opposing counsel in contempt of court if they even think of objecting to his prosecution. He also has a perfect record despite a well-known reputation for coaching witnesses and withholding evidence. The man would be disbarred and possibly thrown in jail in any sane legal system.
  • He also tasers Phoenix and Maya in the middle of a police station to make off with and destroy evidence. He actually gets away with this because there's no proof he did it and it's so insane-sounding that no cop would ever believe that he did it.
• Revenge Before Reason: As the killer in the DL-6 Incident, von Karma could easily have kept his career if he'd just stayed put rather than framing Miles Edgeworth for murder as the final nail in the coffin of his revenge against his father Gregory.
• Satanic Archetype: A more subtle version, but still present, resembling Satan more in his Book of Job depiction as an evil prosecutor. Aside from being an evil prosecutor, he's also the manipulative Greater-Scope Villain of the original trilogy. This is slightly less subtle in the Japanese version where his name Karuma (Kanji: 狩 魔) literally means "hunter demon". Oh, and he sounds like a demon too.
• Say My Name: Screams Edgeworth's name during his Villainous Breakdown.
• Sins of Our Fathers: His treatment of Miles was intended to shape him into his father's antithesis. To make matters worse, this was after he had murdered Miles's father himself.
• Slasher Smile: He's prone to these in his smuggest moments.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He only appears in-person as the prosecutor of Turnabout Goodbyes, but his actions, both in that case and before it, resonate throughout the original trilogy's story arc. Even after his death, the lasting impact of his influence on Edgeworth, along with Ray's feelings about it, form the emotional crux of Investigations 2.
• Sophisticated as Hell: He's very outwardly Wicked Cultured and has a highly respected and venerated prosecuting career, but in between all his bluster, there's this remark to Lotta Hart.
  Manfred von Karma: "Witness... That's enough. You've had a long day. Shut your pie hole."
• Sore Loser: So much so that he doesn't even have to lose to be pissed about it. His response to receiving a single penalty on his otherwise perfect record (even though he still won the case) is to kill the man who got him caught, turn the man's now-orphaned son into the antithesis of what he stood for, attempt to frame that son for murder, and then make the son believe that he killed his own father so that he goes to prison for it. Note that this all took place over fifteen years and he was still angry about it. Him not objecting to the initial "not guilty" verdict is a clue that he has something up his sleeve. And getting exposed initially causes him to have a Villainous Breakdown, but he decides to take it in stride since he has nothing else left.
• Speak Ill of the Dead: Calls Byrne Faraday an incompetent prosecutor minutes after his death, in front of his longtime partner Detective Badd. Badd can hardly contain his anger.
• Static Stun Gun: He attacks Phoenix and Maya with a taser while he was taking the DL-6 evidence.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: As time goes on, he sheds the last of his humanity and becomes more cruel and vindictive. While he was never a good person, he has some genuine Pet the Dog moments in the past, with even some occasional affectionate moments with Franziska in the investigations flashback. Come present time and he's an irredemable monster.
• Troll: He pretends he doesn't know defense attorneys just to unnerve them even if they faced off in court that same day. Given how Crazy-Prepared he is, knows each case inside out, and his obsession with maintaining a perfect record, it's likely he does know, he just puts up a front of not knowing as an intimidation tactic.
• Truth in Television: In the anime, as part of a Running Gag where hardly anyone says Dick Gumshoe's name correctly, he refers to him as Richard Gumshoe. This is technically correct, as "Dick" was originally the name Richard that got mixed through slang pronunciations.^note Richard > Rick > Dick
• Villain Has a Point: His early corrections of Officer Gumshoe are not entirely out of place, nor is his (insincere) insistence on cold, hard, objective facts. However, even then, he's using this as an excuse not to let the cop answer Phoenix's questions.
• Villainous Legacy: His actions have had a notable effect on the entire series. Aside from training Franziska as a prosecutor, his murder of Gregory Edgeworth caused Miles to become a prosecutor and by extension, caused Phoenix to become a defense attorney. The investigation of the murder resulted in Redd White exposing the police's use of Misty Fey's channeling powers, causing her to disappear which ended up causing a number of problems in the Fey clan. White's actions also caused Mia to become a lawyer which led to her murder at White's hands and the subsequent actions of Godot.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Adaptations such as the movie and the anime give him the facade of a ruthless but ultimately fair prosecutor who values bringing criminals to justice over his victory record, which is exactly the opposite of how he truly feels.
• Villainous Breakdown: Complete with banging his head against the wall and insane roaring.
  Manfred von Karma: Eh… Edgewoooooorrth… Eh… Edgewoooooorrth… Only… you would… dare… defy me…! […] You and your father are my curse! Your father shamed me with a penalty on my record! And you… you left a scar on my shoulder that would never fade! I… I'll bury you! I'll bury you with my bare hands! Death! Death!
• Weapon-Based Characterization: He is revealed to carry a stun gun on his person due to the legal inconveniences of using a firearm and/or disdain for physical fighting.
• Wicked Pretentious: Despite von Karma's posturing, he is little more than a narcissistic and petty thug, and it shows in his blatant intimidation of everyone involved with Edgeworth's trial, right up to and including the Judge. He's not above torturing confessions out of defendants, tazing Maya Fey for information, and, of course, murdering Gregory Edgeworth all for the sake of his perfect record. It's worth noting that his pettiness is what ultimately what does him in.
• Workaholic: According to Marvin Grossberg, the vacation he took after the IS-7 and DL-6 incidents was the first and last vacation of his 40-year career.
• World's Best Warrior: The legal version of this, having an undefeated 40-year record in court and earning the moniker "the God of Prosecution." Even Miles Edgeworth says he pales in comparison, despite the fact he himself was building a similar career until he met Phoenix.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • It's subtle but the day before the final round in court when he runs into Phoenix outside of court, at one point he muses that it's been a long time since he's faced a Defense Attorney that has managed to last this long against him. Coming from him, that's practically a compliment.
  • The anime suggests that he saw Gregory Edgeworth as this, telling Miles that "he might have enjoyed himself" if he was facing against his father. Whether he's being genuine or not is anyone's guess, considering how much he blames Gregory for destroying his perfect record.
• Would Hit a Girl: He tazes Maya (as well as Phoenix) after they ask him about his letter to Yanni Yogi.
• Xanatos Gambit: Unlike most attorneys in the series who are masters of Xanatos Speed Chess, Manfred von Karma's perfect record stems from his ability to anticipate his opponent's every move ahead of time and eliminate any possible flaws in his case before they are exposed. When something that he hadn't anticipated happens, his case crumbles to bits, and he is helpless to piece it back together.
• X Must Not Win: When it comes to von Karma going after defense attorneys, absolutely nothing is off the table. His bag of tricks includes witness tampering, emotional manipulation, and physical assault.
• You Have Failed Me: The probable reason he framed Edgeworth for murder when he did, given that Edgeworth had lost a case and was no longer the "perfect" prosecutor von Karma expected him to be.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: His reaction to seeing Larry Butz very poorly disguising himself as Miles Edgeworth in the anime.
  Manfred von Karma: Remove this cheeky impostor from the courtroom NOW!
• Younger Than They Look: He looks exactly the same during the IS-7 incident and in Case 1-4 despite the 16-years difference between both, if not outright older than when he was 65 (the first game never shows his cane), making Manfred's appearance during the former incident an example of this trope.

Winston Payne (Takefumi Auchi)

Winston Payne (Takefumi Auchi)

Voiced by (Japanese): Kou Hamasaki (OT, AJ), Wataru Yokojima (anime)

Voiced by (English): David Crislip (OT, AJ), Gregory Lush (anime)

Played by: Seminosuke Murasugi (film)

Debut: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

"To think I saw you enter this room a fresh attorney... and now I'll see you leave in chains."

Serves as the first prosecutor to bar the player's way in the first case in the first four main games that star a defense attorney. From Phoenix, to Mia, to Apollo, they all will face this... err... rather spineless Prosecutor who has a rather high pitched, downright wimpy "Objection!" yell. Said to be a Rookie Killer.

---

• Badass Boast: When faced with Phoenix Wright being the defendant in the first case of Apollo Justice, Payne delivers a downright badass threat:
  Payne: To think, I saw you enter this room a fresh attorney, and now I'll see you leave in chains.
• Bait-and-Switch Boss: In the first trial of Apollo Justice, while he's the prosecutor in the case, and technically Apollo's opponent, the moment Phoenix accuses Kristoph of the murder is also the moment Payne is pushed to the sideline in the case, making it clear who the actual opponent in the case is.
• Butt-Monkey: Given that his entire purpose in the series is to be creamed by rookie attorneys, yeah. Investigations makes it even worse by revealing that, despite the fact they've worked in the same office for years, Edgeworth has no idea who he is and in fact seems to believe he's the building's janitor. During the first case of the second game, Phoenix Wright is given amnesia and has to fight him on a case regardless. When Phoenix gets his memory back, he rememberes Maya, The Judge, the defendant at the time and everyone else... but has NO CLUE who Winston is.
• Characterization Marches On: In "The First Turnabout", he's nowhere near as smug as he would grow to be in later entries.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • In Investigations, he has a brief cameo appearance, and aside from Edgeworth mistaking him for someone who does "custodial work", this is all we see (or hear) of him. He's back in Apollo Justice, where he appears as the prosecutor just to be savaged by the new generation of up-and-comers (namely, Apollo himself).
  • He has a slightly bigger role in Investigations 2. He still doesn't get his own portrait sprite, but at least he's involved in the plot this time.
  • Hardly does anything in the first trial of Apollo Justice except mock Apollo and swish his fully-grown hair. He even lampshades this toward the end, saying that he didn't actually get to prosecute anybody.
• Epic Fail: In Justice for All, he loses his case to Phoenix Wright. Who was suffering from a concussion and had forgotten literally everything, including that he was a lawyer.
• Forgettable Character: After Phoenix recovers his memories in the first case of Justice For All, he remembers pretty much every major character... But not Payne, much to the latter's annoyance. Edgeworth doesn't really remember him either, and mistakes him for the janitor. By the time of Apollo Justice and Dual Destinies, however, Phoenix recognizes him in the former, and mistakes Gaspen for him in the latter.
• Hair Flip: Fond of it back when he used to have a pompadour in flashback in Trials and Tribulations. Much later, in Apollo Justice, he grows out the sides so he can do it again. The look is so ridiculous, it can only be interpreted as a parody of this trope.
• Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: When he lost his case to Mia, he lost his hair.
• Hero Antagonist: While he certainly has an ego he can't support, and doesn't hesitate to belittle the defense, Winston Payne is actually one of the cleanest prosecutors in the entire series. He never stoops to any dirty tactics such as those of Edgeworth, the von Karmas, or his own younger brother. He even defends certain witnesses such as Dahlia from being badgered by the defense, albeit in that case Dahlia could use to be badgered a little more since she's the murderer.
• Hurricane of Puns: Payne pulls one of these when faced with Apollo's questioning of the poker chips in the first case of Apollo Justice.
  Payne: They're not fish and chips, not a chip off the old block, not a motorcycle cop.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: He was a Rookie Killer... until he met Mia Fey.
• Informed Ability: Rookie Killer. But the only chance we ever see him kill a rookie was when he faced Furio Tigre disguised as Phoenix. Who was trying to lose. On the other hand, he put up a pretty good fight against Mia while he still had hair. He also claims to have had a perfect win record for his first seven years. That's longer than Edgeworth or Franziska, disciples of the "god of prosecution" Manfred von Karma, but substantially less impressive if, as per his nickname, he only ever went after rookies fresh out of law school. However, he surpasses Manfred himself at one thing: keeping his record while being clean. And literally nothing else. This also puts him ahead of his brother, Gaspen.
• Jerkass: He's quite the condescending dick. However, he actually falls on the lower end of the Jerkass scale in this series because he's also one of the cleanest lawyers with no amoral or unethical actions to speak of.
• Mandatory Line: He is the only character to have a speaking role in every single game in the series up until Dual Destinies, regardless of how insignificant that line is.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Only a threat to rookies.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Has this reaction in the manga as Phoenix proves that Belle put the knife handle with Larry's fingerprints on it onto the knife blade she used to kill the victim.
  • In Trials and Tribulations, this reaction caused his hair to fall off after Mia dared him to take one of Phoenix's Coldkiller X pills to either prove her wrong about her theory that they're laced with poison, or die because she was right.
• Once an Episode: Winston appears in the first case of every non-3DS game without fail.
• Opaque Lenses: We cannot see what is behind his glasses.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: On his own, he isn't totally pathetic. He just falls short compared to the main characters.
• Persecuting Prosecutor: A surprising aversion. He never does anything a true, law-abiding lawyer wouldn't do. The worst thing you can say about him is that he's a jerk with a bad habit of acting condescending toward the defense. Ironically, his boasts are not about his honesty, where he could back them up, but about his mediocre skills.
• Punny Name:
  • "Winced in pain".
  • For his Japanese name, Takefumi and Auchi come from a staff member's dentist and the English word "ouch", respectively.
• Put on a Bus: He was completely absent in Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice, although he's still mentioned as the new Warm-Up Boss is his younger brother.
• Red Baron: The Rookie Killer.
• Salaryman: Despite being an attorney, his design is more reminiscent of stereotypical salarymen. In his first two appearances, his mundane physical appearance (especially compared to other Ace Attorney prosecutors) as a balding middle-aged man in a gray suit and thick glasses just adds to his (relatively speaking) worthless status as prosecutor. His flashier appearances in later games do nothing to add to his actual status, and Edgeworth mistakes him for the Prosecutor Office's janitor when speaking to him in Investigations.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Subversion. He has shiny glasses, but in truth, he is NOT scary.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Particularly in the credits of the first game, when he claims to be Phoenix's mentor, and this quote from the manga; note how casually he drops his own name as an example.
  Payne: Milo 'Fairplay' Kent is like the panda at the zoo. The dolphin in an aquarium. Winston Payne in court! The 'Gourmand battle' doesn't exist without him!
• Smug Snake: So condescending. So unable to back it up.
• Starter Villain: The first prosecutor you face in the first four mainline games and your introduction to the court mode tutorial.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Implied. We never see his wife but both he and the Judge claim she is quite attractive.
• Unknown Rival: Payne sees himself as Phoenix's rival, though Phoenix doesn't even remember who he is until the fourth game. He also sees himself as Edgeworth's equal, but not only does he not remember who Payne is, he thought he was the Prosecutor Office's janitor.
• Villainy-Free Villain: He is the first prosecutor faced in the first four games and a condescending Smug Snake with an inflated ego, but unlike every other prosecutor in the first game (including pre-Character Development Edgeworth) and a good few later on, he doesn't do anything criminal or unethical. It's especially noticeable compared to his brother Gaspen, who outright tries to get Phoenix and a 9-year-old killed.
• Warm-Up Boss: He's always the prosecutor of the tutorial case in every game until Dual Destinies. He even makes a cameo appearance in the tutorial case of Investigations. Even in the manga, when Phoenix is not a rookie or amnesiac, he appears as the prosecutor in "Turnabout With the Wind" before Edgeworth and Franziska prosecute later cases, although he does return for Turnabout Gurgitation.
• The Worf Effect: He was a Rookie Killer with seven years of no defeats and no cheating. However, he is a jobber against the protagonists.

Gaspen Payne (Fumitake Auchi)

Gaspen Payne (Fumitake Auchi)

Voiced by (Japanese): Hisashi Izumi (DD, SOJ)

Voiced by (English): Vic Mignogna (DD, SOJ)

Debut: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies

"You'll see, Mr. Wright. I will cleanse Winston of the disgrace he met with at your hands!"

Winston Payne's younger brother, who makes his series debut just in time to prosecute one of Phoenix's trials after Phoenix regains his badge in Dual Destinies.

Returns in Spirit of Justice as the "undefeated" Chief Prosecutor in Khura'in; though there's little merit to being undefeated as Khura'in has no defense attorneys.

---

• Atrocious Alias: Known as "The Incredible Payne" in the Kingdom of Khura'in. Phoenix considers this entirely accurate.
• Bald of Evil: He is revealed to be completely bald after his Villainous Breakdown in Spirit of Justice.
• The Bully: He takes pride in his epithet of the "Rookie/Defendant Humiliator." He lives up to this epithet with how he treats Juniper Woods, the first client in Dual Destinies.
• Cool Crown: Gets one as part of his "Chief Prosecutor" getup in Spirit of Justice. When Phoenix Wright defeats him, it falls off his head and takes his toupee with it. He is completely bald underneath.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Responds to Phoenix humiliating him in court previously by tricking him into taking up Albhi's defense and trying to have him executed.
• Dodgy Toupee: His hair flips backwards in his damage animation. His toupee could also become misaligned in one of his damage animations, requiring him to fix it. Upon his second defeat, his heavy crown pulls his toupee off completely, revealing that he's even balder than his brother.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Downplayed in Spirit of Justice. He correctly banked on Phoenix trying to take Ahlbi's case after seeing he had no defense attorney, and didn't tell him about the Defense Culpability Act until after the fact so he could get him to surrender to feed his own pride... and that's where he went wrong, as he didn't expect Phoenix to turn out to be so selfless as to continue the trial even at risk of his own life.
• Evil Counterpart: To his older brother Winston. Both serve as the first prosecutor the protagonists square off against in each game (the first four games for Winston, the 3DS titles for Gaspen), but while Winston is honest and doesn't pull any dirty tricks, Gaspen has no problem with bullying witnesses or employing dirty tricks of his own. After getting fired from the prosecutor's office by Edgeworth, Gaspen goes as far as to move to the Kingdom of Khura'in and prosecute trials over helpless defendants that he'll win by default due to the Defense Culpability Act, even becoming Chief Prosecutor of Khura'in in the process. He actively tries to get Wright killed, which makes him far more evil than most prosecutors.
• Evil Is Petty: After being bested by Phoenix Wright and sent running with his tail between his legs (and getting fired by Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth), he moves to Khura'in and runs a perfect record there because he has no opposition. When Phoenix shows up in court there, he takes the chance to get his revenge by using a law that will bind the sentence a guilty defendant receives to anyone who comes to their defense. What this ends up meaning is he tries to execute a nine-year old boy so he can also kill Phoenix as well, all over looking bad in Los Angeles District Court! Even Manfred von Karma murdered his courtroom rival because he disrupted von Karma's long-running track record as The Perfectionist after being (rightfully) penalized; Gaspen doesn't even have that as a valid excuse and yet goes to much more vile lengths.
• Evil Wears Black: In Dual Destinies he wears a black suit, wears black sunglasses, and has a black Dodgy Toupee. Played with in that he wasn't portrayed as outright evil until his next appearance, where he wears garish golden clothes.
• Gentleman and a Scholar: He thinks he's this. He describes himself as not merely a "gentleman", or even a "gentle man", but a "genteel man". He's none of the three, as proven when, in stark contrast to anything a "gentleman" would do, he drives an innocent young maiden named Juniper Woods to the verge of tears by repeatedly badgering her in order to coerce her into confessing her supposed guilt. "Genteel man" is actually a Call-Back to Case 3-1, where his brother also calls himself as such.
• Gold-Colored Superiority: In Spirit of Justice, he becomes the Chief Prosecutor of Khura'in and shows it off with an impressive gold crown and a loud golden-yellow suit. While previous Paynes have worn yellow suits, Gaspen is the only one whose suit shines.
• Gold Makes Everything Shiny: In Spirit of Justice, his outfit is so gold and shiny that one of his animations has his entire body shining with smug glee.
• Hate Sink: While Winston was just an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain, Gaspen is an openly hateful sack of garbage whom the player will take pleasure in humiliating. He's worse in Spirit of Justice, where he seems to openly relish sending a nine-year-old boy to face the death penalty if it means he can get back at Phoenix Wright.
• It's All About Me: After Dual Destinies, in an effort to help end the Dark Age of the Law, Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth purges the Prosecutors Office of everyone who was more focused on winning cases than uncovering the truth, including Payne. After being fired, Payne simply relocates to Khura'in, establishes a "perfect" record there, and that is still his main concern even after Ahlbi is saved from being executed.
• Jerkass: This snob could give Manfred von Karma a run for his money in the "smug, condescending jerk" department, and unlike Manfred, he has little of the talent needed to back up his ego.
• Kick the Dog:
  • His treatment of Juniper, so much that the Judge sustains the defense' objection that the prosecution is badgering the defendant.
  • Before that, he mocks Apollo by saying that the latter's only reason for not showing up in court was fear of facing him, saying that Apollo was only using his injuries ^note sustained during the courtroom bombing as an excuse.
• Kneel Before Zod: His original bid to lure Phoenix into the Khura'in legal proceedings was originally just an attempt to humiliate Phoenix into begging for his life, allowing Gaspen to "magnanimously" release him from doom and humiliate him. Phoenix's decision to carry on anyway at risk of death is as much of a bombshell to him as anyone else... until he warms up to the idea anyway.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • In the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue for Dual Destinies, he gets harshly penalized for his actions in court by Edgeworth.
  • By the time of Spirit of Justice, Edgeworth had him investigated and kicked out of the Prosecutor's Office after deeming him corrupt.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: How does Phoenix get to defend Ahlbi in Khura'in's court? Gaspen formally allows him to so he can challenge and humiliate him for his previous defeat (and, as it's later revealed, hopefully get Phoenix sentenced to death as per the Defense Culpability Act). This goes about as well as you'd expect.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Despite being hilariously incompetent, he was a major figurehead in a corrupt regime that caused the deaths of thousands. If left unchecked, he could have caused hundreds of deaths out of pride and idiocy.
• Persecuting Prosecutor: Whereas his brother was a Jerkass at worst, Gaspen takes pride in being The Bully. In Spirit of Justice he eggs Phoenix on into defending Ahlbi Ur'gaid, knowing full well that Phoenix will likely be executed under the Defense Culpability Act if he loses.
• Pointy-Haired Boss: Despite being the Chief Prosecutor of Khura'in, he's much less competent than Nahyuta, who is technically his subordinate (though Nahyuta is never shown interacting with him, and seems to answer to Queen Ga'ran and Justice Minister Inga).
• Punny Name:
  • "Gasp in pain". Interestingly, this has a double meaning: he makes attorneys and defendants gasp in pain as described under The Bully above. Then he's gasping in pain, as you start proving him wrong.
  • Fumitake and Auchi come from an inversion of the kanji of his brother's name (Takefumi) and the English word "ouch", respectively.
• Recurring Element: He fills his brother Winston's role as the less than credible prosecutor of the first case in both Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In Case 1, the threat of a bomb going off scares him into fleeing the prosecutor's bench. Even well after it's revealed the bomb was fake, Gaspen never returns.
• Sdrawkcab Name: His given name in the Japanese version merely reverses the characters of his brother's name, Takefumi.
• Shared Family Quirks: Gaspen has similar movements to his brother Winston. He raises his eyebrows when explaining something, taps his head, and screams in pain when the defense attorneys object his remarks.
• Sinister Shades: He wears sunglasses unlike his brother, and he is a full-blown villain in Spirit of Justice.
• Slimeball: He claims he's a "genteel man", but given his smugness and pettiness, he comes off as a greasy, slimy asshole of a prosecutor even more than Smug Snakes like von Karma.
• Smug Snake: He has a bad habit of badgering/bullying the defendant and the defense, which makes him look really pathetic once Phoenix starts turning the tables. He also doesn't have the balls to stay in the courtroom when Ted Tonate threatens everyone with a bomb. Granted, it is a bomb, but when Phoenix, Athena, and the Judge are willing to remain in the courtroom and he doesn't return even after it's revealed to be a fake, it makes him look even more pathetic. Gaspen might be an asshole no better than the Von Karmas, but he isn't nearly as competent.
• Small Name, Big Ego: As mentioned above. Taken up a notch in Spirit of Justice, where he starts wearing gold-colored clothes and a crown just for being an undefeated prosecutor in Khura'in; a country whose lack of defense attorneys make pretty much any case a Foregone Victory for prosecutors.
• Strong Family Resemblance: One of his animations even has him curling his hair into the same pompadour style that his brother used to have. Phoenix actually mistakes him for Winston when he takes over the defense.
• Tongue Trauma: He bit his own tongue in Ahlbi Ur'gaid's trial in an example of Laser-Guided Karma which happened after he argued for Phoenix's "forked" tongue to be chopped off with tongue shears.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In Dual Destinies, he's just a smug bullying asshole. In Spirit of Justice, he's presiding over trials in a kingdom where the defendant is more-or-less helpless against the prosecution and is not only quite enthusiastic at the prospect of both Phoenix and an innocent nine-year-old boy receiving the death penalty, but personally convinced the Judge that the death penalty should apply. To go from Smug Snake Butt-Monkey to Hate Sink takes some pretty concerted evildoing but Gaspen managed to do it.
• Villainous Breakdown: He complains about his perfect record in Khura'in getting ruined. His crown then starts falling backwards and drags his toupee with it, revealing Gaspen's Bald of Evil.
  Gaspen Payne: No… my perfect, unblemished record… destroyed… The Incredible Payne… ruined… NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
• Visual Pun: Given his surname, his attitude, and his looks, he's a "royal pain" in Spirit of Justice.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: In the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue for Spirit of Justice, he does not appear at all.
• World's Best Warrior: He appeared to be this in Khura'in because he never got defeated there, making him look like this to Khura'in. Thanks to the genocide of defense attorneys in Khura'in due to the Defense Culpability Act, he faced only no or pathetic opposition until Phoenix intervened in a trial and trashed him again, ruining his perfect record in Khura'in.
• Would Hurt a Child: Goes to great lengths to convict Ahlbi Ur'gaid, a nine-year-old, and sentence him to the death penalty, especially once Phoenix Wright showed up to defend Ur'gaid, in order to get Wright convicted under the DC Act which would result in Wright getting the same death sentence that Ur'gaid would have gotten if he was convicted.

Lana Skye (Tomoe Hozuki)

Lana Skye (Tomoe Hozuki)

Debut: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

"It's been a while, Your Honor."

Ema's older sister, and Chief Prosecutor (as of the first game, but she hasn't been mentioned since). Went to the same law school as Mia.

---

• Aloof Big Sister: Comes off as one at the beginning of Rise from the Ashes, since she's acted cold toward Ema for two years, resulting in relations between the sisters being strained. Turns out to be a Defrosting Ice Queen, though.
• Anti-Villain: While her actions are questionable, she's honorable and extremely well-intentioned, if misguided. Ema and Phoenix feel nothing but sympathy for her when they realise the exact circumstances that led her into evil.
• Benevolent Boss: She convinces Edgeworth not to quit with one speech, reassuring him that her fall wasn't his fault and that- whatever Gant says- his desire to catch criminals does not make him evil.
• Big Sister Instinct: Comes with the whole Promotion to Parent thing.
• Curtains Match the Window: Although she has blue eyes in the official art◊.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: She goes through this process over the course of 1-5, having become an Aloof Big Sister since SL-9. This is in large part due to breaking Gant's hold on her.
• Emotionless Girl: Subverted, she does have emotions, but she has something to hide so she stopped showing them so that she doesn't slip up. Ema even tells Phoenix that she knows her sister too well: she's outwardly cold but she's screaming on the inside as she's being pressed.
• Fallen Hero: She went from a respected prosecutor to Damon Gant's lapdog.
• Forced into Evil: By Damon Gant. She ends up hating herself for what she has become, driving away her loved ones due to her guilt.
• Fingore: Her shocked animation has her biting her thumb so hard that blood gushes out.
• Heel–Face Turn: She eagerly does this when given the chance to break free of Damon Gant's grasp.
• The Heart: She was considered a pillar of emotional support for the team investigating SL-9, and prevented Jake from emotionally collapsing over his brother's death.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Says this regarding her fabricating evidence, claiming that it's to get Darke and criminals like him convicted, but it's actually to protect Ema.
• I Shall Return: Even though her evidence forging crimes killed her career as chief prosecutor, she promises to work her way back up the legal world so she can work cases with Ema.
• Not So Stoic: She becomes quite outraged when Phoenix appears to shift the focus of suspicion to Ema, but he manages to find a way to incriminate Gant in the end.
• Practically Different Generations: She's 13 years older than her sister Ema.
• Punny Name: "Skye" comes from, well, "sky", tying in with her Japanese name. "Hozuki" means "jewel moon".
• Promotion to Parent: Her parents died when she and Ema were very young. She becomes almost like a Mama Bear to Ema over time, doing anything to keep her out of trouble.
• The Stoic: Shows no emotions outwardly.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: She initially appears very cold, and one of her sprites involves her dismissively turning her back to the viewer. She shows a warmer side later on, especially toward the end.
• Taking the Heat: Gant forces her to take the fall for his murder of Bruce Goodman, lest her sister Ema be charged for killing Neil Marshall. It's implied that Gant was originally trying to frame Edgeworth given that Goodman's body was found in the trunk of Edgeworth's car (a plan that wouldn't result in Gant sacrificing his most valuable pawn), but Angel Starr's interference resulted in Lana being charged.
• Tragic Villain: She's Forced into Evil by Damon Gant and becomes a criminal in a misguided attempt to protect her beloved sister. Gant ruined her life, and she fell into a deep pit of despair when she realised she could easily become as bad as him.
• We Used to Be Friends: Used to get along well with Angel and Jake, until her personality changed after SL-9. A sisterly variant happens with Ema, who's bitter about Lana's cold behavior, but not so much that she wouldn't get help for her.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Ema was brought back for Apollo Justice, but Lana hasn't been seen since. She was last seen waiting to be tried for forging evidence, hence she had to spend some time behind bars, but other than that it's unknown what happened to her or how much time she will spend in prison.
• When She Smiles: She's been stone-faced for so long that even her sister says she forgot how beautiful she is when she smiles.
• You Monster!: Uses this phrase on Phoenix when he presents evidence that seemingly implicates Ema in killing Neil Marshall.

Neil Marshall (Naoto Zaimon)

Neil Marshall (Naoto Zaimon)

Debut: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Jake's younger brother, and was the "King of Prosecutors" two years ago. He was the initial prosecutor on the SL-9 case.

---

• Death by Origin Story: Said to have been killed by Joe Darke. Case 1-5 involves you solving both his murder two years ago and Bruce Goodman's more recent killing.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: After the fight with Darke concluded, Gant took Neil's body and impaled it on the statue in the office.
• Improvised Weapon: When he went to save Ema, he resorted to pulling out the broken ornamental knife from his King of Prosecutors Trophy.
• Papa Wolf: Died trying to save Ema's life.
• Posthumous Character: Deceased prior to 1-5, though still plot-important.
• Punny Name: He and his brother both dressed as cowboys, so they're "Marshalls". He's the "Real Marshal".
• World's Best Warrior: At least according to his brother, he'd never lose a fight. The fact he ended up dead after the confrontation with Joe Darke is one of the reasons Jake suspects foul-play had a hand in the case. It's later revealed that the truth of the brawl between him and Darke was that he was winning, but Ema mistook them for each other due to the blackout and tried to intervene.
• Youngest Child Wins: Subverted. According to Jake, he's the smarter of the Marshall brothers. However, he was murdered prior to the story, and his older brother outlived him.

Tristan Turnbull (Yusaburo Saiga)

Tristan Turnbull (Yusaburo Saiga)

Voiced by (Japanese): Show Hayami (anime)

Voiced by (English): Chris Cason (anime)

Debut: Ace Attorney (2016)

An anime-original character and prosecutor from the United States Attorney's Office.^note Bear in mind, the anime forgoes the series' usual Thinly-Veiled Dub Country Change, meaning it's still largely set in Japan. He was involved with the trial that saw defendant Avery Richman falsely convicted, and is held hostage on Richman's very own luxury express train, the Silver Star, to participate in a retrial.

---

• Alliterative Name: Tristan Turnbull.
• Always Second Best: To Miles Edgeworth. Turnbull was seen as the top of his class at law school until Edgeworth upstaged him in a mock trial. Since than, Turnbull felt overshadowed to the point that he moved to America to escape being stuck in Edgeworth's shadow.
• Boomerang Bigot: He insults Phoenix for being a lawyer, despite being one himself. In the original script, he more specifically looks down on him for being a Japanese lawyer, which is just as hypocritical coming from an American who was born and studied law in Japan.
• Canon Foreigner: He appears exclusively in "Northward, Turnabout Express", a case created for the anime adaptation's second season.
• Eagleland: Something of a Type 2. While he's a professional and composed man, he lauds the American Justice System as perfect without even willing to consider there was an error in Richman's trial. In truth, he himself committed legal malpractice in that very trial, and was willing to murder the real culprit in order to save his own hide.
• Hellish Pupils: Close inspection of his eyes shows that he has slit pupils like a cat.
• Just Following Orders: He tries justifying his role in the conspiracy against Richman by saying he was just doing as he was told by the top brass of the Attorney's Office. This doesn't fly with the Chief Prosecutor or Edgeworth, who point out that he still knowingly committed legal malpractice, and will meet the same punishment as the ones who orchestrated the conspiracy.
• Manipulative Bastard: He gets Rick to act as an accomplice in hiding his murder of Gale Gaelic by threatening to expose his unwitting betrayal of Richman.
• Persecuting Prosecutor: He proves to be quite corrupt when he knowingly redacts a key witness's testimony from Richman's trial as part of a larger conspiracy, murders said witness to keep him from exposing the truth, and blackmails one of Richman's supporters into acting as an accomplice.
• Pet the Dog: He has the courtesy to applaud Mara Mytonbred's surprise birthday party, despite his ruthlessness and having just committed murder.
• Punny Name: When spoken aloud, his name vaguely sounds like "twist and turn".
• The Resenter: He's hated Edgeworth ever since getting upstarted by him at law school, and practically ran away from his home country to escape Edgeworth's shadow.
• The Stoic: He barely emotes to the fact he's in a hijacking and forced to act as a prosecutor to an unofficial retrial. He starts to lose his composure once Edgeworth comes into the scene.
• Smug Snake: He gives a smug smile to himself once he believes Phoenix has no way of proving he committed murder or was involved in Richman's false conviction. Luckily, Edgeworth and the U.S. Chief Prosecutor call to put him in his place.
• Stoic Spectacles: His stony expression is decorated with square glasses, which also have a built-in computer database for every major trial documented by his firm.
• Unwitting Pawn: Not that it excuses the odiousness of his initial crimes of helping facilitate the murder of an innocent man and pin it on a political enemy, but Turnbull explicitly did so believing it was in the defense of his country's interests. He is floored to discover that he was actually a middleman in a deep financial criminal conspiracy. Rather than make him sympathetic, however, it puts the last nail in his self-righteous image - as it meant he was too proud to see those obviously illegal orders for what they were.
• Villainous Breakdown: Once his murder of Gale Gaelic and tampering of Richman's original case have been exposed, he starts nervously tapping on the now sparking router built into his glasses until it finally explodes, its antenna flying and unceremoniously donking him on the head.
• You Keep Using That Word: In the unofficial Richman retrial, once witness testimony reveals the presence of waiter Gale Gaelic at the scene of the murder and that his subpoena was cancelled, Turnbull says it was because the prosecution considered Gaelic's testimony "not important to the trial." Yet Phoenix correctly points out that Gaelic's behavior at the time of the murder was highly suspicious^note Gaelic had been in Richman's vicinity up to when the victim was shot, with said shot coming from the direction of where Richman and a waiter were at the time. The other witnesses were able to identify the waiter as Gaelic due to his bandaged right hand.. Once Edgeworth reveals Gaelic's summons were cancelled by Turnbull himself and he tries to use the same excuse, Edgeworth points out it just makes him look incompetent.

Judges

The Judge

The Judge

Voiced by (Japanese): Bunmei Tobayama (DD), Kanehira Yamamoto (UMvC3), Ben Hiura (anime)

Voiced by (English): Dave B. Mitchell (DD), Dave Mallow (UMvC3), Kent Williams (anime)

Played by: Akira Emoto (film)

Debut: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

"Mr. Wright. You are truly the most unpredictable defense attorney I've ever known. I can tell you're grasping, yet I cannot deny the possibility of what you say."

The lovable but gullible judge of the series' Economy Cast. While something of a Cloudcuckoolander, he always does his best to uphold the law and grant fair verdicts. Has a younger brother with a Canadian accent who is also a judge.

---

• Audience Surrogate: He's the only recurring character who is never in on the investigations. Naturally, one of his primary roles is to share the audience's shock at the dramatic twists and turns unfolding in his courtroom. He outright lampshades it at one point.
  The Judge: Please explain so that I might be shocked along with the rest of the court.
• Assist Character: For Phoenix Wright in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, with his mighty gavel!
• Berserk Button: Should Phoenix accuse him of hiding the murder weapon in Turnabout Big Top, the Judge immediately penalizes him for 45% of his maximum credibility on the spot before following that up with a second penalty for 50% of his maximum credibility just for making noise in response to the first.
• Beware the Silly Ones:
  • He can be a humorous oddball at times but can be rather stern when calling people out on their misconduct. A few killers, like Damon Gant and Matt Engarde end up getting a "The Reason You Suck" Speech from him.
  • He can also deliver rather scathing remarks when giving a penalty.
    It seems... your very existence is "illegal".
    Well... it looks like you've proven one thing. That you're nothing but a fake!
  • If you baselessly accuse him of hiding the murder weapon in 2-3, he gets so pissed off, he double-penalizes you leading to an instant Game Over if you have anything less than a full credibility bar.
• Big Damn Heroes: In 1-4, after being pushed around by Von Karma for the whole trial, he finally reaches his limit. "ENOUGH! I permit the use of the metal detector! Mr. Von Karma, you WILL submit to testing!"
• Big Eater: He's apparently a fan of Angel Starr's triple-decker lunches. The penultimate case of Spirit of Justice even has him lampshade the amount of food everyone has been eating, which included a box of sake-infused manju buns and a free box of noodles for everyone.
• Big "NO!": Played for laughs; right after he does it, he says, "Wait. I'm not the one on trial here!"
• Big "WHAT?!": This judge often shouts "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?" many times throughout his career.
• Bribe Backfire: He tears down an infuriated culprit who was either going to threaten or bribe him, stating that no amount of threats or bribes will have him take sides.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite his complete lack of common sense, he seems to do his job well. He can also be rather profound about the law. Edgeworth mentions during Investigations 2 that he considers the Judge to be the greatest in his profession, quirks and all.
• Character Tic: Vigorous gaveling and shouting for order in the court. He does it so frequently that you start to suspect he enjoys it a little too much.
• Cloudcuckoolander: "From blood to peaches... the judge sure does love going off on wild tangents."
• Cool Chair: Which has an eagle ornament on it.
• Covers Always Lie: The cover of the first game makes him look strangely intimidating, even godlike. The games reveal him to be anything but.
• Cuteness Proximity: Has a penchant for cute things in general. He gets in trouble for adoring Sniper the baby penguin, as Blackquill is mad he's never reacted so positively to Taka.
• Deadpan Snarker: He has his moments, especially when dealing with Phoenix and/or Apollo's antics. Tends to show up most often when providing the wrong evidence.
  Judge: ... Would the defense please inform the court of its birth name?
  Phoenix: Umm... Phoenix Wright... Your Honor.
  Judge: Ah, what a relief. I thought you'd forgotten your own name... Again.
• Disappointed in You: Once Damon Gant is caught, the Judge feels shame for what Gant has become.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Downplayed, but he's easily charmed by attractive female witnesses. Just see his reaction to Geiru's balloons.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Either "the Judge" or "Your/His Honor", in accordance with his position, both in and out of the courtroom.
• Everyone Has Standards: While the Judge is tolerant of most of the antics of the cast, even he has to step in and put some sense into others when things get too wacky for him, like when a witness arrives on the stand carried on a palanquin by others.
• Extreme Doormat: The Judge is often easily cowed by the von Karma's bullying and intimidation, which Phoenix lampshades at one point.
  Phoenix: (For the love of all things good, Your Honor, have some spine... For my sake...)
• The Fettered: He will uphold the law. Prosecutors who try to bend the law to get someone convicted and get caught doing so have found, much to their agony, that the Judge takes this very seriously.
• Flanderization: He becomes progressively more gullible and clueless over the course of the original trilogy. This is alleviated a bit in Apollo Justice, though.
• Flat Character: Because most of his on-screen appearances occur within the courtroom, the series doesn't flesh out his characterization outside of his role as a judge and little is known of his history prior to his profession.
• Genius Ditz: The Judge is silly and absentminded, while also being dumbfounded by modern technology such as computers and emails. It's been noted he once wasted an entire day looking for his dentures only to later realize they were in his mouth the whole time. He is nevertheless an expert on the law, accurately describing the definitions of Double Jeopardy and Ballistic Markings, and gives profound speeches on the law. He is also bilingual, capable of English and fluent Spanish. It has been stated that he could have become a lawyer himself but chose to remain a judge.
• Good Old Ways: When a witness in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney lists her occupation as "future wife," he expresses his approval. He is also very much a fair, neutral, classical judge, at least when the plot doesn't need him to be the butt of a joke; he's only missing the powdered wig.
• Happily Married: The way he talks about his wife in "Turnabout Time Traveler", you'd think they were just married yesterday and even goes as far as to admonish Edgeworth for putting no stock in The Power of Love.
• Head Pet: He's not the owner of the pet in question, but in Dual Destinies Taka will occasionally perch on top of his head.
• Heroic BSoD: Has a minor one when he finds out that the witness testimony he gave out himself proved to be unreliable in AAI. He's rendered unable to do anything before Edgeworth gets him to snap out of it so he can continue his job. Considering how minor the provocation was, Edgeworth and Franziska are understandably annoyed.
• Hidden Depths: His monologue at the end of Apollo Justice has him dole out some surprisingly profound words about the nature of the law, and how it represents human morals and values. Also, he can speak Spanish. And when he defends spirit channeling in Trials and Tribulations, his rant shows tolerance and wisdom.
• I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: Phoenix suggests that the Judge "seems ready to adopt Ponco as another grandchild".
• Let Me Get This Straight...: Will often use this or a variation to sum up the twists during the courtroom proceedings.
• My Card: Offhandedly gives Phoenix his own one when Phoenix presents it in Case 2-1.
• No Name Given: When referred to by others, is called "The Judge" or "His Honor". At one point Phoenix even gets his business card. Problem is that his signature is so abstract that Phoenix can't read it.
• Only Sane Man: The Judge may be a Cloudcuckoolander, but compared to some of the people he works with, he's so square you could use him to slice cheese. He's also usually unfazed by the proceedings in his courtroom, no matter how ridiculous things get; he manages to keep a straight face while ordering a parrot to testify.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: While generally a well-meaning goofball at times, if he detects so much as a hint of foul play in the legal system, he suddenly becomes far more serious and will do everything in his power to ensure that the truth comes out. He stands his ground against people like Manfred von Karma when Phoenix or other attorneys make extremely plausible cases and scenarios.
• Papa Wolf: Tends to be a bit protective of younger people involved in the cases.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Though he's extremely gullible, the Judge will never ignore an opportunity to discover the truth, no matter how small, and will stand his ground against prominent/influential prosecutors if presented with a convincing case by the defense. He's also more open to supernatural events than his brother, which is a good thing when Phoenix keeps dealing with spirit mediums in his cases. However, he will not hesitate to punish Wright or declare a verdict if he recognizes that Phoenix is obviously throwing things against the wall and seeing what sticks.
• Scatterbrained Senior: He admits he has short term memory problems in Spirit of Justice due to his age.
  Judge: (looking sternly at Apollo Justice) Never underestimate the memory of your elders. I may forget my verdicts the next day, but the memories of my past are clear as day!
• Seen It All: With all the courtroom wackiness in his career, especially with Phoenix defending, he's pretty much used to it by the time of "Turnabout Time Traveller", where he shoots down an angry witness about to either bribe or threaten him.
• Skeptic No Longer: Just like everybody else in the legal system, he was convinced that the Kurain Channeling Technique was boosh when Misty Fey's channeling ritual in the DL-6 Incident went awry. By the end of "Bridge to the Turnabout", however, not only has he seen spirit channeling in person when Dahlia's spirit leaves Maya's body, but he's studied up on spirit channeling via Oh! Cult magazine, making spirit channeling no longer an outlandish concept to him.
• Stealth Insult: It's very rare that he ever gets the better of anyone in terms of snark, so it's almost a singular zinger when Wendy Oldbag, whose seniority is a recurring joke (despite this, she has the gall to call The Judge himself a "nosy old man") complains about Phoenix's questioning her judgement in 1-3, stating that she "wasn't born yesterday", he immediately replies that, "Nobody in this court is accusing you of that."
• Stern Old Judge: Subverted. He may look the part, but he's an indecisive, easily-swayed Cloudcuckoolander. That said, there are moments when he can actually act the part.
• Stock Legal Phrases: "Order in the court!" It may as well be his Catchphrase.
• Super Gullible: He's easily charmed by the more attractive female witnesses, and in many games respects the prosecutors' arguments much more than the defense attorneys' until the end. Subverted in Turnabout Goodbyes, though — he's not "gullible" as much as he is terrified of von Karma.
• Technologically Blind Elders: Time and time again, if anything to do with computers comes up, the Judge often has little to no idea what the others are talking about. It's never directly stated, but it is implied that this is due to the Judge's age. He even thinks that gramophones are still currently in widespread use.
• Took a Level in Dumbass:
  • In the first game, he wasn't actually all that incompetent, instead being portrayed as somewhat smart, despite still being slightly goofy at times. It's only in later games in the series that he became a Cloudcuckoolander.
  • The biggest way to notice the Judge's personality shift is to play 1-5. As it was included in the DS remake and made after the second and third game, his character traits of being dumb (primarily in the form of constantly accepting food bribes from Angel Starr) stand out a lot more compared to the other cases in the first game.
  • This is downplayed a bit in Apollo Justice, where he does a better job keeping the courtroom in order and speaking up in the interest of justice when necessary. He even gives a profound speech about the fluid nature of the law and the responsibility of those who practice it.
• The Unreveal: His business card he gives to Phoenix near the end of the first trial of Justice For All apparently has his real name written on it...except that Phoenix can't read his handwriting.
• Vague Age: His exact age is unclear, but dialogue with Bikini in Case 3-5 implies he is at least older than her (48 at the time).
• The Watson: He'll frequently ask to have more complicated plot twists explained simply, for his benefit and for the audience's.
• You Monster!: He says that even if Matt Engarde cannot be convicted of murder under the current circumstances, the evidence has made it clear that he's a despicable human being.

The Judge's Brother

The Judge's Brother

Voiced by (Japanese): Ben Hiura (anime)

Voiced by (English): Kyle Phillips (anime)

Debut: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials & Tribulations

"Hmm... Car thieves... I'm not sure how I feel about car thieves."

The Judge's brother, who is also a judge himself. Makes only a small handful of appearances, though his biggest role is presiding over the Terry Fawles trial in Turnabout Beginnings (3-4.)

---

• Catchphrase: He's often "not sure" about various things. In particular, he's "not sure [he] care[s] for" things he dislikes.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Less so than his older brother, but he still has a tendency to occasionally go off on tangents.
• Early-Bird Cameo: He first appears in Case 3-2 during the trial of Luke Atmey for being Mask☆DeMasque as it gets interrupted by Phoenix Wright & co..
• Facepalm: It's Played for Drama in the anime, where he's seen doing this after watching Fawles kills himself on the witness stand.
• Flat Character: He only appears in Trials & Tribulations and doesn't have much characterization outside of his role as a judge.
• Hanging Judge:
  • Has shades of this, as he seems very eager to try and hand out verdicts as soon as possible (then again, this happened mostly when he was being played by Dahlia).
  • He also has less tolerance for Unconventional Courtroom Tactics than his brother, and tries to have the bailiff take away Franziska's whip when she starts using it on him. It's only through the will of two hanging prosecutors that the antics continue.
• Mad Libs Catch Phrase: Instead of outright saying he dislikes or is skeptical of something, he says "I'm not sure how I feel about X." Mia even lampshades it.
  Mia: Is this guy sure how he feels about ANYTHING?
• No Name Given: Like his brother, his real name is not revealed at any point in the series.

Khura'in Court Judge

Khura'in Court Judge

Debut: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice

"Defense... attorney...? Ha ha ha ha! What ever are you talking about?"

His Magistry, the judge who presides over the High Court of Khura'in.

---

• The Alibi: He was at Tahrust's home while Puhray Zeh'lot was being killed, therefore proving that Tahrust was not responsible for the killing. However, he never saw Beh'leeb during the visit, which does not exclude the possibility that she could have killed Zeh'lot.
• Establishing Character Moment: After Rayfa's Insight is successfully disproved and it's clear the Divination Seance is not the whole story, she has a minor tantrum and starts cussing out Phoenix, insisting that she can't be wrong. After a few lines of this, the Judge tells her off for making a scene and, when she continues unabated, gets the guards to escort her out. This indicates right there that Khura'in's court is not irredeemably broken, if this guy is still in charge.
• Everyone Has Standards: While as hostile as a native of Khura'in should be to defense attorneys, he will not turn a blind eye if Phoenix's logic is sound.
• Henpecked Husband: His wife apparently gave him an earful when he missed their class together due to Ahlbi Ur'gaid's trial taking much longer than anticipated.
• Identical Stranger: He could easily pass as the main Judge's twin brother and nobody would bat an eye.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In the first trial, due to his Khura'inese prejudice against defense attorneys, he keeps threatening to cut Phoenix's tongue out with shears if he can't make logical arguments. But since Phoenix does make logical arguments, the Judge eventually stops making this threat, and becomes much more reasonable later on.
• Noble Bigot: He hated defense attorneys like much of the rest of Khura'inese citizens at the beginning of the visual novel. However, he does not let his hatred of defense attorneys get in the way of a fair trial.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • While he isn't pleased to have an actual lawyer in his court, he's quite willing to swallow his distaste for the sake of being unbiased; he tries to talk Phoenix out of appearing in court for his sake, pays attention when the defense makes a point, and is even willing to chew out Rayfa (the princess) if she obstructs the court proceedings.
  • After Ga'ran was proven to have no legitimate claim to the throne, he threw the arson and attempted assassination charges against Dhurke out of court when all of the evidence against him was proven to be forged even though there is no decisive proof that Dhurke did not commit those crimes, meaning that the Khura'inese Judge used an innocent until proven guilty test. (Ga'ran did raise the possibility that her Cuffs of Justice were stolen and that possibility was never disproven, so the evidence only made her the prime suspect but did not prove that she committed the arson and assassination attempt.)
• Scatterbrained Senior: He's sharper than the regular Judge, but nonetheless confesses to being one during Ahlbi Ur'gaid's trial:
  Khura'inese Judge: That makes perfect sense, even to a feeble-minded old man like me.
• Skewed Priorities: He wants to wrap up Ahlbi Ur'gaid's trial as quickly as possible so he can attend a class with his wife, even if this might mean that Ahlbi might end up being executed. Unsurprisingly, Phoenix has barely gotten started before the Judge ends up being late.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He's a reasonable bearded old man just like the main Judge. They even resemble each other.
• Too Much Information: He apparently has a tattoo on his right buttock; though Nahyuta swiftly prevents him from saying any more about it.
• Would Hurt a Child: He would have imposed a death penalty on the nine-year-old Ahlbi Ur'gaid if Phoenix Wright had not intervened and proved him innocent.

---