Characters / The Great Ace Attorney: Major Characters

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

Major recurring characters from The Great Ace Attorney. See here for the main characters and here for minor characters. See here for the character sheet of the entire Ace Attorney series.

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Japan

Yujin Mikotoba (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Yujin Mikotoba

Voiced by (Japanese): Takayuki Sugo

Voiced by (English): Peter de Jersey

^{Click here to see his appearance in Resolve}

"I decided to come along with the police inspector to see our country's up-and-coming student in action. I shall be very interested to see the fruits of your studies over the past year."

A medical doctor and forensics professor at Yumei University. Kazuma Asogi's mentor and Susato Mikotoba's father. A former student and colleague of John H. Wilson.

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• 11th-Hour Ranger: Joins the main cast just before the final trial, and is pivotal to taking down Jigoku and Stronghart.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: During Case 5 of Resolve, he becomes playable during the investigation on the ship.
• Ambiguously Bi: Part of the grand tradition among adaptations of Holmes and Watson. There are several suggestions that his cohabitation and partnership with Sholmes wasn't entirely platonic, particularly in how Sholmes identified him as Iris's other, "real" father despite no blood relation.
• Canon Character All Along: He's eventually revealed to be the Dr. John Watson (or in the localization, Dr. John Wilson) from the books; the discrepancy in the names is due to a misunderstanding.
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: While he doesn't try to justify his six years as an absent parent to Susato, he actually did intend to raise Iris as his own. However, the Japanese government would not allow him to take her into the country without disclosing her actual parentage, which he had sworn not to do, so he left her in his partner Sholmes' care.
• A Day in the Limelight: Part of G2-5 has you play as Yujin as him and Sholmes are searching the SS Grouse for Jigoku.
• Deadpan Snarker: Engages in a bit of this in his interactions with Ryunosuke and Susato. And, as is tradition with playable characters in the series, engages in copious amounts of it in his partnership with Herlock Sholmes, as shown in case 2-5.
• Decomposite Character: Revealed in case 2-4 to also be this to the literary Dr. Watson alongside Ryunosuke, Iris, and John H. Wilson. Out of the four, he's Sholmes' Heterosexual Life-Partner with a medical background.
• Exact Words: Note that Sholmes never refers to his old crime-solving partner by name, and only rarely as an assistant; he almost exclusively refers to him as "my friend". Now, what does "Yujin" translate to again?
• Good Parents: He seems to be a fair and caring father to Susato.
• Leitmotif: Has three: London Town usually plays whenever you talk to him in case 4 of the second game, as a standalone theme, "The Great Detective's Great Friend", used in the reveal of him being Sholmes' partner, and — together with Herlock — "Partners ~ The game is afoot!", the main theme of GAA 2, used both in the reveal that he's Sholmes' partner, and during the Dance of Deduction segment in the Grouse.
• Meaningful Appearance: His outfit in the second game, especially the iconic bowler hat, makes him a dead ringer for the iconic image of Dr. John Watson, hinting that he's the closest to series' parallel to the actual Watson, rather than Iris or the victim of Case G1-1.
• Meaningful Name: "Yūjin" means 'friend'. He's Herlock Sholmes' biographer and best friend.
• Not So Above It All:
  • He does additional tap dancing during his Dance of Deduction segment with Herlock. It seems it was his thing since the past, according to the latter.
  • The investigation on the SS Grouse also shows a more comedic side to him, such as his attempts at mimicking mice and tripping over himself over absolutely nothing in the middle of a dark room.
• Older Sidekick: He's a good nine years Sholmes's elder.
• Parents as People: Grief over his wife's death pushed him to run off to England for six years while leaving his newborn daughter behind. However, he has much regret over this and has spent the following years going above and beyond to make up for his absence.
• Parental Substitute: Adopted a 14 year old Kazuma after the death of his father.
• Race Lift: Holmes' partner and biographer in the original stories, Dr. John Watson, is British; in GAA, Mikotoba is Japanese.
• Secretly Dying: Or at least really sick. In Case 5 he's in the hospital and he's been sick for several days and Susato needs to make an extremely quick trip home... except that's a lie, and he had that reported to take Susato back home after getting Soseki's report abroad — specifically details regarding the second case he's involved in. As for why, see Secret-Keeper below.
• Secret-Keeper: Until the end of the second game, he's the only other person apart from Herlock who knows the true identity of Iris' parents. It's partially the reason why The Hound of the Baskervilles remained unpublished, and he had Susato come back from England to preserve this secret from Iris when the dog collar pops up during the Shamspeare poisoning case.
• Secret Other Family: Subverted. The ending of G2-4 implied that he had an affair while in London, fathering Iris in the process — though Case G2-5 ends up disproving this theory.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: In the second game's last 2 cases, he drops his traditional Japanese outfit for a suit-and-tie ensemble when he arrives in London, making him more closely resemble traditional depictions of Watson. On the final scene of Case 4, it's revealed that he is the actual counterpart to Watson from the books.
• Sole Survivor: Due to his uncredited role in Klint van Ziek's autopsy, Mikotoba is the only person alive who was directly involved in that, with the others either assassinated or imprisoned.
• Walking Spoiler: It's difficult to discuss him without giving away that he's the actual GAA version of Dr. John Watson.
• Younger Than They Look: In his early forties, he can certainly pass for a middle-aged man due to his skunk stripe hair, if not for the fact that his "Take that!" shout in the final Dance of Deduction sounds a bit youthful.

Seishiro Jigoku (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Seishiro Jigoku

"So, London again after all this time... Hard to believe it's been ten years. To be honest, I never thought I'd be back."

The judge who presides over Japan's Supreme Court of Judicature, Minister of Justice, and Minister of Foreign Affairs. Oversees Ryunosuke's first case.

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• Affably Evil: He's a quite friendly Reasonable Authority Figure in court who just happens to also be complicit in an international cover-up and assassination plot and winds up committing murder to keep it secret.
• Ambition Is Evil: Went along with Stronghart's scheme because Stronghart promised to make him Japan's Minister of Foreign Affairs.
• Ascended Extra: In the first game he doesn't do much except oversee the first trial which takes place in Japan. He takes a much bigger role in the second game.
• Breaking Old Trends: Not only does a judge appear outside the courtroom, but he's actually given a name in the second game. This hints at him being more important to the story than he appears.
• Cynicism Catalyst: It appears the false conviction of Genshin Asogi may have been what motivated him to become minister of foreign affairs at any cost.
• Defiant to the End: Even after he's convicted of Gregson's murder, he refuses to give up the name of the head of the Reaper conspiracy.
• Despair Event Horizon: He crossed this when he is forced to kill Genshin Asogi when Enoch Drebber discovers him.
• Disc-One Final Boss: He's the killer of Case G2-4 (and by extension, 5), having shot Gregson in the SS Grouse, but his defeat is only the first part of unraveling the Reaper conspiracy.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: The then-unnamed judge who only appeared in one case in the first game in an entirely different location to where most of the game is set turns out to be an accomplice to the Big Bad of the duology.
• Dark Secret: Near the end of his time as a visiting student in London, Jigoku colluded with Stronghart in organizing a prison break for Genshin Asogi and when that failed, Jigoku shot Genshin dead to cover up the fake execution. Stronghart would later use this secret as leverage to gain Jigoku's collaboration in the assassin exchange program.
• Hanging Judge: Averted. He is only a bastard outside of his courtroom.
• Honor Before Reason: Jigoku murdered Genshin Asogi, a friend and "compatriot". Stronghart uses this to blackmail Jigoku into going along with his assassin exchange plot. Presumably, this is why Jigoku refuses to name Stronghart as the head of the Reaper, despite facing "the most severe penalty" for murdering Gregson.
• Hypocrite:
  • In the first case of the duology, he refuses to allow a foreign government to have influence over his court. It turns out in the end that he's been doing the bidding of Mael Stronghart, Britain's Lord Chief Justice, up to and including committing murder.
  • When brought to the witness stand in the final case, he begins to belittle Ryunosuke by calling him a murderer. Not only was Jigoku the judge who acquitted Ryunosuke, but Jigoku is exposed as Gregson's killer shortly after and had killed Genshin on Stronghart's orders to coverup his fake execution.
  • He also tells Ryunosuke that he’s an embarrassment to his countrymen for "not knowing when to back down", afterwards, he tried to pile convenient lies on top of convenient lies to try to get away with murder. So he has no position to talk.
• Kick the Dog: After it has been proven that only he who could transport inspector Gregson's body back to London, Jigoku tried to deflect the accusation one last time by accusing Kazuma, his friend's son, of actually doing the murder, and that's before it's revealed that Jigoku's the one who really killed Genshin at Lowgate cemetery. Jigoku's attempt to ruin the Asogi family again to save his own hide.
• Large and in Charge: Is quite imposing in stature. Yujin even notes that he'd drown in one of the man's shirts.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: In comparison to Stronghart. While his status as a villain is firmly rooted in his own character flaws, he doesn't take the initiative to commit villainous acts. He genuinely wanted Genshin Asogi to be freed, and only shot him because Stronghart urged him to in order to protect their careers. Afterwards, he was essentially coerced into going along with Stronghart's Reaper conspiracy using that fateful night's events. In comparison, every step Stronghart took on his road to power was of his own volition and without external influence, no matter how harmful or depraved they were.
• Meaningful Name:
  • His name is written in Japanese with kanji that roughly means "Merciful Prison-Politicianer"
  • "Jigoku", while spelt in kanji differently, is also a pun on the Japanese word for "hell".
• Named in the Sequel: He's only named in the second game, where he becomes a major player in the final case. That said, he was actually named in the first game, but it was with regards to his position as Minister of Justice, so the connection between the character and the name wasn't established until Case G2-1.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Allowing Ryunosuke to defend himself properly and acquitting him ultimately comes back to bite him when Ryunosuke uncovers his corruption.
• No Name Given: The second game averts this, breaking the typical Ace Attorney trend of judges not being named.
• Pet the Dog: His major Reasonable Authority Figure moments — giving Ryunosuke a fair shot at defending himself and allowing Susato to defend a case under his purview despite knowing that she's actually a woman — come off as this once it's revealed that he's actually corrupt, party to an international assassination conspiracy, and the one who orchestrated the very same murder that Ryunosuke was accused of. The former is especially interesting given that helping Ryunosuke is actively detrimental to his own interests.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Gives Ryunosuke a fair chance at his own defense despite the pressure the British Government puts on the Imperial Court. Later in Case G2-1, he knew all along that "Ryutaro" was Susato, yet still let her defend Rei anyway despite the fact that women weren't allowed to be lawyers at the time. Later played with in that he isn't as noble as he seems, although the former two acts were genuine.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Indirectly, he managed to transport Gregson's body via trunk from the S.S. Grouse to London undetected because Jigoku's status as the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs exempted him from a luggage search. He later tries to invoke this directly to prevent his trunk from being presented as evidence during the trial.
• Smug Snake: Even after he's summoned to the witness stand, admits to both organizing the assassin exchange program and to encountering Gregson in his cabin, Jigoku laughs off the accusal and dismisses Ryunosuke as an inexperienced stripling for trying to pin the crime on him with flimsy reasoning. Eventually his attempts to deny and dismiss the accusation only contribute to Ryunosuke deducing how Jigoku carried out the murder and coverup, and proving how only he could have done it. Experience as a judge may have given Jigoku the knowledge on court proceedings, but not how to cover his own tracks.
  Ryunosuke: I'm sorry to disappoint you, Judge Jigoku, but it's your logic that is flawed.
• Took a Level in Jerkass:
  • When standing as a witness in the final case, he makes passive-aggressive comments about Ryunosuke's time as a defendant and says he wishes he declared him guilty, just to spare the world the stupidity of his arguments.
  • In a desperate attempt to save himself from being convicted of Gregson's murder, he tries to pin it on Kazuma, essentially doing what was done to Genshin to his orphaned son.
• Villainous Breakdown: He grips the witness stand with both hands and shakes violently. Then he raises his hands and smashes the stand, and the remaining parts of the stand then disappear by flying up into the air, after which he looks up while in a hunched stance and screams that his life is over. Also doubles as a Call-Back and a Call-Forward; Yujin recounts Jigoku doing a similar thing ten years ago in frustration after trying and failing to plead Genshin Asogi's innocence in the Professor case. In the future, Kristoph Gavin does a subdued version of this twice where he slams the witness stand, causing some dropped lobster to fly behind him.
• Walking Spoiler: He's a lot more plot-relevant than the usual judges of the series, and this doesn't become apparent until the second game.

Satoru Hosonaga

Satoru Hosonaga

"*COUGH* *COUGH* *COUGH* *COUGH* Bring it on, I say."

A waiter at Le Carneval who witnessed a murder...though in reality he is Chief Detective of the Capital Police's first division, who was working undercover.

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• Berserk Button: Do not belittle the Japanese police force in front of him. He's more than willing to prove you wrong. Jezaille doing so ultimately led to her defeat.
• Classified Information: He claims that he has a secret mission when stating why he's working undercover as a waiter, mentioning it is unrelated to the murder in the trial. He later reveals that he has been doing so to investigate a string of thefts targeting the wealthy patrons of La Carneval, which turns out to be the doing of Sgt. Iyesa Nosa.
• Dramatic Irony: For how much he brags about his "foolproof" disguises, he politely chides Ryutaro for looking down on women and insisting that outdated sexism has no place in modern society. He's completely unaware that Ryutaro is Susato, who has to attend trial in disguise due to Japan's sexist barring of women in the courthouse. Only by overhearing does he learn about her disguise.
• Flanderization: His disguises become more audacious as the series goes on. He starts off with a plausible waiter getup in the first case, as he's stationed at a restaraunt to investigate a recurring thief there. The next case involves him being a sailor on a boat, emphasis on a Japanese sailor on a Russian boat. Come the start of the next game, and he's hanging around a beach in a swimsuit. Innocuous in of itself, but then he also tapes a toy turtle to his head in an attempt to pull off an underwater disguise using a Reed Snorkel.
• Hidden Depths: Despite his rather aloof exterior and Scary Shiny Glasses, he is a massive fan of ballet, and immediately recognizes Nikolina Pavlova by name in Case 2.
• Heel–Face Turn: Starts off the case trying to deflect suspicion away from Jezaille (in fact, he was the one who removed all traces of her in the crime scene), but by the halfway point of the first case he helps Ryunosuke in finding the truth by giving him the evidence he had preserved on the crime scene to help his case. He continues to be a reliable ally to Naruhodo and co. afterward, doing things such as allowing him to investigate outside his cabin in the SS Burya, and breaking into Jigoku's office to acquire the list of names at Sholmes' request.
• Incurable Cough of Death: Appears to suffer from some kind of pulmonary disease. He even bleeds from the mouth because of it. He says it's not a problem. He hasn't died from it, though (yet).
• Just Following Orders: At first, he hides Jezaille's existence from the court by orders from higher ups in order not to damage the diplomatic relations between Japan and Britain.
• My Greatest Failure: He considers his failure to protect Asogi this, when the latter is (apparently) murdered.
• New Job as the Plot Demands: Has a very suspicious breadth of undercover missions. Ryunosuke starts to suspect they're not undercover missions at all and he's actually taking side-jobs to make ends meet.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished:
  • In Case 2 of the first game, he lets Ryunosuke and Susato investigate the crime scene, informs the captain of the ship of it, and gets beaten up as a result. Justified though, as Ryunosuke was the prime suspect of the case, and the scene had to be undisturbed before it was to be handed over to Hong Kong police.
  • In Case 5 of the second game, he helps Sholmes by retrieving evidence via breaking into the office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. In the epilogue, he's in court accused of illegal entry into said office.
• The Perfectionist: As the Chief Inspector, Hosonaga insists on perfectly thorough, perfectly recreated versions of the crime scene when he investigates. It's this quality which allows him to produce the plates of steak Sergeant Nosa and Jezaille Brett ate from at the time of the murder, putting the final nail in the coffin for the latter.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: When he decides to get tough, he pushes his glasses up on the bridge of his nose, and his spectacles become totally opaque.
• Translator Buddy: Acts as a translator for Jezaille, although later she reveals she can speak Japanese fine, rendering him unnecessary.
• Victorian Novel Disease: Looks a bit frail and has a habit of coughing up blood. The time period and setting would suggest its tuberculosis, though he insists it's nothing serious. The official art book confirms it isn’t. His coughing comes from a buckwheat allergy thanks to living with his family who works at buckwheat farming.
• Vindicated by History: In-Universe, his meticulous investigation methods are viewed as little more than evidence theft by the Japanese courtroom... but the Japanifornian police department 100 years after The Great Ace Attorney has a dedicated records room full of evidence from past cases.

Taketsuchi Auchi

Taketsuchi Auchi

Voiced by (Japanese): Shinya Takahashi

Voiced by (English): Nigel Pilkington

"Objection! I believe I asked you to refrain from petty interjections. The court wishes to listen to the witness's report of what he saw, you amateur!"

The ancestor of Winston and Gaspen Payne, and, much like his descendants, serves as the prosecutor for the tutorial cases. He's an old-fashioned prosecutor who doesn't seem to like the world of "cultural enlightenment".

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• Extreme Doormat: Like his descendants, he's this to both witnesses and the Judge when things really go against him. Except this time, he has a unique "grovelling" animation.
• Generation Xerox: He, much like his descendants, is an ineffectual kiss-up who serves mostly to be humiliated by people with no idea what they're doing, while having something bad happen to their hair when they lose.
• Hereditary Curse: While not a literal curse, Kazuma declares that "even if a thousand millennia should pass, the Auchi clan will never hold up to the Naruhodo clan" at the end of Adventures's first case. Considering how his descendants have faired against Naruhodo's in the series's other titles, it's safe to say Kazuma's words rang true.
• Identical Grandfather: Appears virtually identical to his progeny (Winston in particular).
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Even more than Winston. Auchi mainly comes off as a pathetic sycophant (although he is rather willing to throw Ryunosuke under the bus to preserve relations between Japan and Great Britain), and by the events of the second game is downright sympathetic due to how low his self-esteem is.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: After his first loss against Naruhodo, his self-esteem went so low that he started to throw insults left and right whenever someone made a mistake so he can feel a bit better about himself.
• I Resemble That Remark!: At one point, his Extreme Doormat tendencies toward the English cause him to agree with an anti-Japanese taunt made by one of the witnesses, probably without even realizing.
• It's Personal: Vows revenge against the Naruhodo family for his defeat and humiliation. When Susato goes to court as "Ryutaro Naruhodo" in GAA2, he takes this opportunity to claim his vengeance.
• It Will Never Catch On: He believes that fountain pens are merely a fad.
• Jerkass: Not as bad as his descendant Gaspen, but he's still a very insufferable jerk who will insult everyone who's a nuisance to him.
• Legacy Character: He has a very similar personality and character arc to his descendants.
• Meaningful Name: The kanji in Taketsuchi (武土) are meant to be similar to the ones used in "bushi" (武士), which is a word that refers to samurai. "Auchi" sounds like the English phrase "ouchie", slotting into his descendants' Theme Naming of having names that imply being in pain when read out loud.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Downplayed. He still clings to traditional bushido values and is sexist, but the Deliberate Values Dissonance is comparatively mild compared to the rest of the game, and he's treated as an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain at worst.
• Recurring Element: He's the series-traditional pathetic Warm-Up Boss who exists to get schooled by the hero, in the vein of his descendants Winston and Gaspen Payne and their modern British counterpart Flynch.
• Seppuku: Parodied. After losing to "Ryutaro Naruhodo" in the second game, he takes out a specially-prepared knife, composes a "death poem"... and cuts off the newly-grown hair on his forehead.
• Stab the Salad: After he is defeated a second time, he cuts off a tuft of his hair in a scenery-chewing parody of seppuku.
• Suddenly Shouting: In the Japanese version and the English fan translation, he tends to do this in a submissive manner whenever he gets told off by either Judge Jigoku or Jezaille Brett. The official English localization removes this habit, instead giving him the same tendency to drag out words as Roger Retinz.
• Took a Level in Badass: In Resolve, he appears to be much more competent and focused than before.
  Auchi: So... have I omitted anything? Decisive testimony and damning evidence... There's a bright blue sky outside the courthouse today. Perfect weather to ascribe guilt, I feel.
  Susato: (I, I don't understand. The Prosecutor Auchi of nine months ago... had none of this man's poise!)
• Traumatic Haircut: Gets his topknot sliced by Asogi, making his hair resemble Winston's in Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, at the end of the first case. It's still in the same style in GAA2, though a small spot of hair has begun growing on his forehead. When he's beaten for the second time, he does this to himself in a manner resembling Seppuku.
• Villainy-Free Villain: He's just another prosecutor, albeit a particularly annoying one, doing his job as part of the Japanese legal system.
• Warm-Up Boss: As is tradition with the games... and the Payne family. He's slightly more competent than his descendants though. Slightly.

Rei Membami (Haori Murasame)

Rei Membami (Haori Murasame)

"Oh, Susato... You'd go to such lengths for me?"

A forensics student under Yujin Mikotoba and Susato Mikotoba's close friend, who is put on trial for the sequel's first murder. Was formerly under Dr. John H. Wilson's department before the latter's death.

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• Advertised Extra: Despite having a prominent position on the cover of the second game and the Chronicles release, Rei only appears as the defendant of the first case, and is never mentioned again until the credits scenes. This is mainly because of her being the personal creation of artist Kazuya Nuri, who thus has a habit of inserting her into official art.
• Ambiguously Bi: She's very taken with Susato's male disguise, frequently blushing and referring to "him" as gallant and dashing. On the other hand, she doesn't seem particularly discouraged even after finding out Ryutaro is really Susato in disguise, most blatantly in her suggestion that she take her out for sweets after the trial is concluded. The artbook even outright states she "yearns" for Susato.
• Badass Bookworm: A kimono-clad medical student she may be, but Rei is tough. Tough enough to judo-toss a grown, muscular man like Menimemo, no less!
• Bad Liar: To say she's bad at playing along with Susato's "Ryutaro" disguise would be an understatement. She slips up and calls her by her real name constantly.
• Character Development: Over the course of the trial, Rei goes from clumsily referring to Susato by her real name instead of her disguise name to judo-tossing the culprit (with Susato's help).
• Curtains Match the Window: Her eyes and hair are both black.
• Crush Blush: The narrative makes a point of mentioning how flustered and overcome she is at the sight of "Ryutaro".
• Cute Bruiser: It isn't clear if she knows judo, but she pulls it off when restraining Raiten.
• Gay Euphemism: Auchi pointedly calls her an "unrefined tomboy" after she accidentally outs her "gallant and dashing" lawyer as a girl, his dialogue making it clear he actually means "lesbian" (whether Auchi connects the dots to "Ryutaro" is unclear).
• Foil: Artist Kazuya Nuri mentions that she was created as a best friend for Susato to mirror Ryunosuke and Kazuma's relationship (and because otherwise the case where she debuts would be filled with older men, despite Susato disguising as a man anyway).
• Hime Cut: Rei wears her hair in this style, complementing her traditional Japanese wear.
• Meaningful Name:
  • In Japanese. A haori is a Japanese garment that resembles a coat, and Haori (Rei) dresses in a very formal fashion. "Murasame" can translate into either "rainy season" or "autumn rain", and "murasame" typically refers to rain that starts and stops suddenly, or falls hard and then gently in fits and starts. This fits Rei going from reserved to judo-tossing the culprit.
  • Her English name, a pun on "remember me", also references the forget-me-nots in her design, which expresses that sentiment in the language of flowers.
• Punny Name: Her English name ("Rei Membami") is a play on "remember me".
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Red to Susato's Blue.
• Remember the New Guy?: Name puns aside, Rei is introduced in Resolve as one of Susato's closest childhood friends and a student under both John Wilson and Yujin Mikotoba, despite never having been mentioned or alluded to once in Adventures.
• Save the Villain: Despite hating Jezaille Brett for killing Professor Wilson, Rei tries to save Brett by pulling the knife out of her body after noticing that Brett has been poisoned.
• Teen Genius: She's only 16, and yet she's studying medicine and toxicology at a university level.
• Took a Level in Badass: At the end of the first case's trial, Rei becomes one of the first defendants in the series to deal with the culprit who framed her personally, by physically stopping his breakdown sequence and then giving him a judo toss with Susato's help.

Soseki Natsume

Soseki Natsume

"There you are! You've come to curse me, haven't you? Don't try to hide it! You're a ghost!"

The famous poet and author of Japanese literature, and defendant of the fourth case.

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• Acquired Situational Narcissism: He gets a bit of an inflated ego in the first case of Resolve, following the success of I Am a Cat's serialization.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: All his posing is accompined by alliterative statements (in the official localization).
• Artistic License – History: Soseki's personal timeline appears to have been hyper-compressed. His age is given as 33, setting the game in 1900, but he wouldn't even arrive in London until 1901 (though considering the Anglo-Japanese treaty was signed in 1902, it also may be that he was made a few years younger), and stayed there for a whole two years, whereas in the game he chooses to leave after just one. Then, in 2-1 (set in August of the same year), he's already gotten famous writing I Am a Cat, something that wouldn't even be published until 1905!
• Brick Joke: The credits of Adventures reveal Natsume has smuggled Wagahai's kittens aboard his ship back to Japan. In the credits of Resolve, he has three cats with him.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • While he's never accused of murder, his life in Britain was completely miserable as almost everyone made fun of him and barely anyone respected him due to him being Japanese. This culminated in him almost never leaving his lodgings. However, just staying home didn't stop the fact that he was accused of two instances of attempted murder and witnessed one murder.
  • Every night, he felt that someone was trying to strangle him, later on this was revealed to be Shamspeare who was blowing in gas-induced asphyxiation into his room in an attempt to make Soseki leave his room, so he could have his hands on Selden's treasure. Shamspeare previously did this exact same plan against Duncan Ross, Soseki's life was at stake every night.
  • Upon his return to Japan, he ends up getting his personal Papparazzo in the form of Menimemo who irritates the hell out of him with his journalistic pursuits.
• Cowardly Lion: In Resolve, despite his mousy behaviour, he manages to kick down a door and won a literal (unrelated) fight against the victim the night of the incident.
• Eloquent in My Native Tongue: While his grammar and vocabulary are just fine, he speaks English with a "strange accent", and his English fluency can be shaken if he goes into a panic. When first arrested, he inadvertantly confesses to Olive's attempted murder by defaulting to stock English phrases like "Yes, I do!" and "I'm fine!" when interrogated. He also remarks that British people would mock him in English assuming he couldn't understand what they were saying.
• Epic Fail: His bicycle trip ended up with him falling over multiple times and destroying the bike. Even he acknowledges that he's not cut out to be a cyclist.
• Exposed to the Elements: He wears geta sandals without socks in the frigid London winter.
• Fish out of Water: He hasn't been in England for very long when the case starts. It's part of the reason why no one would defend him; no one in England would rush to the defense of a strange foreigner who fled from the crime scene, on top of the fact that "The Reaper" was taking the case. In fact, when he sees Ryunosuke and Susato, he was more ecstatic at seeing other Japanese people in London rather than Ryunosuke being a defense attorney.
• Hikikomori: In Adventures, Soseki has been reduced to an unfortunate shut-in who'd rather spend his nights reading and immersed in research than socialize. Considering the brutal racism he was subjected to at the time, this is understandable.
• Historical Domain Character: A first for the series.
• Historical Downgrade: Soseki Natsume was, and still is, considered a strong contender for the greatest author in the history of Japanese literature. While the Soseki of GAA is a talented literary scholar and writer (and has already achieved national acclaim by the time of GAA 2-1), he's also an insanely paranoid Nervous Wreck who is mainly used as comic relief due to his overblown mannerisms and Large Ham tendencies. The Real Life Natsume, however, did have a miserable time in London, and really was a paranoid shut-in who surrounded himself with books.
• Just Got Out of Jail: Swears to the Old Bailey judge that he'll never set foot in the courtroom following his acquittal... and then winds up on trial for another attempted murder two days after.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: He owns a cute cat. Ryunosuke and Susato later name it Wagahai.
• Large Ham: When he gets emotional.
• Leitmotif: "I Am Not Guilty".
• Nervous Wreck: A very anxious man with trouble fitting with the Londoners, all while looking behind himself periodically for no other reason but general paranoia.
• Never My Fault: Repeatedly blames Sholmes for his arrest, and the detective eventually calls Soseki out on it by pointing out that Scotland Yard were the ones who made the accusation, based on the testimony of the Beates, and that all he did was find out exactly who Soseki was and where he lived. And had Soseki actually stopped to help Olive Green instead of just running away, he probably would never have been a suspect in the first place. He also did nothing to help himself while being interrogated, being so panicked while they were yelling at him in English that he just kept repeating "Yes, I do!" and "I'm fine!" until he wound up in handcuffs.
• Nice Guy: When he's not overly paranoid, anyway, he's a pretty pleasant guy. The second case he's embroiled in unfortunately hinges on that fact, as when he went to visit his neighbor he brewed and brought over tea to serve him since he knew Shamspeare couldn't afford his own tea. This tea is then under suspicion when Shamspeare ends up with strychnine poisoning.
• Ocular Gushers: He often cries waterfall tears that flow down his face.
• Out of the Frying Pan: He narrowly gets acquitted for an attempted murder he didn't commit, goes home, is nearly killed himself, and is then arrested for another attempted murder.
• Properly Paranoid: Turns out he was a bit more right about someone trying to kill him than it appeared, as Shamspeare was actively trying to put his life in danger every night in order to get him to leave his room.
• Spanner in the Works: Fits the bill in every case he stars in.
  • Him being a witness (and later suspect) to the stabbing of Olive Green makes the domestic troubles of the Garridebs public.
  • His experiences in his apartment (namely the gas issues) corroborate Olive Green's suspicions regarding the death of Duncan Ross, motivating her to take action against William Shamspeare. This results in Shamspeare's arrest and the discovery of a clue about The Professor.
  • He's able to identify the photographer who was present at the murder of Jezaille Brett thanks to a crack in the camera lens that was also visible in a photo of his interview from Yujin Mikotoba. His role in Jezaille Brett's last moments suggest the idea of her killer having struck from outside the beach hut.
• Stock Poses: From "Super Sentai" Stance poses to pec flexing, Soseki is rather fond of pulling various poses. One such pose is reminiscent of the most widely-recognized photograph◊ of the actual Natsume.
• Tempting Fate: After being declared Not Guilty in Adventures, he promises that he'll never set foot in a courtroom ever again. ...only to go home and get arrested for murder/assault again the very next day. Then he ends up in the Japanese court in Resolve, but he's thankfully just there as a witness to a completely different incident. The credits has him show up to court yet again as Hosonaga's defense attorney, somehow.
• Took a Level in Smartass: Considerably downplayed, but it seems fame got a bit over his head after publishing I Am a Cat, because he got some of a boastful, arrogant attitude in Case G2-1, as he introduces himself and explains what made him be a witness of the murder.
• Unluckily Lucky: He displays just as much bad luck in getting into dangerous situations as he does good luck in getting out of them. Over the course of his association with Ryunosuke and co., he survives several attempts by his neighbor to murder him, gets caught up in a domestic dispute that leads to him being accused of attempted murder, gets put up against the Reaper of the Bailey (a prosecutor whose every acquitted defendant mysteriously ended up dead), gets acquitted, survives another attempt to kill him, gets accused of attempted murder again, gets put up against the Reaper of the Bailey again, gets acquitted again (with the neighbor that was trying to kill him getting caught in the process), runs screaming back to Japan, and ends up witnessing another murder.
• Wardrobe Flaw of Characterization: He wears geta with his otherwise very Western suit, to emphasize just how much he fails to fit in London's society no matter how hard he tries.
• Wham Line: At the end of Case 1 of Resolve, it's revealed that he was involved in two cases instead of the single one in Adventures due to Sholmes directly ordering everyone involved in it to never speak of the second one in public.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: He dresses up like Juliet when he and Shamspeare have a sparring match to decide "who is stronger, Romeo or Juliet".
• Young Future Famous People: Ryunosuke meets him when he's a broke foreign exchange student in London, shortly before he wrote the book that would make him famous.

Great Britain

Mael Stronghart (Hart Vortex) (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Mael Stronghart (Hart Vortex)

"Hmph. It seems I am one hour, twelve minutes and... forty-seven seconds late. My apologies."

The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, who holds absolute authority over the courts. He is quite obsessed with time. Upon Ryunosuke's arrival, he appoints him to his first two cases in London.

---

• Armour-Piercing Question: When Ryunosuke expresses his desire to take Kazuma's place to see the latter's "mission" through to its successful completion, Stronghart is somewhat impressed, but asks Ryunosuke what he will do if Kazuma's mission turns out to be different from what he thinks it is. At the time, Ryunosuke is unaware that Kazuma agreed to an assassination mission.
• Ash Face: He looks a bit crispy all over after his final Villainous Breakdown causes the scales behind the judge's bench to fall down behind him, sending out an explosion of flames.
• Bad Boss: Even before Resolve reveals how truly sinister his machinations are, Escapade No. 3 portrays him as this to Inspector Gregson, wherein he docks Gregson's pay for a whole month for failing to find a specific book in his library of a book collection within 5 minutes, for no real reason whatsoever other than he was bored.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: Discussed. In his pursuit to rid London of crime, he embraced the very same criminal practices he wished to get rid of, and used them against high-ranking felons to have them killed through agents in Scotland Yard and the Prosecutor's Office, as well as acquiring an associate in Japan to keep the truth about the Professor killings from being made public. When pressed about this in court after a lengthy trial period, he ecstatically declares this to be the only way to fight the "darkness" and encourages others to embrace it like he did.
• "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: Worms his way out of blackmail charges by denying he actually made any threats, arguing Klint and Jigoku's compliance was based on their own foolish assumptions rather than his threats, and his arrangement with Genshin was simply a Plea Bargain.
• Big Bad: Of The Great Ace Attorney: Resolve. Stronghart is the leader and mastermind of the Reaper conspiracy, and effectively the real villain behind the The Great Ace Attorney duology. He is indirectly responsible for every murder committed across the entire duology, past and present, except for two (Duncan Ross^note although with the motive of his death being Balmung's collar he's at least a tangential casualty and the Professor's first victim)
• Big Bad Friend: He's one of the few people van Zieks continued to trust after his Cynicism Catalyst. So naturally, he's the one responsible for all the tragedies in van Zieks's life, including said Cynicism Catalyst.
• Big "NO!": Lets one loose upon Ryunosuke presenting Klint Van Zieks' will and reading it out after the gallery demanded to know its content.
• Classy Cane: Has two of them. The first is a simple wooden cane that he frequently either points towards the camera or slaps in his palm of his right hand. The second is a pure gold one topped with a unicorn head he that he brings with him when he serves as judge in case 5 of GAA2. It also doubles as his gavel and it makes an intimidating clang noise when he strikes it. It breaks in two when he's demanding to adjourn the court in his final Villainous Breakdown.
• Clock King: Time is his main gimmick, with him frequently looking at his pocket watch and telling exactly the amount of remaining time until a particular event. A good chunk of his office is also occupied by clockwork, with the glass roof resembling the face of a clock. He drops it when acting as judge in the sequel, and foregoes it completely when his true colours are revealed.
• Complexity Addiction: A Fatal Flaw of his. His obsession with using the legal system to achieve his goals ends with him slowly corrupting most of Scotland Yard and the Japanese court, commissioning an international assassin ring, and spending years expanding his reach by reshaping the British high court into a group of murderous extremists who will do anything to eliminate evil from the world. This naturally leads to him being caught, as the massive scale of his plans means that there are countless bits of evidence to incriminate him and his co-conspirators.
• Composite Character:
  • Combines Sherlock Holmes' Moriarty (see Decomposite Character below) with Damon Gant's imposing build and integral connections in the legal system. He even loudly claps like Gant when it first seems like he's about to break down.
  • His having discovered the true identity of the Professor after his first crime and using that information to blackmail him committing further murders for his own ends also gives him some parallels to Luke Atmey and his similar method of having Ron DeLite commit heists as Mask☆DeMasque.
• Control Freak: As he puts it, he likes for everything (and everyone) to mesh together the way he envisions, like the cogs of a well-oiled machine. If so much as one "cog" is out-of-place or does not mesh, then he believes measures must be taken.
• The Corrupter: One of Stronghart's most insidious qualities is how he pushes the people he manipulates to betray themselves and become viler for his own gains. This happens with Tobias Gregson, Seishiro Jigoku, Klint Van Zieks, and, to a lesser extent, Genshin Asogi.
  • A flashback to Tobias Gregson being ordered to fake evidence in Klint's autopsy report shows him being rightfully indignated by this unlawful and unfair fabrication, but Stronghart played to his sense of justice in order to make him go along with this plan.
  • Seishiro Jigoku was determined to see Genshin Asogi acquitted of a crime he did not commit, to the point of being charged with contentious words against the British Empire, which could have severely impacted his career. Nevertheless, he pulls the trigger on his old friend when Stronghart convinces him that letting him live would ruin their lives right then and there. Afterwards, he was blackmailed with that murderous act in order to realize Stronghart's assassin exchange, pushing Jigoku to murder someone else, this time fully premeditated.
  • Klint only murdered one person of his own will. It was Stronghart who had the other 3 Professor victims killed by Klint (or rather, his hunting dog), one of them being the previous Lord Chief Justice, a paragon of morality and Klint's mentor. This murder is the one to completely seal Klint's Heel Realization, and played a huge part in him accepting a duel to the death with Genshin.
  • Genshin Asogi was and stayed a good man, but his strict adherence to honorable means was shattered when Stronghart essentially coerced him into giving him Klint's will, who incriminated the Lord Chief Justice quite unequivocally, by reminding him of the pain he would cause his son by disappearing.
  • He attempts to do this to Kazuma, first by having him participate in the assassin exchange, then by fixing the trial in order to implicate none of his other living pawns or himself in Gregson's murder. Thankfully, Kazuma's incredible stubbornness and courage means that he's much less susceptible to Stronghart's manipulation or blackmail, and thus becomes another Spanner in the Works for his plans instead of completing a Face–Heel Turn.
• Decomposite Character: One of the two Moriarty parallels, along with Klint van Zieks. Stronghart inherits Moriarty's vast connections, using others to commit crimes for him instead of doing any of the dirty work himself, and being the definitive criminal the protagonists have to face.
• Didn't Think This Through: One of his biggest lapses in judgment is overestimating the reach of his influence. The secrecy of his conspirators enabled them to get away with a lot more, something that's impossible when everything is out in the open. Jumping in when most of his minions are dead or jailed, he eventually realises he can't pull the strings to his advantage in plain view, leading to him being backed into a corner to take the fall alongside his underlings.
• Dirty Coward: He would gladly throw away innocent lives in his pursuit of power as long as there's nothing tracing back to him, yet when there is he would blatantly obstruct the trial by abusing his authority to escape any consequences. In fact every single crime, shady dealings, and acts of injustice he has done can be traced back to the fact that he is unwilling to face any consequences of his actions.
• Disturbed Doves: One of his animations has this when he shouts within his office.
• Evil Is Bigger: As detailed below, Stronghart is one of the tallest characters in the franchise. He's also one of the vilest.
• Fair-Play Villain: While he is the true mastermind behind the Reaper murders and would definitely benefit from scapegoating Barok van Zieks for Gregson's death, he's initially pretty reasonable when first taking over as judge, allowing the defense to build their case and granting their motions for additional testimony. The first crack in his demeanor appears during Jigoku's disappearance, which he's implied to be complicit in, but when Sholmes and Mikotoba throw a wrench in those plans, he's still more than willing to call on Jigoku to testify and let him take the fall should his culpability be proven. It's only when he's directly accused that he becomes obstructive and starts dropping the façade of the fair-minded judge, and even then Sholmes and later Ryunosuke manage to strong-arm him into allowing the trial to continue.
• Fatal Flaw: He has two traits that bite him in the ass.
  • His Complexity Addiction does him in. Determined to prove to himself and others that his ideology is what will bring Britain into a golden age of law, he slowly corrupts the legal system to fit his ideals and masterminds an international conspiracy involving corruption, assassination, and mass treason. He personally oversees every aspect of his plan and makes sure that all his subordinates share his views and follow his lead, killing those that "betray" his ideals. This rigid and grandiose plan backfires, as it makes him the most likely suspect, due to being the only person powerful enough to pull such a scheme off in the first place.
  • While a masterful planner, he's terrible at improvising. Believing his Evil Plan to be foolproof, he refuses to back down when his co-conspirators start dying or getting arrested, doubling down on his methods when he becomes a suspect. Unable to realise he may be at a disadvantage, he walks right into a trap with the belief that his underlings will cover for him, forgetting his control over them is no longer possible when they're dead or imprisoned. When backed into a corner, he reveals what a delusional and arrogant maniac he really is, sabotaging any chance of someone continuing his Villainous Legacy and removing what little sympathy anyone else may have had for him.
• Foil:
  • To Tobias Gregson, the mastermind behind the Reaper conspiracy's target selections. Stronghart eventually became so power-hungry that he sought to continue his goal on a national scale, while Gregson had enough decency to realize he was getting in way over his head and tried to escape. Not that it worked.
  • To Klint van Zieks, the Professor. Both had the similar goal of making the corrupt nobility of London pay with their lives for escaping the crimes they should have been punished for, but Klint was begrudging and realized how it could, and eventually did, backfire on him when he was used by Stronghart, who himself openly embraces the idea of killing others for the sake of his views for British law and for his own personal agenda.
• Final Boss: The mastermind behind "The Professor", the "Reaper", the transfer assassination plot, and the final villain of the GAA games.
• Faux Affably Evil: His Reasonable Authority Figure persona is revealed to be as fake as they come in the finale of the sequel.
• Foreshadowing: He's understandably skeptical when Ryunosuke asks to take Kazuma's place as the visiting student due to his lack of experience, but briefly pauses when Ryunosuke claims to be here to "do everything [Kazuma] planned to do" and asks him if he's dead-set on that path. Stronghart was the one who arranged Kazuma's visitation as a cover for an assassin exchange, and was likely gauging how much his "replacement" knew of the plot.
  • He's the first to mention the theory that the Reaper is Klint van Zieks' spirit enacting justice on the criminals who cheated their way out of a conviction by his younger brother. This is, in retrospect, a huge hint to Klint's true identity as a murderer as well as the similarity in the Professor murders and the Reaper conspiracy.
• Hanging Judge: Downplayed. He does try to end the last trial before he gets caught, and is a judge and a bad guy, but he is mostly reasonable up to this point. Even then, he's forced to keep himself in check by the fact that he's being watched by the entire judiciary at the time.
• Hypocrite: Despite his claims of wanting the best for the British Empire and its citizens, he had the Professor kill the previous Chief Justice so Stronghart would take the position, in a clear act of self-fulfillment. Not to mention, as pointed out by Kazuma and Ryunosuke, the man who claims to do everything in his power to rid London of all crime did basically nothing to achieve that goal that didn't depend on one of his assassins or extortion victims, and yet he proudly puts himself ahead of the conspiracy despite no real effort being made on his part.
• I Gave My Word: Admits that he intended to honor his agreement to smuggle Genshin back to Japan but unfortunately, Enoch Drebber accidentally stumbling upon the scene meant it became too big a risk to take. Of course even then, he still had the ulterior motive of trying to find Klint's last will and confession in the process.
• Indirect Serial Killer: He's the first Big Bad in the series to never actually kill anyone himself, something that other characters in this series who fit this trope have done at least once.
• Irony: His desire to purge London of crime turns him and almost all of his subordinates into criminals. Barok Van Zieks and the Old Bailey judge are his only subordinates who aren't arrested, killed, or directly involved in his crimes at some point.
• Jerkass: Even before his crimes are revealed, Stronghart shows himself to be an extremely unpleasant person. From using a defendant's life as a test on qualifying attorneys, to willingly wasting everyone else's time and forcing them to wait for him for hours.
• Just Giving Orders: His rebuttal to Ryunosuke and Kazuma's "The Reason You Suck" Speech is to gleefully agree that he did nothing for London — so there's nothing to indict him for.
• Kick the Dog: After Gina's freakout over Inspector Gregson being a member of the Reaper conspiracy, he berates her for her behavior. Using her past as a pickpocket against her, he belittles her as an inspector and demands that she turn in her badge at the conclusion of the trial. It actually gets inside her head enough to convince her that he's right, despite his own fall from grace, and she's ready to go through with it until the other characters manage to remind her of the legacy she is able to carry on if she keeps pushing.
• Klingon Promotion: Had Klint kill the previous Chief Justice, simply so he can have the position.
• Knight Templar: His ultimate goal was to turn the British Empire into a crime-free utopia. Of course, that meant a lot of people had to either die or be forced to work for him in the process.
• Large and in Charge: Supplementary material puts his height at an impressive 196cm (6'5"). Absolutely not bad for the Chief Justice of the world's biggest nation at the time.
• Large Ham: Especially when speaking about his country and its law system. His breakdown once he's finally defeated in Resolve reflects this, being one of the most overblown and overly-dramatic breakdowns in the franchise.
• Laser-Guided Karma: He personally appoints the two men responsible for bringing him to justice in the end.
• Leitmotif: "The Administrator Who Watches Time", a powerful orchestrated theme that follows a beat similar to a clock ticking.
• Ludicrous Precision: When it comes to matters of time.
• The Man Behind the Man: Though he wasn't responsible for the first of the Professor murders, he quickly forced The Professor into murdering people on his kill list after discovering their true identity. In the present, he's also the man who founded the Reaper organization, which Shinn/Jezaille and Gregson were a part of.
• Manipulative Bastard: And how. Even after admitting to his crimes and revealing himself to be a blackmailer and the head of the Reaper conspiracy, he still manages to wriggle his way out of trouble by convincing the judiciary that all trust in Britain's law enforcement would evaporate and be thrown into chaos, and the only way to prevent such a thing was to keep a tight lid on his criminal activities. Not to mention that one of his defenses against Ryunosuke and Kazuma's accusations is that he simply manipulated his minions into doing his bidding, and did not do anything himself.
• Meaningful Name:
  • His Japanese name, "Hart", comes from "hato" (ハト), meaning "pigeon", which can very commonly be found in clock towers like the chief's own office, and seen flying when he screams out within it. "Vortex" can refer to a vortex-like movement followed by the hands of a clock, but it's allegedly a reference to a Hanayama "cast vortex" disentanglement puzzle that Shu Takumi was playing with during production. And indeed, the more you try to unravel his involvement in the plot, more facets of his true, murderous self are brought to light.
  • In a vortex, everything circles around a single spot, much like how every single case in the duology is more or less connected with his actions.
  • His localized name, "Mael", is a name of Celtic origin meaning "chief", which fits his role as the Chief Justice of England. Possibly as a nod to his Japanese name, his name sounds similar to 'maelstrom heart', referring to the center of a powerful whirlpool in a body of water. This is directly referenced by Ryunosuke in the last case in the trial Mael is the judge for, saying he must got to "the heart of the maelstrom" to find the truth.
  • "Hart"/"Stronghart" may also be a reference to H. L. A. Hart, a British law professor and one of the most eminent legal philosophers of the 20th century. In his most well-known book, The Concept of Law, Hart advocates for "legal positivism" (the belief that laws don't need to satisfy the moral demands of society), which is quite fitting for Stronghart, since he uses the Reaper conspiracy as a means to uphold the rule of English law. Also, both Hart and Stronghart use the latest technology to help stop crime in Britain: Hart worked for British intelligence to root out spies during World War II alongside Alan Turing, while Stronghart championed forensic science as the future of law enforcement along with Tobias Gregson. Ironically, Hart would totally condemn Stronghart's methods — he writes that legal professionals have a duty to uphold the law in all aspects (i.e., they're supposed to be totally bound by the law), so if a lawyer acts illegally, that damages the credibility of the entire legal system.
• Morton's Fork: The moment Stronghart becomes a suspect in the Reaper case, he attempts to cut his losses by acquitting Barok and immediately adjourning the trial, granting himself ample time to cover his tracks before anyone can legally do anything about it. But then Sholmes shows up and points out a very damning technicality—Stronghart took over the case by turning it from a mere criminal trial into a royally decreed inquiry "to stop at nothing to uncover the whole truth" behind government involvement in the Reaper and Professor murders, one in which the entire judiciary of the British Empire is present to audit the case. So while continuing the trial would almost certainly expose him as the Reaper, shutting it down would be a tacit admission of guilt and a clear case of obstruction of justice.
• Mythical Motifs: The Unicorn. His spiraling hair creates a single 'horn', best seen when he views his watch, while the rest of his hair forms the 'mane'. More obviously, his cane when he presides as the judge is topped with the head of the beast. This alludes to both its appearance on the UK's Coat of Arms, as well as the commanding power and perfection that Stronghart strives for in his work.
• Near-Villain Victory: He nearly ends the final trial prematurely, but Sholmes stops him. When he is caught, he still nearly gets away because of his supposed good intentions... but sadly for him, the Queen doesn't approve of his means.
• Non-Action Big Bad: One of the few overarching villains in the series to never directly murder anyone, preferring to order/blackmail others into doing the deed for him.
• Not So Above It All: He has some comedic moments, such as being somewhat intrigued by the notion of the 'Red-Headed League' to the point of even thinking what a 'White-Headed League' would be.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He plays at being a Well-Intentioned Extremist whose killings of acquitted criminals are for the good of the British Empire. Before the Reaper conspiracy, however, Stronghart blackmailed the Professor into committing three murders for him. One of them was the previous Lord Chief Justice, just so Stronghart could take his job. Between that and Stronghart's long-winded speeches about becoming Her Majesty's Attorney General, it's clear that his vision of a crime-free Britain is merely a cover, and what he really wants is power. He outright says after his breakdown that he wants "everything to run smoothly, in the exact manner I prescribe".
• Opportunistic Bastard: He's much better at spur-of-the-moment manipulation and blackmail than he is at planned machinations. Unfortunately for him, he fancies himself The Chessmaster, so when he does attempt more elaborate plans such as the "Strangers on a Train"-Plot Murder, his pawns turn out to be spanners, and things immediately snowball from there.
• Pet the Dog: In escapade no. 8 it's revealed that Stronghart had originally ordered Gregson take care of Madame Rosie, the parakeet "victim" of the case, because she was being picked on by his other birds.
• Plea of Personal Necessity: He ends up resorting to this when exposed as the one behind the Professor and the Reaper conspiracy, arguing that the knowledge of someone of his rank being involved would shatter faith in the legal system. Her Majesty the Queen, however, decides that making sure he pays for his crimes is worth it.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: He's a 19th century British noble, after all. While not as outwardly hostile towards Japanese characters as van Zieks, he's highly prone to Cultural Posturing and Condescending Compassion, and he's quick to drop his civility when Ryunosuke singles him out as the man behind the Reaper.
• Punctuality Is for Peasants: Despite his love for Clocks of Control and Ludicrous Precision, he has absolutely no respect for anyone else's time and will often leave people waiting hours after the appointed time for their meeting.
  Stronghart: Well, I must be leaving for my next engagement. I'm already... eleven hours and sixteen minutes late. My colleagues may be starting to fidget.
• Punny Name: For his localized name, "Maelstrom" and "strong heart".
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Despite giving off a very powerful and intimidating aura, he is still willing to give Ryunosuke an opportunity to prove that he is qualified to be an attorney, even though Kazuma was the one who was supposed to be the attorney for the exchange program. He later reinstates Ryunosuke as an attorney six months after Ryunosuke is banned from British courts for having used false testimony to get Magnus McGilded wrongly acquitted, since Ryunosuke had kept up with his studies. The sequel then reveals it's all an act to save face and hide his numerous crimes by proxy. It also heavily implies that the reason why he was so "reasonable" to Ryunosuke initially was because he misunderstood Ryunosuke's statement that he was there to do everything Kazuma was as implying that Ryunosuke was in on the assassination exchange and would kill Gregson for him.
• Refuge in Audacity: At the end of the second game, he smugly admits to all of his crimes in front of the entire British judiciary in the closed trial, but his crimes are so horrific and severe that them being exposed could make the general public lose all respect for the British judicial system. He uses this fact to get the rest of the judiciary to fall in line and conceal the truth, and if it wasn't for direct intervention from Queen Victoria herself he would've gotten away with it.
• Rule of Symbolism:
  • His explosive Villainous Breakdown is full of this. First off, he breaks his judge gavel, a cane with a unicorn head, symbolising his betrayal of Britain's (whose coat of arms bears a unicorn) legal system. When he falls from his judge's seat (symbolizing his inevitable fall from his position in the government), he sends six more flames to the guilty side of the Scales of Justice, which weighs it to be far heavier than it's ever been before to really sell that he's guilty. Then, the scales roll towards him, and the guilty side ends up exploding right behind him, like his plans who crashed and burned, exposing him for the criminal he is. Finally, he gets covered in soot and ashes by the explosion. Stronghart himself discussed how he had embraced the "darkness" plaguing London and became a part of it to fight it internally, which the soot represents, making him look darker.
  • He has a very heavy clock motif and is very preoccupied with everything running on time — like, say, trains.
• Saying Too Much: As he tries to bring the Reaper's trial to a swift end, he accidentally slips in his reasons to do so by mentioning by accident that the Asogi Papers were three pages long while they were just two pages to the rest of the people who knew about it. The third missing page ends up being a vital clue to uncover Klint's will's location.
• Serial Escalation: Ryunosuke starts off implicating individual police officers for tampering with crime scenes. From there, he moves up to the Coroner of Scotland Yard, and then finally to the Lord Chief Justice of Britain.
• Shoot the Dangerous Minion: While he hadn't planned to frame van Zieks for Gregson's murder, he's happy to take the opportunity and throw him into a Kangaroo Court after his Consummate Professionalism lands Dr. Sithe in jail and threatens to expose the Reaper conspiracy to the public.
• Slave to PR: He often mentions his attempts to reach higher levels of government office to reform the justice system, which forces him to cater to the whims of the public. This is weaponized against him in the final trial, as Sholmes eggs on the judiciary to force Stronghart to continue a trial he’d really like to stop.
• Surrounded by Idiots: After he claims that he cannot be indicted for having committed any crime on technicality, it's because he believes he's been surrounded by fools acting rashly on their own accord even though he orchestrated their actions.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
  • To Damon Gant from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Both are well-built men of a high ranking in law enforcement who abuse their power leading to murders, be it direct or indirect. Both also act as the Final Boss of their respective games and their Villainous Breakdown involves clapping their hands hard continuously. To make things even more obvious, the celebratory drawing with all other important Ace Attorney characters has both Mael and Damon on opposite ends.
  • Stronghart also takes more subtle cues from Kristoph Gavin from Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. Of note, he's at first seen as a pseudo-mentor figure to Ryunosuke who leads him down the path to understanding British judicature, has a man murdered because he was denied a position of law, and undergoes his Villainous Breakdown when he learns that his confessions in a closed court have been overheard by a third party that's ready to cast judgment on him.
• Ungrateful Bastard: His entire treatment of Gregson is this, Gregson had been running errands for Stronghart from falsifying evidence to keep the British justice, to doing anything to cover up a piece of leaked government information. What does Stronghart do in return? Planning to kill him because He Knows Too Much, and dock his pay for fun.
• Uriah Gambit: Sends Gregson off to a mission as the "Reaper" to target Jigoku, as part of his and Jigoku's plan to assassinate Gregson.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: Why he believes the Reaper murders have a place in British justice, establishing order and law through the assurance that anyone who escapes justice against Barok van Zieks will still face the hand of the Reaper soon enough. It actually does appear to be working, as several characters observe that lawlessness is down significantly since the Reaper has been roaming London. Stronghart wants to ascend even higher in the UK justice system in order to enact his brand of crime control as far as it will take him.
• Villainous Breakdown: Has two:
  • Upon Ryunosuke finding Klint van Zieks' confession in Karuma's hilt (as per the third page in Genshin Asogi's will) admitting to being the Professor and laying out Stronghart's part in it (in turn proving him as the one behind the Reaper conspiracy behind Barok), he stands up and yells out in anger... before calming down and applauding Ryu, Asogi, Barok, and other involved parties in exposing him, claiming what he did was necessary and that his actions were ultimately for the good of London, while smugly proclaiming they can't expose any of this to the public lest they risk losing the public's confidence to the law and police...
  • ...and when Sholmes reveals that he has been telecasting the entire trial to Queen Victoria herself at Buckingham Palace using hologram transmission technology he invented, resulting in the Queen herself making a decree to fire Stronghart from his position and have him be tried at a public trial, Stronghart loses it and screams for the court to be adjourned as he repeatedly pounds his cane gavel on the judge's bench until it snaps. He then keels over the bench, lands on the empty jurors' bench, and falls onto the court floor. This triggers the torch launching mechanisms on the jurors' seats, launching them all onto the 'Guilty' side of the scales behind him, causing the scales to tip over completely vertically before snapping off the balance pivot. This causes the scales to then "roll" towards Stronghart by having the 'Not Guilty' scale slam into the court ground and have it tip the 'Guilty' scale upwards, where the 'Guilty' scale finally lands and explodes behind him in a fiery blaze as he screams in rage. The next we see of him, he's covered in soot, finally defeated.
    Stronghart: Adjourned! Adjourned! Adjourned! Adjourned! Adjourned! COURT IS ADJOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURNED!!!
• Villain with Good Publicity: Such good publicity among his peers, in fact, that even after all of his heinous assassinations and blackmails are exposed, he charismatically appeals to them with his plan of justice through serial murder, and they still wholeheartedly support him. The Queen ultimately has to step in and directly shut him down, because no matter how appalled they are, the judicial community won't.
• Visionary Villain: Truly wished for a Great British Empire free of crime. Unfortunately, the way he went to go about this is to commit a 10-year string of blackmail and murder in a bid to wrest control of the legal system.
• Walking Spoiler: A very important character between both games yet the most important thing about him isn't revealed until the "The Resolve of Ryunosuke Naruhodo".
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Teeters on the edge of it. On one hand, he's not lying — everything he's ever done is in the interest of making sure London doesn't plunge into a Wretched Hive (and believes in his heart that he needs as much judicial influence as possible to ensure a safe society) and the numbers don't lie: Britain is in a golden age of civil stability in no small part due to the shadow of the Reaper looming. However his methods often hop back and forth over the line of "well-intentioned vigilante" and "self-serving manipulator". People he's victimized include some of London's most untouchable scoundrels who abuse their wealth and prominence to avoid justice until he makes sure they get what's coming to them but he has also had people murdered who stood in his way or posed a threat to everything he's engineered.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
  • Ten years ago, he persuaded Genshin Asogi to agree to a deal whereby his execution would be faked and he'd be broken out of prison in exchange for becoming the fall guy for the Professor murders and eventually handing over Klint van Zieks' will. The second the plan went awry due to Enoch Drebber witnessing his "resurrection", Stronghart immediately ordered Jigoku to execute him for real.
  • In the present, he begins directly targeting his accomplices in the Professor coverup, such as John Wilson and eventually Tobias Gregson, as due to his ambitions to become Attorney General he doesn't want any potential loose ends surviving. While this is what eventually leads to his undoing, his paranoia is also justified to an extent, as the Reaper conspiracy was already being investigated by both Barok von Zieks and Kazuma Asogi, with Kazuma having successfully gotten Gregson to confess to framing his own father, Genshin Asogi for the murders.
• You Killed My Father: Accused of this by Kazuma, who believes he was the one who shot Genshin. Subverted when Stronghart reveals that he merely ordered Jigoku to shoot Genshin to cover up the mock execution and avoid getting his hands dirty with murder.

The Masked Apprentice

Masked Apprentice

A mysterious masked man assigned by Mael Stronghart to be a subordinate and apprentice of Barok van Zieks. Despite the man's skill in both combat and law, he has no recollection of his name or past, and nobody has seen his face.

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• Amnesiac Dissonance: While not friends, van Zieks and his apprentice have a good working relationship with little friction. Kazuma has little trouble turning on van Zieks when he remembers he is the man who falsely convicted his father of serial murder.
• Amnesiac Resonance: Kazuma wakes up with amnesia after being smuggled off to Hong Kong to prevent his arrival to England, having completely forgotten his identity. Despite this, he still retains an unexplained strong will to get to England no matter what, which pushes him to do so in the hopes he can find the reason once he gets there. He somehow still manages to make his way there as such.
• Cool Mask: Wears one while under van Zieks's tutelage. Stronghart instructed Kazuma to wear it because it was easier than trying to convince van Zieks to take a Japanese apprentice.
• Identity Concealment Disposal: After his true identity is revealed, he discards the cloak and mask disguise. The latter is taken into Sholmes' possession as one of his souvenirs.
• In the Hood: Wears a body-covering hood, which in addition to his Cool Mask, serves to hide his identity. Once his true identity is revealed, he wears neither items anymore.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: He doesn't remember anything about his identity, but he's still well-versed in law somehow.
• Mundane Utility: Uses his expert skills with a blade to dramatically open wine bottles.
• The Voiceless: He is never seen speaking onscreen before his true identity is revealed.

Old Bailey Judge

Old Bailey Judge

"In the name of Her Majesty the Queen, we declare this Court is now in session."

The judge who presides over the Central Criminal Court of England, otherwise known as Old Bailey.

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• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Actually averted for the most part. This judge is smarter, more sensible and way less of a comic relief than the one from the standard series, although there are still a few weird moments involving him here and there. He is also less likely to ask the attorneys to explain stuff he doesn't know about for him (mostly because Ryunosuke himself already does that due to being a Naïve Newcomer).
• Character Catchphrase: "Goodness gracious!" and "Saints Alive!" when surprised.
• Dodgy Toupee: Whenever he's shocked, he jumps from his seat a little bit, making his wig (as well as his glasses) slightly crooked.
• In-Series Nickname: At one point, Iris calls him "Father Christmas" due to his prominent white beard.
• No Name Given: Like many of the series' judges, his actual name is never given.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • While he is a bit skeptical of Ryunosuke due to him being Japanese, he is still just towards him.
  • He's willing to listen to Susato and take what she has to say seriously despite her being a Japanese woman.
  • Sholmes re-introduces him to the bench after Stronghart is finally exposed and arrested, directly addressing him as a sign that the British courts have capable, fair people in their ranks to help fight the "darkness" in a better way.
• Token Good Teammate: Of the judges from The Great Ace Attorney duology, whereas Jigoku and Stronghart were the co-heads of a conspiracy and ultimately brought to justice by the second game's final case, this judge is a genuine Reasonable Authority Figure, with Sholmes acknowledging him as such at the end of said final case.

Tobias Gregson (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Tobias Gregson

"All it'd take is one bad word from you and Sholmes could change his tune about me. 'Gregson? ...no,' the great detective will say. 'He's getting quite overrated these days!' Think what would happen to my salary if that came out in print, eh?"

An inspector from Scotland Yard, who has a (one-sided) rivalry with Sholmes. He constantly tries to get onto Iris Wilson's good side, as his public image (and paycheck by extension) are heavily dependent on how his role is written in her stories. Loves fish and chips.

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• Adaptational Villainy: This version of Gregson was not only a part of the plan to frame Genshin Asogi as "The Professor", he's also the one who plotted the deaths of the Reaper's victims.
• Affably Evil: Despite all the horrendous things he is responsible for, he still does his detective work to the best of his abilities, being one of the less hostile people Ryunosuke faces off against. He also has a soft spot for children, being far more sympathetic to their plights.
• Anti-Villain: He's a key player in an evil conspiracy, yet he genuinely believes in Stronghart's vision and spends as much time solving crimes as he does participating in them. He also has an unsual amount of empathy for a villain in the series, risking his life to stop Gina Lestrade from getting caught in the crosshairs.
• Big "NO!": When it's made clear that nobody, not even van Zieks, will stop Ryunosuke from playing the secret information on the discs in the middle of court, he freaks out. He'd be right to do so too, as the information doesn't pertain to the government, it's a list of Reaper members which includes himself.
• Co-Dragons: Alongside Asa Shinn; Gregson planned the murders, Shinn carried them out.
• Damned by Faint Praise: Subverted. At first, it seems Sholmes' comments on his intelligence look more like an insult to the intellignece of Scotland Yard's agents, but later events show that Gregson is quite the clever man, much like his canon counterpart, which he also demonstrates in more sinister ways than imagined.
  Susato: Mr. Sholmes is equally complimentary about you, Inspector, isn't he? You've earnt his highest praise! 'Gregson is the pick of a bad lot of all the Scotland Yarders!' Those were his own words!
  Ryuosuke: ...That's his highest praise?
• Defiant to the End: Even as he was running away from the Reapers at that point, and even as Kazuma Asogi had his katana to Gregson's neck, the inspector refused to name the leader of the conspiracy.
• Dirty Cop: He's committed to Britain, not British justice, and is very willing to engage in unlawful dealings or Miscarriage of Justice if he thinks it's for for the good of the country. It also turns out that his role in the justice system is much closer to that of the Secret Police than a Scotland Yard detective.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: He's not just cranky comic relief. He's (one of) the Reaper(s).
• Dual Boss: Ends up being one with Graydon partway into Case 5's trial (see My Country, Right or Wrong below).
• Dragon with an Agenda: Was planning on getting the hell out of London as soon as he could, both to avoid charges and to avoid pursuit from the other conspiracy members. He was killed before he had a chance.
• Easily Forgiven: He was perfectly willing to let Gina Lestrade take the fall for Pop Windibank's murder so he could retrieve the stolen secrets of the British Empire. Once Gina becomes his apprentice, she shows no signs of holding this against him and she refuses to believe that Gregson played a major role in the Reaper conspiracy. To his credit, even if he took her in begrudgingly, what we see of their interactions show that he really did care for her.
• Even Evil Has Standards: For all the deaths he helped plan and cause, Gregson did eventually reach his limits within the Reaper conspiracy. While he shared Stronghart's "My Country, Right or Wrong" mentality, he realized how out of hand it got and how far his leader fell into the cycle of killing that it eventually became too much and he decided to flee, helped by the fact that even Gregson thought involving Gina — a young, idealistic girl who idolized him as a mentor in the force — in the conspiracy would be an awful idea, and planned to have them both escape to Paris so she wouldn't be killed like he eventually was.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Although he initially took Gina on as an apprentice because Sholmes twisted his arm, it's clear that he grew to care about her — he planned to take her with him to Paris after his One Last Job to continue her detective training and ensure that she wouldn't fall back into her old pickpocketing lifestyle. In end credits (showing a flashback to when he was alive) he laments the fact that he isn't as good of a person as she thinks he is and says that her presence has inspired him to recommit to his principles and abandon his work within the Reaper conspiracy; it's just too bad that he never got to go through with it.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: Gina takes his death hard and is beside herself when Ryunosuke is forced to announce in court that he was a member of the Reaper conspiracy; she begs him to find some contradiction that would proves otherwise, but to no avail. After the trial is all said and done, she considers quitting the force just because Gregson is gone, but Sholmes gives her his beloved pocket watch and she resolves to stay a detective so she can wind his watch every day just as he did and keep his legacy alive. In the end credits, she says that he actually left a note for her explaining that he was trying to protect her — she decides that she'll protect the people of London in the same way and wishes she could have expressed her gratitude to him for all he did for her before he died.
• Final Boss: Ultimately becomes one of the last obstacles to be overcome to prove Gina's innocence in the final case of Adventures.
• Foil: To Herlock Sholmes, naturally; both Iris' stories, and the title of his own leitmotif, name him as the Great Detective's rival. Gregson is a stern, by-the-book officer of Scotland Yard who abides by British law and seeks to perform his duties efficiently, but is hesitant to call upon outside help should the need arise. Herlock is a loose, eccentric private detective who acts on his own whims and deductions, and openly invites others to try and follow his logic. They also both know a great deal more about the Reaper Conspiracy than they're letting on, but while Sholmes opposes it, Gregson is a member.
• Framing the Guilty Party: Partly. Though Genshin wasn't responsible for any of the other Professor's murders, he did commit the specific homicide Gregson planted the evidence for.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: Downplayed. Gregson was preparing to run from the Reaper Conspiracy, and his last on-screen act is to give Ryunosuke a critical piece of evidence before defending him to Courtney Sithe's face. He still refused to betray Stronghart, even when Asogi had a blade to his neck. On the other hand, he went out of his way to try and bring Gina with him, showing that he legitimately came to care for her.
• Hidden Depths: As revealed in 2-2, he knows his Shakespeare. When William Shamspeare awakens from his brief poison-induced coma at the crime scene and, naturally, starts quoting Shakespeare's Macbeth only to forget the final line, Gregson is the one to finish it for him.
• Identical Stranger: According to the Skulkin Brothers, he looks just like their long-lost brother. They decide to call him Brig Bruv Sulky in his honor. Gregson would prefer they not.
• Inspector Lestrade: Well, he's the other inspector from the Holmes stories, but he performs this function nonetheless.
• Just Following Orders: Uses this exact line to justify planting the evidence that led to Genshin's conviction.
• Leitmotif: "The Great Detective's Great Foe", a stern-paced song more fitting for an official of the Scotland Yard. It deliberately clashes with Herlock's faster-paced theme.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: Becomes Gina's mentor in the timeskip between games, and is the victim of the fourth case of GAA2.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: Gregson embodies this trope. He is willing to deal with Graydon and cover up his crimes in order to retrieve an important disc that contains secret information about the British Empire, in addition to letting Gina take the fall for a murder she did not commit. He is clearly not happy about it, though.
  • It is revealed in the second game that Gregson served as the planner for the Reaper organization out of a belief that it was the only way to keep Britain safe from criminals like McGilded. Stronghart was able to persuade him that Genshin Asogi truly was the Professor, leading to him forging evidence. Subverted by the 4th case where Gregson intends on running away from it all with Gina.
• Nerves of Steel: He's noted for being very cool-headed and it's in-fact noted as being out-of-character for him when he seems to lose his temper with someone. He also talks down a pissed-off Kazuma who was threatening him with a katana while hardly batting an eyelid. That said, he does genuinely freak out in a couple of instances.
• One Last Job: Before going to France with Gina, he takes one last job for the Reaper Conspiracy. Unfortunately, said job turned out to be a set-up to kill him instead.
• Pet the Dog: In spite of his rougher moments, Gregson is still capable of being a gentleman when he wants to be.
  • He takes Gina under his wing, to the extent that he was willing to defy the Reaper Conspiracy in order to keep her safe.
  • After Susato rejoins Ryunosuke in Resolve, Gregson gives her a heartfelt, respectful greeting, and he later provides them with Selden's autopsy report only because he knows it'll help their case, remarking that he had to really dig through the Scotland Yard files for it.
  • When Ryunosuke’s assist in his investigations proved fruitful efforts, Gregson helps to provide evidence on his trials and defend his position to the forensic investigation team.
  • There's also his hiring of Daley Vigil, who was in his Gossip disguise after being unjustly fired from Barclay Prison, for "assistance" in investigations that the latter interpreted as an act of pity.
• Professional Butt-Kisser: As Iris's "The Adventures of Herlock Sholmes" has made him an indirect celebrity at Scotland Yard that he got a raise, he tries hard to remain on her good side not because he's seeking her to make him a better character, but because he knows she also has the power to screw up his reputation if he ever happened to make her mad. In retrospect, he was likely more concerned with upholding his image in the public eye so that he could manage the Reaper killings under minimal suspicion than trying to protect his personal pride.
• Recurring Element: Fills the role of opposing detective whom the lawyer has to eke information out of in some way like Gumshoe, Fulbright, and Ema have filled in games prior. He's considerably sterner than those examples, however.
• The Rival: To Herlock Sholmes, but only in the books Iris publishes. In reality, he is more of an Unknown Rival.
• Secret Police: He's the strategic arm for the Reaper, planning out the deaths of any notorious criminals that can't be taken down legally.
• Slave to PR: He's very concerned with his portrayal in "The Adventures of Herlock Sholmes", which makes it very easy for Iris to strongarm him into aiding the defence counsel.
• Smith of the Yard: Thanks to both his essential role in identifying the Professor and his endorsement in "The Adventures of Herlock Sholmes", he's quite highly regarded as a detective and is often given quite a bit of freedom to act that's not afforded to other members of Scotland Yard, which gives him plenty of time and cover to carry out the Reaper killings.
• The Strategist: A villainous example. His role in Stronghart's Reaper organisation was planning the assassinations of each victim.
• Token Good Teammate: Of the Reaper conspiracy. Asa Shinn was a bigoted racist and remorseless murderer, and Stronghart is the Big Bad of the series who targeted innocent victims for his own personal gain. In contrast, it's implied that Gregson was genuinely devoted to solving cases to the best of his considerable abilities in a legitimate fashion, with the Reaper conspiracy assassinating targets out of reach of the law, such as McGilded. As shown by his protectiveness of Gina, he refused to go after truly innocent targets, and it's telling that even after his crimes are exposed, Gina and the Baker Street team still view his legacy with respect and Sholmes still regrets being unable to save him.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: The final victim in GAA2. Quite notably the first regularly recurring character in the series to actually die in a sequel game.
• Trademark Favourite Food: He never gets tired of eating fish and chips, which he is always carrying around wrapped in paper and will often eat while on the job. The fact that they've molded out when his body is discovered signals Maria Gorey that his time of death had been tampered with.
• Unknown Rival: To Sholmes, which is reflected in the name of his leitmotif, "Tobias Gregson ~ The Great Detective's ​Great Foe".
• Walking Spoiler: Just take a look at the (UNMARKED SPOILERS) warning on his character folder; think there might be more to him than meets the eye?
• What the Hell, Hero?: Gets deservedly called out for attempting to cover for the final culprit in trade of an important piece of evidence. He is also mentioned to get a punishment for his misdeed, which GAA2 reveals was a suspension from his duties.
• Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: An unintentional example. He didn't have to do much to keep the legend of the Reaper going after Naruhodo's arrival. Magnus McGilded is murdered by a completely-unrelated third party literally minutes after he's declared Not Guilty. Odie Asman gets finished off by a fellow conspirator because He Knows Too Much. This is doubly fortunate, since the group's go-to assassin was imprisoned in another country for the former case, and dead for the latter.

Gina Lestrade

Gina Lestrade

Voiced by (Japanese): Miyuki Sahaku

Voiced by (English): Samantha Béart

"Pull the other one! I don't need no 'elp from some stuck-up dee! Get outta my business! Go on, or I'll make trouble for ya!"

A detective-in-training under Gregson's tutelage in GAA2. Formerly, she was a pickpocket street kid who lived in the east end of London trying to make ends meet for her fellow orphans.

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• Adaptational Attractiveness: The literary Lestrade was an underweight, unhealthy-looking man variously compared to rats, ferrets, and bulldogs. Gina is a dapper, pretty young woman.
• Adult Hater: She viewed all adults as untrustworthy for a long time (being a street urchin didn't help matters). Eventually ends up being to her detriment when she didn't believe Herlock kept The Hound of the Baskervilles manuscript in Pop's pawnshop... leading to her being accused of murdering Pop. It took Ryunosuke earnestly trying to get her representation in court — in spite of her revealing to him that she lied in court during the "Thrice-Fired" Mason murder trial — to make her openly express trust to an adult.
• Broken Pedestal: Downplayed. While she has unwavering faith in Inspector Gregson as her mentor, she's not happy to learn he was a member of the Reaper conspiracy and spends most of the sequel's final two cases in complete denial, insisting Ryunosuke and Susato prove that he wasn't a murderer. While she does eventually accept his role in the conspiracy, she still has nothing but respect for the man who took her in (and to her credit, Gregson did come to genuinely care about her).
• Canon Character All Along: Initially, it seems like the only thing she has in common with the Lestrade of Holmes canon is her name. But come the sequel, she's become an apprentice detective, and insists on being called... Inspector Lestrade.
• Character Development: Oh boy. She starts off as a shady pickpocket who can't really bring herself to make any friends due to her contempt of society (adults being the worst to her) and can't admit being friends to even the people who see her as one. During the course of her trial, she finally starts to gain trust on adults thanks to Ryunosuke fervently advocating for her even though she had committed perjury during the third case (all due to McGilded blackmailing her). By the time she returns to the sequel, she has become an "inspector" capable of making it work, looks up to Inspector Gregson, and overall has a better outlook in life.
• Character Tic: Besides putting a finger to her temple, she'll sometimes walk a coin across her fingers when she's in deep thought.
• Cowboy Cop: A low-key example. She doesn't have any active contempt for the rules or do anything egregiously out of line, but she is a former pickpocket and hasn't made much effort to kill some old habits. She also goes beyond her authority to investigate Gregson's murder, which gets her in some trouble in the final trial of Resolve.
  Gina: All Yard detectives are s'posed to follow orders an' investigate wot they're told.
  Ryunosuke: So... you follow orders, do you, Gina?
  Gina: Nah, not me.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: A life of hardship and distrust from the rest of the public has made her jaded towards others but in getting to know Iris, Ryunosuke, and Susato (as well as having to rely on them for help during her darkest hour) she lets her guard down and becomes more personable. She stays prickly but less abrasive and guarded about it.
• Destroy the Evidence: She does this to some of the evidence in Magnus McGilded's murder trial due to Blackmail from him.
• Does Not Know How to Say "Thanks": After her acquittal, she "thanks" Ryunosuke by shooting him with the invention she stole from Iris. Sholmes lampshades how she's probably never said "Thank you" in her life before she finally spits it out.
• Dynamic Entry: Setting off a smoke bomb in court qualifies.
• Easily Forgiven: Though she did do some time for perjury, breaking and entering, theft, and threatening a man with a firearm, she's not only out of jail within six months (or heck, within two weeks based on Escapade No. 7 and her own words in GAA 2-4 of having been let out of jail six months prior), but on the police force.
• First-Name Basis: Ryunosuke, Susato and eventually Gregson come to refer to her by her first name.
• Friend on the Force: Owing her life and freedom to Ryunosuke and Sholmes, she has little compunction assisting the defense counsel in any capacity she can. However, being a mere apprentice with no educational background, the help she can offer is rather limited.
• Funetik Aksent: Speaks in a heavy Cockney accent, with her text including traits like not pronouncing the letter H and pronouncing "what" as "wot". In one of the witness trials, her pursuit reaction is heard as a "Cor... blimey...!"
• Gender Flip: Lestrade was described as a "little sallow rat-faced, dark-eyed fellow" in stories like A Study in Scarlet. Gina is a 17-18 year-old girl in GAA.
• Insistent Terminology: Once she becomes part of Scotland Yard, she's very adamant everyone addresses her as Inspector Lestrade despite being only a mere apprentice.
• Inspector Lestrade: Naturally, considering who she's based on. (This applies in GAA2, at least. Technically not Inspector yet, but she's insistent on it.)
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's abrasive and stingy, but she's a good person who cares about other orphans like her. She eventually also opens up to Ryunosuke and Susato, and becomes a close ally.
• Karmic Protection: Invokes this when asked about the Reaper's Curse. Unlike previous defendants who remained in Britain, she was proven unequivocally innocent of the murder she was charged with, and otherwise, she hasn't committed much beyond petty crime and perjury under coercion. In reality, it's because she wound up becoming the Morality Pet for the guy in charge of planning the Reaper organization's assassinations.
• Lampshade Hanging: After demanding that she be called Inspector Lestrade, she comments that the name sounds like "somefin' out of a book."
• Leitmotif: "A Blast from the East End", a rougher orchestrated theme that starts very suddenly, to represent Gina's own pickpocket habit and pauper origins (it comes out of nowhere for startling effect, much like what she used to do).
• Morality Pet: To Tobias Gregson, as his final deciding point for leaving the Reaper organization and trying to escape England, even trying to bring her along so she wouldn't be chased herself.
• Named by the Adaptation: The original Inspector Lestrade was never given a first name, merely a first initial (G. Lestrade).
• Never Learned to Read: Is illiterate in Adventures. After her trial, Sholmes strongarms Gregson into teaching her how to read, which eventually evolves into her detective apprenticeship.
• The Nicknamer: She calls Ryunosuke "'Oddo" (short for "Naruhodo") and Susato "Sooze" because she has difficulty pronouncing their Japanese names.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: McGilded forces her to aid him in covering up Mason Milverton's murder by threatening to remove her family of street orphans out of East End.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: She believes that the Reaper's Curse won't affect her because she genuinely was innocent, unlike most of the Reaper's other "victims". Her innocence probably didn't factor into it — being Gregson's assistant, and thus a Morality Pet to the central planner of the Reaper Conspiracy, likely helped a lot.
• Sand In My Eyes: You never see her cry, but whenever she is overcome with emotion, she lowers the bill of her hat to obscure her eyes, then wipes her arm across her face.
• Stepford Snarker: She hides a lot of her issues behind an abrasive façade.
• Sticky Fingers: A pickpocket from the East End, Gina finds it entertaining to steal things from others when they least expect it. Even when she becomes a member of Scotland Yard in the sequel, she's still prone to doing this.
• Street Urchin: From the east end of London. Not so much come GAA2, where she's a member of Scotland Yard.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: She smiles a lot more in the second game compared to the first, where she only smiles a couple times.
• Tsundere: She puts up a strong front but she gets flustered and huffy when other people show they care for her to cover for her softer side. It becomes fairly obvious (especially in her interactions with Iris) that she just wants people to like her and wants to do good by those people but is afraid to show weakness or vulnerability because life on the streets has taught her better.
• When She Smiles: She's incredibly dour throughout most of GAA, but she can be seen smiling when her Not Guilty verdict is announced, and again when she thanks Ryunosuke with a beautiful smile. In GAA2, with her life much improved since their last meeting, she smiles far more often, with several of her animations from before altered to have her smiling instead, as well as new ones.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: On the receiving end of this. It becomes clear over the course of her murder trial that much of her behavior — from her hesitance to become close to Iris, to her general abrasiveness and even her decision not to be defended for murder, in addition to general cynicism, is because she deep down believes she is as worthless and no good as people say she is, and she feels a lot more guilty over the actions McGilded forced her into than she lets on. It takes Ryunosuke showing that he believes in her even after learning how she deceived her, and then her innocence being proven, for her self-esteem to improve.
• You, Get Me Coffee: Often given "special orders" of this sort.

Toby

Toby

Gina Lestrade's dog and investigative partner.

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• Adaptational Attractiveness: With his name and amazing tracking skills, Toby is based on a dog from the Sherlock Holmes canon of the same name. While the Toby from the books is described as an ugly, long-haired and lop-eared mutt, the game's Toby is a cute, soft-furred puppy.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Just look at him! His nose proves to be of immense help to Ryunosuke several times.
• Team Pet: For Scotland Yard.
• They Have the Scent!: He has a really powerful nose able to track targets that are very far away if given a sample of the target scent.
• We Named the Monkey "Jack": Gina may have, given that "Toby" is a shortened form of "Tobias". With Gregson's later death, he becomes a Dead Guy Junior.

Wagahai

Wagahai

Soseki's cat. Made her brief appearance in the first game when she is examined in his room before running off, and then made her "official" appearance during the second crime scene investigation while she's meowing for food in the second game. She has since been adopted by Ryunosuke and friends in the first game.

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• Chekhov's Gun: Not exactly her, but the cat door maker Iris made for her ends up being important in Case G1-5.
• Cute Kitten: She's not a kitten, but she does have quite a few of them!
• Punny Name: Her name comes from Wagahai wa Neko de Aru, or I Am a Cat, by Natsume Soseki.
• Team Pet: Becomes this to Ryunosuke and friends after Soseki leaves for Japan. She even follows Iris to court during the 5th case and appears in the group shot during the final credits.
• Your Tomcat Is Pregnant: During the fifth case, Ryunosuke and company refer to her as a "he". It turns out in the end credits that Soseki is getting frustrated about not wanting to take Wagahai's kittens with him aboard the S.S. Burya, indicating that "Waggy" is indeed a "she".

Jezaille Brett (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Jezaille Brett / Asa Shinn (Ann Sasha)

"My mother tongue — the Queen's English — is the most refined and elegant language in the world. As a gentlewoman, I try to avoid speaking in your vulgar tones as much as possible."

A transfer student from England who studied in Wilson's laboratory in Yumei.

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• Asshole Victim: One of the biggest examples in the series, since her awful personality was the reason she was murdered in the first place. That's also putting aside her many, many illegal activities, and the fact that she effectively got a slap on the wrist for her murder of Wilson.
• Big "SHUT UP!": Shut up! is her personal speech bubble, and it is rendered in Gratuitous English even in the Japanese-language game. It's even rendered in a fancy script! She's also the only one who uses it.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She originally seems like your typical refined British lady. She's actually an incredibly racist and xenophobic assassin who murdered Wilson. She drops the act when she gets sufficiently angry at the defense, complete with yelling "SHUT UP!" at anyone who tries to interrupt her.
• Breaking Old Trends: While not the only one in Resolve (Gregson being the second), she's the first character in the franchise to show up in person for one game, and die in another.
• Crazy-Prepared: Used curare, a poison that not only is totally unknown in Japan, but one that is only lethal by administering it through the bloodstream, and thus she (temporarily) disproves Ryunosuke's theory of her murdering Wilson using poison by drinking the poisoned tonic water with no hesitation.
• Co-Dragons: Alongside Gregson; she was the one who actually carried out the murders he and Stronghart planned.
• Cultural Posturing: Her favorite hobby, which lands her into some major trouble when she decides to tear down Japan's "caveman" criminal investigation methods and investigative journalism.
• Deadly Doctor: She's a medical student studying under Dr. Wilson, and also his remorseless killer. The poison she used to kill him, curare, is one focus of her research... though the fact that she's so knowledgeable about poisons might have something to do with her real job.
• Death by Irony: Her drink was spiked with a very unique poison, and she was stabbed in an attempt to hide her true cause of death. Just like how she slipped curare into John Wilson's drink and then shot his dead body to frame Ryunosuke Naruhodo.
• Death by Racism: Probably would have gotten away with murder even after her arrest if she didn't do all that Cultural Posturing against a Japanese journalist who happened to be smuggling poison in his pen for a completely different reason.
• Diplomatic Impunity: She's no diplomat, but as she is a British citizen in Japan, she must be tried in a British court... and since the nearest court is in Shanghai, evidence for crimes committed in Japan isn't going to transfer all that well. This is the entire point of the "student exchange", as the two assassins would have the next best thing to diplomatic immunity in the other country.
• Early-Bird Boss: As the most antagonistic witness in her case and the first major culprit, she is the biggest obstacle to Ryunosuke's first trial, and, like Dahlia Hawthorne before her, she gives the defense a run for their money.
• Evil Brit: Her being British and committing murder in Japan actually causes a lot of problems, as the Japanese government wants to outright avoid prosecuting her out of fear of hurting fragile Japanese-British relations.
• Expressive Mask: Her mask glares and shows smiling eyes to match her own emotions. Her hat does something similar, but what keeps it from being an Expressive Accessory is that the swan on top is actually alive.
• Eye-Obscuring Hat: When she doesn't use a mask to cover her eyes, her hat is always tipped in a way to keep them hidden.
• Fatal Flaw: Her racism and tendency to mock the Japanese has bitten her in the ass several times.
  • When mocking Japan's "primitive" investigation methods, this presses Hosonaga's Berserk Button about his perfect investigations, causing him to become more cooperative and show the court multiple pieces of evidence to help condemn her.
  • An offhand insult she makes about a Japanese witness not knowing how to use and knife and fork tips Ryunosuke off to the fact that the same witness had tampered with the evidence at the crime scene, leading directly to her undoing.
  • While he was already considering the idea, it's evident that her racist remarks to Menimemo, such as insulting his journalism and calling him a caveman, pretty much solidified his decision to kill her.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In the first game's first case, she rattles off a pretty extensive list of ways to kill someone that leave traces. Of course she'd be aware of that kind of information, given what she actually does for a living.
  • Her breakdown in the first game's first case involves her swan hat getting out of control before she imitates being raptured into the air, complete with holy light and divine organ notes. She would end up dying for real at the start of the next game.
• Gender-Blender Name: In the second game, we find out that her real name is Asa Shinn. Asa is typically a male given name.
• Hate Sink: She's a narcissistic and incredibly racist xenophobe who spends the entire trial mocking the Japanese, knowing full well they can't do a thing to her, telling people to shut up, including the prosecutor that helps her, and that's before getting into the fact that she's the murderer and an assassin. Hard not to cheer when Menimemo kills her.
• Head Pet: She wears a live swan on her head. It freaks out and hatches several chicks during her Villainous Breakdown.
• Head-Turning Beauty: When she arrives in court for the first time, her beauty and charm captivates and silences the entire courtroom. Even Asogi, who by this point has implied he already suspects her of being the true murderer, gently mocks his friend for somehow failing to notice or remember "a woman like that" sitting across from Dr. Wilson in the restaurant.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: She claims she had no motive for killing Wilson. This is revealed to be true in GAA2, as she's not the one that had a motive for killing him; she's an assassin sent by Stronghart to kill Wilson in an area where extradition rights apply, since Wilson knew too much regarding the truth of the Professor case.
• The Hilarity of Hats: She has a hat that has a swan on it. It's not a design — it's a real, living swan.
• Holy Pipe Organ: At the end of her Villainous Breakdown, a few pipe organ notes are heard as she prays and her swan drags her into the air, giving her an angelic appearance.
• Inconsistent Spelling:
  • Giselle or Jezail? Bullet or Brett? The English version goes with Jezaille Brett.
  • In the JP script, her real name's an in-universe example when it first comes up at the end of G1-5, namely that Susato and Ryunosuke are unsure whether it was "Satsushiya" or "Sasha" (due to how Japanese Morse Code doesn't distinguish between regular "tsu" and the small vowel-lengthener). It's confirmed to be Sasha in the next game.
• Jerkass: As soon as she stops relying on Hosonaga's completely unnecessary translations and speaks for herself, she can barely go one sentence without smugly taunting the defense or saying something extremely racist against the Japanese.
• Karma Houdini: Downplayed and eventually subverted. After her guilt is revealed, the Japanese court is unable to prosecute her for her crimes, due to the extradition treaty between Japan and England, but she is scheduled to be dropped off to British authorities in Shanghai with her fate after that unknown... until the sequel, where she is found dead in a beach house in the first case, a day before her scheduled deportation.
• Kick the Dog: With the context of the sequel, turns out that she has nothing to gain from framing Naruhodo at all as she already has a get out of jail free card the whole time. She even ask the judge to punish Ryunosuke as harsh as possible too.
• The Killer Becomes the Killed: Aside from her murder of John H. Wilson in the first case of GAA, she's also killed many others during her career as an assassin, only to end up becoming the victim of the first case in GAA2.
• Leitmotif: "Elegance... and Excellence".
• Master Poisoner: She's studying toxicology (specifically curare, which she used to murder Dr. Wilson) as part of her medical coursework. It's just one of the methods she's used to kill people in the past.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Jezail bullet, as in a bullet from a Jezail rifle. Like the one that causes John Watson's injury in Holmesian canon. It also can mean Jezebel, who violently purged the prophets of Yahweh from Israel, damaging the reputation of the Omride dynasty, which is similar to how Jezaille purged her Japanese target while damaging the reputation of the British empire. "Brett" also sounds a lot like "brat"; which is a fair warning for how unpleasant she is, and derives from the name Briton, which is fitting for a British nationalist.
  • Her real name, Asa Shinn, is quite clearly "assassin". The equivalent in Japanese, Ann Sasha, is from ansatsusha — assassin.
• Near-Villain Victory: By Resolve, she was about to be sent back to England after getting off scot-free from her murder crimes and was even able to coerce the Japanese government into letting her go to the beach, but her insulting a reporter who happened to had stolen a powerful poison and was carrying it at the time sealed her fate.
• Not Me This Time: When Rei accuses her of being the poison thief, she states to her that she had nothing to do with it before dying. As it turns out, she actually wasn't lying for once; that was Menimemo's doing.
• Older Than They Look: The Court Record officially pins her age at 24, but given how she's been a professional assassin working for the Reaper conspiracy for ten years by that point, she must be at least somewhat older than that. Though her true age ultimately remains unknown.
• Outside-Context Problem: She uses curare to kill John H. Wilson, knowing that it's near-impossible for the Japanese authorities to discover because nearly no one in the entire country knows it exists, so there isn't a test available for it.
• Painting the Medium: Some of Jezaille's dialogue is rendered first in a font that makes it look like complete gibberish, then an elegant cursive font. It's to show that she's speaking English — the unintelligible font is what Ryunosuke and the others hear, and the cursive is a Translation Convention for the audience once her true colours come to light.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Along with killing Wilson and being an assassin, she's very racist towards the Japanese. While this would have been fairly normal at the time the game is set (she's British and British values tended to consider the White Man's Burden as valid), she is by far the most openly hateful and bigoted British character across the duology, even when compared to Barok van Zieks who spends a sizable chunk of his character arc unlearning his anti-Japanese racism.
• Posthumous Character: The nature of her real identity and reasons for killing Dr. Wilson are revealed well after her own death.
• Professional Killer: Her real job. When a criminal prosecuted by Barok escapes getting a guilty verdict, she is usually the one to kill them afterwards as part of the Reaper conspiracy.
• Refuge in Audacity: She destroys crucial evidence related to the case, in front of the entire courtroom. And she (almost) gets away with it too! This actually turns out to be a justified bit of foreshadowing that Jigoku is not on the up-and-up, as while the judge could have her brought up on contempt of court and obvious suspicious behavior, Jigoku is secretly one of her employers, and so was letting her get away with any excuse.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Or at least to a select few people who were aware of her. Sholmes had mistakenly assumed Asa Shinn had died months before the duology began after she seemingly vanished from the face of London, and seeing her name in the "four names" telegram some time after her disappearance followed by receiving the word that John H. Wilson had been murdered only solidified that assumption. In truth, she had already been transferred to Japan, under the name "Jezaille Brett".
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Subverted. The closer Naruhodo gets to exposing her as the culprit, she makes more frequent attempts to leave only to be stopped each time.
• Small Role, Big Impact: She only appears twice throughout the entire duology — once as a witness, and once as a victim. She's much more involved with the overarching plot than either appearance would suggest. Namely, she's the Reaper conspiracy's hatchet-woman.
• Smug Snake: Jezaille acts absolutely insufferable throughout her time on the witness stand, up to and including destroying evidence in full, brazen view of the entire courtroom, because as a British foreign exchange student, she knows the Japanese government cannot actually arrest her without inflaming tensions between the two countries. After the trial, she leaves for Shanghai, having gotten off more or less scot-free — at least until the first case of Resolve, where she reappears as the murder victim.
• Starter Villain: The first culprit of the game. And she gives you a run for your money too.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: The plot of the second game begins with her death.
• Sugary Malice: Even when she's going off on Cultural Posturing rants against the Japanese, she delivers all her hateful remarks with all the poise and grace of an English gentlewoman. She's so sugary, in fact, that Prosecutor Auchi interprets her saying "damn you" as "bless you".
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: After her arrest, Ryunosuke encounters the unfortunate reality of consular jurisdiction. This is actually the first hint that she's a government-backed assassin — as Kazuma notes, the recent treaty with Britain restricted the power of consular courts only to serious extraterritorial crimes of a highly political nature.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Dahlia Hawthorne. Both are elegant, finely dressed and beautiful women who appear charming on the surface, yet their true personalities are full of contempt and greed. Both are also specialized in using poison as a means of murder weapon as well as being culprits in the first case of their respective games. The major differences between the two are that Brett is considerably more competent than Dahlia, taking advantage of the very limited knowledge the court has about curare to look more like she wasn't the murderer, and that while Dahlia's killings stemmed from having to cover her tracks from previous crimes, Brett killed for a living.
• Undignified Death: The chosen assassin for the fearsome Reaper conspiracy in London... is suddenly killed by some random journalist a hemisphere away.
• Ungrateful Bitch: She tells a lot of people to shut up in courtroom... even Auchi, who is on her side.
• The Unintelligible: Downplayed. Her "English" dialogue is rendered as unreadable doctor's cursive, and Hosonaga has to translate for her. Justified, as she is an English speaker in a Japanese court. Some of her cursive text is intelligible English words like "Oh", or "Sorry" or "Amen". She eventually drops her "monolingual British foreigner" façade and speaks Japanese, revealing herself to be fluently bilingual.
• The Unreveal: Her eyes are almost always hidden by her hat or mask. This is still mostly played straight in Resolve where it's mentioned about her pupils having extreme dilation being an important plot point, until another photo does show the upper part of her face and her eyes... completely shut.
• Translation Convention: Subverted when she speaks English, which is rendered as illegible cursive aside for some words which can be read more clearly. Ryunosuke and Kazuma can understand this perfectly themselves, but Played Straight when she shifts to speaking Japanese, much to her chagrin.
• Villain Has a Point: While she's a thoroughly unpleasant, racist murderer and an assassin, her criticisms of the Japanese police aren't entirely unfounded, given that they'd have allowed several key pieces of evidence to be lost had Hosonaga not secretly taken the evidence himself.
• Villainous Breakdown: She clutches her heart, then the swan on her head suddenly goes berserk and drags her around the room while she screams as baby chicks fly everywhere on the court. They then both fly towards a beam of light from the sky, before she's right back at the witness stand.
• Walking Spoiler: Despite only appearing twice and that second time being her last, Jezaille is one of the most important characters of the story; specifically her real name and that she is in Mael Stronghart's assassin exchange program.

Magnus McGilded (Cosney Megundal) (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Magnus McGilded (Cosney Megundal)

"Do we understand each other, lass? Don't try anytin' funny now. If you go against me..."

A rich businessman, philanthropist, and park owner. The defendant of the third case.

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• Actually Pretty Funny: If Ryunosuke continues to assert his guilt at the trial's close:
  McGilded: Wah hah hah hah hah! Oh, 'twas a grand decision to appoint you as my lawyer, so it was! A grand decision! I must say, I didn't expect quite such an excitin' spectacle at the end there, but still...
• Adaptational Nationality: He was simply a British businessman in the Japanese version. In the localization, he's made into an Irishman, and Gina calls him the highly offensive "bogtrotter" several times once the truth comes to light.
• Alliterative Name: Magnus McGilded in the official localization.
• Ambiguously Evil: Downplayed. It's rather obvious that he's not the kind old philanthropist he makes himself out to be, and it's blatantly evident that he's at the very least tampered extensively with the crime scene, but Case 3 ends without a definitive answer to whether he murdered Mason or not, leaving it up in the air for a while whether or not he deserved to die moments later. The climax of Adventures eventually reveals that he was indeed behind Mason's death, much to Ryunosuke's chagrin.
• Asshole Victim: He dies at the end of Case 3, and he's not exactly the paragon of morality.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Subverted. He is wrongfully acquitted, but is murdered very soon after.
• Big Bad: Ultimately he's this for The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures, even in death.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: He's involved in shady dealings involving government secrets along with Ashley Graydon.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: On the surface, he's a kind, generous, and well-respected man. Underneath, however, lies a Loan Shark who is more than willing to get his own hands dirty.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: To Matt Engarde. Both of them are defendants who turn out to be far eviler than they first appear and both of them are guilty of the murders they're accused of. However, while Matt Engarde specifically engineered a kidnapping plot to force Phoenix into being his lawyer, Magnus does no such thing, with Chief Justice Stronghart being the one to assign Ryunosuke to the case. Most crucially, Magnus is far more effective at concealing his own culpability, with Ryunosuke not suspecting anything until it's too late to change the verdict, and only learning the truth a good two cases later, while Matt himself is revealed to be the true culprit well before the trial is over, and Phoenix eventually finds a way to get him to admit to his crimes. However, things end up worse for Magnus, as Engarde admits his guilt in order to avoid suffering the fate that befell Magnus; being brutally killed by someone he wronged.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: While not actually running an industry (he's a Loan Shark), his overall design and presenting himself as a wealthy philanthropist who donates parks and libraries through unsavory means evokes the robber barons of the contemporary Gilded Age — which his localization name references.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Getting locked inside a carriage and being burned alive definitely counts as this.
• Death by Irony: After his trial, he's burned alive in the very same omnibus where he killed Mason.
• Decomposite Character: To Charles Augustus Milverton. Magnus gets his personality, power, wealth, coercion tactics, and the ultimate fate of death at the hands of one of his victims.
• Evil Brit: In Japanese, anyway — in the English localization, he's an Irishman.
• Evil Laugh: The laugh he gives off when he wins the trial counts as this at that point in time, complete with Evil Gloating, to boot!
• Evil Wears Black: Killed Mason Milverton while wearing a black coat, which he sent off to Windibank's pawn shop before the police could arrest him.
• Faux Affably Evil: Though damn good at hiding it.
• Fiction 500: He's said to be rich enough to buy London three times over.
• Funetik Aksent: Speaks with a slight Irish accent in the English localization (e.g. pronouncing "thing" as "ting").
• Hate Sink: One of the worst ones of the entire duology. He has a few characteristics from other Ace Attorney Hate Sinks, specifically Redd White, Matt Engarde, and Furio Tigre. He is a brutal Loan Shark and a Corrupt Corporate Executive who also has a blackmailing system and someone who turns out to be far eviler than they first appear. He also is the first notable culprit that the protagonist unknowingly acquits and that road is full of illegalities.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: While the motive for the murder of Mason Milverton is clear, the reason why he was to leak government secrets remains unknown. It is possible that if he did survive, he would blackmail Mael Stronghart with those government secrets.
• Irony: Even though he hides his guilt better than his modern counterpart, Engarde, he still gets beaten the same way, as someone he had wronged brutally kills him after the trial... the threat of which had forced Matt to confess.
• Jury and Witness Tampering: He blackmailed Gina Lestrade into committing perjury by threatening to have her group of street urchins rounded up if she did not comply. According to Barok, this isn't the first time he meddled with witnesses and juries in prior cases.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: Exaggerated. He wins his case, but is ambushed by the son of the man he killed and burned alive before he even leaves the courthouse.
• The Killer Becomes the Killed: Killer of Case 3, ends up being killed himself in the same case.
• Laser-Guided Karma: He is killed by Ashley Graydon, the son of the man he murdered, shortly after winning the case in which he was accused of the murder. And in the very same crime scene! To add to it, Graydon used the very same money that McGilded had used to manipulate him into giving him government secrets to pay off the bailiffs.
• Loan Shark: What he actually is. It's implied in Case 3 that this is his motive for murdering Mason, though this is proven false later on.
• Meaningful Name:
  • "Magnus" means "great" in Latin and is the origin of the word "magnanimous" (meaning noble and generous), while "gilded" means rich, fitting for a powerful businessman and philanthropist like him. "Gilding" is also a process for applying gold decorations to a much less valuable item, hinting he's a Villain with Good Publicity.
  • His name from the Japanese version is a play on "kozeni megundaru", a casual Kansai-ben inflection of "(I'll) give you some change", reflecting the same idea as his dub name.
• Near-Villain Victory: Sort of. While he did get an undeserved Not Guilty verdict, he doesn't even get to enjoy it beyond the courthouse due to being shortly killed after by Ashley Graydon.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Him successfully getting rid of most of the evidence of Mason's murder turns out to have significantly screwed with the Big Bad of the second game. Mael Stronghart's conditions for Naruhodo to take Kazuma's place on the study tour was that Magnus be found not guilty, which in hindsight was meant to be an Impossible Task, but Naruhodo succeeds thanks to McGilded's witness tampering and evidence spoilage. However, Stronghart specifically needed an assassin masquerading as a visiting student, a job that Naruhodo can't be trusted with. Thanks to McGilded's trickery, he's stuck with a non-assassin lawyer instead.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Though his sort of style is the standard for most Londoners.
• Not Proven: He is the culprit, but due to technicalities, blackmailing another witness to commit perjury on the stand, and intentional evidence spoilage, McGilded got a not guilty verdict.
• Pet the Dog: Despite Ryunosuke all but turning on him during the trial, once he's acquitted anyway, he does hold up his end of the deal and pays Ryunosuke and Susato upfront for their defense, seemingly for no reason beyond a rather twisted sense of gratitude. Or at least he offers; Ryunosuke and Susato decline his reward.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: He somewhat condescendingly phrases his hiring Ryunosuke, a Japanese man, as doing his duty to help the underprivileged even at great risk to himself to look good in front of the jury, as well as initially assuming that Ryunosuke and Susato were vagrants just because they were foreigners. He also briefly lets out some choice phrases about Ryunosuke's heritage when his barrister starts to harm Magnus' case. These attitudes would have been typical for the era, however.
• Posthumous Character: Remains an important character in the game even after his death.
• Psychotic Smirk: When McGilded starts testifying in his own defense later in the trial, he has a sprite where he chuckles evilly to himself. Ryunosuke fails to notice this, only saying that McGilded looks deep in thought.
• Pyrrhic Victory: He got his not guilty verdict after tampering with the evidence and witnesses, but his victory is short-lived as he's killed by the son of the man he murdered.
• Red Herring: His death is initially thought to be the work of the infamous Reaper phenomenon associated with Barok van Zieks. Resolve shows that the death of McGilded was an entirely separate affair, as Ashley Graydon had no connection with the Reaper conspiracy that killed all of the other defendants.
• Refuge in Audacity: He arranges things so that evidence is tampered in the middle of his own trial to avoid a Guilty verdict. Despite it being quite obvious that something is wrong with the omnibus, he still gets a Not Guilty verdict as it can't be proven he got it tampered.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: He was very quick at using his large sums of money to pay witnesses to conceal the events that happened in the omnibus. That, and some blackmailing, got him the Not Guilty verdict he wanted.
• Smug Snake: Once it's clear that his guilt can't be proven on the trial, he proudly taunts Barok van Zieks and the jurors that they can't convict him; he gets burnt alive soon after.
• The Sociopath: Revealed to be this. He has no loyalty to either persons or institutions; he murdered his criminal partner's father (a poor bricklayer) to keep said partner on his side, and gets away with it by threatening Gina into perjuring herself, and freely lies in court. And the crime he committed murder for was treason, meaning that he really does have no respect for England or its laws.
• Uncle Pennybags: Is a rich guy who hands out money like cheap candy to the poor, and is well-liked by most of London. It's all a front.
• Villain Has a Point: Regardless of his guilt or not, he is entitled to a fair trial and he's correct in saying that Ryunosuke has an obligation to defend him no matter what. What he conveniently ignores is that Ryunosuke's caught on to the fact he's blackmailed some of the jurors and tampered with witness testimonies, something Ryunosuke would rightfully get called out for if he was to look the other way.
• Villainous Breakdown: When Ryunosuke begins to catch on to what he's actually doing, he blows up in anger and bangs the witness stand with his fist, while insulting Ryunosuke and Barok. He regains his composure when it turns out it's too late to change his verdict, leading to him applauding on the stand as the gallery reacts in confusion and anger.
• Villain with Good Publicity: He's well-respected among the community, but in reality, he's a heartless Loan Shark who is willing to murder.
• Walking Spoiler: It's really hard to talk about him without giving away that he's the killer of case 3's victim and dying in the same episode he was accused in (plus the whole information stealing that serves as an important backdrop in the last case).

Courtney Sithe (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Doctor Courtney Sithe, née Stevens (Simon)

"The Pandora's box you were warned about... is the Professor case. But please don't make the mistake of thinking you'll get any information about it out of me."

The head coroner of Scotland Yard, who works at the forefront of the legal system's march towards forensic science.

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• Advertised Extra: Promotional materials made it look like she'd be a recurring rival character. She's really just a one-off "killer of the week", not having much of a role beyond Case G2-3.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: With Enoch Drebber for Case G2-3. He planned the murder and she was his accomplice, forging the autopsy report to frame the defendant. Except it's twisted a bit when it turns out, unbeknownst to him, she murdered the victim herself since she had a very good reason to want him dead.
• "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: According to a ledger in her lab, she orders 500 scalpels every month. This is just a cover for the blackmail money she's been paying Asman for 10 years.
• Confess to a Lesser Crime: When the truth about Drebber's plan is proven, Sithe confesses to being his accomplice and demands the trial end in a Not Guilty verdict for the defendant. This is because she's hiding more than that: she's Asman's actual killer.
• Dark Secret: She signed the autopsy report confirming The Professor dead. However, he was actually alive. Sithe is willing to go to any lengths to make sure this secret doesn't get out.
• Dragon with an Agenda: To Enoch Drebber. She helped him cover up his murder plot, but she actually killed the victim herself for reasons separate from his.
• Early-Bird Cameo: With the later reveal that her maiden name is Stevens, a coroner's report in the first game's fifth case signed by "Dr. Stevens" becomes this.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: Though she acknowledges Sithe's crimes, Maria's admiration of her does not end in a Broken Pedestal, and the epilogue shows she visits her in prison for some mother-daughter bonding.
• Leitmotif: "Solitary Coroner", a sombre and taciturn theme to represent isolation.
• Meaningful Name: "Sithe" comes from "shishu", meaning "to die". "Courtney" could be an allusion to "coroner". With her position as Stronghart's right hand, she could also be considered "the Reaper's scythe". Also, "Cat Sith" (pronounced "cait shee").
• Mirror Character: Has a number of Stronghart's design elements: platinum hair in a cone-shaped style with a loose strand in the front, vaguely cross-shaped black ornaments (his is on the back of his coat, hers is on her lab coat's lapel and sleeves) and the distinctive "clock hands" (his are on his jabot, hers are made out of her hair).
• Pragmatic Villainy: Unlike many other killers, she's perfectly willing to accept a Not Guilty verdict for the defendant if it means the trial ends before the evidence can point to her. Ryunosuke has to request the verdict be postponed, even though he's about to win, because he's that committed to seeing the real killer brought to justice.
• Sarcastic Confession: A rare example that's done in print rather than verbally. In her autopsy report for Asman, she says the cause of death was a stab wound from the defendant's screwdriver. Later we find out that she tampered with the evidence and crime scene to cover for Drebber, so it's assumed the autopsy report is a lie... except that really was the cause of death, as she stabbed the victim herself.
• Stealing from the Till: As Odie Asman's Blackmail victim, she cooked the books to embezzle the money that she needed to pay him off.
• The Stoic: Doesn't show much emotion, and is one of the least over-the-top witnesses in the series. This even extends to her Villainous Breakdown, which is much more subdued than the average one.
• Villainous Breakdown: Slams her fist down on the witness stand while grimacing, warning the court of the secret she's been trying to hide for the past ten years. Compared to most other breakdowns in the series, hers is so far one of the most subdued.
• Villain with Good Publicity: She's a highly respected member of the Scotland Yard, And the London public has a lot of good things to say about her too. Ryunosuke lampshades that a mere mention of her name in the accusation can turn the entire courtroom against him.
• White-Collar Crime: Was blackmailed by Asman regarding her falsifying the Professor's death certificate, which had her cook the books by listing his monetary extortions as "scalpels".

Maria Gorey (Maria Goulloyne)

Maria Gorey (Maria Goulloyne)

"Mama... Can I cut this one up?"

Another Scotland Yard coroner who works alongside her mother, Dr. Sithe.

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• Be as Unhelpful as Possible: An extremely notable aversion. In a franchise where the only characters who willingly help the defense in court are usually the defendants themselves, Maria willingly cooperates with Ryunosuke, and becomes one of the biggest possible spanners in Stronghart's machinations. This is particularly notable because — as she points out herself in her default response if you present her with unrelated evidence in conversation — Ryunosuke did send her mother to jail.
• Broken Pedestal: Downplayed. While she still loves and deeply respects her mother, Dr. Sithe, the reveals that Sithe helped cover up both Asman's murder and the Professor's staged execution cause her no small amounts of anguish.
• Consummate Professional: She lives for her job. She actually isn't upset her own mother was arrested, given that Sithe forged evidence and broke the code of ethics.
• The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much: Like her mother, Stronghart makes Maria omit some of Gregson's autopsy details so that inconvenient details won't be revealed in court — but the most he gets out of her is a blank time of death, which is blatantly suspicious, rather than the falsified one that he heavily implies that he wanted. After getting chewed out by Ryunosuke about this, she updates the report to accommodate her actual findings. Maria herself averts this trope hard further in court, revealing the truth about the ring recovered from the Professor's autopsy 10 years prior; she specifically states she won't help cover up the truth like her mother did.
• Creepy Child: Downplayed, as she's in her late teens, but still present due to her childish demenor. Her first reaction to seeing Ryunosuke is asking her mother if she can cut him open. This is mostly because she didn't realize he was still breathing, but it's still morbid.
• Creepy Good: She's introduced wearing a creepy steampunk gas-mask, says that she remembers people by the experience of cutting them open rather than by their face, and goes on a frankly disturbing tangent about how much she enjoyed her autopsy of Gregson. Her idle animation is sharpening a dissection knife and a cleaver against each other while staring straight at the camera. She's still an honest coroner — so much so that she defies Stronghart's orders and assists Ryunosuke. If not for her cooperation, Barok would have certainly been found guilty, and Stronghart would have gotten away scot-free.
• Creepy Mortician: While her mother is simply stern, Maria has an unsettling enthusiasm for her work and the dismemberment it entails.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Desire to autopsy everything aside, she's actually a fairly nice, if introverted, person who mostly just wants to do her job without corruption interfering in it.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Makes a brief appearance in Case G2-3 before being properly named in Case G2-4.
• Elegant Gothic Lolita: Practically this with a labcoat.
• I Am Not My Mother: Upon realizing following Stronghart's orders to withhold information would make her a criminal just like her mother did, she rebels by clarifying what she can conclude of Gregson's time of death and illegally brings out the falsified evidence of the Professor's true identity without permission, stating her own desire to seek and reveal the truth her mother had hidden.
• Improbable Age: She's only 19, and yet she's a coroner, which generally requires a bachelor's degree in the sciences and hundreds of hours of experience with dead bodies. Being the daughter of Britain's chief coroner probably helps with that.
• Leitmotif: Shares 'Untouchable Coroner' with her mother, Dr. Sithe.
• Noodle Incident: Why her last name (Gorey) differs from her mother's original (Stevens) and married (Sithe) last names was hand waved as just "unusual circumstances" with her family.
• Nothing Personal: She rather bluntly states that while she's upset Sithe was arrested, she was a Dirty Cop and covering up something very dark — when Ryunosuke goes to her for her unredacted report, she doesn't treat him any more coldly or viciously, recognizing he was just doing his job.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Loves her job a little too much. When Ryunosuke asks her about Gregson's autopsy, she goes off on a long, unsettling tangent about how delightful it was to cut him apart instead of explaining the report conclusions, even praising his corpse for being much easier to cut than previous attempts.
• Parental Title Characterization: Her rather childish nature comes through when she calls Sithe "Mama"; compare Susato, who's younger than her and calls Yujin "Father".
• Plague Doctor: Wears a plague doctor mask when first introduced.
• Psychopathic Womanchild: Albeit a harmless one. Her childlike fascination with cutting up bodies extends to living ones. However, while she's highly prone to express her interest in dissecting whoever she meets, she also recognizes that actually doing such is a heinous crime and that she'll simply have to wait until they die first.
• Punny Name: "Goulloyne" comes from guroi ne (グロいね), meaning "grotesque, isn't it?". Meanwhile, "Gorey" is derived from, well, "gory", as well as a Shout-Out to Edward Gorey, whose oeuvre is both grotesque and pseudo-Edwardian.
• Spanner in the Works:
  • Stronghart ordered her to obscure critical information after her autospy of Tobias Gregson; but she leaves the field blank, which is blatantly suspicious, rather than falsify it. Once Ryunosuke follows up on this and points out that complying would make her no better than her mother, she immediately tells Ryunosuke what he wants to know, as well as a good deal of other, equally-critical information.
  • Later on, when she's called as a witness to Klint van Zieks' autopsy, she brings the ring extracted from Klint's stomach and presents it unprompted to Ryunosuke and the court. When Stronghart calls her out on this, she declares that she's not going to be hiding any more secrets, unlike her mother.

Enoch Drebber (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Enoch Drebber

"It's the addle-brained mock scientists that are the worst, you know. They don't recognise the fact that they don't have talent. They can't even get that right. And so they end up chasing impossible dreams, having unbridled faith in their abilities."

A mechanic and "magiscientist" who has a reputation of swindling government grant money by disguising stage magic as legitimate science. Built Harebrayne's teleporter for the Great Exhibition.

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• Adaptational Heroism: Downplayed. The Enoch Drebber of A Study in Scarlet was an Asshole Victim who drove a woman to death in an abusive Arranged Marriage, was complicit in her father's murder when he tried to intervene, and nearly did the same to her true love, as well; Here, while Drebber murders a man and coerces the coroner into helping pin the crime on an innocent, his life had been effectively ruined for simply being an unfortunate passerby to a national conspiracy, and both his victim and the coroner in question had been complicit in it.
• All for Nothing: His grand plan to kill the man who ruined his life, pin the death on an aspiring scientist whom he considered an insult to the craft, and humiliate Scotland Yard? Fails on every count as it turns out Sithe was using him in the end to get away with the murder she committed, leaving him nothing but a failed murder scheme and an incrimination charge. It just underpins how pitiful he really is. However, he does end up with his worst enemy now dead and Ryunosuke actually saved him from being charged with first-degree murder.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: With Sithe in Case G2-3.
• Born Unlucky: Extremely. He was low on money in college and resorted to graverobbing. This led to him being a witness to an international conspiracy in-progress and giving him such a scare that his hair went white at age 25. Then poor journalist ethics on the part of Odie Asman exposed his identity to the public, revealing him as a graverobber to his school and getting him expelled. Ironically, this actually ends up benefitting him in the end slightly; by pure chance Odie Asman survives his fall and is killed by Dr. Sithe afterwards, reducing his charge to attempted murder while his target still died as planned.
• Composite Character: While he only bears a resemblance to the Enoch Drebber of A Study in Scarlet In Name Only, he shares many similarities with the German counterfeiter Fritz, a.k.a. Colonel Lysander Stark from The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb, being a sinister conman who employs an unwitting young man to work on a machine for his own unsavory purposes; Harebrayne even mentions being blindfolded whenever Drebber took him to his workshop, much like the Stark of the original Holmes canon kept Victor Hatherly in the dark about the exact location of their workplace. Both men are also described as being exceedingly thin.
• Con Man: While his engineering skills are legitimate, he uses them to swindle the government out of research grant money.
• Cyborg: He resembles a steampunk cyborg; his movements are mechanical-looking, and often include whirring, ratcheting, clicking noises. There's no indication he's faking it, either, since he retains this trait even during his "damaged" and "breakdown" animations. Notes on his concept art clarifies that this behavior is a result of his trauma, and identifies his "cyborg" hand as a gauntlet he wears to aid in his work, making this more thematic than literal.
• Destroy the Evidence: He does this twice. Each time, he plants an Incredibly Obvious Bomb whenever he needs to do so.
• The Dreaded: There is zero trust in either the scientific community or the stage magician industry in Drebber's ability to be a trustworthy individual. Upon learning from Harebrayne's testimony that he was being assisted by Drebber, Jurors No. 3 and 4, a Stage Magician and royal scientist respectively, are equally horrified knowing that he is directly connected to the case.
• Even Evil Has Standards: While he has no qualms about him potentially killing several police officers who got caught in the explosion of the fake machine he set to destroy, the time bomb in his workshop was set to give anyone who managed to find it enough time to run, but didn't expect Herlock to mistake it for an anti-gravity device and stick around.
• Freudian Excuse: He used to be a promising young scientist, who won a royal award and was considered a genius... until Asman's newspaper publicized his discovery of "the Professor", which exposed him as a grave robber and got him expelled from university. He's held a serious grudge against Asman ever since.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Ryunosuke says that it's unfortunate that other people's wrongdoing ruined his life, but it doesn't justify him ruining an innocent young man's life.
• Grave Robbing: His "side business" while he was a university student. If he's to be believed, he wasn't the only student who did this.
• Hidden Depths: Enoch Drebber was a very brilliant scientist in fact, he is awarded the Royal Society trophy for excellence (the highest honor for aspiring scientists whose futures are set in stone); however because of his lifestyle and horrible luck, he resorted to Grave Robbing to obtain funds for his research and during one shift he was at the wrong place at the wrong time (e.g. involved in an international conspiracy and witness the "revival" of the Professor). His life turned for the worse when Asman reveals his name in his publication and from there Drebber's future is stolen, he got expelled from college, and his former award is now a curse over the future that he could no longer have which is why he toppled it over instead of proudly displaying it when it was discovered at his workshop.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • His Incredibly Obvious Bomb is nowhere near powerful enough to destroy the transmission device, so the bomb instead blows the trapdoor under it used for the stage magic inward and wide open, allowing the open trapdoor to be photographed and used as evidence in court against him.
  • His "insurance" is the contract he signed with the victim, stating that if either party dies, the grant money at stake wouldn't be given to either of them. He repeatedly holds onto this as proof he doesn't have a motive to kill Asman, but the latter's signature on it is used to prove he did have a motive, since Asman signed his drawing on the article he wrote that ousted Drebber as the witness of the Professor's resurrection, ruining his life.
• In Name Only: The Enoch Drebber of A Study in Scarlet was a corrupt Mormon businessman from Utah. This Drebber has absolutely nothing in common with his namesake, other than similarly low scruples. Presumably somebody on the writing team decided it was too snappy a name to go to waste and just rolled with it.
• It's All Junk: That Royal Society Trophy of his hasn't done him any favours, since he was expelled from school and now has to make a living by using his engineering skills for fraud.
• Leitmotif: "The Link Between Science and Magic", a frantic-yet-mechanical tune that incorporates a clock's ticking. It also incorporates the sounds of a typewriter, alluding to the newspaper article that ruined his career.
• Locked into Strangeness: He used to have normally coloured hair, but witnessing "the Professor" rise from his grave terrified him so much that he went prematurely grey.
• Mad Bomber: He has a habit of planting an Incredibly Obvious Bomb wherever he needs to Destroy the Evidence.
• Mad Scientist: Ryunosuke proved that Drebber is a scientist as part of the proof that he is one of the conspirators who murdered Asman.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Somewhat downplayed, but when Ryunosuke makes it clear that his attempts to frame Albert Harebrayne for murder caused the young scientist to go through exactly what Asman put Drebber himself through 10 years ago, he hangs his head low in regret and is speechless.
• Obviously Evil: The moment you track this guy down, the game makes no attempt to hide that he'd bad news: it's clear he hastily destroyed evidence just before you searched his room, and the second investigation day ends with him indirectly confessing to setting a time bomb at the crime scene, possibly killing several police officers. However, while he had a big role in Asman's murder, he wasn't the one who dealt the killing blow.
• Painting the Medium: Whenever he speaks, almost every text box will have a word or phrase highlighted in red, usually used to indicate something of importance, but what's actually highlighted is typically just as meaningful as anything else he's said. The suggestion seems to be that he is simply emphasizing those words a bit more to seem more sinister or robotic. Notably, he stops doing this when he demands Naruhodo show proof that he was happy to leave the University because he lacked talent.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Odie Asman ruined Enoch Drebber’s "future" of being a great scientist, so Enoch Drebber thought it was only fair that he end Asman's "present" by killing him in the fake kinesis machine; though the machine didn't actually kill him, it did put him in a direct position to be killed by Sithe, regardless.
• Prematurely Grey-Haired: A wax figure of his past self sports normal-looking hair. Only ten years later, his hair's gone completely white. In fact, his hair apparently went white immediately after witnessing the Professor's "resurrection".
• Red Herring: Downplayed. He was the one who planned the murder. However, he didn't directly kill Asman and was unaware of how the man actually died.
• Revenge: His motive against Asman, for publishing the newspaper article that got him expelled. He also wants revenge against all of Scotland Yard for their involvement in his humiliation, which is why he coerced Sithe into helping him.
• Rule of Symbolism: The main reason why he went to the trouble of stealing a waxwork of "The Professor" from Tusspells to use as Asman's double in the fake teleportation experiment rather than Asman's actual waxwork which would've been more practical. "The Professor" was the root of his problems, and he knew that Sithe would recognise him. The waxwork is also close enough in looks to Asman that nobody would be able to tell the difference from a distance.
• Shout-Out: Named after the victim in the Sherlock Holmes story A Study in Scarlet.
• Spanner in the Works: Him witnessing "The Professor" rising from his grave forced Jigoku to kill Genshin, ruining their plan to stage the execution.
• Stage Magician: After Drebber was expelled from college for Grave Robbing, he became skilled in stage magic, and used his knowledge of both science and stage magic to perpetrate frauds to scam research grants.
• Tragic Dropout: He was expelled from school after Odie Asman published his story about the Professor, which exposed him as a grave robber... even though many of his classmates were guilty of the same.
• Tragic Keepsake: The trophy he received for outstanding scientific achievement when he was in college is still there in his laboratory, even though it's long since lost all its meaning to Drebber.
• Tragic Villain: His motives for killing Asman are relatively understandable. In spite of everything he's guilty of, he still has morals enough to be shamed speechless when Ryunosuke points out that he's become just as bad as Asman for trying to frame Harebrayne.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His stumbling onto "the Professor" rising from his coffin while gravedigging is what prompts Stronghart forcing Jigoku to kill Genshin before anyone can find out his execution was staged.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Completely white hair, and one of the most sinister characters in the entire duology.
• You Are What You Hate: He loathes Asman for ruining his future as a scientist, but in his path towards revenge he was blindly doing the same to Albert Harebrayne, a point noted by Ryunosuke at the end of the trial.

"The Professor" (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

In General

Enoch Drebber witnessing the Professor's Resurrection.

An infamous Serial Killer who terrorized the streets of London 10 years prior, and targeted prestigious nobles. His MO was by using a large hunting dog to kill his victims. Was arrested and sentenced to death by hanging after five kills, though Enoch Drebber claims to have seen him rise from his grave. A wax sculpture depicting him was stolen from Madame Tusspells' wax museum.

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• Composite Character: Apart from using the same title as Professor James Moriarty, he incorporates elements of Lord Henry Blackwood from Sherlock Holmes and Stapleton from The Hound of the Baskervilles.
  • Like Blackwood, he is an aristocratic serial killer who staged his own execution after being caught, albeit with much less success. Stronghart uses his death to forge the legend of a paranormal avenger, which he wields as a political weapon to gain power and influence; this was Blackwood's ultimate plan.
  • Like Stapleton, he uses a great hunting hound as his murder weapon, and isn't the man he's first introduced as being.
• Dog Stereotype: Though the attack dog was never found, its public image appears to be a German Shepherd or wolfdog. The real dog, Balmung, was a sighthound, which are typically seen as far more agreeable and docile.
• Driving Question: What exactly happened between the Professor, Genshin Asogi, and Barok Van Zieks? This question forms the core of the duology's overarching plot.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The Professor's killing spree was central in shaping the characters of both Barok Van Zieks and Kazuma Asogi; it also significantly affected Yujin Mikotoba, Seishiro Jigoku, and ultimately left Iris van Zieks an orphan. Lastly, and most significantly, it sparked off the Reaper Conspiracy.
• He Who Must Not Be Seen: In-universe. The Professor's identity is considered a national secret, he was tried in a secret trial and his body had its face covered with an iron mask after his execution, all to make sure his identity didn't become public. Also, revealing his identity in public is a crime against the crown. Technically, the only public depiction of him is the waxwork replica Madame Tusspells made of him, but his face also got locked in a similar mask due to a deal she made with Stronghart that she can have free reign with the corpse as long as she hides his identity afterwards. In the end, the person behind all these layers of secrecy wasn't even the real Professor to begin with!
• Leitmotif: "The Phantom Lives", a dark ominous tone befitting one of the worst serial killers in London's history. Changes to "Gate to the Truth" when everything regarding "The Professor"'s identity is revealed.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: When his face is revealed, Kazuma recognizes him as his father, snapping him out of his amnesia. Later subverted; the waxwork didn't depict the actual Professor, only the man framed for his crimes. The real Professor is Klint van Zieks, who is later revealed to be Iris's father.
• Ripped from the Headlines: Downplayed. The Professor was among the worst serial killers in London's history, active in the late 1880s, used a method that brutalized the victims, and had five kills to his name, one being under dispute. While all of these traits are reminiscent of Jack the Ripper, the Professor's Modus Operandi was completely different, and all of his victims were members of the British aristocracy, not poor prostitutes.
• Sequel Adaptation Iconic Villain: Played with. While he is introduced as the posthumous villain of the duology's second game, and is established as being a substitute for both Professor Moriarty and Jack Stapleton, his true identity is unique to the series.
• Shout-Out: His codename references Professor James Moriarty, Holmes' iconic nemesis.
• Walking Spoiler: It is impossible to talk about the Professor without spoiling the endgame of Resolve.

The False Professor

Genshin Asogi

"The truth is shrouded in darkness. A darkness only our clan's great sword can pierce."

A transferee from Japan and a detective who worked closely with Scotland Yard who was investigating the Professor case. Kazuma Asogi's father.

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• Buried Alive: As part of Stronghart's plan to fake his execution, he was interred alive at the cemetery with the intent to dig him back up later and bus him back to Japan. Too bad Drebber dug him up before Stronghart got to him first, forcing him to make Jigoku execute him for real on the spot.
• Call-Forward:
  • Part of his name, Shin, is the Japanese name of Gregory Edgeworth, the father of Miles Edgeworth, whom his son, Kazuma, is similar to.
  • In Resolve, it's mentioned that an unseen apprentice of his took the name of his family's heirloom katana, Karuma, as his surname, with Karuma being the Von Karmas' surname in Japanese.
• The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much: His official cause of death was listed as "illness", to cover up his involvement in the Professor case. This was what Kazuma was told, too, although he suspected it was a lie.
• Disco Dan: Apparently did not get the memo that the samurai caste ceased to exist in 1869.
• Duel to the Death: After discovering Klint's identity as the Professor, Genshin challenged him to one. Klint viewed this as undeserved mercy, and made no effort to fight back.
• Exact Words: Does this twice, and to the same man even:
  • When he was asked if he was the Professor, he simply responded by stating he was guilty of killing a man. Note that he didn't actually say he was the Professor.
  • When Daley Vigil noticed him reading something in his cell, despite being denied writing materials, Genshin responded by stating that it was a last will and testament. Note that he didn't actually say it was his last will and testament.
• Family Theme Naming: The "Shin" in his name is written with the same kanji as the "ma" in his son's name.
• Good All Along: He is not the Professor, but rather the one who stopped him.
• Inscrutable Oriental: Genshin was sent to Great Britain to represent the Japanese national spirit and reinforce the image of Japanese people as stoic, polite, and exact in their work. When he killed Klint and was framed as the Professor, Barok generalized what he saw as a personal betrayal into Yellow Peril.
• Kangaroo Court: His conviction as the Professor and subsequent death sentence were a Foregone Conclusion, as Stronghart did not want the British public to know that a respected noble and prosecutor had been the infamous murderer.
• Kill the Ones You Love: He viewed Klint van Zieks as a close friend, but killed him after discovering his identity as the Professor. His comment to Barok after they were attacked shows that despite finding out he was a serial killer, he still has some affection for Klint.
• Man in the Iron Mask: Becomes this after Stronghart's plan to fake his execution goes into effect, complete with an actual iron mask to conceal his identity.
• Mercy Kill: Genshin proposes to Klint a Duel to the Death so that he may commit Suicide by Cop and avoid the posthumous shame and ruination of a felon's execution.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: His desire for justice and truth as well as his agreement to give Klint a noble end lead to his death.
• Properly Paranoid: When telling Yujin about Klint's pregnant wife, he specifically tells him to go to her without Seishiro, who was working with Stronghart at the time.
• Samurai Ponytail: Which signals that he comes from a former samurai family.
• The Scapegoat: Stronghart pinned everything about "The Professor" on Genshin, not wanting the public to know that a British noble was behind the murders.
• Shared Family Quirks: He shares his son's perpetual Dramatic Wind.
• Shoot the Dog: Since the British judiciary refused to bring one of their own to justice through the courts, Genshin confronted Klint van Zieks about his murders personally and challenged him to a Duel to the Death. Klint accepted what he saw as an undeserved mercy, and didn't fight back.
• Soap Opera Disease: His official cause of death, as no one wanted to explain to officials in Japan that he was executed for being a serial killer.

The Real Professor

Klint van Zieks (Klimt van Zieks)

"I will not here discourse the corruption rife among the aristocracy, which is to me, as one of them, so apparent."

Barok's older brother, and the last-known victim of "the Professor". He was the Director of Prosecutions of London and had established the transferee program.

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• Abstract Apotheosis: One common explanation for his brother's "curse" is that it's the result of Klint posthumously becoming an avatar of Laser-Guided Karma, enacting divine justice against villains the courts could not touch. This was exactly the interpretation Stronghart was aiming for in creating the Reaper.
• Adaptational Heroism: The villain of The Hound of the Baskervilles is one of the cruelest and most vicious criminals ever faced by Sherlock Holmes. Klint killed people out of vigilantism, regretted his crimes, and allowed himself to die at Genshin's hand.
• Adaptation Name Change: His counterpart in the original stories was Rodger Baskerville, alias Jack Stapleton. In-universe, his secret identity as The Professor was not revealed until the very end of the second game, so there were no other names to call him by.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: By virtue of being an aristocratic serial killer. Though initially, his victims were only other corrupt nobles — it's only when Stronghart got involved that he started going after the innocent.
• Attack Animal: His hunting dog, Balmung, is his main weapon as the Professor.
• Barely-Changed Dub Name: From Klimt van Zieks to Klint van Zieks.
• Being Evil Sucks: Being coerced into murdering his mentor completely breaks him. When Genshin confronts him and challenges him to a Duel to the Death, he's downright grateful.
• Blackmail: Stronghart discovered his identity after he killed his first victim, and subsequently used the threat of exposure to force him to kill people of Stronghart's choosing.
• Broken Ace: A handsome, brilliant, much-beloved paragon of the justice system — and later, a self-loathing serial killer.
• Blue Blood: A member of one of Britain's most highly regarded noble families, which is why his crimes were pinned on Genshin Asogi.
• Composite Character: While his name and infamy are likely taken from Moriarty, his modus operandi and being effectively the "Hound of the Baskervilles" killer also makes him the GAA equivalent of Jack Stapleton, entomologist and former schoolmaster that is the serial killer behind the events of the novel (it could also be argued that his "Professor" moniker could also be a reference to the latter profession of Stapleton's). He also seems to be the ''Ace Attorney' equivalent to Jack the Ripper, operating at the same time, having the same body count, and carrying the same level of infamy and mystery to the public.
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: Sent his pregnant wife into hiding after realizing that others know of his identity as the Professor, since if the truth got out he didn't want his unborn child to grow up in the shadow of their father being a serial killer.
• Death Seeker: His last will and testament reveals that his death wasn't a murder so much as Suicide by Cop under the pretense of a Duel to the Death, and the noted lack of any defensive wounds in his autopsy as well as Genshin's complete lack of injury the day after strongly hint he did nothing to fight back.
  Klint: He has expressed his intent to invoke the dying ritual of the duel, that I may depart this world with honor. An honor of which I am utterly undeserving. The Japanese are a truly merciful people.
• Decomposite Character: Along with Stronghart, he's the Ace Attorney counterpart to Moriarty. Klint inherits the Professor name, the infamy, and being the one who puts one of the main characters of the stories out of commission; Moriarty forced Holmes into a Disney Death, while Klint led to the repatriation of Wilson/Yujin.
• Despair Event Horizon: Crosses it after witnessing first hand that those with enough money or influence can escape the law. It's what leads to him becoming The Professor.
• Detective Mole: He was responsible for the very serial murders he was in charge of investigating.
• Disappeared Dad: To Iris, who was born after he died.
• Driven to Villainy: After trying, and failing, to bring justice to corrupt aristocrats through legal means, he eventually turns to murder to put an end to their crimes.
• Duel to the Death: He had one with Genshin, but his will all but states he let Genshin kill him, welcoming the opportunity to die with honor.
• Dying Curse: Includes one addressed to Mael Stronghart in his will. Doubles as a Dying Declarationof Hate.
  Klint: To my extortioner, Mael Stronghart... may you feel the jaws of the beast at your throat every time you swallow.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He wanted nothing but the best for his wife and younger brother. Which is why Stronghart had little trouble blackmailing him into further murders.
• Evil Parents Want Good Kids: His final wish was for his unborn daughter Iris to live a happy, fulfilling life free of the stigma of being a Serial Killer's daughter.
• Face Death with Dignity: When Genshin Asogi confronted him over his killings as The Professor, he offered him a Duel to the Death so that he might die with honor. Considering his Despair Event Horizon, Klint was more than grateful to have a way to go in peace, but made sure that his final act would be the last nail in Stronghart's corrupt coffin.
• Fallen Hero: By all accounts, it seems he really was the noble paragon he was seen to be up until the last six months of his life. Things dovetailed very quickly.
• Forced into Evil: While the first murder was a vigilante killing of his own volition, Stronghart blackmailed him into the other three.
• Heel Realization: He lists the slaying of his former mentor as the point he realized he was Beyond Redemption.
  Klint: As I watched my former mentor perish before my eyes at the jaws of the hound I commanded... ...I realised that I had lost the last shred of decency within me...and sunk to the level of a wild beast.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Moreso than the one pulling the strings. So consumed by the notion that there were those with wealth and power who could always avoid consequence for their transgressions against British society and his unbreakable sense of justice that he ultimately decides the only solution to purge the evil that lives in the upper echelons of society is to strike it down outside the law. In doing so he bloodies his hands as much if not more than those he believes must pay.
• Hypocrisy Nod: As shown in his last will and testament.
  Klint: I will not here discourse the corruption rife among the aristocracy, which is to me, as one of them, so apparent.
• I Am a Monster: He genuinely seems to hate what he lets himself become, especially when he was being obligated to commit murders on behalf of Stronghart (although even before that he seemed to realize that taking matters in his own hands has destroyed any moral high ground he could claim to have).
• Improbable Age: He was already the Director of Prosecutions by the age of twenty-seven, which would have made him ninteen years younger than anyone who's ever assumed the position in its entire history.
• Knight Templar: Tired of nobles getting more leeway in face of illegal actions, he took matters into his own hands and became "The Professor".
• Loved by All: Everybody loved Klint, which made it quite easy for many, particularly his own younger brother, to overlook evidence of his crimes.
  Stronghart: The Professor!?... Don't be absurd. The man comes from one of the country's most illustrious families. He's a paragon of justice here in the capital.
  Genshin: Yes, that's the point! That's why none of you British can see it!
• Meaningful Name: His unlocalized name, Klimt, is likely a reference to the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt. He was heavily influenced by Japanese art and culture during his lifetime, much like van Zieks, whose friendship with Genshin Asogi was deeply felt.
• My God, What Have I Done?: He had this reaction after following Stronghart's order to sic his attack dog on the third victim of the Professor killings, who was Klint's mentor and the Lord Chief Justice at the time. In his will, he says that upon witnessing his mentor's death, he sensed the last shred of decency inside himself slip away and at once felt he had sunk to the level of of a "wild beast". In the same will, he emphasizes to his brother that because his crimes are so heinous, he does not ask for understanding, only forgiveness.
• Necessarily Evil: Became The Professor out of a desire to put an end to evil and corrupt nobles using their power and connections to escape the law.
• The Paragon: He was widely regarded as the ideal by which all members of the judiciary should aspire to. Which is why Stronghart pinned his murders on Genshin, insisting that the truth would completely destroy any public trust in the criminal justice system and provoke London's descent into anarchy.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: His primary goal as "The Professor" until Stronghart blackmailed him into killing other targets for his own personal gain. In his will, he only credits his first target as a true Asshole Victim, implying that he didn't enjoy murdering the subsequent victims as directed by Stronghart, especially when forced to kill his mentor.
• Posthumous Character: By the point his existence is revealed, he has been dead and buried for ten years.
• Practically Different Generations: At the time of his death, he was 33 and his younger brother Barok was 23.
• Predecessor Villain: Was Stronghart's very first Reaper — that is, someone Stronghart used to kill off the targets of his choosing. After his death he was succeeded by the likes of Shinn/"Jezaille" and Gregson.
• Rich Kid Turned Social Activist: He prioritized prosecuting white-collar crime and abuses of power in the English aristocracy. Unfortunately, many of these were members of the House of Lords, which meant that it was often very difficult to bring such individuals to justice. At least not legally...
• Serial Killer: Of the Mission-Based type, under Vigilante.
• Suicide by Cop: While nominally a Duel to the Death, Klint treats Genshin's challenge as seppuku in all but name, declaring his death "inevitable and willing" in the will he wrote immediately before it.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: His death was treated as such, particularly by his younger brother, who took his death as proof there was no justice in the world.
• Walking Spoiler: The fact that he even exists is a spoiler in and of itself, since he goes unmentioned for all of Adventures and a significant portion of Resolve. Once he does show up, the plot bombs start dropping.

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