#asosusa

Hii! So, for the first one:

Strongly agree | Agree | Neutral | Disagree | Strongly disagree

So Ace Attorney first and foremost references Japanese justice system, and there is (as much as I know) death penalthy being practiced all way through (probably not for one murder, more likely serial killers will be punished too, afaik, murdering three people warrants the highest form of punishment).

But honestly? There are two things that make me lean towards considering death penalty as the most likely solution if someone's condemned. First of all, Ace Attorney's world is a caricature and it doesn't really have to perfectly mirror the real one. The second thing comes from that as AA is a very dramamtic series, and Phoenix being all dedicated to "save" people he defends in court is really in line with consideration that most of times this is a life or death situations. Aside from Dahlia the other examples that more vaguely imply: Adrian Andrew's situation in 2-4 being compared to Maya's deadly peril, so her situation is on more or less similar level of grave - if Phoenix indicts her as guilty, her life would be wasted. In 3-4 Terry Fawles was on a death row for supposedly killing Dahlia (well, he did some other bad things too like kidnapping etc). The other one is implications that at some point Morgan met Pearl for the last time in Japanese script, and Morgan even never killed anyone directly.

But what stops me to completely side with "Guilty verdict means death" opinion is how sometimes there is implied hope for the imprisoned? It was shown clearly in I2-2 with how Japanifornian prison, with all its faults, tries to rehabilitate people as members of society, inviting performers like Regina or assigning them to groom pets. This is a really positive aspect, and, adding to the fact that there are many sympathetic culprits in the series, you would want to think that there's some hope for them. So overall, there are some arguments in favor and against that, so I dunno

Now onto the Kazuma/Susato one

Strongly agree | Agree | Neutral | Disagree | Strongly disagree

Okay, this is a really controversial topic that probably may be repulsing from the modern Western perspective, but Mikotoba imagining Kazuma as a potential husband for Susato could really be the case. For a few reasons

There really was a Japanese tradition for sonless men from respectable families (Mikotobas were well off) to take in orphaned boys, adopt them (even giving them their family name!) and marry their daughters off to them to secure their lineage. Not 100% the situation with Yujin and Kazuma (it's unimaginable that Kazuma would change his name, he's tightly holding onto Asogi's legacy), but it's not unprecedented that basically adoptive siblings were expected to marry in some circumstances

About the sibling part: I do sincerely think that Kazuma and Susato's relationship are resembling of some sort of sibling bond (especialy post 2-5 when they all reconcile in the end) - cue the Japanese DLC case - but here's the nuance. Probably neither of them thought about their relationship in that way. They are not Miles and Franziska. Kazuma and Susato dynamic is a vast and deep topic and I have many thoughts about it, but now I wanna on;y say that 1) Kazuma, as much as he appreciated Susato's help and devotion, wasn't... fair to her, I think? In their relationship he probably always was a receiving party, and really really often he kinda subconciously dismissed her, preferring to be more open with his university friend whom he knew for a year instead. Adding the fact he was kinda distancing himself from Mikotobas already and didn't really view them as a family, he probably wouldn't call Susato his sister, and 2) Susato could view him as her honorary brother, but this does negate the "puppy crush" part as you said. It's probably more of a historical fiction thing, but really often "you're like a brother/sister to me" meant "i want to be with you forever". So the romantic feelings and appreciating someone as sibling really could intertwine, contrary to modern POV. Either way, the way Susato was dedicated to Kazuma's dream, shaping her profession and career path around him probably speaks in favor of her affection, whatever it could be - especially taking a risk of having a job in the sexist sociaty required really strong feelings from her. Maybe it could be the other way around and at some point Yujin saw Susato being that way to Kazuma and began to make wedding plans

Also Yujin would be really glad if his family and the family of his good friend were united

Happy Monday ☀️