What are Ace Attorney Characters like in the original Japanese Version?
hello!! i found your AA âpronounâ and honorifc post in the tag and it was really interesting!! i was wondering if you could expand on blackquill, edgeworth, and klavier in particular when it comes to how they refer to themselves/what others call them? i am INSANELY curious.
This is an interesting Question I got a while back. Now that Iâve replayed some of the games AND am playing Spirit of Justice I feel more up to try and answer it. That said, I am going to go through all Ace Attorney main characters, meaning Defense Lawyers, Detectives, Assistants and Prosecutors, and will give you a profile of how they were written in Japanese, comparing it a little to the original.Â
This post might be edited when I realize I misremembered something or learn something new.
Japanese Name: ććŠĺ éžä¸(NaruhodĂ´ RyĂťichi)
Japanese Name Meaning: âNaruhodĂ´â is a pun on âNaruhodoâ, a Japanese phrase akin to the English phrase âI see(what you mean).â âRyĂťichiâ means âDragonâ, and the ending of the name indicates that he was the firstborn son of his family. This âDragonâ is presumably what served as the inspiration for naming him âPhoenixâ in the English localization.Â
Refers to himself as: âBokuâ, a rather soft-sounding way for men to say âIâ, albeit itâs still less formal than âWatashiâ would be. This makes me sound younger than a professional who would be using âWatashiâ, since older men tend to prefer âWatashiâ in their work life. While weâre at âBokuâ, contrary to what you may have heard, women *do* use it veeeeeery rarely, albeit women using this in real life are usually seen as eccentric and odd. Itâs more common for women to use it in poetic writing, though. In any case, Phoenixâ âBokuâ is written in Hiragana, indicating that it sounds especially soft, hinting at his generally mild-mannered personality.Â
Referred to by the Textboxes as: âNaruhodoâ, with a short âoâ, openly acknowledging the pun.
Referred to by others as: Maya, Pearl and Mia call him âNaruhodo-kunâ, with the short âoâ. Trials and Tribulations indicates that Phoenix tried to stop Mia from constantly cutting off the âOâ in the end of his name, but she never did, so the punny nickname stuck. Larry and Edgeworth both call him by his last name, âNaruhodĂ´â, without a honorific, which is common among male friends. Apollo and Athena correctly refer to him as âNaruhodĂ´-sanâ (with the long âOâ). Trucy calls him âPapaâ, which explains the writing on his beanie. The Judge calls him âNaruhodĂ´-kunâ. Blackquil calls him âNaru-no-jiâ.
His Speech-style: Somewhat casual, he does sound like a pretty typical, mild-mannered young man, using less polite forms when talking to Maya and more polite forms when talking to certain witnesses or the Judge. He uses the very common, polite âDesu-Masuâ forms (which most people in Japan use when theyâre talking to anyone other than their closest friends and family) a lot more frequently than a lot of other characters in the series.
Notes: Probably the character who carried over best in the translation. His averageness definitely helped.
