Characters / Ace Attorney: Troupe Gramarye

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

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L-to-R: Mr. Reus, Valant, Magnifi, Zak, and Thalassa

Members of the Gramarye troupe in the Ace Attorney series.

Gramarye (Arumajiki) is a name used by the magicians that are related to or were taught by Magnifi Gramarye, a famous magician from back in the day.

NOTE: Trucy Wright can be found on the Ace Attorney: Wright Anything Agency page.

NOTE 2: There are spoilers that cover up to the sixth game, Spirit of Justice, below. It's very highly suggested that you finish the second case of this game, The Magical Turnabout, before going down this page. Don't say we didn't warn you.

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General Tropes

• Aerith and Bob: Magnifi, Thalassa, Valant, Reus, and... Zak.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: Or rather, Big Screwed Up Troupe. While they were relatively happy at the start, a slew of dangerous tricks slowly began to tear the entire Troupe apart along with those involved with them.
• Chromatic Arrangement: Magnifi's disciples follow this coloring scheme; Zak (red/pink), Thalassa (blue) and Valant (yellow). Magnifi himself goes with black, which is a mix of his apprentices' colors. Mr. Reus, the outlier, has both green and purple.
• Depraved Kids' Show Host: While during Magnifi's run, they appeared to be a magical magician's troupe that were loved by all children and adults which they genuinely were prior to Thalassa's accident. Then things secretly soured afterward, with the main due Zak and Valant being blackmailed into dangerous stunts and eventually being ordered to kill Magnifi by his own command, which neither were able to do.
• Meaningful Name: "Gramarye" is another word for "grimoire", and "Arumajiki" is a pun on "magic". "Arumajiki" also means "unworthy".
• Pinball Projectile: According to Gumshoe, their famous Quick-Draw Shootem trick has Zak and Valant aim single-shot loaded pistols at each other with Thalassa in between them. Upon firing, however, the bullets miss all three of them and proceed to bounce around and tear up the venue sans the three magicians and the audience. Given the obvious danger factor because of the setup, invokedthis eventually went wrong.
• Playing Card Motifs: Each member wears a different playing card suit as a brooch. Magnifi wears the Spade, Zak wears the Club, Valant wears the Heart, Thalassa wears the Diamond (as does her daughter Trucy), and Reus represents the Joker card. Fitting, as they're a group of stage magicians, so luck and trickery is part of the package.
• Stage Magician: Everyone on this page are skilled performers.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Given their relation to the young female assistant (who is in line to take over), ridiculously high rate of backstabbing, and overarching presence in the backstory, Troupe Gramarye is to Trucy what the Fey Clan is to Maya.

Magnifi Gramarye (Tensai Arumajiki)

Magnifi Gramarye (Tensai Arumajiki)

"...then I to the darkness would go, and my art with me. A fitting end, don't you think?"

Magnifi was the teacher of Valant, Zak and Reus, as well as Thalassa Gramarye's father. Incredibly proud, strict and demanding. Magnifi liked dangerous performances, deadly enigmatic tests and had absolutely no tolerance for failure or insubordination. For many years, he performed the best magic shows the world had ever seen along with his disciples, until one day the Troupe had to disband. He was eventually diagnosed with diabetes and cancer, and a few months before he was to die, he sent a note to both Zak and Valant, Blackmailing them to solve a puzzle whose wrong solution would result in shooting Magnifi, and the right solution could give the solver the rights to Troupe Gramayre's magic. Cue Magnifi's death, and the subsequent trial with Zak as the defendant and Valant as the key witness. Magnifi, of course being true to his reputation, left one last great performance in the mystery behind his death. A ruthless performer who wasn't afraid of life or death and whose deeds on life still follow his successors to this day.

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• Ambiguously Brown: He's got dark skin, with no other indicators regarding ethnicity.
• Anti-Villain: His perfectionism and ruthlessness made him do terrible things, though the people he tormented inadvertently crippled his daughter, whom he loved dearly. It's debatable if his actions were done out of malice or out of his twisted obsession with testing others.
• Asshole Victim: Ironic, since he kills himself. He blackmails his subordinates and puts them through gruelling tests constantly to make them prove themselves. Even on his deathbed, he uses it as an opportunity to test Valant and Zak, not caring about the legal trouble the two could get into.
• Blackmail: He used Zak and Valant's role in accidentally shooting his daughter to blackmail the two of them.
• Driven to Suicide: He shot himself in the forehead after being declared terminally ill due to cancer, and after neither of his potential heirs shot him.
• Jerkass: He blackmails his two apprentices with their role in accidentally shooting Thalassa, which ends up indirectly causing many of the problems in "Turnabout Succession."
• Jerkass Has a Point: Despite having been a total ass about it, Magnifi did have a legitimate reason for kicking Mr. Reus out of the troupe. When Mr. Reus injured himself during practice, Magnifi just wanted him to sit out of live performances for a while. When Mr. Reus tried to perform anyway, that was when Magnifi kicked him out of the troupe. Considering how dangerous Troupe Gramarye's tricks can be, people could get seriously hurt or even killed if the practitioner can't perform the tricks flawlessly.
• Love Makes You Evil: His descent into dickery was caused by the accident in the rehearsal of Zak & Valant's Quick-Draw Shootem when his daughter Thalassa was shot.
• Never Suicide: Averted in what is the first time in the series in which this happens. While Valant seems like the obvious suspect in Magnifi's murder, Valant only tried to frame Zak, and Magnifi instead took his own life.
• Old Master: For Zak and Valant, as their much older mentor in magic.
• Playing Card Motifs: As the master of the Troupe, he naturally gets the Spade suit. His beard and sideburns form a similar shape to the bottom part of a spades symbol. Even his hospital pyjamas have spades on them.
• Punny Name: "Magnificent". Also, "Magnifi", as in "Magnify"... which is what the Perceive ability does. "Tensai" means "genius".
• Secret Test of Character: He liked to do these to his students, sometimes to ridiculous and incredibly dangerous extents. His death is a perfect example, as it relies on them shooting "the forehead." Zak passes by realizing that the "forehead" belongs to the clown doll, not Magnifi, while Valant refuses to shoot and fails.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: While he himself caused it, it was his death that became a That One Case for Phoenix Wright for seven long years, because the resultant trial ended with his disbarment due to forged evidence made by Drew Misham on the orders of Kristoph Gavin and by extension, the entire events of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney that followed afterwards, as well as one of the two events that kickstarted the Dark Age of Law in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies!

Zak Gramarye (Zack Arumajiki)

Zak Gramarye (Zack Arumajiki)

^{Click here to see him as Shadi Enigmar}

"I have done many things in my life, some well, some poorly. But this is a cross we must bear alone to our graves."

Real name: Shadi Enigmar (Kagero Nanafushi) alias Shadi Smith (Kagero Urafushi). Magnifi's most beloved disciple, and Trucy's biological father. As enigmatic as his master, this man would never lose his smile in the face of a challenge or a test. Incredibly skillful, he liked to talk in riddles and never cared to even put his life on the line in a gamble for victory and glory. For a long time, he had set his eye on Magnifi's daughter, Thalassa until she left the Troupe to marry another man. However, one day, she returned in grief as her husband had died while on a trip. Zak took this chance and started pursuing her once more, until she fell in love with him as well. They married and had a daughter named Trucy. Later, the Troupe disbanded and Zak found himself accused for having killed his master Magnifi. Being the trickster he was, no matter the outcome, he had already arranged for a last magic act of vanishing before disappearing for long seven years. Until one day a mysterious gambler, only known by the name of Shadi Smith, appeared at the Wonder Bar and challenged pianist Phoenix Wright to a game of poker...

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• Acquitted Too Late: He's cleared of suspicion in his mentor's death when Valant finally comes clean that it was a suicide. Unfortunately, this only comes out several months after Zak's own murder.
• Best Served Cold: Even after seven years the scars to his ego from his loss to Wright in their first poker match still burn, to a point he tries to plant a card on Wright during their second poker match so he could accuse him of cheating. And when that failed, he goes as far as to assault the woman who was assisting him in this con.
• Chekhov's Gunman: He's first seen as a victim in the first case of Apollo Justice, but it isn't until the fourth case of said game to know who "Shadi Smith" really is, and how he ties with the rest of the game's plot.
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: He went on the run to avoid being wrongly convicted of his mentor's murder, leaving Trucy behind in the process. He evidently promised her he would return one day, which he managed just long enough to pass the Gramarye performance rights onto her before being axed.
• Distaff Counterpart: To Misty Fey. Both are the absentee parents of your female assistant in their respective games, both went into hiding due to being wrongly accused, both show up years later to protect their daughters’ inheritance from a bitter aunt/uncle figure, and both are killed while incognito before their real identities can be made known.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Just from observing a card game, he knew not to trust Kristoph Gavin from the start from how he played and apparently correctly guessed he was a dickish monster.
  • When he finds out that Valant was believed to be Magnifi's murderer, he writes a fake confession note to deflect blame off him.
• Excellent Judge of Character: One of his talents was judging people's character from how they played poker. He went so far as to fire Kristoph Gavin in favor of Phoenix after one game with each- which, as the events later would prove, was a smart idea as the person he ditched was highly unstable and untrustworthy.
• Fatal Flaw: Zak's seven-year retreat into obscurity took a heavy toll on his pride. Once a talented and respected magician, Zak left the world in an ignominious note: Trying to con Wright when the latter's already down on his luck (all because Wright beat him in a poker match fair and square seven years ago), assaulting his assistant Olga Orly when the con failed, and then getting immediately murdered right afterward.
• Godzilla Threshold: Defied. Even in a worst-case scenario, he was unwilling to hire the obviously untrustworthy Kristoph Gavin or incriminate Valant for their master's death.
• Good Stepmother: He’s technically Apollo’s stepfather, and though the two never have a chance to meet, he hopes for Trucy to have a relationship with her half-brother once Phoenix informs him of their connection.
• Grievous Bottley Harm: Zak is killed by being struck on the head with a bottle of grape juice.
• Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: Although it's not clear how much hair he had while working in the Troupe Gramarye (as he was always depicted wearing his hat), he's almost completely bald by the time of his reappearance.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Right before the second poker game, he magics Phoenix's business card inside a grape juice bottle. Phoenix later copies this trick to circumvent Zak's attempt to cheat.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He’s pretty rough around the edges, has a violent temper, and his actions past and present cause no end of trouble for Phoenix. However, his crimes are considerably lesser than those of his fellow troupe members, and he goes to great efforts to protect his daughter’s inheritance and his former partner’s reputation, even if it means confessing to a crime he didn’t commit.
• Large Ham: As a magician, he's loud and bombastic.
• Meaningful Name:
  • "Zak" and "Varan" combine to make "zakkubaran", "frankly". Shadi Enigmar is a shady enigma; "Kagero" means "shadow son" and "Nanafushi" may allude to the Seven Wonders/The Seven Mysteries (nana fushigi).
  • "Shady" with "Smith" just being a generic, nondescript last name. His Japanese given name means "shadow son", and his surname is a combination of "ura" ("the other side", like tails on a coin) and "fushigi" ("mystery").
• Pet the Dog: He makes sure that after he's legally declared dead, Trucy will inherit Magnifi's performance rights; and after hearing that suspicion has fallen on Valant for Magnifi's death in Zak's absence, he writes up a fake confession just to clear his partner's name.
• Poor Communication Kills: The fallout of his trial. Turns out the real page that was torn out of Magnifi's diary was used by him to bequeath his performance rights to Zak.
  Phoenix: ...You could have told me this earlier. Like, seven years earlier.
• Punny Name: His stage name's first part sounds like "knack", which Phoenix indirectly references.
• Second Love: To Thalassa, after her previous husband's death.
• Secret Test of Character: Likes this just as much as his mentor did. Specifically, he plays poker with people to test their personality and trustworthiness. He also shows the consequences of never disclosing the existence of such a test, as that led to his own death, since Kristoph thought he was fired for not being a good poker player. Thought it probably wouldn't have mattered when Kristoph only ends up proving his point.
• Sore Loser: He does not take failure well. His game with Phoenix ends with him extremely pissed off, to the point of clubbing his accomplice across the back of the neck with a solid glass bottle (she's lucky that didn't kill her).
• Spanner in the Works: Merely giving a vague reveal that he knew Kristoph Gavin, just because Zak was walking past him in the Borscht Bowl Club, is what ultimately causes the lawyer's downfall. Until that point, Phoenix had no idea Kristoph had anything to do with the forged evidence that led to his disbarment.
• Start X to Stop X: His plan to expose Phoenix for cheating at cards was to cheat himself.
• Stepford Smiler: Seven years into his life on the run, he still manages to be just as upbeat despite all that he’s gone through. It’s implied Trucy picked this trait up from him, with Spirit of Justice establishing it as a Troupe Gramarye creed.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Though not much is seen of him before his seven-years long disappearance, Zak Gramarye was a nice and likeable man who'd never shown any signs of unwarranted hostility. As Shadi Smith, he is demonstrably more vicious, punching Spark several times despite him being his only confidant, trying to get petty revenge on Phoenix over their previous poker game through cheating, and assaulting his co-conspirator when it turns out his plan failed.
• Ungrateful Bastard: After leaving his daughter to be raised by Phoenix for seven years, one of his first actions on showing up again was to try and frame Phoenix for cheating at poker, which could have ruined his reputation and livelihood if word had gotten out.
• Visual Pun: His associated card suit is the club. He clubs Olga Orly with a bottle, only to die himself after getting clubbed with another by Kristoph Gavin.
• Would Hit a Girl: He had knocked out his accomplice Olga Orly with a bottle.

Valant Gramarye (Varan Arumajiki)

Valant Gramarye (Varan Arumajiki)

^{Click here to see him at age 37.}

"It is forbidden for a magician to have a good imagination."

Real name: Unknown. The second of Magnifi's disciples. Professional and more regal than his companions, Valant was a great magician who was proud of his abilities, however this was never enough for Magnifi who always seemed to prefer Zak. As such, he developed some resentment towards him. Once in love with Magnifi's daughter Thalassa, he could never fulfill his desire to have her before Zak made her fall in love with him. After the Troupe disbanded, he was summoned for one last test by his master and became an important piece on the trial dealing with his death. He spent the next years helping Thalassa's daughter Trucy and performing in small venues, waiting for the day he would make his one grandiose comeback and once again amaze venues full of people all around the world with the wonders he masterfully performed and he always believed were rightfully his own.

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• Added Alliterative Appeal: His usual speech pattern uses both this and Antiquated Linguistics.
• Always Second Best: To Zak, in magic and in love.
• Antiquated Linguistics: His usual speech pattern, mostly for show. Also adds an astonishing amount of alliteration.
• Anti-Villain: His part on Magnifi's last test made him this. What he did was pretty awful, but you can understand and sympathize with his motivations, plus he ends up honestly remorseful and turns himself in to deal with the guilt.
• The Atoner: He turned himself in for framing Zak for the murder of Magnifi.
• Body Double: You can optionally have him reveal that he has a stunt double for his magic tricks. He doesn't factor into anything whatsoever.
• Chekhov's Gunman: He turns out to be either directly or indirectly responsible for huge amounts of the game's backstory, including Phoenix losing his badge.
• Color Motif: Yellow, which is something that ends up biting him in the butt during one of his testimonies.
• Convicted by Public Opinion: See Laser-Guided Karma below.
• Disturbed Doves: His damage animation consists of doves flying out of hammerspace. "Alakazaaaaaaugh!" indeed.
• Exact Words: While it probably wasn't intentional, as Spirit of Justice hadn't been written yet, it's worth noting that he never actually denies the existence of a third disciple. When Phoenix asks, he answers, "Such as...?" and confirms that only he and Zak received letters from Magnifi on the night of the shooting. Which was true, given that Mr. Reus had been kicked out of the troupe by that point.
• Full-Body Disguise: He disguised himself as Lamiroir during The Guitar's Serenade.
• Green-Eyed Monster: His motive for pinning Magnifi's death on Zak, who received Magnifi's performance rights instead of Valant.
• Heel–Face Turn: After realizing how much harm he has caused others, he turns himself in to atone for his crimes.
• Hidden Depths: He seems like just a grandiloquent eccentric when you first meet him, but he's so much more. He also appears to have in-depth knowledge about medicine.
• Honorary Uncle: For Trucy, who straight-up calls him "Uncle Valant." She's the daughter of his colleagues, so it's a given.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: While he does brag a lot about how he's the one meant to restore the "Gramarye miracle", when talking with Phoenix, Valant claims to not be talented enough (which is why he needed the rights for Magnifi's tricks).
• Large Ham: Being a magician, he likes to be dramatic.
• Laser-Guided Karma: After his despicable acts during Magnifi's last test are revealed, the general assumption among the public is that Valant was the real murderer, and Zak only disappeared to cover for him. As a result, his life becomes a lot harder.
• Leet Lingo: One of his "freakout" scenes has him saying AlakaZOMG.
• Missed Him by That Much: He was commissioned by Klavier to make a teleportation illusion with Lamiroir, which involved working closely with her to the extent where he dressed up as her on stage which fooled literally everyone, but it's heavily implied that he never noticed she was in fact, Thalassa. This is because he assumed Thalassa was dead, as it took Phoenix telling Valant that Zak was alive after the seven-year Time Skip for him to start thinking on the similarities between the two women.
• Punny Name: "Zak" and "Varan" combine to make "zakkubaran", "frankly". Valant is also the present progressive form of the French word "valoir", meaning "to rate" or "to be worth". It also sounds like "talent", which Phoenix indirectly references.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • When Trucy shows him the envelope she received at the beginning of "Turnabout Succession," he drops his usual theatrics and demands to know where she got it. It's indicated that he knew almost immediately that Zak had transferred the performance rights to Trucy.
  • During the flashback case, he's shocked when the diary page is presented, apparently having had no idea that it was fake.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: "Valant Gramarye" is likely just his stage name, but he's the only member of the Troupe whose real name is never stated.
• Porn Stache: Grows one when he gets older. It's supposed to make him look more mature than his younger self.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: His overly loquacious manner can get annoying, such as his very flowery description that Magnifi's IV fluid was yellow.
• Spectacular Spinning: He likes to spin his staff around.
• The Unfavorite: Phoenix notes that Magnifi likely wanted Zak, not Valant, to be his successor all along.
• Wardrobe Malfunction: A minor, almost literal version. His damage animation causes most of the magic tricks he was carrying to set off at once.
• White-Dwarf Starlet: Despite Troupe Gramarye's relevance being in the toilet, he's still attempting to keep his name and the troupe's as a whole up with extremely minor magic shows such as one in a supermarket parking lot. Their popularity does spike up again when he plans a revival show, but upon learning that Trucy actually owns Magnifi's performance rights and Zak gave a false confession to try and clear Valant's name, he willingly decides to give up and turn himself in for trying to frame Zak.

Thalassa Gramarye (Yumi Arumajiki)

Thalassa Gramarye (Yumi Arumajiki)

^{Click here to see her as Lamiroir.}

"I am myself once more. For the first time... I am glad to be alive, Mr. Wright."

The "lovely assistant" of Magnifi, as well as Zak, Valant and Reus. Thalassa is also the daughter of Magnifi. While only advertised as an assistant, she was skilled enough to be on par with her three companions and even her father. A calm and peaceful woman, although impulsive and a bit naive. She had an incredible voice which would eventually gain the attention of a wandering musician called Jove, whom she eventually married and had a son with. But after one tragic accident took the life of her husband, and her son went missing, she returned disheartened to her old Troupe where she found solace in one of her companions, Zak Gramarye. Both fell in love and eventually married as well, but as destiny would prove to be stubborn, tragedy would strike her once more as, after a failed magic trick rehearsal, she almost died. Later she also disappeared and remained hidden for many years. She found herself in Borginia, without memories of her past life, and became the "landscape painter in sound", Lamiroir.

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• Amnesiac Resonance: Despite losing her memories as the magician Thalassa, she as Lamiroir manages to pull off a magic trick under Valant's orders extremely well, and her default pose is the same as the third magician featured on Troupe Gramarye's usual publicity photo of her, Zak and Valant which is also the one used for the infamous commemorative stamp.
• Blind Musician: She works with Machi who's a blind musician. It's her, not Machi, who's blind... But then, it's implied she got eye surgery between cases 3 and 4 of the fourth game, and her eyesight is clearly back by the sixth.
• Chekhov M.I.A.: It's established in the fourth case that Thalassa Gramarye was accidentally shot dead at a rehearsal. Just kidding. A witness from the third case, Lamiroir, turns out to have been her under an assumed name. (Granted, she had lost her eyesight and memory).
• Continuity Cameo: Makes a voice-only appearance at the end of Spirit of Justice, where she receives Jove's photograph from Phoenix and decides that it's finally time to tell her kids about their relationship. Her text box is also unnamed during this, to avoid Continuity Lockout for anyone who isn't caught up.
• Fauxreigner: At first being thought to be from Borginia (as Lamiroir), she's actually from America.
• Hiding the Handicap: Her management made her keep her blindness hidden from the general public to better sell her "Landscape Painter In Sound" act.
• Identity Amnesia: After the failed rehearsal that almost cost her life.
• Intergenerational Friendship: She's very close to her teenage pianist, Machi.
• Leitmotif: "Landscape Painter in Sound".
• Lovely Assistant: The sole female member of the Troupe; she played the role of assistant to her father, Zak, and Valant.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Lamiroir is actually Thalassa Gramarye, mother of two children from whom one is Trucy. The other is Apollo, although he doesn't know this yet.
• Meaningful Name:
  • "Thalassa" is the primordial goddess of the Mediterranean in Classical Mythology. "Yumi" means "gentle ocean". Both reflect her calm nature and the color of her stage outfit. Her son Apollo follows her mythological theme naming in the English version.
  • "La miroir" is French for "the mirror",^note albeit with the wrong gender and her reflection is shown on the computer screen as the player decides her vote in the last case.
• Missing Mom: She supposedly died in a rehearsal accident when Trucy was a kid. She's this to Apollo, too. Justified in both cases, although she has now approached Phoenix about letting them know of their relation.
• Near-Death Experience: Twice. She's hit with a bullet that causes her to go blind and have amnesia, then several years later, hides in a contrabass case and nearly suffocates.
• Never Found the Body: Valant tells Phoenix that he and Zak never saw any proof that Thalassa had died. Finding out Zak was still alive after the Time Skip made Valant think that the lack of proof meant Thalassa was still alive as well.
• Parental Abandonment: Not intentionally, at first. She lost her memory, and thus had no idea who Trucy was until she gets them back. She apparently assumed that Apollo had died in the same fire that killed Jove, leaving him to be adopted by Dhurke. According to Datz, the kingdom being thrown into chaos after that particular fire made it difficult to track her down. However, she has refused to return to Trucy's and Apollo's life once she regains her memory.
• Posthumous Character: Played up like one, but eventually subverted.
• Refused Reunion: After regaining her memories, she chooses to hold off on telling Apollo and Trucy that she’s their mother for the time being. She decides the time is right to tell them at the end of Spirit of Justice.
• The Reveal:
  • She's Apollo and Trucy's mother.
  • She is the final juror who decides the outcome of the last case.
• Saying Too Much: A rare, positive instance of the trope in the series. During the first trial day in "Turnabout Serenade", she mentions that no one had told her that LeTouse had been shot. However, a gag order was issued to not tell anyone not implicated in the case, especially not Lamiroir, about the circumnstances of his death, and since no one had told her about it, she is not supposed to know he was shot. This allows Apollo to prove that, just as he said that LeTouse himself stated, Lamiroir was a witness to the murder.
• She Knows Too Much: Someone attempted to murder her after she testifies in court. Thankfully, she knows that the power is off in the stage, and uses the darkness to hide, but nearly suffocates after she locks herself in a contrabass case. She is rescued by Apollo and Trucy, and her attempted assassination is a minor plot point.
• Skewed Priorities: Because Valant swore her to secrecy, she can’t bring herself to reveal how she teleported across the forum during the Guitar’s Serenade performance, even though doing so is crucial to proving an alibi for Machi.
• Spanner in the Works: Being in the middle of the teleportation trick made her a critical witness in "Turnabout Serenade".
• Strong Family Resemblance: Especially when seen dressed as a magician, she's pretty much Trucy as an adult.
• Teen Pregnancy: First gave birth at eighteen, if in-game ages are anything to go by.
• Throwing Off the Disability: Phoenix convinces her to get an eye operation to cure her blindness after the case is solved. It was apparently a success by the credits.
• Translator Buddy: She translates Machi's Borginian to English.
• True Blue Femininity: The only female member; she wore blue while the Troupe was together. As Lamiroir, she also wears a blue constellation-decorated coat, which emphasizes her serene elegance.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: At the end of the trial of Vera Misham, she is asked to decide if the defendant is guilty or not guilty. If the player selects "Guilty", the verdict is left as a hung jury, and Misham dies from poisoning.
• Wham Line: She says something towards the end of Turnabout Serenade's first trial session that throws the whole courtroom into disorder:
  Lamiroir: ............ It was him. I am sure of it.

The Great Mr. Reus (Mr. Menyo)

The Great Mr. Reus (Mr. Menyo)

^{Click here to see him as The Great Mr. Reus.}

"Hang loose, baby!"

Real name: Roger Retinz (Kanenari Shinoyama). The youngest of Magnifi's disciples. Brash, mouthful and defiant. Much like his partners, he had absolutely no regards for safety when it was time to prove his amazing magician skills. However, his desire to being in the spotlight went even beyond Magnifi's own wild expectations, as he was willing to disobey him and even perform while injured. This ruthless and dangerous attitude pushed Magnifi to eventually kick him out of the troupe. After what he believed to be the biggest humiliation of his life, he vanished, just like every trace of him having been part of the Troupe. With his resentment and outright hatred for the troupe growing more and more, he found a new opportunity in the world of TV. Soon he would make a big name for himself as a producer, talk show host, and director of famous TV programs going as far as to be nicknamed the Ratings Rajah (Jack Yamashino). But hidden to the world, he never cut all ties with his magic roots, as he got himself an apprentice of his own named Manov Mistree to whom he gave all the rights to succeed him as the great Mr. Reus. After a while he became more willing to accept magic shows, although still resentful, on his TV programs.

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• Abhorrent Admirer: Appears to be one of Betty's, except that's a ruse for him to get her to do the things he wants.
• Alliterative Name: Roger Retinz.
• Arc Villain: Of The Magical Turnabout; while he doesn't have much involvement in Spirit of Justice's central story, he does act as a significant antagonist with regards to Trucy's story and the Gramarye story arc carried over from Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney.
• Blunt "Yes": When Trucy asks him if he hated her family enough to kill an innocent man to frame her, he says, "You're damn right!"
• Broken Ace: A highly successful TV producer, a magician so skilled that even Trucy couldn't notice his tricks, and a scarily competent Chessmaster capable of manipulating others into committing a near perfect crime for him while he sat several miles away that was foiled only due to external circumstances. The only problem was he couldn't let go of his dreams, and his bitterness over the failure of said dreams.
• Call-Back: His sleazy looking white shirt, white hat with hatband, facial hair, and red second shirt is a Call-Back to Zak Gramarye's sleazy looking white suit, white hat with hatband, facial hair, and red shirt. Him getting exiled from Troupe Gramary for incompetence, and his deep grudge against Trucy Wright for inheriting the Gramarye name also bring to mind Morgan Fey, (though unlike Morgan, he does not have his own heir to inherit the title instead, with the closest he gets to this being his own murder victim).
• Character Catchphrase:
  • "Hang loose, baby!"
  • "No tricks, no gimmicks."
• Coat Cape: While not actually a coat — it's a sweater with the sleeves tied around his front — Roger does wear it above his button-down shirt this way to accentuate his stereotypical Hollywood bigwig image. In his more-villainous persona later in the case, however, this trope is played as straight as possible by Roger using stage magician hand gestures with the back of his sweater around his arm like a proper cape.
• Cool Mask: He wears a mask that covers half of his face.
• Corrupted Character Copy: A flamboyant Troupe Gramarye member with a grudge against Magnifi? He's essentially a more villainous Valant Gramarye. His plan even involved framing another (honorary) member of Troupe Gramarye, Trucy. Unlike Valant though, he's not sympathetic in the slightest.
• Distinguishing Mark: The scars he received during practice are still on his right forearm thirteen years later. It was instrumental in proving that the victim and his successor, Manov Mistree, was not the same person as the original Mr. Reus.
• Dramatic Irony: His ultimate revenge against Magnifi. Reus thinks because Trucy, Magnifi's granddchild and heir to his magic tricks, couldn't see through his own magic tricks, he has trumped Magnifi's line as a magician. Long-term fans of the Ace Attorney franchise however know that the defense attorney who exposed Reus is Magnifi's other grandchild and Trucy's half-brother, and therefore Reus hasn't actually defeated Magnifi's family line.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He’s convinced Magnifi kicked him out of the troupe due to regarding him as substandard after he injured himself during practice, and he declares Trucy to be inferior to him for not seeing through the trick he used to frame her for murder. It’s implied that his persistent use of their craft for such petty and selfish ends was what disgusted Magnifi and baffled Trucy, both of whom believed stage magic should be used to entertain others first and foremost.
• Familial Foe: He serves as this to Troupe Gramarye. Once a member of the show under the alias Mr. Reus, Retinz was exiled from the show after an accident while practicing, and came to harbor a deep hatred for the family as a result of this. In the second case, he attempts to frame Trucy Wright, the heir to the Gramarye name, for the murder of Manov Mistree, and has Trucy sign a rigged contract that would cause her agency to get repossessed by him should she be found Guilty. Eventually, Apollo Justice (unknowingly a member of the Gramarye family) is able to prove Trucy's innocence, and Retinz continues to curse the Gramarye bloodline both during and after his Villainous Breakdown.
• Fatal Flaw: Envy and being unable to let go of the past. He had a great, albeit sleazy job, was making a lot of money, was well-known in the industry, and had a student who was capable of taking up his mantle and revitalizing the Great Mr. Reus's tricks, but he threw it all away and killed said student for his revenge. The final point showcases how he fights against the game's theme of inheritance.
• Faux Affably Evil: Likes to act nice and suck up to people with high paying jobs. People that aren't related to the Gramaryes, that is.
• Fireball Eyeballs: One of his animations has him ignite a fireball in his left hand, which is reflected in his glasses.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: He has glasses, and he is a murderer and fraudster.
• Greed: Retinz tricks Trucy into signing a contract that would cost the Wright Anything Agency three million dollars, and when the agency can't pay, he threatens to repossess the office! But his greed is an act, as he isn't really interested in the money; his true motive is Revenge against Trucy and Troupe Gramarye.
• Hate Sink: He can come off this way because, unlike some antagonistic characters such as Calisto Yew and Aristotle Means (who are definitely Jerkasses but nutty enough to be charming all the same), a lot of Retinz's dialogue is just spiteful comment after spiteful comment about how he's going to ruin Trucy and put Apollo and Athena out of work. It's also noteworthy that he's one of the very few killers in the series that deliberately murdered to frame a third party, instead of framing them after the fact to throw off suspicion, which only makes Retinz even more unlikable. It's a more realistic kind of antagonism but not as Ace Attorney-like, which is why he fits this trope. It turns out that, while he's still unsympathetic, there is a lot more to him than the game leads you to believe.
• Hypocrite: He constantly lambasts the other members of Troupe Gramarye for being a bunch of jerks, despite him being more scummy, cold-hearted, and unrepentant than Zak, Valant, and Magnifi ever were.
• Identical Stranger: Looked enough like Manov Mistree in his youth that the latter could very convincingly claim that he actually was Mr. Reus making a comeback. In fact, the only thing that tells them apart in-game is X-shaped scars on Retinz's arm.
• Ignorance Is Bliss: He gets his ultimate revenge, and the ultimate irony as well. During his Villainous Breakdown, he takes comfort in the fact that while he may have been exposed as a murderer and a fraud, it was not a Gramarye (i.e. Trucy) who beat him. But since Apollo is actually Trucy's half-brother, he was in fact beaten by a Gramarye.
• It's All About Me: His attitude towards show business in general, hearkening all the way back to his time as the original Mr. Reus. Trucy calls him out on this.
• Insufferable Genius: He holds a very high opinion of his magic skills while also coldly dismissing Trucy's. Despite his attitude, he really is a skilled magician, both because of having been a student of Magnifi Gramarye (who only had four students), and also because of his way to use said magic skills to murder Manov Mistree, which could have outright been a perfect crime, were it not for the mistake of a third-party.
• Jerkass: He tricked Trucy into signing a contract that would force the Wright Anything Agency to pay him a very large amount of money because of a certain clause. Then after she was arrested for Mr. Reus's death, he quickly runs a smear campaign on TV against her and the agency. And finally, he murdered his fan and protégé for the purpose of said revenge.
• Jerkass Has a Point: He points out that Trucy failed to see through his magic trick and is thus an inferior magician. Trucy admits he has a point, although unbeknownst to him, Apollo, who's also a Gramarye, was the one able to uncover the trick. Apollo doesn't try to refute this, but instead argues that she's a better entertainer than Retinz, as she's able to sway a crowd Retinz had manipulated into calling for her execution.
• Large Ham: When he stops being the Ratings Rajah and starts being Mr. Reus. He's practically an evil Valant. He occasionally snaps back to his Ratings Rajah persona when he starts describing the shows he's working on, though.
• Laser-Guided Karma: He's revealed to be a slimy, treacherous and petty murderer, loses all his power, and is defeated by the half-brother of the girl he was trying to frame, ultimately losing to a Gramarye. The fact that he's likely going to spend the rest of his life in jail while despised by everyone who has heard of him is an extremely well-deserved punishment for such a loathesome individual.
• Leitmotif: "The Masked Magician", which he gets once he reveals that he is Mr. Reus, a noticeably darker and mysterious techno-inspired theme that directly contrasts with the showy and flashy Troupe Gramarye theme.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Once exposed as Mr. Reus, he reveals his scar, and his sleazy con-man producer shtick gets tossed out the window, as he once again embraces the persona of a Stage Magician.
• Manipulative Bastard: He's very good at getting people to do what he wants, best shown by his interactions with Betty.
• Meaningful Name:
  • His Japanese name, if one were to flip each name, results in 'yamashi no narikin', meaning 'a swindling/cheating nouveau riche.' This is also a reference to his profession, as this way of name-flipping is common parlance among Japanese producers.
  • The retina is the part of the eye that receives light focused by the lens. Quite fitting, for a magician turned TV producer
• "Miss X" Pun: The stage name Mr. Reus puns on mysterious, appropriately for a Stage Magician. Doubly meaningful as reus means "guilty" in Latin, and he masterminds a crime.
• My Card: He offers his card when he introduces himself.
• Never My Fault: He blames his disappearance from the magic world on the Gramaryes. In actuality, Mr. Reus was fired from Troupe Gramarye because he tried to perform an act while injured (endangering himself and the audience) against Magnifi's orders. During his Villainous Breakdown, Retinz insists that his murder of Manov wasn't his fault, that he's not to blame, and that he didn't do anything wrong, curse the Gramaryes!
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Robert Downey Jr., is that you? Or perhaps it's Johnny Depp?
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Roger first appears to be a greedy, egotistical television executive trying way too hard to be trendy, but this is merely a façade for a calculating, bitter, and vengeful man.
• Odd Name Out: Excluding Jove Justice, who was a temporary guest star, he's the only member of the troupe to not use "Gramarye" as the last name of their stage name.
• Paparazzi: He seems to be this, as he's really gung-ho about ruining Trucy's career and the Gramarye reputation. Actually, while his grudge is real, it has nothing to do with increasing his ratings or getting a scoop.
• Playing Card Motifs: Unique in that instead of representing a card suit, he represents the Joker.
  • Unlike most playing cards, the Joker doesn't have a consistent appearance, hence why Mr. Reus has so many differences in his design compared to the rest of the troupe.
  • The Joker is also excluded from most card games, just as Mr. Reus was kicked out of Troupe Gramarye.
  • There are two Jokers in a standard deck of cards, and the Mr. Reus killed in Trucy's show was an imposter who took Roger's place.
  • As the name implies, the Joker is usually depicted as a clown of some sort. Reus used the broadcast of Trucy's show as a front for a prank show, which was itself a front for a frame-job.
• Playing with Fire: Fire seems to be his gimmick as a magician, and he can summon a ball of fire at will when he gets angry.
• Professional Butt-Kisser: Seems like this, as he gets goober-y when confronted with someone of a noted profession or higher position as he offers them business cards (such as with Apollo and Athena before he learns they're Trucy's lawyers, and later with the Judge and Nahyuta).
• Propaganda Machine: Retinz takes full advantage of all media outlets to launch a smear campaign against Trucy and the Wright Anything Agency. In a few short hours, he has people calling for Trucy, Apollo, and Athena's heads.
• Prophetic Name: The word reus means "guilty" in Latin. Therefore, his former stage name could mean "Mr. Guilty".
• Punny Name: Roger Retinz, the Ratings Rajah.^note It also sounds a bit like "watch your ratings." Also, Mr. Reus, the mysterious magician. "Reus" is also an anagram of "ruse". Now what does that mean? An action intended to deceive someone or a trick. He's a con artist. Bilingual Bonus in this Hurricane of Puns: "Reus" is also a Latin word that means "guilty".
• Pyrrhic Victory: Subverted, since, while he's convinced he ultimately triumphed over Magnifi Gramarye through fooling Trucy with his illusions, since Apollo's Trucy's half-brother, he's ultimately defeated by a descendant of Magnifi Gramarye.
• Reality TV: Aside from talk shows, this appears to be his bread and butter, particularly of trashy reality TV - the trashier, the better, as he says. This ranges from bikini wrestling to hidden camera prank shows to celebrity scandal betting. At the time of Trucy's show, he was busy overseeing a show where washed-up celebrities play musical chairs for a second chance at cultural relevancy! This is actually a plot point, as he combines his magical repertoire with his knowledge of hidden camera prank tricks to set up Manov Mistree's murder.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives one to Trucy at the end of the trial, calling her a "naive greenhorn" who has no business calling herself a magician.
• Remember the New Guy?: There was absolutely no mention of him or his connection to Troupe Gramarye as Mr. Reus in Apollo Justice, aside from a possible, easy-to-miss hint during a conversation between Phoenix and Valant. This is handwaved by the fact that Magnifi kicked him out before the Troupe really made it big, and essentially Unpersoned him afterwards.
• Revenge Before Reason: Despite becoming rich and famous and more importantly gaining a devoted fan of his stage magician persona, he could never let go of his dream of becoming a famous stage magician, nor his bitterness over being dismissed by Magnifi. In the end, it causes him to murder said fan in an attempt to ruin the life of the one single non-Jerkass member of Troupe Gramarye (who was never part of the Troupe anyways).
• Revenge by Proxy: Goes after Trucy (who was only a small child at the time of his dismissal) simply because all the other remaining members of Troupe Gramarye are dead, in prison, or missing.
• Rube Goldberg Hates Your Guts: He develops a very convoluted scheme, involving Trucy's magic contraptions, to kill Manov Mistree while he seemingly has an airtight alibi.
• Secondary Color Nemesis: His Mr. Reus getup was half-green, half-purple (possibly as a reference to the Joker, who is known for wearing that color scheme and shares the same playing card rank motif). In contrast, the rest of the Gramarye apprentices were garbed in primary colors, with Magnifi wearing black.
• Self-Serving Memory: Possibly; he claims he was kicked out of Troupe Gramarye because he injured himself during practice, but he leaves out that he was kicked out after he tried to perform anyway despite his injury. Trucy also suggests at the end of the trial that the real reason Retinz was kicked out was because of Retinz's cavalier attitude towards magic. It's never made clear whether or not Trucy is correct.
• The Sociopath: Tries to frame Trucy for first-degree murder, nearly bankrupts the Wright Anything Agency, tricks the de Famme twins into accompanying him with the murder of Manov Mistree, has his devoted fan and apprentice killed all over a petty reason, and shows zero remorse for any of it.
• Stage Magician: Being part of the Troupe he was one, and he acts like one after he reveals himself to be Mr. Reus in court.
• Uncertain Doom: After being exposed as the killer, he's at risk of receiving the death penalty for the premeditated murder of Manov Mistree, with evidence being the complex method he uses to kill Mistree along with the prank script and the hidden sword.
• Underestimating Badassery: He's savvy enough to know that framing Trucy for murder while her father was around to take her case would be asking for trouble. Unfortunately for him, he did not consider Phoenix's apprentices to be serious threats to his plan.
• Ungrateful Bastard: How does he treat his one true fan who becomes his successor? He murders him to screw over Trucy as his revenge against her.
• Unperson: When he got kicked out of Troupe Gramarye, nearly all signs of his membership with them were erased. All that remains of his time with the Troupe is a single poster.
• Villainous Breakdown: He summons a red curtain to perform his magic show. He spins around and makes the masks of Troupe Gramarye appear in his cape, one by one, and burst into flames while he declares his intentions to destroy them. But when he tries to make Trucy's mask appear, his own mask shows up in his cape. He tries again, but his mask reappears, covered in blood and laughing at him. He drops the performance, faces the camera, and pleads that he's the victim and that he didn't do anything wrong. A spotlight shines on his face, confusing him and forcing him to shield his face. More and more spotlights shine on him while he screams in protest. Fade to white, the courtroom is back to normal and Roger Retinz collapses to his knees while his eyes spin and his mouth hangs open.
• Wingding Eyes: One of his animations has his glasses fly off because his eyes turned into hearts.
• Worthy Opponent: He gives credit to Apollo for deducing his identity and his means of committing a murder remotely where Trucy could not, unaware that he’s accrediting the firstborn grandchild of Magnifi, his hated rival, for taking him down.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He pulls this on Manov Mistree who was his successor and The Mole he planted within Trucy Wright's magic show who was planning to play a humiliating prank on her on live TV, and was planning on ruining her by exposing all of Troupe Gramarye's and her own secrets also on live TV. Retinz decided that pinning a murder on Trucy and bankrupting the Wright Anything Agency was worth more than Mistree's life ever was and turned that prank into a deathtrap.

Jangly Justice (Sousuke Odoroki)

Jove Justice (Sousuke Odoroki)

A world-travelling musician who performed with the troupe in its early years, Jove was Thalassa Gramarye's first husband and Apollo Justice's biological father. He commonly went by the Stage Name of "Jangly" Justice. After leaving the troupe, he, Thalassa, and baby Apollo eventually made their way to the Kingdom of Khura'in, where Jove was killed during a fire while giving a private performance to the royal family.

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• Alliterative Name: Jove “Jangly” Justice.
• Bludgeoned to Death: He was knocked out by a blow to the back of his head and left to die in the fire.
• Chekhov's Gunman: He’s first mentioned in passing in Apollo Justice, although nothing is touched upon other than his connection to Troupe Gramarye and the general circumstances of his death. He comes up again with greater significance in Spirit of Justice.
• Dub-Induced Plot Hole: In the fourth game, Spark Brushel told of how Apollo’s father had died in an accident during one of his performances, yet Spirit of Justice shows his death was part of a deliberate attempt to assassinate Queen Amara. While it’s understandable Brushel might not know all the details of what happened, this was actually a discrepancy in the English translation of the fourth game. In the Japanese version, Brushel says Jove died during a gig of his but doesn’t specify that it was accidental; the Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy rephrases Brushel's comment in English to line up with the original Japanese.
• First Love: To Thalassa Gramarye, before he died. The epilogue to Spirit of Justice shows she still remembers him fondly 23 years later, and seeing his face again, through a photo, convinces her to come clean to Apollo and Trucy about their parentage.
• Futile Hand Reach: Toward his son as he lay dying, which you can see through his eyes, thanks to the Divination Séance. He died without ever knowing that Apollo was rescued by Dhurke.
• Good Parents: In his final memories, he can be seen comforting a crying Apollo after the fire breaks out, and he made every effort to try and save his son even on the brink of death.
• He Knows Too Much: It’s implied that Ga'ran only killed him to hide the fact that Amara was rescued from the blaze, or that she herself was even involved. Ga'ran even had to ensure any trace of him in Khura'in was eliminated so that no Divination Seance can be used to implicate her.
• Meaningful Name:
  • His English name comes from Jupiter/Jove, the father of Apollo in Roman mythology, and also a patron of justice and hospitality toward travelers.
  • His Japanese name translates to “a surprisingly helpful youth”, befitting the hidden significance behind his minor role in the plot.
• Nice Guy: Said to be a stand-up guy who could make fast friends with almost anyone, something he and Dhurke had in common.
• No Indoor Voice: Those who knew him remember him having a booming voice that could grab anyone’s attention. Where else would Apollo’s Chords of Steel have come from?
• No Name Given: His stage name was given as “Jangly Justice” in the English localization. In the Japanese script, Datz says they knew what his stage name was but never says it outright.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Dhurke only knew him by his stage name, “Jangly Justice” when they met, and any identifying information was lost in the fire along with him. Both of which complicated things when it came to performing a Divination Seance and reuniting Apollo with his mother.
• Retcon: Apollo Justice revealed that Apollo and Trucy share the same hairstyle quirk. Spirit of Justice would have you believe it’s a Hereditary Hairstyle that came from Jove… Even though Jove and Trucy aren’t related; she and Apollo share a mother but have different fathers.
• Shout-Out: Visually based on Jiro - particularly the '72 live-action iteration - and they share a "wanderer" identity. To make it slightly less obvious, Jove is in red instead of denim blue, but all the other details (the short jacket with a high collar, the round belt buckle, bell bottom jeans, even the guitar strap) are similar.
• Small Role, Big Impact:
  • Besides his relation to Apollo, he barely figures into the plot, but a reflective plate he just so happens to have in his field of vision when he died manages to acquit Dhurke and implicate Ga'ran in Amara's attempted assasination.
  • Furthermore, it’s implied he saved Thalassa’s second bracelet from the fire by wrapping it in Apollo’s blankets before he died. The bracelet turns out to be the only means of proving Apollo’s connection to Thalassa and Troupe Gramarye, as Phoenix was able to establish years later.
• Spanner in the Works: He was invited to perform for Dhurke and Amara on the same night that Ga’ran enacted her staged assassination of the latter. His presence nearly derailed Ga’ran’s plans in their infancy, and succeeded at doing so 23 years later.
• Strong Family Resemblance: His only known photograph shows that he was essentially a slightly skinnier Apollo. Dhurke highlights the similarity when telling Apollo about him.
• Surprise Witness: In the final case of Spirit of Justice, Apollo realizes that the photo Dhurke procured of him can be used to hold a Divination Séance, granting new insight into the fire that almost killed Amara. Jove's last memories end up posthumously exonerating Dhurke and destroying Ga'ran's leverage over Nahyuta.
• Token Good Teammate: He is the only member of Troupe Gramarye who is neither a criminal nor neglectful parent.
• Unperson: While Mr. Reus at least had a poster to commemorate his time with Troupe Gramarye, there’s almost no record of the fact that Jove Justice ever existed. All of his belongings were destroyed in the fire, and his fellow troupe members are either dead, in prison, or living incognito. While he is remembered in Khura’in for the tragic circumstances of his death, it takes Dhurke seeking out some random European tourists who knew him in the past for everyone to learn of who he was.
• Vague Age: His exact age is never said for certain. Dhurke describes him as a more “grown-up” version of Apollo, who was 24 at the time, yet his wife Thalassa was only 18 or so when they were married.
• Wandering Minstrel: He's described as having been a modern-day minstrel, wandering the world playing music on his guitar. His relations with Troupe Gramarye and the royal family of Khura’in both came about because of his work.

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