Ace Attorney Anime Episode 1 Review

<p><i>English names will be used in this review to coincide with the familiarity of the English game text&period;<&sol;i><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Capcom&&num;8217&semi;s <em>Ace Attorney<&sol;em> game franchise is incredibly entertaining due to the varied characters and gameplay style&period; The visual novel adventure games are a favourite&comma; both in Japan and in the West&comma; so it makes complete sense for an anime adaption to be created&period; Sadly&comma; the first episode&comma; <em>The First Turnabout&comma;<&sol;em> is a disappointment&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Phoenix Wright is a defense attorney fresh out of school working under his mentor&comma; Mia Fey&period; He is a lovable and naive young man whose youth is still shown on the outside&period; Riding his bike to the courthouse and having a key-chain figure attached to his professional-looking backpack makes Phoenix look more like a student than a professional&period; The physical character design is the best feature of the series as it reflects the game series perfectly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110976" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110976" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-110976 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;02143942&sol;Ace-Attorney&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;&lt&semi;em&gt&semi;Ace Attorney&lt&semi;&sol;em&gt&semi;&comma; Shueisha&rpar;" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110976" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Ace Attorney<&sol;em>&comma; Shueisha&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Larry Butz is a good friend of Phoenix and is on trial for murdering his old girlfriend&period; Commendable Phoenix takes up the case in order to repay a favor to Larry&period; The slightly scary realization is that Phoenix chose a murder trial as his first case&comma; which bears weight on his personality as a helpful person&period; Larry is goofy and hardly seems to realize how deep the water is in at the trial and curses&comma; whines and cries while being accused&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Larry brings out puppy-dog eyes and cries while pleading with Phoenix to prove his innocence&period; The facial expressions are exaggerated the same as in the games which sits well in the anime setting&period; Yet the art style is very generic&period; If it wasn&&num;8217&semi;t for the iconic characters&comma; the anime would be difficult to tell apart from other Shonen series&period; The music blends so well with the episode that it disappears and is forgotten&period; Unfortunately&comma; this first episode is lacking in details and depth&period; Only the surface of the crime is seen and explained with little to think about afterwards&period; I was expecting the anime series to dive into the stories of the game a little more and to show the layers beneath the characters&&num;8217&semi; outward personalities&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110977" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110977" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-110977 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;07&sol;02144509&sol;Ace-Attorney-2&period;png" alt&equals;"&lpar;&lt&semi;em&gt&semi;Ace Attorney&lt&semi;&sol;em&gt&semi;&comma; Shueisha&rpar;" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1082" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110977" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Ace Attorney<&sol;em>&comma; Shueisha&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Based on <em>Ace Attorney&&num;8217&semi;<&sol;em>s opening episode&comma; the game series does not translate well into the anime form&period; No investigating scenes were shown and Phoenix&&num;8217&semi;s process of eliminating the smoke screen evidence to find the truth was limited&period; An entire mystery solved in one episode with little exploration of the characters involved does not bode well for the series&period; I truly hope that my disappointment turns into excitement as I continue to watch and review this anime&period; Stay tuned for next week&&num;8217&semi;s review of <em>Ace Attorney&colon;<&sol;em> <em>Episode 2&colon; Turnabout Sisters&colon; 1<sup>st<&sol;sup> Trial&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>You can watch the <em>Ace Attorney<&sol;em> anime series through <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;crunchyroll&period;com&sol;ace-attorney&sol;videos"><strong>Crunchyroll<&sol;strong><&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;