Real Lawyer Reacts to Ace Attorney (With Real Japanese Lawyer in Japan!)

Welcome back to LegalEagle. The most avian legal analysis on the internets.

GOT A VIDEO IDEA? TELL ME!
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

MY COURSES
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

SOCIAL MEDIA & DISCUSSIONS
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

BUSINESS INQUIRIES
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

LEGAL-ISH DISCLAIMER
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
Sorry, occupational hazard: This is not legal advice, nor can I give you legal advice. I AM NOT YOUR LAWYER. Sorry! Everything here is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. You should contact your attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Nothing here should be construed to form an attorney-client relationship. Also, some of the links in this post may be affiliate links, meaning, at no cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. But if you click, it really helps me make more of these videos! All non-licensed clips used for fair use commentary, criticism, and educational purposes. See Hosseinzadeh v. Klein, 276 F.Supp.3d 34 (S.D.N.Y. 2017); Equals Three, LLC v. Jukin Media, Inc., 139 F. Supp. 3d 1094 (C.D. Cal. 2015).

Special thanks:
Stock video and imagery provided by Getty Images and AP Archives
Music provided by Epidemic Sound
Maps provided by MapTiler/Geolayers

[theemperormoth]

From what I’ve learned, Ace Attorney is a complete dystopia

You’re not innocent until proven guilty. You’re not even guilty until proven innocent. You’re guilty until you can prove someone else did the crime.

[dsmiley]

"You don't scream in court" is the Japanese version of "the bailiff will tackle you" 🤣🤣

[rgs]

Follow-up question about screaming in courtroom: Can you scream a little bit if a ghost throws an object at you?

[thetrembler]

I look forward to a sequel to this at some point. Just imagine…

Legal Eagle: “So, in the Japanese legal system, is the persecutor allowed to strike the judge with a whip?”

[rafagd]

Wright's name is to preserve the pun.

Naruhodo is something like "I understand", so characters sometimes say stuff like "naruhodo, Naruhodo"

"Isn't it right, Mr. Wright" is "close enough"

[RainingMetal]

"You have to kill three people to earn the death penalty."

Funnily enough, I think that's the exact amount of murders Dahlia Hawthorne is responsible for.

[naitcst]

I would like to see LegalEagle play the actual game not just watching the anime show.

[theexnay]

I’m surprised they didn’t talk about how she just blackmailed the dude in court, and the blackmail was a list of who he had blackmailed.

[podemosurss]

5:41 For Wright, the pun is that "Naruhodou" means "Understood", so they went with "Wright" (Right).

[sifakid]

My mom (Japanese) and I used to enjoy watching Japanese tv crime drama. One pattern I noticed is that, when the suspect confronted with evidence by detective/reporter/lawyer (usually outside the judicial system) they always confessed committing the crime.

[lorisewsstuff]

I agree the pin is way cooler than a barrister's wig. ANYTHING is cooler than a barrister's wig.

[KingKuron_]

If I recall correctly, the Jurist System that was only used in the 4th Ace Attorney game, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, came about BECAUSE of the implementation of the Jurist System in the actual Japanese legal system.

[AmericanArchon]

17:30 I like how Matsui implies the faux pas isn't spirit channeling, but doing so during the court proceeding specifically.

[ThatElfNerd]

From what I've understood of the Ace Attorney universe, they *used* to have more sensible court trials, however due to the government wanting to cut corners on funding the justice system, they changed the system to a "guilty until proven innocent" system, as well as starting the trial the day immediately following the arrest, and with only three days to convince the judge. Basically, judges and prosecutors in this world are incentivized to pass a sentence as soon as possible, meaning that defense attorneys have to conduct their own investigations in between court hearings to find evidence to acquit their clients/figure out who the actual culprit is.

It doesn't explain away every inaccuracy, but it does help explain some of why the show/game doesn't operate under traditional court rules.

[jalapenoofjustice]

The first Ace Attorney game actually predates the japanese jury system, and I know this because the fourth game in the series (Apollo Justice) largely revolved around the implementation of a jury system. It's not quite the same as the real world - these games always took place in the near future with a three-day trial system - but it was meant as a commentary on the real-world development.

[Arithryka]

16:59 "there's no analog for this in american culture at all!"
SIR we have **plenty** of american TV shows about psychic crime solvers, including a **reality show** where "psychics/mediums" have been recruited by police officers to try to help solve actual cases.

[bessieburnet]

Glad you have a Japanese lawyer this time, since, although the enligh versions of the series wants to make it out like it's set in America, particularly in the later games, at it's core, especially the first trilogy, Ace Attorney is a satire of the Japanese legal system and therefore US legal system stuff does not apply to Ace Attorney.

[fndne]

Mr. Mitsui missed that Phoenix Wright and Naruhodo Ryuichi make sense as loose translations of each other.
A Phoenix is a bird borne of fire. "Ryuichi" directly translates as "son of dragon." So there's similarity there. 
"Naruhodo" means "I see" or "I understand" in a conversational context. Similar to the English conversational use of "right."

[FTZPLTC]

ngl, I'm genuinely shocked and impressed by the regionalisation in the Ace Attourney games. The most recent one - mostly set in Victorian London - has some incredibly dense wordplay and British slang. I always wondered if the translation was a nightmare but now I'm wondering if they just make it up as they go along.

[TheSmileMile]

The movie "Rashomon" is basically about a murder trial where the victim is channeled by a spirit medium, so it's probably a refrence to that.