Translating the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Fanbook! Article 7
From here on out there are no Shu Takumi blog parts, and it's just the characters talking. I've decided to post the pages out of order so that the illustration shows up first - so that these posts are a little easier to tell apart.
NB: I believe there is already a translation of this page and the next one floating about somewhere. I've decided to include my own for consistency and completeness.
Valentines Day - a day that makes men’s hearts everywhere race with anticipation. Larry, whose ulterior motives are painfully obvious, seems to have shown up at Wright & Co Law Offices, but Phoenix isn’t in the mood. Will the chocolate turn out to be sweet, or not so sweet, for Phoenix?
Larry: Maya! I’m finished cleaning the toilet!
Maya: Really? Thank you, Larry!
Larry: What’s next? I’m ready to go all out. For you Maya, I’ll do anything… Especially today.
Maya: Well then. Could you redecorate the room for me?
Maya: Could you take all of the furniture and put it outside?
Larry: …You know, I actually like a woman who knows what she wants…
Phoenix: Hey. What are you doing, Larry? Today of all days.
Larry: Don’t be a dummy, Nick. You know what day it is today, don’t you?
Phoenix: Oh… Right. Valentine’s day, huh?
Larry: What?! Are you making fun of my Ms Valentine or something?!
Phoenix: I don’t even know who that is.
Maya: It seems like you have some kind of bad memories, Nick?
Phoenix: I don’t like it. ……Ever since the day I received chocolates from Edgeworth.
Maya: Whaaaaaat?! N-n-nick and P-p-prosecutor Edgeworth?!
Larry: Woaaaah! S-sorry, Nick! I didn’t realise things had turned out like that with you two!
Phoenix: N-no! No! I didn’t mean it like that!
Maya: Well, then, tell us!
Phoenix: ….When I was in elementary school, there was this girl I liked. Her name was Ruby.(1)
Larry: Huh?! You liked that girl?!
Phoenix: It was Valentine’s Day morning. When I got to school, there were chocolates on my desk. From her.
Maya: Woah! But isn’t that a good thing?!
Phoenix: Oh, I was over the moon… But.
Phoenix: When I looked closer, it said “to Miles”. Written on the pink wrapper.
Maya: To Miles… so it was for him after all, huh?
Phoenix: His desk was close to mine. Miles Edgeworth’s.
Larry: Ah. Yeah, that girl was pretty scatter-brained. I actually knew her pretty well.
Phoenix: Well, for me, “scatter-brained” isn’t enough to resolve this case.
Phoenix: I had no choice, so I went to return it to Edgeworth.
Larry: Hey. You really worry too much about little things. If it had been me, I wouldn’t have cared at all.
Phoenix: I don’t know what you mean by “wouldn’t have cared”.
Maya: So? What happened with Prosecutor Edgeworth?
Phoenix: I gave him the chocolates. And he said something like, “I’m sure you have a crush on Ruby, don’t you?”
Maya: Huh? That’s kinda mean, Mr Prosecutor. Treating a girl’s feelings like that…
Phoenix: I guess he tried to pass it off like a 'platonic chocolates'. (2)
Maya: How did he know that?
Phoenix: That morning, when he came to school, there were chocolates with that same pink wrapper on two different desks.
Maya: …So Ruby gave the same chocolates to another boy?
Larry: Ah, by the way. That was my desk.
Larry: When I got to school that morning, there was a pink box on my desk.
Phoenix: W-what?! Y-you got some? From her?!
Larry: Like I said before, I don’t care about the little things.
Maya: …What do you mean by that?
Larry: When I looked closer, it said “to Phoenix”. Written on the pink wrapper.
Larry: But hey. I figured, what’s on my desk is mine to keep.
Maya: U-uhm. But Larry, your name isn’t…
Larry: It’s just Larry. Larry Butz.
Maya: So these chocolates… They were really for Nick…
Phoenix: Ruby… got the desks… mixed up…? Again?
Larry: Didn’t I just tell you? That girl was totally scatter-brained.
Phoenix: For me, “scatter-brained” isn’t enough to resolve this case!
Larry: N-no, hold on, Nick! Why are you looking at me like that?!
Phoenix: Then, Ruby really had chocolate for me…
Larry: But that’s just what Edgey said, wasn’t it? They were 'platonic chocolates'.
Larry: And anyway, didn’t you eat them? The ones you got from Edgey.
Larry: Well, there you are. The punchline doesn’t change in the end.
Maya: Yeah… I’m finding it hard to wrap my head around this story…
Phoenix: That’s exactly why I hate Valentine's Day.
(1) Her original name in the text is Rumi.
(2) I decided to localise "giri chocolates" to "platonic". The literal translation is 'obligation chocolates'. Though, the obligation part isn't such a direct meaning. It's more like, typical for girls and women to give chocolates to male friends and co-workers without it being a romantic gesture.
As another fun fact, the timeline of this is slightly messed up (possibly). The academic school year in Japan begins in April, and we know that the class trial took place in summer. Since DL-6 happens in December, Miles, Phoenix, and Larry shouldn't have been friends during Valentines. So either Shu Takumi messed that up, OR this explicitly takes place before the class trial (which is a possibility) - in which case the idea that Miles was aware of Phoenix's crushes is even funnier to me.
I think people are generally aware that women give gifts on valentines day in Japan, and men give gifts a month later on white day. It adds a bit of extra possible context to why Phoenix was embarrassed about giving Miles the chocolates - there's some underlying emasculation to it.
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