Ace Attorney Anime

[Karifean]

So the first episode of Gyakuten Saiban: Sono "Shinjitsu", Igi Ari! is out and so far I'm liking it. It was a pretty good adaptation of the first case.

Who else is watching it?

[Shauna]

Haha, I was gonna make this thread.

Matt and I are gonna watch it when he gets back from dinner. I am hype.

[Shauna]

Yeah, that was a decent adaptation of the first case. I wonder how long this is planned to go on for, whether there's gonna be original content or if they're just gonna straight up adapt the game in its entirety.

[Fox]

I felt that a lot of the weird stuff that works in the context of the game doesn't really translate well to an anime. I was like "...no judicial system would work like this." "What do you mean 'if you can't prove this random witness guilty we'll find the defendant guilty by default?'"

But hey. Was still kinda fun. I liked it when "Objection!" popped up.

[Karifean]

NGL the entire time I was watching the second episode I couldn't think of anything except how much they smurfed up. Seriously, I struggle to think of even a single thing they did well this episode. I guess the two game OST remixes were pretty neat...

Well I am curious to see how they're changing up the trial I guess. In the long term I'd say this series will probably live or die with how well they do Phoenix and Maya's banter.

[Formalhaut]

How did they smurf it up, exactly?

[Karifean]

Hmm, for one I felt like Maya had zero characterization beyond her phone call with Mia, except MAYBE the last scene. Before that she was just kinda... there and pitiable. The progression of pretty much every scene in the episode was rather silly and a little jarring. Phoenix's class trial is really getting hammered in an awful lot. And I find it an... interesting and daring choice to put the connection between Phoenix and Edgey out in the open this early.

Overall though I'm just not really invested. It's like we're just going from place to place and things happen and none of the characters get any time to show any emotions or anything. Not even Phoenix gets much characterization, only backstory and gag reactions. It's somewhat frustrating in this regard.

And oh my god that opening.

[Formalhaut]

It certainly sounds very by the numbers.

To be honest, when you announced it, I didn't seem all that enthusiastic. It appears I wasn't wrong on that front.

[Shauna]

If you consider what Ace Attorney was actually like as a game in those first few cases, nobody had that much characterisation at this stage. Maya did not start to show her colours until Nick took on her case, and even then it wasn't all that much.

It seems to me they are trying to be faithful with the adaptation, which honestly they are doing but it's to a fault here. They are not taking advantage of everything that comes with fully animating this.

[Formalhaut]

Hmm, good point: Maya certainly didn't grow on me as a character until about the third case. She was the damsel of the second case, so I couldn't grow attached to her yet and get that juicy Nick/Maya banter. There was a definite sense in the games of the writers finding their feet with the characters. It isn't bad, per se, but comparing the first and third games is telling.

For what it's worth, I'm not sure a faithful adaptation was the way to go. Lemme rephrase: definitely follow along the basic plot that the game laid out, but flesh it out more. The anime isn't constrained to the conventions of a video game, so it should give us new perspectives on the characters, their lives, things we don't see while we manically go from location to location trying to find that one thing that'll get us to advance.

[Shauna]

Exactly. I am hoping that once they push through this case, and we have Nick and Maya milling about and doing things that the anime will freshen up a bit because it's just him by himself right now and that was never the highlight of the games.

But, we'll see. The ol' 3 episode rule is in full effect here - next episode he should be facing off against Edgeworth for the first time, so this will be putting it to the test.

[Karifean]

This series has gotten better and better over time. The Turnabout Samurai adaptation was actually really good.

[Jessweeee♪]

oh holy smurf they finally made an ace attorney anime?!

i know what i'm doing with my afternoon :v


EDIT:

this anime OP, it is so anime

[Shauna]

I haven't watched the most recent episode, but it definitely has been picking up now that we've got a chance for the characters to come out a bit.

[Jessweeee♪]

oh no i forgot that this series had such nicely translated pun names and now i have to learn everyone's original names

EDIT:

trout look at all these cops here to arrest this guy

cops.png