Attorneyologies

1. No canon relationships for main characters ever policy (??)

2. They're scared of older women

3. They don't gaf anymore about that plotline anymore lmaooo

But imagine if they did though. It would be such a weird and awkward and interesting dynamic.

For one, would they tell the kids that Thalassa is their mother or that they're dating first?

Would Apollo ragequit right there or would he fuck Phoenix's shit up first? I imagine Trucy would be pretty alright with the idea but we never know.

Would Phoenix be the first husband of Thalassa's not to die a freak death? Or would his canon-given immortality finally be nullified by her black widow curse?

Or, better yet, would she join his list of crazy exes? Given what her life was like before she lost her memories, it wouldn't be much of a stretch.

Unstoppable force vs immovable object fr fr.

Even if it's not romantic, how do they co-parent? Does she pay child support? Is she going to be forever relegated to the role of rich weird aunt? Do they ever talk about Zak and how much of a weirdo he was? Do they ever just get coffee and chat?

Hey, hey, hey, here comes the sequel. Today we'll take a closer look at the changes Larry received in this case and compare them with the Japanese version, touch on some of the subtleties of the «apology» levels, and solve the mystery of Hyossi (Gourdy) together.

Foreign Island

Let's start with the easy part – the change in location and departure points. In the Japanese version, Yahari's new girlfriend, model Kasumi, doesn't fly to Hawaii at all.

今、撮影でグアムに行っててさ。......ちょっと、会えないワケよ。

She's in Guam right now, on a shoot. So we can't exactly meet up.

Guam is the southernmost and largest island of the Mariana Islands, located in the western Pacific Ocean, very close to the Mariana Trench.

Modern-day Guam is an organized non-incorporated territory of the United States: it belongs to the United States but is not part of it.

The distance between Guam and the Japanese islands is approximately 2,500 km (a direct flight from Tokyo takes about 3.5-4 hours).

In the localization, the model flies to Hawaii. Of course, this was chosen as the closest location, as the distance from California to Hawaii is approximately 4,000 km (approximately 2,400 miles) and a five-hour flight.

Personally, I find it difficult to assess the need for a replacement here. It's one thing for a character to fly to another country (essentially from Japan to the United States), but quite another when they move within a country. Although, perhaps it's because I don't have experience traveling around the US and the cultural impact that crossing state borders creates. The peculiarities of territorial governance can create the same «new life» effect - please share your feelings and tell me if my assessment of the situation is correct.

Are you truly sorry?

Okay, we've talked about traveling, now let's dive back into the depths of the quality and level of apologies in Japanese.

We already touched on this topic with Case 4-1, and I invite everyone who missed it to read it. But there, the apologies were extremely polite (though some weren't at all sorry), and now we're descending to a more informal level.

……オレの……トノサマンジュウが……。

…… My……My Tonosaman manjū……

ゴメンな、矢張。

Yeah, sorry, Yahari.

ゴメンですむかっ！

Sorry - that's it?!

ははは.... (ゴメンですますけどな....)

Hahaha.... (I mean, I said sorry, so...)

Police dog Missile devours every manju found at Yahari's stall. However, since the dog is only involved in the investigation thanks to Itonoko and Mayoi (a small fact: Naruhodō didn't want to take the dog and wasn't impressed by its «cuteness»), and ultimately has no effect at all, Naruhodō tries his best to disavow the situation. For the most part, he doesn't care what the dog does and it's not his responsibility. Therefore, even when Yahari loses his merchandise, he responds:

ゴメン (ごめん , Gomen) - a light, friendly, almost casual apology.

«I'm saying 'sorry,' of course, but...» The けど な (kedo na) at the end is a softening. It shows that the speaker acknowledges their insincerity, but doesn't care. (arara gomen, sorry)

In short, Naruhodō doesn't really care that Missile didn't act like a well-behaved police dog, and he's only apologizing because it's necessary.

By the way, the particle な (na) indicates that the speaker is male (a masculine particle). The feminine particle is ね (ne).

Haha, don't think I'm creating an image of Naruhodō as a rude person here. No, he navigates surprisingly harmoniously between «lawyer mode» and «Naruhodō mode», but in this case, we have the «for Yahari» mode, because with Yahari, there's no other way (Mitsurugi has one too).

And please note that Yahari doesn't mention any «bills» at all and simply expresses outrage at Naruhodō's carelessness. The localization somehow ascribed a down-to-earth quality to him, as if he's the kind of person who cares about his financial safety net. And these dramatic in the first sentence ellipses are also fiction.

Yoo-what?

Another controversial point that seems like a waste of time is the spelling change.

First, let's look at the localization:

Honestly, if I hadn't started looking for information, I would never have realized that this is simply a phonetic rendering of a word that is clearly and distinctly represented in Japanese.

いやな。ウチ、実は今まで、1枚しか撮ったことがないんや。

Nah. Actually, up until now, I've only ever taken one photo.

せや。……UFOの写真 なんやけどな。

Yeah. …… Of a UFO, though.

She's talking about a UFO, damn it. Thanks, of course, to the Oxford Dictionary for pointing out the pronunciation variations, but it was annoying. Why reinvent the wheel? Why were the localizers unhappy with the abbreviation, which, well, was already there? If they wanted to convey her accent/dialect, they did it perfectly well. There was no need to mess with the established abbreviation, thank you.

If all native English speakers understood this, then I, like a second language speaker, would just be crying in the corner over it. It's always like that with localization – sometimes they tried hard, sometimes they overdid it (not to mention they were completely lazy).

A Lost Word

After finding out who «Hyossi» (Gourdy) is, or more accurately, after grilling a certain manju seller, Naruhodō says the following:

どうやら、ヤッカイなナゾが1つ、カイケツしたみたいだな・・・。

Looks like one troublesome mystery has been solved….

ヤッカイなナゾ・・・？

Troublesome mystery…?

Note one word that plays a significant role in this context:

ヤッカイな (やっかいな , Yakkai) - problematic, difficult, troublesome.

Now let's recall who caused Hyosshi's appearance and who is the subject of the long-standing legend. The word «yakkai» is suspiciously similar to «Yahari» and fits perfectly with the description of the situations that a person with this surname gets into.

In any case, this is just an observation, but the main point is that the localization forgot about the word «troublesome». It's not there. It's even highlighted in red in original scenario! And it's crucial for understanding Naruhodō as a character. Very few things can shake his composure, and one of those factors is Yahari and the troublesome situations he creates, which, like a black hole, draw those around him into it.

This defeats the purpose of Maya's response, which asks, «What, were we solving some kind of mystery?» instead of the original's clarification, «Why are you calling the mystery troublesome?» Well, that's a completely different vibe.

That's how you talk about an old friend...

Now we get to the real meat of the matter: how did Naruhodo describe the situation with the inflatable Tonosaman to the journalist?

この近くに、マンジュウの 屋台があるんですよ。

There's a manjū stall nearby.

そこには、空気でふくらませた 大きな人形があるんです。

They have a big inflatable doll there.

1週間前、ちょっとドジなヤツが ボンベでそれに空気を…。

A week ago, some clumsy guy was pumping it up with a gas cylinder…

ボンベの栓は破裂して、湖の方へ飛んでいきました。

The valve burst, and flew off toward the lake.

ウチのユメもしぼんだわ。

My dream deflated too.

すみません･･･ナツミさん。

Sorry… Natsumi-san.

And then it all began:

First, Naruhodo uses the word:

ドジ (どじ, doji) which means clumsy, awkward, klutz; which comes from the phrase どじを踏む (doji-wo fumu) - to screw up, to make a mess, to make a fool of oneself.

Second, he adds ちょっと (chotto), which here serves as a measure of scale - a little, just a little.

Third, Naruhodo describes the participant with ヤツ (yatsu), a colloquial term for «guy».

And now here:

In Japanese version Naruhodo doesn't reveal his relationship with the manju seller to Natsumi, meaning there's no personal connection to the incident. He doesn't call him an «idiot» (which is extremely rude), but only says he's «a little clumsy», which is an assessment not of his personality, but of his BEHAVIOR.

NARUHODO JUDGES PEOPLE SOLELY BY THEIR ACTIONS. And this isn't the first time a localization has replaced an objective assessment of a situation with a subjective one, which distorts the character's image. They could have used the klutz, damn it, since they changed last name to Butz.

In front of witnesses/in court, in this case, in front of Natsumi-san, he acts exclusively under the identity of a lawyer, meaning this can literally be called his «persona». And I've already mentioned in previous posts that his behavior in court/when interacting with trial participants differs from his behavior in everyday life/with people he knows well.

Fourthly, how can you lose the joke!? Naruhodō says that Tonosaman's doll:

空気でふくらませた (kūki de fukuramaseta) from the verb fukuramaseru — to inflate/to blow up, so literally balloon inflated with air/ inflatable.

After this story, Natsumi becomes upset and replies:

Uchi no yume mo shibonda wa.

しぼんだ (Shibonda): The past tense of shibomu (萎む), meaning to deflate, shrivel, or lose energy (like a balloon or flower).

So there's a literal play on words here: «an inflated balloon is a deflated dream». And they dared to simply lose it. Applause.

And finally, here Naruhodō concludes his story with an apology, the nuance of which is difficult to convey precisely, but he chooses to say:

すみません (sumimasen) - this apology is used to convey that you understand that someone has endured certain hardships or performed certain actions for your sake.

In other words, he apologizes politely, but disassociates himself from both the «cause» and the «effect» of the incident, as he didn't «create» Hyossi, nor did his «dream» deflate.

This is in addition to the fact that Naruhodō doesn't always become emotionally immersed in the events around him, but acts as he believes a representative of the law should. It's fair to say that in terms of emotional closure, he's quite capable of rivaling Mitsurugi.

If you're apologizing for something that's already been done, it's common to say すみませんでし(sumimasendeshita), but then you're making yourself complicit in the action.

Celeste was Adrian's mentor as managers in the showbusinness and we're introduced to her by learning about her tragic death. It's in the context of investigating Adrian's potential involvement in a crime scene, because the circumstances of Celeste's passing are giving her strong motivations for some form of revenge towards both the victim and defendant of the case.

Though we get to know little on Celeste's character, her relationship with Adrian and Adrian's codependency towards her are very interesting. It's easy to read a romantic lense in the intensity of Adrian's feelings and the actions she ended up taking for Celeste, both right after her death and during the case following it.

Edgeworth shows up again after a YEAR PLUS where everyone thought he genuinely just offed himself when he was really just soul searching and IMMEDIATELY is assisting with the case. Not even with ulterior motives either he has a plan and is waiting it out patiently, and for the most part he’s taking interruptions in stride and not getting too worked up over it like he used to. And more than that, he’s BANTERING with Phoenix. He’s freely making little jabs and quips at Phoenix and Wright pushes back in turn. It’s genuinely just for the love of the game because he MISSED BEING IN COURT WITH PHOENIX. The way i imagine them is that Edgeworth pre-disappearing act wasn’t used to being challenged by others due to how he was mentored by Von Karma (be perfect or don’t do it at all attitude) and he was so used to winning. Then comes along the fresh outta law school attorney who happens to be his former childhood friend who turns his life upside down by BEATING HIM IN HIS FIRST CASE. Do y’all realize how JARRING that would be? They develop this distinct back and forth, cat-mouse dynamic where the courtroom becomes THEIR domain that begets a push and pull in every direction. I think that Edgeworth realized he liked the challenge of butting heads with Wright and while he was gone he realized he missed it too and he NEEDED that in his life. So here he comes along and he’s settled into this similar yet different kind of man who’s still smug and snobby and a fair bit stuck up but who’s also kind of mischievous and crafty and knows where to dig into Phoenix’s personality to get a reaction out of him. He’s still pretty ruthless and cutthroat when it comes to prosecuting, has little regard for peoples’ feelings if he KNOWS he’s on the right track, but there’s a difference in how he speaks and holds himself.

Game: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Date: August 3, 2016

Time Since Last Case: 2 years, 4 months

We finally step into the shoes of Phoenix Wright, rookie attorney, in his first court appearance as a lawyer, defending his childhood friend. Despite his behaviour in the previous case, he’s working under Mia Fey who gives Phoenix the push he needs to prove his friend innocent and catch the real killer. There’s a hint of something else on the horizon, however, as Phoenix implies that his reasons for becoming a lawyer are more complicated than you might think…

AA4: This is Apollo. He wears a bracelet made out of a special alloy that is so sensetive to heat it will contract perfectly to the wearer's skin, making it so when he tenses up, the bracelet feels like it's tightening. This is helpful because of his genetic ancestral ability to become very tense when other people exhibit nervous habits in his field of vision, so the bracelet acts as a signal to him to trigger his other genetic ancestral ability: focusing so hard he gives himself a headache but can pick out microscopic twitches in a person's movements.