Sandbox / Ace Attorney Manfred Von Karma

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

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.

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A-G

• 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.
• 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 the parrot. 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.
  • 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.

H-Y

• 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.
• 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.
• Revenge by Proxy: His treatment of Miles was intended to shape him into his father's antithesis. To make matters worse, this was after he had killed his father himself.
• 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.
• 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.

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