Gyakuten Saiban: Sono "Shinjitsu", Igi Ari!

Since he was a child, Ryuuichi Naruhodou's dream was to become a defense attorney, protecting the innocent when no one else would. However, when the rookie lawyer finally takes on his first case under the guidance of his mentor Chihiro Ayasato, he realizes that the courtroom is a battlefield. In these fast paced trials, Ryuuichi is forced to think outside the box to uncover the truth of the crimes that have taken place in order to prove the innocence of his clients.

Gyakuten Saiban: Sono "Shinjitsu", Igi Ari! follows Ryuuichi as he tackles cases to absolve the falsely accused of the charges they face. It will not be easy—standing in his path is the ruthless Reiji Mitsurugi, a prosecutor who will stop at nothing to hand out guilty verdicts. With his back against the wall, the defense attorney must carefully examine both evidence and witness testimony, sifting through lies to solve the mystery behind each case. With a shout of "objection!," the battle in the courtroom begins!

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Mitsurugi, Reiji Main

Tamaki, Masashi Japanese

Naruhodou, Ryuuichi Main

Kaji, Yuuki Japanese

Ayasato, Mayoi Main

Yuuki, Aoi Japanese

Karuma, Mei Main

Yumiba, Saori Japanese

Saibanchou Main

Hiura, Ben Japanese

Itonokogiri, Keisuke Supporting

Iwasaki, Masami Japanese

Ayasato, Chihiro Supporting

Nakamura, Chie Japanese

Karuma, Gou Supporting

Ootsuka, Akio Japanese

Yahari, Masashi Supporting

Nara, Tooru Japanese

Ayasato, Harumi Supporting

Kuno, Misaki Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Miyake, Masanori Producer

Nagai, Kouji Producer

Herek, Samantha Assistant Producer

Reviews

Jun 1, 2022

honeypomegranate

Recommended

Personally, I found Ace Attorney very enjoyable to watch; it’s a good example of what an anime adaptation of a game should be like. We follow our protagonists in a fairly faithful (albeit, heavily condensed) retelling of what takes place in the games. The tone is more comic than that of the games, with the show being heavily embedded with puns as well as general sarcasm and wit from several characters (particularly Phoenix Wright himself, in response to the simple-mindedness of those around him), however this is not uncommon with other media related to the franchise, such as the film or stage plays. The comedy ... that encompasses this show, combined by the nostalgia evoked by it and the fast pace which retains viewer attention, make for an amusing legal drama that is certainly worth the watch.
The animation isn’t the best, but you can still feel the intensity of every “Objection!”, “Hold it!” and “Take that!”, which is all that really matters.
The soundtrack is perfect, of course due to the incorporation of music from the original game which was intended to draw players in, maintaining their focus and attention (an effect which is preserved in the anime). The opening songs are genuinely brilliant and really amplify the positive spirit of the show.
Both our honourable protagonists and the several antagonists they face, although much less fleshed-out than in the source material, retain their singularity and memorability. Phoenix Wright is, as per usual, an admirable main character who retains his ingenuity and perseveres in the face of injustice. It remains obvious that his opponent, prosecutor Miles Edgeworth, is the same austere yet honourable character he was in the games. Maya endures as innocent, charming, and devoted to helping Phoenix, regardless of whether it’s to his benefit or detriment! Others are similarly characterised as they were in the games.
To conclude, I enjoyed every second of this anime and I’m looking forward to watching Season 2, which covers T&T. It not only kept me interested, but also thoroughly entertained.

Thank you for reading <3

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jan 9, 2023

Nightscape00

Mixed Feelings

Gyakuten Saiban is a fine anime, but really is intended for those that have played the games. I would not recommend it to those that have not.

My only real problem with the show is the editing. There are some short scenes throughout the series that make no sense in the context of the show and seem to only be there because they were in the game. For example, there was an episode where they showed a person as if they were examined but were never talked to in the show. There's one scene where it looks like a person fell in paint or something but ... with no context. In another, they show a quick scene from one of the mini games in the series, which they had never done before. Honestly, if you had not played these games, these scenes would make no sense.

Aside from that, I have enjoyed the series, but I have played every game twice. They do a good job at portraying the characters in the game and I really like the music. Overall, I think it is decent anime but only if you are familiar with the first two games.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Apr 28, 2025

hexashadow13

Not Recommended

*This is a review of both seasons.*

Ace Attorney is a franchise about lawyers duking it out in the court room in an exaggerated manner. The two seasons of the Ace Attorney anime adapt the first three games, also known as the Phoenix Wright trilogy. The first season adapts the first two games, though it skips the extra arc, and the second season adapts the third game. While the third game is the longest of the three, this difference also comes down to how the second season of the anime has more anime original content. The first season has one anime original episode, while the second ... season has five.

Ultimately, I feel that only these anime original episodes are worth watching. There isn’t much of a reason to watch the adaptation of the game arcs. For those that are completely new to the franchise, this is a significantly inferior way of experiencing the story as compared to the games. I would firstly argue that interactivity is a core part of the experience. The various arcs have been written in such a manner that they intend for the player to slowly solve them themselves, and thus just don’t work as well when experiences passively. But even if one does not wish to actually think about things and play the games properly, the games have a “story mode” that plays itself and allows the player to simply experience the story. I would still recommend this over the anime.

While the anime has the boons of voice acting and proper animation, there are way too many issues with what truly matters, the script. It keeps the core of the arcs the same but changes things up in order to speed them up. This is necessary because the anime simply doesn’t have time to go through everything the games do. However, in the process it has to write around certain aspects, resulting in much more extreme jumps in logic by the cast and far more plot holes. Furthermore, the games scripts convey a lot of information to the player with the clues that matter being hidden within for the player to extract. The anime doesn’t have time to do so and conveys only the parts that matter. Not only is this unnatural, but it makes the mysteries much more obvious and easy to predict as compared to the games. Thus, the only possible reason for a newcomer to choose the anime over the games is hating reading. Though why such a person would want to get into a franchise about lawyers is beyond me.

What about for those that have already played through the games? Outside of the anime original episodes, this anime doesn’t really have much to offer them either. All the issues already mentioned about the adapted will likely seem even more glaringly obvious to those that are already familiar with the subject matter. It’s just a weaker rehash of the same content without adding anything new to it. The animation is decent at best and while the voice acting is good, ultimately it doesn’t really feel like it conveys anything that the exaggerated expressions in the games didn’t already do. I suppose for those that have played the games many times and want to play them many more times this may serve as a change of pace. But otherwise, there’s really no reason to watch this over just replaying the games.

With that said, the anime original episodes are pretty great. There are a few that better flesh out the childhoods of Phoenix, Edgeworth, and Maya. There’s also a completely new arc that had a very different flow to the other arcs and ultimately worked much better in anime format. The OPs of the first season and EDs were also decent enough. But the OPs of the second season were genuinely fantastic. I’d highly recommend fans of the franchise to watch only all of this, and skip the rest.

tl;dr: A pretty awful adaptation with some pretty good original content episodes sprinkled throughout.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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