Characters / Ace Attorney: Witnesses and Other Characters - Trials and Tribulations

aka: Ace Attorney Dahlia Hawthorne

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

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Ace Attorney's witnesses and other characters debuting in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations. There are spoilers for later installments as well as the original trilogy; read carefully! Also, most characters (as usual in this franchise) have dub name changes, which are written in bold.

For Iris and Bikini, who debuted in Bridge to the Turnabout (Kareinaru Gyakuten), see here.

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Turnabout Memories (Omoide no Gyakuten)

Dahlia Hawthorne (Chinami Miyanagi) — All spoilers unmarked

Dahlia Hawthorne (Chinami Miyanagi)

Voiced by (Japanese): Rina Sato (anime)

Voiced by (English): Dani Chambers (anime)

"With absolutely no proof, you treat a voluntary witness like she's a mass-murderer..."

The true villainess of Trials and Tribulations. Dahlia is introduced as the ever-sweet, ever-innocent Friend to All Living Things girlfriend of Phoenix Wright, but Mia already knew that something was wrong with her. Turns out she tried to frame Phoenix for a murder she committed, and Phoenix himself was originally supposed to be the victim. Mia eventually unmasks her and put her behind bars and eventually, on death row.

However, her criminal career actually started several years before, when she seduced Terry Fawles and used him to fake her kidnapping in an elaborate plan to get back at her family. When the plan didn't go as intended, she faked her own death and got Terry convicted to death for it, then killed her own stepsister and co-conspirator, again framing Terry, to stop her from confessing. In the following trial, after testifying under the pseudonym "Melissa Foster" (Satoko Mukui), she narrowly escaped conviction by manipulating Terry into committing suicide and, a few months later, poisoning then-defense attorney Diego Armando.

She was eventually used by her mother, Morgan Fey in her plan against Maya Fey, by calling her back from the dead via channeling her spirit after she is executed a month before the final case of Trials and Tribulations, but even then, Dahlia still carried on her own ambitions and revenge, although it is later found out that she willingly did so for her own benefit. It takes the powers of all the main attorneys and prosecutors to stop her from getting Maya in jail for matricide. She eventually gets lectured back to the underworld by Mia Fey.

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• Aesop Amnesia: You'd think that after her first set of crimes went wrong and led to her escaping by the skin of her teeth, she'd learn that she isn't cut out for this whole 'criminal' business. Nope, she just keeps trying to solve her crimes with more crimes, until finally justice catches up to her. Justified in that she's all but stated to be a textbook sociopath, who by definition can never learn from their mistakes as they believe nothing is ever their fault.
• All for Nothing: Dahlia’s entire series of murders can be traced back to the fake kidnapping that she masterminded on Dusky Bridge to steal a diamond worth two million dollars from her father, a plot that ultimately failed since she lost the jewel and led her to kill others for the sake of covering it up, only for her to eventually be executed after getting caught and fail her last murder attempt as an evil spirit summoned from the underworld.
• Animal Motifs: A butterfly. Not only do they flutter around her when she's in her "innocent" persona, but her Black Eyes of Evil give her a slightly insect-like look while her general beauty. It ties into her clothing as well; her sandals have a butterfly design, and the way her stole floats around her like wings ties her to the butterfly in particular. Finally, and most definitively, her final appearance is as a spirit after previously appearing in the flesh.
• Arch-Enemy: Towards Mia Fey, a feeling that is reciprocated. Mia hates Dahlia because she made Terry Fawles kill himself when he was about to get acquitted for a crime she committed, and because she poisoned her boyfriend, Diego Armando, shortly afterwards — in fact, Mia considered the fact Dahlia murdered Doug Swallow all but a Foregone Conclusion in Case 3-1. On the other hand, Dahlia despises Mia for finding her guilty of murdering Doug Swallow and sending her to death row.
• Asshole Victim: She gets hanged for her crimes and, when she returns from the dead, stabbed by Godot.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Her court mugshot, which normally appears in full after a culprit is convicted. However, hers is completely shadowed. This goes two ways: one, it shows that since she's a dead criminal, she doesn't exist anymore. Two, it shows that while there are very despicable criminals out there, none of them have gone to the depths of evil as Dahlia had done. Having a shadowed profile shows just how heartless Dahlia is at her core.
• Badass Boast: Gets off a very low-key, but utterly menacing, one during her final stint on the witness stand.
  Dahlia: Dahlia Hawthorne. And my current profession? Permanently retired.
• Bad Liar: Both times Mia gets her on the witness stand, the only reason she lasts more than one session of testimony is because the Judge and the prosecuting attorney are both trying their hardest to let every massive mistake she makes slide. Once she even lied about the weather, a mistake Winston Payne of all people corrected, and another example had her lying about listening to music while a fight was in front of her for her, where she basically showed how insensitive she is in reality. She has a seriously hard time improvising once Mia catches her up and leaves glaringly-obvious holes in her statements, despite having personally planned out and prepared both of the murders she's testifying about. When Iris begins making the exact same mistakes against Phoenix, it's a major clue that something isn't right.
• Beauty Is Bad: While she's beautiful, saying she's bad is an understatement.
• Beware the Superman: Case 3-5 shows how terrifying it would be for a spirit with a mission and potential to be channeled to exist if that spirit was Dahlia.
• Big Bad: At least one of multiple Big Bads in a Big Bad Ensemble in Trials and Tribulations, with Godot being another Big Bad who fights against her. Cases 1 and 4 are largely (if not solely) because of her actions, and Case 5 is mostly the result of her teaming up with her mother, making her the villainess responsible for the game's overarching plot.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Dahlia teams up with her mother, Morgan Fey, as the villainesses of Bridge to the Turnabout.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: While horrifyingly evil, she manages to get virtually everyone except Mia and Diego to fall for her charms, at least until she's found out.
• Bright Is Not Good: Dahlia is a ruthless killer with bright red hair and pink and white clothes, and her ghost form has off-white skin while retaining the hair. While possessing Maya's body, however, she edges closer into Dark Is Evil.
• Black Eyes of Evil: Even before she reveals her true nature, these serve as a very subtle Red Right Hand.
• Black Widow: She killed Doug Swallow, her ex-boyfriend who was trying to warn her current boyfriend, Phoenix Wright, that she was dangerous. And she then tried to have Phoenix killed after Doug. She also drove Terry Fawles to suicide.
• …But He Sounds Handsome: Present when she pretends to be Iris, even if subtly. In addition to the comments mentioned below in Never My Fault, wherein Dahlia indirectly blames Iris for her misfortune, "Iris" during her conversation with Phoenix also claims that "my sister always does what's right" and shows a lot of adoration for her — which given that "Iris" at that point is actually Dahlia says a lot about how she perceives herself.
• Cain and Abel: Her first known murder was of her stepsister Valerie, and her relationship with her twin sister Iris isn't much better. While Iris, despite knowing what Dahlia has done, has a measure of sympathy and love for her, Dahlia despises Iris, scorning her sister for her refusal to participate in her original fake kidnapping plan, and even conspires with Morgan to frame her for Maya's murder.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: Dahlia refers to her mother, Morgan Fey, by name in her testimony in "Bridge to the Turnabout" to show that she has no love or respect for her mother.
• Card-Carrying Villain: After her time in jail and being executed, she seems to be embracing what a horrible human being she is. Once she is revealed to be pretending to be Iris, she doesn't bother with her fake nice-girl act, even sporting some deranged facial expressions to make sure everyone sees her vile nature.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Her entire life was a protracted series of backstabbings and dirty deeds. She betrayed both Valerie and Terry Fawles, and later betrayed both of her boyfriends in college. Even after she's executed for her crimes, she still manages to screw Morgan over one last time by essentially spilling the beans on her entire plan to the court. While she believed the plan had gone off without a hitch at that point, she makes it clear she's only confessing out of bitterness and hatred towards her mother — and to rub Phoenix's nose in it.
• Clashing Cousins: The ruthless Arch-Enemy to Mia Fey, and also her and Maya's cousin via their mothers being sisters. In Bridge to the Turnabout, she plots to kill the latter as Revenge by Proxy on the former.
• Classic Villain: Representing Pride (believing that she is above the law because of her beauty and charms) and Wrath (going after people she believed have wronged her purely out of childish spite).
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Along with being the first female Big Bad and the only one to have a direct impact on Phoenix's past, she becomes the first supernatural villain of the series by means of Fey spirit channeling.
• Conveniently Unverifiable Cover Story: "Melissa Foster" is from a country that underwent a civil war, which is why she claims she has no papers.
• Cop Killer: Her first murder victim was her stepsister Valerie Hawthorne, who was a police officer.
• Corruption by a Minor: At age 14, she was using her charms to manipulate her tutor, Terry Fawles, into doing anything she wanted. Even making him promise he would kill himself if he were feeling forced to “betray” her.
• Crazy-Prepared: Though Dahlia may be terrible at lying to cover her own tracks, she still got Terry to agree to a Suicide Pact in the event that she needed him to die for whatever reason, all the way back when she was fourteen. Five years later, she invokes said pact at the end of Case 3-4 to save her own skin, just as Mia was about to get Terry acquitted.
• Crime After Crime: Her original crime was trying to steal a valuable diamond from her father by faking her kidnapping with two accomplices. After that crime went south, she killed her accomplices to keep them from talking, killed an ex-boyfriend who figured her out and was trying to warn her current boyfriend (Phoenix) that she was bad news, and attempted to kill Godot (who was investigating her). She would've tried to kill Phoenix if Iris hadn't stopped her. So when she finally was caught, instead of getting a few years in prison for the scheme (maybe less if she snitched on her accomplices), she gets the death penalty for killing her ex.
• Crippling Overspecialization: She's good in using her looks to manipulate people, but that's it. She's a Bad Liar, has bad impulse control and ticks off easily. When she's against Mia who doesn't let Dahlia's looks get in the way, she's got nothing.
• Crocodile Tears: One of her many ways of getting sympathy is fake-crying.
• Cute Is Evil: She looks and seems like The Ingenue and a Yamato Nadeshiko with a white dress, Parasol of Prettiness, and butterflies flying around her. But all that hides a bitter, hateful Serial Killer with Chronic Backstabbing Disorder who uses her cuteness to manipulate men. Her sister Iris is more genuinely nice while having similar looks.
• Dark Is Evil: While she's a redhead who's heavily associated with bright, traditionally feminine colors, she becomes this while possessing the black-haired Maya. However, the scenes where she's defeated for good and forcibly excised from Maya have completely black backgrounds, and they're probably the most terrifying and nightmarish scenes in Trials and Tribulations due to the anguished Nightmare Face she wears while leaving Maya and how she 'dies' at the end. Her mugshot is also just a shadowed, featureless profile unlike the rest of the game's mugshots; this not only shows that she's dead, but also that she's a completely sociopathic and heartless monster at her core with no redeeming traits whatsoever.
• Deader than Dead: After being executed and then forcibly exorcised, the Judge says that he feels it best that her spirit never be channeled by anyone ever again. So it's probably safe to say she's never coming back.
• Dead Person Impersonation:
  • In Turnabout Beginnings, it's revealed she killed her step-sister Valerie and then disguised herself in such a way that she could pass as her in the eyes of the rather simple Terry Fawles. It's also suggested that after five years in prison, he no longer recognized either of them, and Dahlia was able to take the one article of clothing that Valerie planned on using to identify herself.
  • Inverted in Bridge to the Turnabout, where she impersonates her living twin sister Iris, while Dahlia was being channeled by Maya.
• Death Glare: During her first Villainous Breakdown she shoots daggers at Mia, before immediately snapping back to her facade after she's done. It seems she inherited it from Morgan.
• Devilish Hair Horns: Her hair braids (which she shares with Iris) resemble curved horns, which, in addition to her red hair, gives her visual similarities to that of a demon.
• Devious Daggers: She used a knife to stab Valerie in the back. Upon returning from the dead, she used a dagger to try to kill Maya and successfully deal Godot a mortal wound.
• Determinator: She does not give up easily, even when she’s cornered. Not even death stops her from trying to spite Mia.
• Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: She escapes justice in the first trial she is in. However, she kept killing and things went downhill for her.
• Didn't Think This Through: She didn't think of the possibility of Maya channeling her, and can't improvise once she learns the truth.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Ultimately, she's not the game's final villain, despite her and Morgan being responsible for the events of Case 5. The true killer, who's taken care of after Dahlia's exorcism, is Godot.
• Disney Creatures of the Farce: In court, butterflies will flock to her out of nowhere to highlight her innocent image. During her first Villainous Breakdown, her Death Glare incinerates them with hatred.
• Dissonant Serenity: Mia narrates that after Terry's suicide, both Mia and Edgeworth were horrified... but Dahlia was smiling as she left the court.
• Distaff Counterpart: Both she and Matt Engarde are red-themed characters who uphold an innocent and sweet facade to sway others to their own nefarious ends (with their crimes being similar) — swaying Phoenix in the process to get away with their actions, and going as far to drive their 'lovers' into suicide. At a certain point they reveal that what lies beneath that sugary-sweet cover image is a selfish, cynical evil-doer who uses schemes to further their plans that benefit no one but themselves. They are only defeated when pointed out how utterly their schemes failed in the middle of court. The earliest concept art◊ had her with a lock of hair parted to the left, similar to Matt, but longer. The biggest differences are that Matt's a better liar and Dahlia is more willing to get her hands dirty.
• Easily Forgiven: Due to being such an unusual subversion of the usual Serial Killer profile, Dahlia wasn't taken as seriously as other criminals would have been. In chapter 4, she repeatedly committed perjury, faked her identity was proven to be the mastermind in Fawles' kidnapping plot, and was still a main suspect in her step-sister's murder even when Fawles abruptly killed himself. Due to her charm and beauty, she was allowed to continue her normal life and return to university, where she just continued her long string of crimes. Part of Mia Fey's hatred for Dahlia stemmed from her inability to convince the court just how dangerous she was, feeling guilty that Hawthorne had been allowed to continue doing her evil deeds.
• Enfant Terrible: She plotted to get her sister Iris disinherited when she was probably about 8.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: Despite everything she's done, her sister Iris did feel sympathy for her and loved her, which makes Dahlia seem even worse for her manipulation of Iris and her hatred of her for not participating in her fake kidnapping plot.
• Even Evil Has Standards: She is disgusted at Morgan's plan, because she hates that she's thrusting Pearl in the middle of all the conflict in the Fey Clan. Of course, she then participated in that plan, albeit only for personal reasons of petty revenge on Mia, the same reasons she dismissed Morgan (who wanted revenge on Misty) for. Then again, it's likely that her disgust was only due to Pearl, much like herself, being Morgan's child, as opposed to any holding moral scruples against hurting children in general or feeling any sympathy for Pearl — Dahlia was just trying to insult Morgan out of bitterness and out of the knowledge she might have ended up in Pearl's situation had she got any spiritual powers.
• Evil Counterpart: She becomes one to Mia Fey, being another channeled spirit and having a deep history with the same people (Phoenix, Godot, Morgan, and so on). Now just imagine if Mia wanted to murder people instead of doing good.
• Evil Gloating: Dahlia never misses a chance to rub it in everyone's faces how she supposedly killed Maya and taunts they can't do anything about it since Dahlia is already dead. That is until Phoenix reveals that Dahlia didn't succeed in her sadistic plan because she was actually being channeled by Maya herself to hide from her, then begins to lose it.
• Evil Is Petty: Aside from cruelly putting down Phoenix for unintentionally stalling her diabolical plans, she wants revenge on Mia by concocting a plan to murder Maya at Hazakura Temple because she was defeated by her once (albeit, a defeat that led to Dahlia's death, but still). She also has a tendency to make petty insults out of jealousy towards Mia's beauty as well, even calling her a "spinster" in Case 3-5.
• Evil Redhead: A played with example. The only physical difference between Dahlia and her well-meaning twin sister Iris is Dahlia's red hair. Granted, it's likely a dyed colour as every other Fey has black or brown hair and Dahlia was explicitly shown to have black hair when she was fourteen. Still, the one distinguishing feature her ghost has is bright red hair, so dye or not, it's part of her identity.
• Evil Versus Evil: Conspires to kill Maya in 3-5, but is Out-Gambitted by Anti-Villain Godot. It's one of the few cases where the lesser evil wins.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Her beauty is often commented on in-game, but she's one of the more twisted and evil characters in the series. Being the manipulative monster that she truly is, even the Judge points out how "even the loveliest rose can hide the cruelest thorns."
• The Fake Cutie: Positively adorable in fake Moe-mode, disconcerting when she shows her true nasty colors, rather terrifying when she goes into full Villainous Breakdown mode.
• Fatal Flaw: Pride and Wrath. Dahlia commits crimes because she feels entitled to everything and is utterly confident in her ability to get away with anything by playing nice. While she is right that her The Fake Cutie act is good enough to fool most guys (though it's much less effective on women, like Mia Fey), her confidence in her lying ability is... far less well-placed, to say the least. She is also incredibly reckless and vengeful, which leads to her committing completely unnecessary crimes- like poisoning of Diego Armando and murdering Doug Swallow, neither of whom had any actual evidence against her, because she was mad they could figure her out. These two flaws led to her being found guilty of first-degree murder and getting the death penalty, but even after death she kept carrying her grudges, this time largely focusing on Mia Fey for getting her found guilty. Mia and Phoenix eventually banish her by telling her that her inability to see past her own ass and take setbacks like a lady are why she's a horrible criminal and will never win against them.
• Fate Worse than Death: Her ultimate fate, as pointed out by Mia. For her crimes both in life and death, her punishment is being reduced to a helpless, lonely, and pitiful wretch who is forced to exist with the knowledge of how none of her plans ever worked out the way she wanted them to, only getting her killed, and how her attempt at revenge against Mia from beyond the grave also failed spectacularly and that she will never be able to get that revenge against Mia she wants so badly. For eternity.
• Fiery Redhead: For all her pretending to be a sweet-hearted, demure girl, she is short-tempered and extremely petty. Much of her crimes were done out of sheer spite towards Mia, who got her declared guilty and subjected to execution by hanging. And towards the end, when she realized her entire 'beyond the grave' revenge plan failed because she was tricked into possessing Maya and not Pearl, she undergoes an epic Villainous Breakdown where she essentially throws a (terrifying) tantrum, cursing both Phoenix and Mia's names and screaming as she is forcibly exorcised out of Maya's body. Her last moments were spent glaring and stewing in anger as she whines that she's not ready to pass on to the next life yet.
• Fille Fatale: She started seducing people and ruining lives at age fourteen, and likely started her scheming long before that (after all, she got her twin Iris disinherited at 8).
• Freudian Excuse: From what Dahlia says to Phoenix while posing as Iris (as well as during her own testimony when she reveals herself in court) and what Iris herself says later on after Dahlia's spirit is exorcised from Maya's body, it seems that much of Dahlia's malice and sociopathy was born from hatred towards her parents, as a result of her mother abandoning both her and Iris for their lack of spiritual power, and her father neglecting them after he took them away from her; neither of her parents showing any love for her is stated to be the reason why Dahlia concocted her fake kidnapping plot, as she wanted to steal the diamond to spite her father. However, in the end, this ultimately does nothing to excuse all the pain and suffering she's inflicted upon others with utterly no regard for how it affected them — especially since the diamond theft in particular involved taking advantage of the mentally disabled Terry Fawles, framing him for murder and getting him sentenced to death, before she drove him to suicide years later. Rather than elicit sympathy from anyone other than Iris in-game, it merely cements how selfish Dahlia truly is; she is willing to kill anyone without remorse just to satisfy her own petty and violent rage. And that's not even getting into how Dahlia, given how much she lies, may possibly even be twisting the truth about her parents to some extent.
• Godzilla Threshold: She's such a heartless monster and her plan is so complex that it takes Phoenix and pretty much all his friends, allies, and rivals to work together to stop her from getting Maya locked up for life.
• Good Wears White: A subverted case. Although she does wear white and she originally seems like a demure Nice Girl, it's also revealed that she's one of the vilest characters in the franchise.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Her actions pushed Godot to become vengeful against Phoenix and to become another Big Bad who targets Phoenix for misplaced vengeance. She therefore is indirectly responsible for his attempts at revenge against Phoenix in cases not involving the Fey clan, making her one of these.
• Head-Turning Beauty: The Judges and Prosecutor Winston Payne quickly get the hots for her when she takes the witness stand, much to Mia's chagrin. She's fully aware of this, and actually exploits it to get the court in her favor.
• Hate Sink: As noted by Phoenix and Mia in Bridge to the Turnabout, Dahlia Hawthorne has arranged or committed murder for spiteful, vindictive, and extraordinarily petty reasons. Dahlia is never given any sort of sympathy by the games, and while Iris does provide a Freudian Excuse for her behavior, it's not treated as something that makes her any less deplorable. Even if her childhood was unpleasant due to being born to unloving parents, she still chose to lash out at and harm innocent people that had nothing to do with her situation, and she's ultimately just a heartless, bratty, spiteful, and selfish monster who has absolutely no remorse for her actions, created with the intention of making the audience hate her guts.
• Hates Their Parent: Her original fake kidnapping plan was done to spite her father into giving up a diamond worth two million dollars before she disappeared with it as revenge for him being neglectful. She despises her mother as well for abandoning her, although she cooperates with Morgan’s plan in Case 3-5 because it gives her another opportunity to enact her revenge on Mia.
• The Heavy: The plot of Bridge to the Turnabout is centered towards her intention to kill Maya to achieve Revenge by Proxy on Mia, but not only did Morgan Fey mastermind the plan, Dahlia is also not the true killer in the case of Misty Fey's murder — she is technically the victim.
• Hidden Depths: She studied literature at university, despite such a major having nothing to do with anything that would benefit her in the slightest apart from just enjoying it. It's noticable that she went out of her way to seduce a chemistry student to gain access to poison, despite being smart enough to take the class herself if she wanted to.
• Hidden Disdain Reveal: While Phoenix understood in Case 3-1 that Dahlia wanted to frame him for murder, the end of the game lets her tell him that amongst all her victims, she hated him for his positive nature and faith in others.
• High-Voltage Death: Kills Doug Swallow this way, by shoving him onto a downed power line.
• Humiliation Conga: Towards the end of Bridge to the Turnabout, her plans are revealed, her plot to kill Maya fails, and Phoenix and Mia tag-team her for a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, pointing out that every single one of Dahlia's schemes ultimately didn't work. Thus, Dahlia will now spend eternity reflecting on the fact that she was a pathetic human being who never did anything right. This culminates with Dahlia's spirit being driven from Maya's body, screaming in rage, all of her past deeds reflected on screen before the last fire of her soul is snuffed out.
• Hypocrite: She resents her mother Morgan Fey for her selfish plan to have Pearl Fey as the Master, believing that she's just using Pearl and passing over her older daughter, yet she joins in her plan because of her own selfishness and desire for revenge against an already dead Mia Fey. Phoenix Wright even calls her out on this.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: In Case 3-4, both Mia and Diego point out that she shouldn't have known that Terry supposedly broke into the stolen car, as she wouldn't have ever gotten a chance to see the scratches on the trunk if she were truly taking pictures of herself in the field of flowers. This is also how she ends up revealing her true identity in that same case; “Melissa Foster” remarks that she’s lucky that she wasn’t “wearing a white scarf.” Valerie’s note, in which she writes down to wear a white scarf so Terry can identify her, as per his instructions (he forgot what both she and Dahlia looked like after five years) and to tell Dahlia that the truth was going to come out, was never revealed to the public, so the only way “Melissa” would know that the scarf was supposed to be white would be if she was Dahlia herself.
• Irony: For someone so desperate to disown her family, she sure relied on them a lot. If it wasn't for Valerie Hawthorne, Morgan Fey, and Iris, she would never have been able to continue her crime spree. In her plans to distance herself from them, she went to them for assistance without ever seeing the hypocricy in her actions.
• It's All About Me: Her actions over the course of the game make it abundantly clear that she cares for no one but herself, and by the end she no longer even bothers to deny it.
  Dahlia: Do you understand why I would kill my cousin now? What my goal was?
  Phoenix: Obviously... It's because you were helping your mother.
  Dahlia: Helping...? Don't make me laugh. From the day I was born to the day I died, I never helped anyone! I lived for myself and, in the end, I died for myself. I thought that was obvious.
• It's for a Book: One of her excuses. It doesn't last long, as she's a literature student looking to acquire samples of toxic chemicals.
• It's Personal: She harbors a vendetta against Mia ever since being exposed as the culprit of Case 3-1, and plays along with Morgan's plan of killing Maya, though only so Dahlia can get back at Mia for exposing her true colours at that time.
• It Was with You All Along: The irony of all ironies in Trials & Tribulations. To escape from Dahlia's murder attempt on her, Maya had to "disappear" by reluctantly channeling her. Dahlia (thinking that she was currently in Pearl's body) was none the wiser, until Phoenix figured things out and gave her that Armor-Piercing Question. Discovering this sends her into one of the most terrifying breakdowns in the entire franchise.
• Jerkass to One: A Crueler To One example, as while Dahlia doesn't care for anyone but herself, she doesn't even pretend to be nice to Mia.
• Karmic Death: Is executed by hanging after being found guilty for Doug Swallow’s electrocution, after she got away with murdering her stepsister Valerie, drove Terry Fawles to suicide, poisoned Diego Armando/Godot, and unsuccessfully tried to poison Phoenix Wright, as well as attempting to frame him for the aforementioned murder of Doug Swallow when that didn’t pan out. Also technically receives this in Bridge to the Turnabout; while her spirit was channeled by her innocent aunt, Misty Fey, who was trying to counter a plan by Morgan Fey and Dahlia to kill Maya Fey, Dahlia herself was the intended target of a Rage Breaking Point-invoking Godot, the man whom she'd poisoned into a half-decade-long coma and consequently left with life-altering disabilities. Bonus points for him attacking her just as she herself was attacking Maya for Revenge by Proxy against Mia — Godot's lover, no less.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Falsely telling Phoenix that his first girlfriend hated him just to hurt him.
  • She exploits Terry Fawles’s (heavily implied) intellectual disability and uses it to render him a pawn in her schemes, culminating in him taking his own life at her command.
  • She plays along with her mother's plans to murder Maya for no discernible reason other than to spite the late Mia and has no problems putting blood on Pearl’s hands via possession or framing Iris, both of whom are her sisters.
• Knight of Cerebus: Outside of a few quick gags about how others act around her, there is nothing Played for Laughs about Dahlia, being a depraved Serial Killer who displays a downright disturbing level of hatred and sadism come the climax.
• Lack of Empathy: The only time she ever shows any kind of sympathy for anyone other than herself is when she states that Morgan's plan to use her own daughter Pearl as a pawn was cruel. Even then, Dahlia doesn't have any remorse for actually enacting that plan, since it enabled her to get Revenge by Proxy on Mia. So it's more like Dahlia is leaning into how Obviously Evil she is now rather than showing actual sympathy, especially since she calls Pearl a “sniveling little runt” moments later.
• Leitmotif: "Distant Traces of Beauty", a theme she shares with her twin sister Iris. They're both very pretty, but are complete opposites personality-wise, hence the name of the song.
• Light Is Not Good: Wearing white doesn't stop her from being utterly vicious.
• Magical Floating Shawl: Dahlia has a translucent pink stole floating around her shoulders, signifying that there is something otherworldly about her.
• Manipulative Bitch: "Two minutes, and she's got the whole courtroom wrapped around her little finger..."
• Meaningful Name:
  • A reference to the Black Dahlia, and she's got thorns. Possibly a Shout-Out to Nathaniel Hawthorne, specifically the story "Rappaccini's Daughter"—the title character is a Walking Wasteland with poison permeating her blood and body, and her very touch is lethal. "Chinami" refers to the saying "chi mo namida mo nai" ("without blood or tears"—basically callous to the extreme). It also sounds suspiciously like Delilah, the lover of Samson who seduced him into revealing the secret of his strength before betraying him to his enemies, leading to his death — which is similar to how Dahlia treated Phoenix.
  • It is said that dahlias symbolize elegance in the language of flowers, which matches the façade she puts on to fool the court. However, red dahlias in particular symbolize betrayal and dishonesty, which is indicative of her true nature and makes her red hair all the more appropriate. Her name can also refer to the Cactus Dahlia, referred to as "Les Etoiles du Diable" (Stars of the Devil) in France, which is rather fitting given her monstrous character.
• Medication Tampering: She poisoned Phoenix Wright's cold medicine in a failed attempt to kill him.
• Might as Well Not Be in Prison at All: Exaggerated—even after her court-mandated execution, she's still amongst the living, pursuing her own nefarious ends, thanks to the Khura'in Channeling Technique. Even after her defeat in court, it's all left up to good faith whether she'll return or not; after all, there’s no guarantee that her spirit will never be channeled again.
• Mister Big: The 155 cm (5'1") tall Big Bad of the third game. For the record, she manipulated the 190 cm tall (6'2") Terry Fawles.
• Muggle Born of Mages: Despite being born into the Fey Clan, both Dahlia and Iris had zero spiritual power, which she acknowledges was actually lucky for them, as it saved them from being the subject of Morgan's schemes and abuse like Pearl was.
• Murder by Suicide: Her plan to deal with Terry Fawles was to pretend to create a Suicide Pact with him where they'd both commit suicide if they couldn't trust each other any more. Terry, being lovestruck and somewhat dim, genuinely believed that she would follow through and kill herself with him, but she had no intention of ever doing so and simply saw it as an easy way to get Terry to die before he could become a liability. She invokes it in Turnabout Beginnings when Terry is the only person who could seal a guilty verdict for her by testifying against her. He kills himself with poison from the necklace she gave him, and she walks out of the courtroom with a smile.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Believes in this big time. Your sister wants out of your criminal lifestyle? Kill her. Terry Fawles might expose your criminal actions in court? Trick him into killing himself. Defense attorney starts getting suspicious about your behavior? Poison him and put him in a coma that nearly kills him. Iris taking too long to retrieve a single piece of evidence from Phoenix Wright? Try to poison his medicine and kill him. Phoenix's friend tries to tip him off that you're a bad person? Shove him onto a live wire? And as you'd expect, this backfires severely. All the murders she commits or attempts to commit just end up painting a massive target onto her back while moving her even further away from her original goals.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: She was horrible enough in life, but being executed managed to make things worse for everyone, as any spirit medium can now channel her.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: A Played With example as it isn't her real name. However, in Japan, her fake name in case 3-4 is Satoko Mukui, which means "vengeful foster child". It's preserved somewhat in the translation, where her fake name "Melissa Foster" sounds like "malicious foster".
• Never Found the Body: She was considered dead as she had fallen from the Dusky Bridge in the fake kidnapping incident five years before Case 3-4. Of course, the reason they never found Dahlia's body was that she was alive all along. No one, not even Dahlia herself, found the jewel she had stolen, however.
• Never My Fault: Blames her failures on others. She also breaks down in rage when Mia reminds that it was her own fault that her schemes never worked. This is also something of a tell during the period of 3-5 where she masquerades as Iris; one of the several signs that something's up is in the way "Iris" claims it was all her fault that Dahlia went bad and was eventually executed, and is suddenly penitent for supposedly "betraying" her sister by not going along with her schemes. She also has this to say when Phoenix points out the failure of the staged kidnapping on Dusky Bridge:
  Dahlia: Sh-Shut your mouth! That wasn't my fault! It was because of that stupid oaf of a prisoner and that weakling of a policewoman!
• Nightmare Face: She wears really scary Death Glares. And when she's forcibly exorcised out of Maya's body, her spirit shoots up into the air screaming with completely shadowed eyes and a particularly anguished expression, fittingly making her face resemble that of a corpse.
• Nothing Nice About Sugar and Spice: She is a delicate-looking and very feminine young woman who wears a pink dress, carries a matching parasol, and summons pink butterflies as a sign of her purity. She's actually a serial murderess and master manipulator who uses her feminine charms and skill at poison to commit crimes.
• Obviously Evil: After being found out in Case 3-5, she does not even try to put on an innocent image anymore; Slasher Smiles become one of her most common expressions at that point.
• Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: Dahlia is five years younger than Mia, and Mia is the one who ultimately exposes Dahlia’s crimes, saving Phoenix from being framed for Doug Swallow’s murder.
• Orcus on His Throne: She makes others do her work whenever she can, which is a big reason why so many of her schemes fail. Eventually she gets so many people involved in them that it's impossible to hide her culpability — especially once her ex-allies start communicating with each other.
• Parasol of Prettiness: Yet another part of her innocent image.
• Pink Means Feminine: Wears an all pink outfit. It's just part of her cover image, though.
• Poison Is Evil: Dahlia's overall weapon is poison, and she's both the most vicious killer in the original trilogy and the one who harmed the most main characters one way or another. Phoenix's experience with her left using poison as one of the only things he could never forgive.
• Polar Opposite Twins: While Dahlia is extremely evil, cruel and selfish, Iris is sweet, gentle and selfless.
• Posthumous Character:
  • She's treated as such during the first part of Case 3-4, as everyone assumed she had died upon falling from the Dusky Bridge. This only applies In-Universe, however, as this case takes place before Case 3-1, so the player knows by this point that Dahlia wasn't dead, and that she would be exposed and caught later. Additionally, both cases are flashbacks set years before even the cases of the first game, let alone the others in this one; she's been dead for a month by the time of Case 3-5.
  • Edgeworth reveals to Phoenix that Dahlia was executed prior to the events of Case 3-5, but she later winds up a witness in court after being executed, courtesy of Mia Fey telling Maya Fey to channel her. Subverted, as everyone initially assumes she's the living Iris due to them being identical twins.
• The Power of Hate: Not even her death stops her vengeful ways, as Dahlia takes her hatred of Mia beyond the grave by participating in Morgan's plan to trick Pearl into channeling her.
• Practically Different Generations: Dahlia and Iris are 15 years older than their maternal half-sister, Pearl.
• Psycho Pink: She sports pink, has killed many people, and is a pure evil Bitch in Sheep's Clothing.
• Rage Breaking Point: She loses her composure when Mia exposes her as the suspect of Case 3-1 and flashes a Death Glare in Mia's direction... then casually concedes defeat before she's taken away. It's Case 3-5 where she truly hits the breaking point, screaming Mia's name in fury after being shown evidence that her plans failed yet again.
• Recurring Boss: The first official one of the series. She is one culprit that is encountered in three separate cases over the course of the game.
• Red Herring: While Dahlia is very heavily involved as one of the main instigators in the events of Bridge to the Turnabout, and unraveling hers and Morgan's plan takes most of the second trial day, she's not the killer (and in fact, since Misty Fey was channeling her when the stabbing happened, Dahlia is the victim in a sense). Even Phoenix and the Judge were all too happy to give Iris a Not Guilty verdict until Godot reminds them that Misty Fey's murderer had yet to be found out.
• Revenge by Proxy: Her plan in Bridge to the Turnabout is to kill Maya Fey to get revenge on the already dead Mia Fey.
• Sadist: Her falsely innocent smile at Terry’s suicide and her delight under the impression that Maya is dead show her as taking pleasure in her cruel acts.
• Satanic Archetype: Dahlia may very well be Satan in a dress. She’s beautiful and acts innocent, but she’s a prideful, selfish being who’s lies, deceives and corrupts genuinely good people into doing her bidding, all on top of being a psychopathic killer. Even her hair braids look like demonic horns.
• Say My Name: After Phoenix and Mia give her a "The Reason You Suck" Speech, she is so enraged that just before being spirited out of Maya's body, she stutters out Mia's name at first, before she devolves to outright screaming it:
  Dahlia: M...M...M...Mia...F...F...Fey Mia Fey! Mia Fey! MIA FEEEEY!
• Screw the Rules, I'm Beautiful!: The reason it's so hard for Mia to prosecute her is because she uses her looks to manipulate the Judge into overlooking the clear faults in her testimony instead of realizing that she simply cannot be trusted.
• Serial Killer: Comfort-Profit. Her original crime was trying to steal a diamond, but when that went wrong she started killing people whenever they seemed to be too close to the truth for comfort. She killed Valerie for wanting out, Terry (indirectly, by taking advantage of his simple mentality to lead him to suicide) several days later so he wouldn't testify against her, and Doug Swalllow about a year after that. She also attempted to kill Diego Armando eight months before Doug, but this attempt failed and merely left him in a coma, and she would've killed Phoenix if Mia didn't catch her first.
• Sibling Murder: Killed her stepsister Valerie when she decided to come clean about the fake kidnapping on Dusky Bridge.
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer: She is nowhere to be seen in any of the promos for the second season of the anime, making her appearance in the 13th episode a surprise.
• Smug Snake: Despite being a constant schemer, none of her plans ultimately go right. Her sloppy criminal activity stemming from her theft of the jewel (itself a failure, as she lost the jewel) forced her to commit more crimes to cover up the first, and her sloppy attempts at these resulted in further collateral damage, which eventually resulted in her getting the death penalty when her attempt to kill Phoenix Wright caused the death of Doug Swallow. Post-execution, she attempted one last time to get revenge on Mia Fey, the attorney who exposed her for what she was, by killing her sister Maya...only to see that attempt fail, with the icing on the cake being that Maya herself was channeling Dahlia to protect herself. Her long history of failed crimes ends up being the subject of a "The Reason You Suck" Speech delivered by both Phoenix Wright and Mia Fey, resulting in one final Villainous Breakdown by Dahlia's spirit. Even after she's gone for good, the one crime Phoenix and Mia don't touch upon — the poisoning of Diego Armando — is revealed to have been botched too, as he revived as Godot and ultimately saved Maya.
• The Sociopath: She's all but stated to have antisocial personality disorder, being one of the most blatant examples in all of gaming.
  • Crime is her go-to method to get what she wants and she proves countless times that she has no regard for the wellbeing of others, coldly disposing of others when they are no longer useful to her.
  • She is superficially charming but unable to form a genuine bond with anyone, with her emotional range being limited to "haughty" and "furious". All of her crimes revolve around her ability to quickly make others like her — manipulating Terry into the fake kidnapping, getting close to Doug for poison, convincing a younger Phoenix that they'd fallen in love at first sight (while it was her sister Iris who actually kept up the relationship, it was Dahlia who first met him and passed off the necklace as a love present), and charming the prosecution and judge into believing in her innocence.
  • She is a pathological liar and a Manipulative Bastard to the extreme, only being truthful when she wishes to hurt someone.
  • She is entitled to an incredible degree, believing herself worthy of wealth and admiration despite doing nothing to earn it. She reacts with temper tantrums and violence if she doesn't get her way.
  • She is able to understand right and wrong, yet apathetic to social norms unless they can be used to deceive and harm others.
  • She is immature and hedonistic, relying on others to do work she could easily do while reaping the results for herself so she can live an easy yet parasitic lifestyle. Her original crime involved her two accomplices doing the hard work in stealing a precious diamond, while she played the kidnap victim.
  • She is unable to take criticism or responsibility, finding ways to blame others for her shortcomings. Due to this, she doesn't learn from her mistakes, believing they were made by others and therefore not her fault in the slightest.
  • She is overly hostile even when it could blow her cover, turning confrontational and violent on the drop on a hat. She is also bad at hiding her irritation or contempt regarding others, being passive-aggressive even during her "polite" façade.
  • She is a narcissist, seeing herself as superior to others and therefore unable to be outdone by anyone — which is why she gets so angry at Mia when Mia beats her in court. She is always right in her own eyes.
  • She is impulsive and irrational, being overly dramatic and unable to plan ahead, relying on others to fill in the gaps. She gets by on luck and manipulating others to save herself, not good planning.
  • Her relationships are all abusive and cold. Every boyfriend she had was useful to her in some way and discarded once their purpose was served — Terry was her Dumb Muscle and Driven to Suicide so he couldn't expose her, Doug was her key to get poison from the college chemistry building and dumped as soon as she'd poisoned Diego, and Phoenix was to unwittingly carry important evidence away from the crime scene. Her twin sister Iris is basically just Twin Switch material, her father was only important because he was rich, her half-sister was just an accomplice, and her mother was an opportunity for revenge against Mia.
  • Last of all, she was also incredibly reckless in her actions; jumping off a bridge and murdering people in broad daylight, despite the fact she could easily be caught or killed at any moment. She also was unable to give up a fight, staying to the bitter end even when outmatched.
• Sore Loser: She doesn't receive it well at all when Mia notes that all of her schemes ended in failure.
• Spoiled Brat: While she wasn't spoiled by either of her parents, Dahlia acts the part in the final trial. She goes into a bratty tantrum after Phoenix and Mia pointed out that Dahlia's entire petty revenge scheme had failed before being forcefully ejected from Maya's body. Dahlia ranted and raved about how her life was ruined because her intended victims didn't "die like they were supposed to", blaming everything and everyone else for her death row sentence.
• Start of Darkness: Although she had a predisposition toward evil from birth given the circumstances behind it, Dahlia didn't become the terror she is well known for being until joining in on a petty crime concocted by her stepsister, Valerie. Valerie had no idea just what a mistake she was making giving Dahlia a taste of illegality until it came back to bite her a few years later.
• Starter Villain Stays: Though she's arrested and eventually sentenced to death in the game's first case, she turns out to have far more presence in the game than the typical first culprit, also being the culprit of a later (though chronologically earlier) case and one of the main antagonists in the final case despite being dead.
• Stealth Pun: The little butterflies that fly around her as a Moe literally die a fiery death when Dahlia shows her angry self. Moths to a flame.
• Strong Family Resemblance: She's the spitting image of Iris in all but hair color. It's justified as she and Iris are identical twin sisters, with Dahlia having red hair to make her different from her sister in appearance and personality. Her Death Glare at the end of Turnabout Memories also evokes similarities to her mother, Morgan Fey.
• Supernatural Floating Hair: As a ghost.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Often fans call her the female Matt Engarde. They're both young and pretty people who Phoenix initially thinks are innocent (and they manipulate him into helping them in court), but later show their true sociopathic selves. Both drove an ex to suicide and are brought to court for murders they committed to cover up initial crimes, and initially get away before losing it all at the last minute because of some unnecessary evil deed.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: She poisoned Diego Armando's coffee in a failed attempt to kill him.
• Teens Are Monsters: Dahlia brainwashed and manipulated Terry Fawles as her scapegoat for her plot to orchestrate a false kidnapping to obtain a diamond from her father as the ransom, even convincing him to agree to a Suicide Pact in the event that she needed him to die to cover her tracks, and framing him for her own "murder" as she faked her death by jumping off Dusky Bridge into Eagle River below, all at the age of 14. She later murders her stepsister in cold blood and manipulates Terry into suicide at the age of 19, making her the second youngest killer in the franchise.
• Terms of Endangerment: She has "Feenie" for Phoenix, which she took from her sister. Unlike Iris, she doesn't say it with affection.
• Thanatos Gambit: She planned to kill Maya Fey by being channeled by Pearl Fey and using Pearls' body to murder Maya in to get Revenge by Proxy on Mia Fey, Maya's dead sister, after Dahlia was executed, thanks to a plan by Morgan Fey to trick Pearl into channeling Dahlia after the execution.
• Theme Twin Naming: Both Dahlia and Iris are named after flowers.
• This Cannot Be!: Has this reaction when it sinks in that she’s been fooled by Maya, and has utterly failed at getting her revenge against Mia.
• Traitor Shot: In the anime, she smirks as Terry drinks the coffee, and her poison along with it.
• Unfinished Business: She planned to kill Maya Fey with a Thanatos Gambit by being channeled by Pearl Fey and using Pearls' body to murder Maya in to get Revenge by Proxy on Mia Fey, Maya's dead sister, after Dahlia was executed, thanks to a plan by Morgan Fey to trick Pearl into channeling Dahlia after the execution.
• Unreliable Expositor: Even when she's not putting on her goody-two-shoes act or pretending to be someone else, the veracity of much of what she says about others' motives, particularly her parents, is fairly questionable.
• Unwitting Pawn: What factored into the intensity of her second Villainous Breakdown was discovering how she was essentially tricked into possessing Maya instead of Pearl, not even realizing what happened until Mia Fey (who was possessing Pearl) and Phoenix spelled it out for her. She was so angry upon learning of the deception that she ends up stuttering, then shouting Mia's name in sheer rage. It's quite fitting karma for someone who manipulated, ruined, and killed people all her life.
• The Vamp: She's more 'cute' than 'sexy' due to her young age, but seduction is still her go-to method of manipulation, and she only dates people who make good pawns: Terry Fawles because she needed some muscle for her plan, Doug Swallow to gain access to poison to use against Diego, and Phoenix Wright to get the poison she used off her person (though that failed when he was so besotted with her that he refused to give it back so she could properly dispose of it). She ends up trying to kill all her boyfriends (only failing with Phoenix because of Mia's intervention) because they knew too much.
• Villain Decay: An intentional example. The first time she goes to court, she might have trouble with Mia, but gets away with her crimes. But she would not just stop killing to cover her tracks. The second time, Mia caught her and got her executed. She came back from the dead to spite Mia, but not only did she fail, that allowed even previous victims of her evil (Godot AND Phoenix) to take revenge on her and Mia outright called her a miserable failure. The once Karma Houdini who masterminded such devious plots and evaded justice ended up being a miserable failure who only got herself killed twice in the end.
• Villain Has a Point: She's not wrong about Morgan Fey being a terrible mother, despite being a terrible person herself.
• Villainous Breakdown: First when Mia exposes her as she really is, and the second when Phoenix and Mia lecture her to the underworld.
  • The first one is relatively downplayed; she simply gives a Death Glare that burns through her good facade, then calms down and seemingly accepts her defeat.
  • The second is much more extreme; first she's forced out of Maya's body screaming in agony, then her spirit lingers on for a short while, desperately pleading that she's not ready to go. Her spirit then bursts into fire, breaking off into several flames in the shape of a magatama, which disappear until only one is left. After events from her life flash in the background, the final flame finally fades away.
• Villainous Lineage: Just like Morgan before her, Dahlia grew up to be a bitter murderess motivated by hatred and jealousy. This is in stark contrast to her twin sister Iris, who became the complete opposite of their mother.
• Villains Never Lie: Her testimony after being revealed on the witness stand is taken at face value despite how often she lied previously. It's justified in that Dahlia has nothing to lose from being honest since she's dead already and can't be punished any more, and telling the truth would screw over Morgan Fey, who Dahlia hates for abandoning her. And played with in that while Dahlia isn't lying, she is mistaken about several important facts.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: For the very first culprit of an Ace Attorney game, Dahlia takes significant effort to take down. Only Kristoph Gavin, who is also the main villain of the game he is in, can dare to come close to that.
• Walking Spoiler: So much of her entry is trenched in spoilers that her page had to leave them unmarked.
• Wicked Cultured: How many soulless murderers are literature students?... Well quite a few I guess...
• White and Red and Eerie All Over: Her red hair combined with her white dress and parasol gives her this trope, rather fitting for a character like her.
• Would Harm a Child: Had zero qualms about using the body of the child Pearl Fey to murder Maya Fey, barely an adult herself at the time. Solely interested in posthumous revenge against Mia, she was unconcerned at the very high possibility that she had gotten Pearl killed in her attempt on Maya's life- despite Pearl's ascension to Master being Morgan Fey's sole motive in orchestrating the whole murder plot in the first place. Indeed, Godot even admits that it wouldn't have mattered to him if Pearl had been the one channeling Dahlia as planned, he would've stabbed Dahlia regardless. A reckless oversight on Morgan's part, a cruel and intentional callousness on the part of her equally deranged daughter.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Dahlia is very good at playing up her sweet, innocent persona and letting people's own assumptions do the rest of the work for her. However, she's actually a terrible liar. She can't improvise to save her life, she leaves glaring holes in her testimony, and she lets herself get flustered easily. To compensate, she acts injured and defenseless whenever somebody turns up the heat, weaponizing the trope.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: Subverted. At first glance, she looks like a demure, kind, and sweethearted girl whose presence attracts butterflies. However, with her it's an act she keeps up to mask her sociopathic evil — it's her sister Iris who is the genuine article.

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"...How...coULd... I... loSe... to... THe... likES... of... YOU...?"

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The Stolen Turnabout (Nusumareta Gyakuten)

Luke Atmey (Aiga Hoshiidake)

Voiced by (Japanese): Toshihiko Seki (anime)

Voiced by (English): Ian Sinclair (anime)

"Zvarri! The truth has once again been elegantly revealed to me!"

Self-proclaimed "Ace Detective" (which ends up prompting Phoenix to refer to himself as an Ace Attorney), and the detective on all the Mask☆DeMasque cases. Full of himself and wants to be the center of attention (but you probably knew that already) and fails miserably.

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• Adaptational Ugliness: The anime significantly increases the prominence of his cleft chin, turning him from merely eccentric looking to a Gonk proper.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: In the English dub, Atmey prefers to pepper his paragraphs with such patterns;
  "The Masked Marauder's Mischief-Making is Matched only by My Meticulous Mind, Meanwhile you Metropolitan Meatheads Missed the Mark on Mask☆DeMasque's Malfeasance."
• Animal Motifs: His snazzy tux, long nose, and Anime Hair make him look a lot like a penguin.
• Anime Hair: Take a plate, and spray paint it yellow. Hit said plate with a hammer. Shave your head, and glue the biggest of the plate shards to your forehead. Rinse, lather, and repeat. That's how you recreate his haircut.
• Artistic License – Law: His plot to use the concept of double jeopardy to back up his alibi only goes to show that double jeopardy in this universe is nothing like how it is in the real life US or Japan. For starters, neither country applies double jeopardy on a conviction, meaning if proof of Atmey being guilty of murdering Bullard or innocent of being DeMasque ever came out, a new trial could easily be set up to vacate the conviction. Furthermore, his appearance as a witness in Ron's murder trial is just that: a witness. As it's Ron's trial, he would be the only one eligible for double jeopardy in that particular trial, whereas the law in-game would protect Atmey if Phoenix didn't prove him guilty there. Even further is that, in Japan, a loophole in the law means double jeopardy functionally only applies if the Supreme Court gives an acquittal, as prosecutors are allowed to appeal not guilty verdicts in lower courts.
• Attention Whore: Even as a child, apparently.
• Beware the Silly Ones: As silly as he looks (and acts), he's not to be underestimated.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Really, he's large enough of a ham to justify this...
• Card-Carrying Villain: When the judge calls him evil at one point, he agrees. Though given that this was in the middle of his attempt to sell himself as Mask☆DeMasque it's probably more of a ploy than a genuine sentiment.
• Catchphrase: "Zvarri!"
• The Chessmaster: Despite being much less intelligent than he wants to be seen as, he actually did manage something fairly clever: planning an Xanatos Gambit as follows: If Ron DeLite gets away with everything as DeMasque, he profits. If Ron gets caught, he can disavow any knowledge of blackmailing him or even pretend to be the one who figured it all out. If he gets away with murdering Bullard, well, he gets away with it. If accused of the crime, though, plead guilty to being DeMasque to dodge the murder charge. It would've worked if it weren't for Phoenix figuring it all out. And the "less intelligent" thing might actually have been a case of Obfuscating Stupidity—after all, getting convicted on day one seemed to be his Plan A.
• Confess to a Lesser Crime: His grand plan was to Get arrested and convicted as the famous thief Mask De Masque to avoid murder charges.
• Consummate Liar: He fools the Magatama by lying right after a previous lie of his was exposed. It may have something to do with how natural he spoke about it, as players don't notice there's something wrong either until the following day.
• Crazy-Prepared: One of the few people who tries to use a guilty verdict as an alibi, and thus invokes double jeopardy. (You cannot be convicted on the same crime if proven to be acquitted.)
• Death Glare: His sweating sprite sports one of these, complete with heavy shadows around his one visible eye. Special mention goes to when it's used on Day 2 when you interrupt his larceny trial to accuse him of murder, where it actually feels like he's glaring at YOU, the player.
• Engineered Heroics: All the times that he caught DeMasque and returned his stolen treasures was planned out from the beginning, in order to satiate his own ego and to meet the demands of his blackmailer.
• Gag Nose: Holy shit. Fans still don't understand how he could fit it into Ron's costume. Possibly a bit of a Pinocchio Nose too, as a tip off to his dishonesty.
• Great Detective: Subverted or possibly deconstructed - he actually worked out who Mask☆DeMasque was after his very first crime, and used the opportunity to blackmail him into committing more thefts and giving the money to him. Atmey twice states that he did this because he wanted to create an opponent worthy of his 'genius'. But that may be a complete lie.
• High-Class Glass: He has a magnifying-glass monocle, as befits a high-class detective.
• Incoming Ham: He introduces himself by startling Phoenix and Maya out of their musings with this line:
  "...Welcome! To my private little "Banquet of Chaos".
• I Never Said It Was Poison: In his final testimony, he claims that Ron wore the DeMasque regalia to his meeting with Bullard, stating it as the reason why there were no fingerprints on the alarm. While correct, it also happens to finally expose Atmey as the real killer; Ron had only revealed that fact hours earlier, and Atmey - who was stuck entirely in his own trial for grand larceny - would not have known that fact... unless he was at the scene of the crime itself.
• Insufferable Genius: Double subverted, or perhaps zig-zagged. When you first meet him, he's seems to be a classic case of Small Name, Big Ego; overblown, and more confident in his intelligence than warranted. Then, you find out he was trying to get convicted the first day, and was likely painting himself as less competent than he actually was. In fact, you find that he was the one who plotted Mask☆DeMasque's heists down to the last detail, starting with the second of the heists. And at the last part of the case, he manages to quickly come up with a suitable explanation for all the loose ends of the case, making only one mistake in the process. His ego was his downfall, however; Phoenix insulted Atmey's ego several times in the second trial, which resulted in the rant that eventually allowed Phoenix to win the case.
  • His ego also gets the better of him in the anime adaptation, as he ends up flashing around the red jewel on his finger that was stolen by Ron from Kane Bullard, causing Bullard to notice and figure out he was the mastermind behind Mask☆DeMasque, enabling him to blackmail Luke. The detective might've gotten away with his schemes had he not been flashing around a stolen jewel on his finger.
• Jerkass: He's an egotistic and narcissistic douchebag who shamelessly boasts about his so-called detective skills but he has no problem blackmailing Ron after discovering his secret identity as DeMasque and framing him for murdering Ron's former boss just because he's also on the receiving end of blackmail by the victim. No wonder, Desirée is pissed at him for being a cowardly criminal instead of Ron.
• Large Ham: Atmey manages to steal the spotlight of every scene he's in, thanks to his bizarre speech and mannerisms and much of his dialogue being coupled with the sound effects synonymous with loud and dramatic characters. It's no wonder that his breakdown stands out as one of the most over the top of the entire trilogy. Really, it's impressive how much he chews the scenery despite having zero voiced lines in the game.
• Latex Perfection: Just how did he wear that mask over his nose, anyway?
• Laughing Mad: When he is found guilty. Both times.
• Leitmotif: "Look at Me", or, as it's known in-universe, "Luke Atmey Elegy" (which he composed for himself).
• Meaningful Echo: "Take a good look, everyone! Unable to find a rival worthy of my genius, I was forced to create one myself! Here I am! The tragic clown...". The first time he says this, you are led to believe he created the Mask☆DeMasque persona to give himself someone to fight. The second time he says this you realize that he actually press-ganged Ron into becoming his "rival" and make himself rich in the process.
• Motive Rant: Used to interesting effect as you hear it from him twice during the course of the case. The first time he's faking it but the second time is when the jig is actually up.
• Nose Tapping: Can be seen doing this in the article about DeMasque's first heist. It helps that his nose rivals his finger in length.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: He's trying to get "exposed" as Mask☆DeMasque on trial day 1. As a result, he's deliberately leaving holes in his testimony for Phoenix to poke at, even if it makes his Ace Detective-self look bad—because of course the fake testimony never actually happened. Indeed, when you face him again on the second day, the events surrounding him show him to be surprisingly competent.
• One-Hit Kill: One of the only instances in the series where it is possible to lose an entire life bar on a cross-examination. His final testimony requires that the player press on his 10+ line statement to find out which one is the most suspicious claim. Choose anything else, and it's an instant game over.
• Punny Name: Look at me! I want love, that's all (ai ga hoshii dake)! The English version of his name can also refer to he wants people to literally look at him in a certain photograph as part of his plan.
• Renaissance Man: Played with; he's an Attention Whore, and all his projects are motivated to make a name for himself. However, he does seem to have a surprisingly broad range of skills — musical composition, building ships in a bottle, amateur biology & chemistry, better than average knowledge of the law (i.e. double jeopardy), detective skills, heist planning, etc.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Does this to sound as intelligent as possible. Although it seems like he at least does know the meaning of the words he's using, he knows little-to-nothing about the subjects he professes to be an expert in. The anime adaptation adds an abnormal amount of alliteration as well.
• Sherlock Scan: Subverted; his "scans" are ludicrously obvious. Godot makes it hilarious, though. However, during their first meeting, he still manages to peg Phoenix as a lawyer^note Probably by the badge, though he's still ahead of most people in that regard; most people don't recognize the badge for what it is and Maya as a spirit medium^note Which suggests some knowledge of the Fey clan, which suggests that his powers of observation aren't completely useless.
• Sinister Schnoz: He has a prominent nose and he's the true criminal behind the murder of Kane Bullard.
• Slobs vs. Snobs: The snob to Gumshoe's slob. Whereas Gumshoe proved himself to be a capable detective despite his shabby looks and casual personality, Atmey is pompous, sharply-dressed, and his accomplishments as a detective are all forged.
• Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: Subverted; he's actually the mastermind behind the thief he's supposedly trying to catch, and the entire "investigation" is a sham.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • The screen shakes before he goes into a Laughing Mad fit, and then he goes on a Motive Rant, calling himself a tragic clown who deliberately created a rival to compete with his genius. He does this two times, although he faked the first one to avoid the charges for his true crime.
  • The anime has a similar breakdown, though the second time, he calms down enough to explain his whole DeMasque scheme and motive for murder. Then once Godot points out his plan has completely dried up, Atmey is left groveling to himself in frustration.
• Villain Respect: In the anime, he has nothing but praise for Phoenix for uncovering his true plan. There's a touch of this in the game as well, since he reiterates his faked Motive Rant in reference to getting beaten by Phoenix.
• You Fool!: See the following quote:
  Atmey: [to Phoenix] ...A fool is too foolish to know that he is a fool...

Recipe for Turnabout (Gyakuten no Recipe)

Jean Armstrong (Kaoru Hondobo)

Voiced by (Japanese): Fukushi Ochiai (anime)

Voiced by (English): J. Michael Tatum (anime)

"Non, non, NON! You naughty man!"

A very...*ahem* flamboyant French chef and owner of the restaurant Trés Bien. Thing is, the food there is anything but. He's armpit-deep in debt in just trying to keep the restaurant afloat.

---

• Adaptational Heroism: The anime removes references to him being a petty thief, as well as the scene in which he helps Tigre try to dispose of Phoenix; in the latter case, Tigre intercepts Phoenix and Maya while they're on the way out of Tender Lender, right after their conversation with Viola.
• Affably Evil: For a kleptomaniac who is easily pressed into perjury, framing, and beating up people, he's pretty friendly to everyone he meets.
• Ambiguously Gay: Despite everything he says and does... he's never explicitly called gay. In the original Japanese, he is referred to as an okama.
• Apologetic Attacker: He apologizes to Phoenix before punching him on Tigre's orders.
• Brain Bleach: He invokes this in Phoenix when he sees Armstrong rub aromatherapy oil on himself.
  Phoenix: MY EYES!
• Camp Gay: His appearance alone renders Phoenix and Maya speechless.
• Chubby Chef: For a very loose definition of chef. He's a heavyset guy who runs a restaurant, at least.
• Damned by Faint Praise: On the second day in court, Godot has the following to say about his coffee:
  Godot: It's special, I'll give you that. It's worth a sip just for the experience.
• Exact Words: If one of his dishes has the words "Inspired by" in its name, then it has absolutely none of the ingredients listed in its title.
• Fauxreigner: Word of God has confirmed that Jean isn't actually French. The writers intentionally gave him terrible spoken French and a misspelled restaurant name^note (It should be Très Bien, not Trés Bien) to reflect this.
• Forced into Evil: He's a legitimately nice guy, but he's also half a million dollars in debt with Tigre, and unfortunately, helping Tigre carry out the murder plot and subsequent frame job was his last chance to pay it off.
• Gratuitous French: He speaks almost exclusively with this.
• Gratuitous Spanish: Apparently for laughs, because it just plain comes out of nowhere. Even the Judge realizes how out-of-place it is. In the Spanish version, it's Gratuitous English.
• In Touch with His Feminine Side: Sometimes refers to himself as a woman.
• Karma Houdini: Implied. He doesn't get a "where are they now" spot in the ending, but his restaurant somehow stays open after the trial.
• Keep It Foreign: In the French version, Jean Armstrong is called Luigi Labocca and speaks with Gratuitous Italian.
• Leitmotif: "Trés Bien".
• Lethal Chef: He can't even get coffee right.
• Lethal Eatery: There is lots of lace in his kitchen that could hold onto germs and pose a fire hazard with their proximity to the cooking equipment.
• Manly Gay: Physically, though he certainly doesn't act like it.
• Never My Fault: He is oblivious to just how horrible his food is, simply writing it off as not being for every customer.
• Non-Indicative Name: Trés Bien, French for "very good"^note Well, misspelled French, see Fauxreigner above, has terrible food.
• Poirot Speak: How he speaks, and rather poorly, at that - he's continuously using feminine articles (la, une) to refer to masculine nouns.
• Punny Name: He's got strong muscular arms. "Hondobo" is a pun on "fond de veau" (French for "rich veal"). He's being "strongarmed" by Furio Tigre thanks to his debt.
• Real Men Wear Pink: And they decorate the walls of their restaurants in it too.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: His eyes are a very reddish brown, and his cooking is really horrible. He’s also Tigre's accomplice, albeit unwillingly. Considering that his kitchen has lots of lace which could easily hold onto germs, his food might also be unsafe to eat.
• Sissy Villain: Subverted; while he has the mannerisms down and has done some questionable things (stealing and cooperating with Furio Tigre to frame Maggey), he is not the murderer.
• Something about a Rose: A few of his animations have him holding a rose. Either he’s picking off the petals while mulling over something, pulling out the petals faster when he’s afraid, or having a shower of petals during his damage sprite.
• Sticky Fingers: He has a habit of stealing from people due to his crippling debt, so he likely pawns off whatever he can get his hands on and he steals Phoenix's Magatama.

Victor Kudo (Shohei Igarashi)

Voiced by (Japanese): Jin Urayama (anime)

Voiced by (English): Greg Dulcie (anime)

"The uniform! It's a disgrace! You can practically see their...*turns pale* their...YES! It's a disgrace!"

An unemployed grouchy old man that has a thing for the Trés Bien waitress uniforms and always has a box of birdseed with him (most likely for the purpose of having a weapon within arm’s length). He comes from a family of kimono embroiderers. A key witness to the case.

---

• Be as Unhelpful as Possible: Ultimately subverted. While it takes quite a lot to drag information out of him in the investigation phase, once he's actually on the stand he is largely upfront and truthful about what he thinks he saw. Even the contradictions Phoenix uncovers ultimately turn out to be a case of him being tricked by the culprit as opposed to him lying or forgetting what he saw.
• Butt-Monkey: He's basically on Butt Monkey duty for most of the case, doubly so when he's on the witness stand.
• Crippling Overspecialization: He's (presumably) really good at embroidering kimonos...and not much else, which comes back to bite him when he's living in either a time (Japanese version) or a place (English version) where kimono embroidery just isn't in that big of a demand.
• Dirty Old Man: It's not immediately obvious, but it's trait that the heroes at one point actively exploit to get him to talk. While Maya can't get him to talk despite wearing the waitress uniform he has a thing for, she channels Mia to ask the questions. Yes, it's Mia Fey as a waitress. He later complains that his reputation's taken a hit since Phoenix used the fact that he only goes to Trés Bien to look at the waitresses to discredit his testimony, bitterly suggesting that he'll be remembered as the old man too busy staring at the serving girl's butt to notice the murder.
• Everyone Has Standards: Even he isn't willing to perv on young Maya when she dresses as a waitress.
• Gag Nose: Just look at that big round red nose!
• Good Old Ways: Always preaching about these, and complaining about those damn kids and their newfangled words like "radio" and "glasses" (it's "wireless" and "spectacles", dammit!).
• Grumpy Old Man: All too apparent from the moment you meet him, though he's mellowed out a bit, come the epilogue.
• Implausible Deniability: His reasons for going to Trés Bien don't hold up when presented with evidence.
• Infinite Supplies: His birdseed, lampshaded.
• I Read It for the Articles: He claims that he goes to Trés Bien for the food, reinforced by Psyche-Locks.
• Jerkass: He doesn't use that box of bird seed to feed pigeons. He uses it to throw it AT them, as well as people who annoy him.
• Leitmotif: "How Sad, the Memory of This War Song".
• Punny Name: "Victor" comes from "victory", and "Shohei" means "soldier".
• Red Herring: Invoked by Furio Tigre. He used Victor Kudo in his staged murder to set up a fake witness, as there wasn't any in the actual murder that wasn't on Tigre's side.
• Scatterbrained Senior: Subverted. At first, it seems that his memories of Glen Elg's murder are completely inaccurate, thanks to a combination of his apparently poor memory and being Distracted by the Sexy. As it turns out, however, his memory of the incident is actually near-perfect, and the inconsistencies are the result of Furio Tigre's inaccurate imitation of Elg during the staged murder.
• Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Rude, perverted, and all-around unpleasant.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: "I don't have a strap fetish!"
• Throw the Dog a Bone: He spends most of the case being thought of as a nuisance by most other characters, but in the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue he talks about how visibly touched he was after his grandchildren threw him a birthday party.
• Unwitting Pawn: Set up by Tigre to witness the fake murder, done to incriminate Maggey.

Lisa Basil (Keiko Koike)

The head of Blue Screens Inc. and Glen's old boss. Incredibly precise and may very well actually be a robot.

---

• Adapted Out: She doesn't appear in the anime, since Maya and Phoenix never visit Glen's workplace.
• Alliterative Name: In Japanese, Keiko Koike.
• Catchphrase: Addresses Phoenix and Maya pretty much exclusively as "you good people".
• Fun with Palindromes: Her, Glen and her new hire Adam Mada in the ending. In all languages.
• Honest Corporate Executive: There's no indication that she's anything other than ethical in her business practices.
• Making a Spectacle of Yourself: She doesn't even NEED to wear an HMD but does anyway.
• Meaningful Name: Her English name might be derived from the Apple Lisa, fitting for someone who runs a computer company.
• Medium Awareness: Whenever you mention someone or something with a picture, it pops up on the screen; she's the only character in the series who moves slightly out of the way to make room for it, because her leaning-to-the-left pose makes it so the image would otherwise cover part of her head.
• Nice Girl: Very polite to Phoenix and Maya, even as Phoenix uses the Magatama to drag info out of her.
• Red Herring: If you think she has anything to do with the case or trial, think again. You pressure a little minor info about the victim out of her (that probably could have been deduced through other means) and she's never mentioned again.
• Robot Girl: May or may not actually be a robot, but sure acts like one; like a Ghost in the Shell, as Phoenix puts it.
• Satellite Character: A satellite character to a Posthumous Character, at that. She exists mostly for the sake of having somebody who personally knew the victim and his occupation.
• Sci-Fi Bob Haircut: Fitting, given the futuristic aesthetic of her tech company.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Phoenix describes her as "definitely not a robot" in his records.
• Theme Naming: All Blue Screens Inc. employees have palindrome names.
• Tron Lines: The buttons on her clothes light up periodically.
• Verbal Backspace: When Phoenix asks her to elaborate on Glen Elg being a loser with "bugs" in his personality, she backtracks and acts as though she hadn't said that at all.

Furio Tigre, aka The Tiger (Toranosuke Shibakuzo, aka Zenitora)

Voiced by (Japanese): Satoshi Mikami (anime)

Voiced by (English): Sam Riegel (anime)

"Gwoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...!!"

Thanks to his similarly-spiky haircut, he looks a lot like Phoenix and even uses that to imitate him, prompting the nickname "Xin Eohp" (pronounced "zin eeope") from Maya. He's the loan shark in charge of Tender Lender, and lent money to Jean Armstrong and Glen Elg. His nickname pretty much sums up his personality.

---

• Adaptation Dye-Job: He isn't a bright red-orange in the anime, and is instead given a more plausible tan.
• Adaptational Jerkass: While the game makes it clear he's only "with" Viola out of fear for what her family might do to him, the anime has him outright call her a "gloomy bitch" when he thinks she's not in earshot of him.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: Orange skin, making him resemble his namesake. Most likely a spray-tan, which would explain how he was able to pass as Phoenix so easily, he just washed it off.
• Animal Motifs: A tiger.
• Asshole Victim: Not yet, but Viola makes it clear that, once they get the chance, her family will kill him for what he's done. The epilogue suggests she ends up doing just via a poisoned meal.
• Bad Liar: You don't really need to press his statements to find contradictions within his testimony.
• Bilingual Bonus: His name is composed of Italian words. "Furio" is a common name for a pet (and fittingly sounds like "furious"), and "Tigre" is... Well, you know.
• Brooklyn Rage: "WHADDYA THINK YOUSE DOIN'?!"
• The Bully: He roars in the courtroom to scare everyone, even the judge, and make things easier for him. He also constantly talks and acts like a tough guy. He also is a loanshark who will even kill debtors, but is afraid of people even more powerful than him like Bruto Cadaverini.
• Casting Gag: In the English dub of the anime, Furio Tigre is voiced by Sam Riegel, the voice of Phoenix himself in the video game series. Amusing as he's impersonating Phoenix Wright.
• Complexity Addiction: His plan to get Maggey convicted for Glen Elg's murder would likely have gone much better if he hadn't bothered with setting up the second, fake murder, and just gotten Viola and Armstrong to testify that they saw Maggey killing him. Between Victor Kudo's seemingly poor memory and his own carelessness when it came to impersonating Elg, it actually ends up backfiring.
• Delayed Reaction: Towards the end of "Recipe for a Turnabout", he doesn't realize that Phoenix tricked him into implicating himself as the culprit until it's outright spelled out for him.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: In the anime, he tries to pass off his knowledge of the poison bottle as him learning about it while imitating Phoenix during the first trial. The real Phoenix points out that the only reason he would've impersonated a defense attorney in the first trial is if he was the murderer.
• The Dreaded: With the exception of the completely unflappable Godot and the much more powerful and fearsome Cadaverini crime family, everyone who gets on the Tiger's bad side is quick to run and take cover: in case of the trial where he takes the witness stand, quite literally too, with both Maya and the Judge hiding underneath the desk. Even Gumshoe has to muster up enough courage to restrain him.
• Evil Twin: Parodied; when Phoenix and Maya first find out about that Nick's got a phony, Maya suddenly exclaims, "I got it!" Phoenix replies, "If you're going to ask if I've got a twin brother, the answer is 'no'."
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Weaponized during his cross-examinations. The Judge and Godot implement a penalty system on Nick when Tigre is pressed on matters that are likely going to piss him off, mainly if it covers old ground with no new insights.
• Hate Sink: He's a rather despicable person who runs a loan shark operation and kills someone to get the money he needs to save himself. The only people he so much as pretends to be nice to are those he's afraid of.
• Healthcare Motivation: Not by choice, but he finds himself forced to reimburse Bruto $1 million for Viola's operation. He plans on seizing Glen's MC Bomber virus as collateral and selling it on the Black Market, but when Glen manages to secure enough money to pay off his own debt (which is not enough to pay off what Tigre owes), Tigre kills him.
• Hidden Disdain Reveal: In the anime, he complains that "this is all that gloomy bitch's fault" loudly enough for Viola to hear.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: His entire plan was built upon posing as Phoenix, lies and false evidence. He's ultimately taken down by the real Phoenix, who in turn lied about a piece of false evidence; Phoenix pretended that the victim's medical cream bottle was the poison-filled murder weapon, only for Furio to do some Evil Gloating and calls Phoenix an idiot for thinking that was the case, then gives a perfect description of what the murder weapon looks like, something he shouldn't know.
• Hot-Blooded: He don't got the look of a boiled lobster for nothin', y'know.
• Incoming Ham: The first indication that you'll be encountering him in any given scene? Just look at his character quote!
• I Never Said It Was Poison: Phoenix catches him by tricking him into explaining how the poison bottle looked like with enough detail. A fact he shouldn't know if he weren't the murderer.
• In-Series Nickname: "Xin Eohp" by Maya.
• Jerkass: After killing a man, he goes to very far lengths to make sure Maggey gets convicted, even disguising himself as Phoenix in order to "defend" her and lose on purpose. There's also his treatment of Viola.
• Large Ham: He literally roars like a tiger.
• Laser-Guided Karma: There's something poetic about a two-bit Loan Shark being extorted for money by an even more dangerous criminal.
• Laughably Evil: His insane temper, exaggerated accent, and special brand of sheer stupidity help to make him as silly as he is despicable.
• Leitmotif: "Swingin' Tiger".
• Loan Shark: The head of Tender Lender.
• Meaningful Appearance: His bright red-orange skin is reflective of his Hair-Trigger Temper.
• Most Definitely Not a Villain: Despite wearing an attorney badge made out of cardboard, having a drastically different personality and skin tone (which he said was a tan), everyone (with the exception of Godot, who didn't take the case) thought he was the real Phoenix Wright. It's only after practically spelling it out in the courtroom that the Judge realizes he was tricked - a whole month after the first trial.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: His name. Also, the French version changes Tender Lender's name to Sadouille-Crédit; that is, "credit scammer".
• No Indoor Voice: Whenever provoked (which isn't hard for him at all).
• Obviously Evil: He looks like Phoenix but Red and Black and Evil All Over. It goes as far as the game not even trying to hide he's the murderer in the case - he is seen as the one who poisons the coffee cup in the introduction. Furthermore, his first actual appearance has him threatening to beat the crap out of Phoenix, right before HE claims to be the real Phoenix, giving himself away as the imposter.
• Paper-Thin Disguise:
  • His Phoenix disguise consisted solely on a blue suit, his spikey hair, and a cardboard cut-out badge. And everyone fell for it, except Godot, because he didn't take the case the first time.
  • He also managed to disguise himself as the already dead victim, and gets found out by making a few crucial mistakes, namely wearing an earpiece over the ear the victim had injured and was rendered deaf in.
• Propping Up Their Patsy: He impersonates Phoenix Wright so he can serve as Maggey's defense attorney and intentionally lose the case to get a Guilty verdict for her.
• Punny Name: He's a furious tiger. "Toranosuke" means "tiger boy" and "Shibakuzo" means, more or less, "I'm gonna kick your ass!" "Zenitora" is roughly "Cash Tiger". Also, tigers are, according to legend, enemies with dragons (i.e. Phoenix, or Ryuichi).
• Real Men Wear Pink: He drives a pink scooter. And accidentally crashes it into a Mafia Princess.
• Red Right Hand: His silhouette looks a lot like Phoenix, but his bright orange skin is a dead giveaway that he's not who he claims to be.
• Screaming Warrior: Roars like a tiger.
• Scrolling Text: Most of his roars cannot be contained by just one textbox.
• Sdrawkcab Name: Maya nicknames him "Xin Eohp".
• The Sociopath: It quickly becomes clear that this guy just does not know how to relate to anyone in any way other than bullying. The only one he bothers to be nice to is Viola, and that's just because her grandfather bullied him into it.
• Stupid Evil: The fact that his convoluted plot to fake Glen Elg's murder for Kudo just to get Maggey framed and then impersonating Phoenix as a lawyer to cinch the guilty verdict made it as far as it did is something of a miracle. He doesn't even realize that he implicated himself for the murder before having it explained to him outright. Him standing in the courtroom among Stunned Silence thinking that he has won by exposing Phoenix's bluff shows just how stupid he is. Maggey's notoriously bad luck must be the only reason he got as far as he did in framing her. If he pinned this on anyone else from the start, he wouldn't have had a fighting chance with this gambit.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: He poisoned Glen Elg's coffee.
• Tiger Versus Dragon: His shirt has a picture of a tiger biting the head of a dragon—Phoenix's Japanese given name has the kanji for dragon in it. Funnily enough, however, he is more of a Dragon than Phoenix, preferring to use complex machinations and skilled planning alongside a healthy dose of intimidation to get his way while Phoenix goes into court with less evidence than he feels he needs and bluffs until he can piece something together, much like the Tiger.
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • Despite coming up with a quite elaborate plan to frame Maggey and get her sent to prison, he really is one of the dumbest criminals in the entire series. Not only are the lies in his testimonies quite easy to spot, he falls for an obvious trap when he makes what turns out to be his fatal mistake, and doesn't even realize what he's done until it is fully spelled out for him.
  • Even though he feared the Cadaverinis, he still treated Viola poorly, despite her status within the family. This only turns him into a target after he's convicted.
• Uncertain Doom: Viola sent him poisoned food after his true nature was revealed. Whether or not he's still alive is anyone's guess.
• Villainous Breakdown: After Phoenix tricks him into proving himself the murderer, he screams so loudly that the lights go out.
• Yakuza: Certainly looks the part with his style of dress but actually he's on the outside looking in (normally he runs a two-bit loan shark operation that shakes people down for money to serve his own ends rather than being tied to a larger criminal enterprise but his "incident" with Viola drags him into the larger picture of the Cadaverini crime family's affairs).
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Upon being caught out on whether or not he even knew the victim, Furio laughs and comments that Phoenix isn't bad, and that he was only messing with the lawyer to test him. Phoenix is... not impressed.

Bruto Cadaverini (Gonta Shikabane)

The head of the mob and doting grandfather to Viola.

---

• Bald of Evil: As befitting an old man.
• The Don: Which makes him a force to be feared even by Furio.
• The Dreaded: Nobody crosses this guy. When he makes someone owe a million dollars to pay for his granddaughter's brain surgery, the poor debtor will work to make that money happen without question and by any means possible.
• The Ghost: He's spoken of by several characters, but he doesn't appear in the case in person.
• Greater-Scope Villain: His actions towards Furio set in forth all of case 3, and he's a large crime boss, but he's never actually directly involved.
• Papa Wolf: More like "Grandpa Wolf", but same principle. Viola is his little girl; thus hell falls on whoever hurts her in any way. Furio helping Viola is because he severely injured her in a motorcycle accident, and her grandfather saddled him with a million-dollar debt's worth of brain surgery procedures in retaliation for what he had done.
• Meaningful Name: He sure seems like a brute. "Cadaverini" and "Shikabane" both mean "corpse". "Gonta" roughly means "big authority" while Bruto means "Brute".
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: Forces Furio to pay Viola's medical bills.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: One reason why the police haven't arrested him yet.
• Shotgun Wedding: More like "Shotgun Paying For Granddaughter's Medical Bills", but similar principle: when Furio got into an accident that caused Viola to be hospitalized, Bruto immediately put a huge debt on him to cover her medical bills and then some, or else...
• The Unfought: He never gets brought to the witness stand to be cross-examined.

Turnabout Beginnings (Hajimari no Gyakuten)

Terry Fawles (Michiru Onamida)

Voiced by (Japanese): Kenichiro Matsuda (anime)

Voiced by (English): Kyle Hebert (anime)

"... Ugh. Sorry. I told a little lie."

Mia's first-ever client, an escaped death-row convict. Has a poor grasp of grammar and acts mostly like a scared little kid.

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• Acquitted Too Late: For several crimes he's suspected of; it becomes clear that he didn't kill Dahlia when "Melissa Foster" is revealed to actually be her, but by that point he's suspected of killing Valerie, meaning that Dahlia being alive isn't enough to get him off the hook. And he kills himself just before Mia is about to clear him of Valerie's death, so he never gets the chance to be officially exonerated for either crime.
• Biting the Handkerchief: Uh... biting the heavy iron ball he's chained to.
• Blood from the Mouth: After he poisons himself.
• Catchphrase: "I din't do nuttin'! I din't kill nobody!" and "Sorry, I told a little lie."
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: In the anime, he dies in Mia's arms after drinking the poison.
• Doomed by Canon: He's the defendant in both Mia and Edgeworth's court debuts. In 1-2 it's mentioned that Edgeworth had never lost a case until he goes up against Phoenix, and in case 3-1, it's mentioned that Mia's first case ended so badly that she didn't step foot in court again until over a year later. Also, Dahlia is involved in the crime. In short, the player knows it'll be bad... it's how bad that's the mystery.
• Driven to Suicide: He has a Suicide Pact with Dahlia that both will commit suicide if they could no longer trust each other. He honors it while Dahlia does not.
• Dumb Muscle: He's strong, to the point where he's got no problems carrying his ball and chain, but highly childlike.
• Ephebophile: Sure does seem like the odd man out on this list, but he dated 14-year-old Dahlia Hawthorne when he was 20 and refers to her as his 'teen angel'.
• Fall Guy: Dahlia and Valerie betrayed him, leaving him to take the fall for the kidnapping and "killing" Dahlia.
• Gentle Giant: The only crimes he’s committed are participating in a jewel heist disguised as a kidnapping and stealing a car. Other than that, he’s a very sweet and trusting guy.
• Go Mad from the Isolation: His many years spent on death row are implied to have driven him insane. He was once hired as the Hawthornes' tutor before his arrest, but in the present he is more like a gullible, dim-witted child in a grown man's body.
• Love Martyr: He's still in love with Dahlia, so much that even after Mia exposes her wrongdoing, he kills himself because he can't trust her anymore—fulfilling the suicide pact that they supposedly made, not that Dahlia had any intentions of doing the same.
• Manchild: He's a very gullible child in a grown man's body.
• Punny Name: Both his English and Japanese names refer to falling tears. Not only that, but he was also framed for a murder that he didn't commit twice; meaning he was the "fall guy", so to speak.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: When he feels like he's about to cry.
• Suicide Pact: He has one with Dahlia that both will commit suicide if they could no longer trust each other. He honors it while Dahlia does not.
• Super Gullible: His childlike nature means that he tends to believe in others, even those who are rather obviously setting him up. Dahlia always intended him to be her fall guy and the "suicide pact" was just Dahlia's way to ensure he'd die before giving her up, but he believes in Dahlia's love so much that he kills himself genuinely believing that she'd do the same. She didn't, and instead used his suicide to get away with murdering Valerie.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Terry's choosing to commit suicide rather than give testimony that would have fingered Dahlia as Valerie's killer plays a major part in setting up the events of not only Trials and Tribulations, but arguably even the entire original trilogy. Had Terry helped convict Dahlia, then at the very least Doug Swallow wouldn't have been killed, and Diego Armando would never have been poisoned, but possibly even Mia herself would have lived, and the events of 3-5 would never have come to pass due to Diego not being so full of self-loathing and hatred towards Dahlia.
• Unwitting Pawn: His biggest flaw is that he believes everything Dahlia tells him without fail, including their supposed Suicide Pact, which she clearly never had any intention of honoring. Given this character trait, it's also clear that Dahlia and Valerie intended for him to be their fall guy from the very beginning.
• You No Take Candle: He speaks like a caveman most of the time. It goes with his brutish appearance. Remember that this guy originally met Dahlia when he was hired to be her tutor. Either the Hawthornes had incredibly low standards in tutors, or being in a solitary cell in prison for so long really took its toll on Terry's mind.

Other Mentioned Characters

Adam Mada (Kazutomo Motozuka)

A programmer hired by Blue Screens Inc. to fill in for Glen Elg's position after his death.

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• Fun with Palindromes: Like everyone else hired by Blue Screens Inc.
• You All Look Familiar: Shares the same profile art as the generic Blue Screens Inc. programmers.

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