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Characters / Ace Attorney: Witnesses and Other Characters - Trials and Tribulations

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Ace Attorney's witnesses and other characters debuting in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations. There are spoilers for later installments as well as the original trilogy; read carefully! Also, most characters (as usual in this franchise) have dub name changes, which are written in bold.

For Iris and Bikini, who debuted in Bridge to the Turnabout (Kareinaru Gyakuten), see here.


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Turnabout Memories (Omoide no Gyakuten)

    Dahlia Hawthorne (Chinami Miyanagi) — All spoilers unmarked 

The Stolen Turnabout (Nusumareta Gyakuten)

    Luke Atmey (Aiga Hoshiidake

Voiced by (Japanese): Toshihiko Seki (anime)

Voiced by (English): Ian Sinclair (anime)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/luke_06.png

"Zvarri! The truth has once again been elegantly revealed to me!"

Self-proclaimed "Ace Detective" (which ends up prompting Phoenix to refer to himself as an Ace Attorney), and the detective on all the MaskDeMasque cases. Full of himself and wants to be the center of attention (but you probably knew that already) and fails miserably.


  • Adaptational Ugliness: The anime significantly increases the prominence of his cleft chin, turning him from merely eccentric looking to a Gonk proper.
  • Added Alliterative Appeal: In the English dub, Atmey prefers to pepper his paragraphs with such patterns;
    "The Masked Marauder's Mischief-Making is Matched only by My Meticulous Mind, Meanwhile you Metropolitan Meatheads Missed the Mark on MaskDeMasque's Malfeasance."
  • Animal Motifs: His snazzy tux, long nose, and Anime Hair make him look a lot like a penguin.
  • Anime Hair: Take a plate, and spray paint it yellow. Hit said plate with a hammer. Shave your head, and glue the biggest of the plate shards to your forehead. Rinse, lather, and repeat. That's how you recreate his haircut.
  • Artistic License – Law: His plot to use the concept of double jeopardy to back up his alibi only goes to show that double jeopardy in this universe is nothing like how it is in the real life US or Japan. For starters, neither country applies double jeopardy on a conviction, meaning if proof of Atmey being guilty of murdering Bullard or innocent of being DeMasque ever came out, a new trial could easily be set up to vacate the conviction. Furthermore, his appearance as a witness in Ron's murder trial is just that: a witness. As it's Ron's trial, he would be the only one eligible for double jeopardy in that particular trial, whereas the law in-game would protect Atmey if Phoenix didn't prove him guilty there. Even further is that, in Japan, a loophole in the law means double jeopardy functionally only applies if the Supreme Court gives an acquittal, as prosecutors are allowed to appeal not guilty verdicts in lower courts.
  • Attention Whore: Even as a child, apparently.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: As silly as he looks (and acts), he's not to be underestimated.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Really, he's large enough of a ham to justify this...
  • Card-Carrying Villain: When the judge calls him evil at one point, he agrees. Though given that this was in the middle of his attempt to sell himself as Mask☆DeMasque it's probably more of a ploy than a genuine sentiment.
  • Catchphrase: "Zvarri!"
  • The Chessmaster: Despite being much less intelligent than he wants to be seen as, he actually did manage something fairly clever: planning an Xanatos Gambit as follows: If Ron DeLite gets away with everything as DeMasque, he profits. If Ron gets caught, he can disavow any knowledge of blackmailing him or even pretend to be the one who figured it all out. If he gets away with murdering Bullard, well, he gets away with it. If accused of the crime, though, plead guilty to being DeMasque to dodge the murder charge. It would've worked if it weren't for Phoenix figuring it all out. And the "less intelligent" thing might actually have been a case of Obfuscating Stupidity—after all, getting convicted on day one seemed to be his Plan A.
  • Confess to a Lesser Crime: His grand plan was to Get arrested and convicted as the famous thief Mask De Masque to avoid murder charges.
  • Consummate Liar: He fools the Magatama by lying right after a previous lie of his was exposed. It may have something to do with how natural he spoke about it, as players don't notice there's something wrong either until the following day.
  • Crazy-Prepared: One of the few people who tries to use a guilty verdict as an alibi, and thus invokes double jeopardy. (You cannot be convicted on the same crime if proven to be acquitted.)
  • Death Glare: His sweating sprite sports one of these, complete with heavy shadows around his one visible eye. Special mention goes to when it's used on Day 2 when you interrupt his larceny trial to accuse him of murder, where it actually feels like he's glaring at YOU, the player.
  • Engineered Heroics: All the times that he caught DeMasque and returned his stolen treasures was planned out from the beginning, in order to satiate his own ego and to meet the demands of his blackmailer.
  • Gag Nose: Holy shit. Fans still don't understand how he could fit it into Ron's costume. Possibly a bit of a Pinocchio Nose too, as a tip off to his dishonesty.
  • Great Detective: Subverted or possibly deconstructed - he actually worked out who Mask☆DeMasque was after his very first crime, and used the opportunity to blackmail him into committing more thefts and giving the money to him. Atmey twice states that he did this because he wanted to create an opponent worthy of his 'genius'. But that may be a complete lie.
  • High-Class Glass: He has a magnifying-glass monocle, as befits a high-class detective.
  • Incoming Ham: He introduces himself by startling Phoenix and Maya out of their musings with this line:
    "...Welcome! To my private little "Banquet of Chaos".
  • I Never Said It Was Poison: In his final testimony, he claims that Ron wore the DeMasque regalia to his meeting with Bullard, stating it as the reason why there were no fingerprints on the alarm. While correct, it also happens to finally expose Atmey as the real killer; Ron had only revealed that fact hours earlier, and Atmey - who was stuck entirely in his own trial for grand larceny - would not have known that fact... unless he was at the scene of the crime itself.
  • Insufferable Genius: Double subverted, or perhaps zig-zagged. When you first meet him, he's seems to be a classic case of Small Name, Big Ego; overblown, and more confident in his intelligence than warranted. Then, you find out he was trying to get convicted the first day, and was likely painting himself as less competent than he actually was. In fact, you find that he was the one who plotted Mask☆DeMasque's heists down to the last detail, starting with the second of the heists. And at the last part of the case, he manages to quickly come up with a suitable explanation for all the loose ends of the case, making only one mistake in the process. His ego was his downfall, however; Phoenix insulted Atmey's ego several times in the second trial, which resulted in the rant that eventually allowed Phoenix to win the case.
    • His ego also gets the better of him in the anime adaptation, as he ends up flashing around the red jewel on his finger that was stolen by Ron from Kane Bullard, causing Bullard to notice and figure out he was the mastermind behind Mask☆DeMasque, enabling him to blackmail Luke. The detective might've gotten away with his schemes had he not been flashing around a stolen jewel on his finger.
  • Jerkass: He's an egotistic and narcissistic douchebag who shamelessly boasts about his so-called detective skills but he has no problem blackmailing Ron after discovering his secret identity as DeMasque and framing him for murdering Ron's former boss just because he's also on the receiving end of blackmail by the victim. No wonder, Desirée is pissed at him for being a cowardly criminal instead of Ron.
  • Large Ham: Atmey manages to steal the spotlight of every scene he's in, thanks to his bizarre speech and mannerisms and much of his dialogue being coupled with the sound effects synonymous with loud and dramatic characters. It's no wonder that his breakdown stands out as one of the most over the top of the entire trilogy. Really, it's impressive how much he chews the scenery despite having zero voiced lines in the game.
  • Latex Perfection: Just how did he wear that mask over his nose, anyway?
  • Laughing Mad: When he is found guilty. Both times.
  • Leitmotif: "Look at Me", or, as it's known in-universe, "Luke Atmey Elegy" (which he composed for himself).
  • Meaningful Echo: "Take a good look, everyone! Unable to find a rival worthy of my genius, I was forced to create one myself! Here I am! The tragic clown...". The first time he says this, you are led to believe he created the Mask☆DeMasque persona to give himself someone to fight. The second time he says this you realize that he actually press-ganged Ron into becoming his "rival" and make himself rich in the process.
  • Motive Rant: Used to interesting effect as you hear it from him twice during the course of the case. The first time he's faking it but the second time is when the jig is actually up.
  • Nose Tapping: Can be seen doing this in the article about DeMasque's first heist. It helps that his nose rivals his finger in length.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: He's trying to get "exposed" as Mask☆DeMasque on trial day 1. As a result, he's deliberately leaving holes in his testimony for Phoenix to poke at, even if it makes his Ace Detective-self look bad—because of course the fake testimony never actually happened. Indeed, when you face him again on the second day, the events surrounding him show him to be surprisingly competent.
  • One-Hit Kill: One of the only instances in the series where it is possible to lose an entire life bar on a cross-examination. His final testimony requires that the player press on his 10+ line statement to find out which one is the most suspicious claim. Choose anything else, and it's an instant game over.
  • Punny Name: Look at me! I want love, that's all (ai ga hoshii dake)! The English version of his name can also refer to he wants people to literally look at him in a certain photograph as part of his plan.
  • Renaissance Man: Played with; he's an Attention Whore, and all his projects are motivated to make a name for himself. However, he does seem to have a surprisingly broad range of skills — musical composition, building ships in a bottle, amateur biology & chemistry, better than average knowledge of the law (i.e. double jeopardy), detective skills, heist planning, etc.
  • Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Does this to sound as intelligent as possible. Although it seems like he at least does know the meaning of the words he's using, he knows little-to-nothing about the subjects he professes to be an expert in. The anime adaptation adds an abnormal amount of alliteration as well.
  • Sherlock Scan: Subverted; his "scans" are ludicrously obvious. Godot makes it hilarious, though. However, during their first meeting, he still manages to peg Phoenix as a lawyernote  and Maya as a spirit mediumnote , which suggests that his powers of observation aren't completely useless.
  • Sinister Schnoz: He has a prominent nose and he's the true criminal behind the murder of Kane Bullard.
  • Slobs vs. Snobs: The snob to Gumshoe's slob. Whereas Gumshoe proved himself to be a capable detective despite his shabby looks and casual personality, Atmey is pompous, sharply-dressed, and his accomplishments as a detective are all forged.
  • Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: Subverted; he's actually the mastermind behind the thief he's supposedly trying to catch, and the entire "investigation" is a sham.
  • Villainous Breakdown:
    • The screen shakes before he goes into a Laughing Mad fit, and then he goes on a Motive Rant, calling himself a tragic clown who deliberately created a rival to compete with his genius. He does this two times, although he faked the first one to avoid the charges for his true crime.
    • The anime has a similar breakdown, though the second time, he calms down enough to explain his whole DeMasque scheme and motive for murder. Then once Godot points out his plan has completely dried up, Atmey is left groveling to himself in frustration.
  • Villain Respect: In the anime, he has nothing but praise for Phoenix for uncovering his true plan. There's a touch of this in the game as well, since he reiterates his faked Motive Rant in reference to getting beaten by Phoenix.
  • You Fool!: See the following quote:
    Atmey: [to Phoenix] ...A fool is too foolish to know that he is a fool...

Recipe for Turnabout (Gyakuten no Recipe)

    Jean Armstrong (Kaoru Hondobo

Voiced by (Japanese): Fukushi Ochiai (anime)

Voiced by (English): J. Michael Tatum (anime)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lance_armstrong.png

"Non, non, NON! You naughty man!"

A very...*ahem* flamboyant French chef and owner of the restaurant Trés Bien. Thing is, the food there is anything but. He's armpit-deep in debt in just trying to keep the restaurant afloat.


  • Adaptational Heroism: The anime removes references to him being a petty thief, as well as the scene in which he helps Tigre try to dispose of Phoenix; in the latter case, Tigre intercepts Phoenix and Maya while they're on the way out of Tender Lender, right after their conversation with Viola.
  • Affably Evil: For a kleptomaniac who is easily pressed into perjury, framing, and beating up people, he's pretty friendly to everyone he meets.
  • Ambiguously Gay: Despite everything he says and does... he's never explicitly called gay. In the original Japanese, he is referred to as an okama.
  • Apologetic Attacker: He apologizes to Phoenix before punching him on Tigre's orders.
  • Brain Bleach: He invokes this in Phoenix when he sees Armstrong rub aromatherapy oil on himself.
    Phoenix: MY EYES!
  • Camp Gay: His appearance alone renders Phoenix and Maya speechless.
  • Chubby Chef: For a very loose definition of chef. He's a heavyset guy who runs a restaurant, at least.
  • Damned by Faint Praise: On the second day in court, Godot has the following to say about his coffee:
    Godot: It's special, I'll give you that. It's worth a sip just for the experience.
  • Exact Words: If one of his dishes has the words "Inspired by" in its name, then it has absolutely none of the ingredients listed in its title.
  • Fauxreigner: Word of God has confirmed that Jean isn't actually French. The writers intentionally gave him terrible spoken French and a misspelled restaurant namenote  to reflect this.
  • Forced into Evil: He's a legitimately nice guy, but he's also half a million dollars in debt with Tigre, and unfortunately, helping Tigre carry out the murder plot and subsequent frame job was his last chance to pay it off.
  • Gratuitous French: He speaks almost exclusively with this.
  • Gratuitous Spanish: Apparently for laughs, because it just plain comes out of nowhere. Even the Judge realizes how out-of-place it is. In the Spanish version, it's Gratuitous English.
  • In Touch with His Feminine Side: Sometimes refers to himself as a woman.
  • Karma Houdini: Implied. He doesn't get a "where are they now" spot in the ending, but his restaurant somehow stays open after the trial.
  • Keep It Foreign: In the French version, Jean Armstrong is called Luigi Labocca and speaks with Gratuitous Italian.
  • Leitmotif: "Trés Bien".
  • Lethal Chef: He can't even get coffee right.
  • Lethal Eatery: There is lots of lace in his kitchen that could hold onto germs and pose a fire hazard with their proximity to the cooking equipment.
  • Manly Gay: Physically, though he certainly doesn't act like it.
  • Never My Fault: He is oblivious to just how horrible his food is, simply writing it off as not being for every customer.
  • Non-Indicative Name: Trés Bien, French for "very good"note , has terrible food.
  • Poirot Speak: How he speaks, and rather poorly, at that - he's continuously using feminine articles (la, une) to refer to masculine nouns.
  • Punny Name: He's got strong muscular arms. "Hondobo" is a pun on "fond de veau" (French for "rich veal"). He's being "strongarmed" by Furio Tigre thanks to his debt.
  • Real Men Wear Pink: And they decorate the walls of their restaurants in it too.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: His eyes are a very reddish brown, and his cooking is really horrible. He’s also Tigre's accomplice, albeit unwillingly. Considering that his kitchen has lots of lace which could easily hold onto germs, his food might also be unsafe to eat.
  • Sissy Villain: Subverted; while he has the mannerisms down and has done some questionable things (stealing and cooperating with Furio Tigre to frame Maggey), he is not the murderer.
  • Something about a Rose: A few of his animations have him holding a rose. Either he’s picking off the petals while mulling over something, pulling out the petals faster when he’s afraid, or having a shower of petals during his damage sprite.
  • Sticky Fingers: He has a habit of stealing from people due to his crippling debt, so he likely pawns off whatever he can get his hands on and he steals Phoenix's Magatama.

    Victor Kudo (Shohei Igarashi

Voiced by (Japanese): Jin Urayama (anime)

Voiced by (English): Greg Dulcie (anime)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/victor_kudo.png

"The uniform! It's a disgrace! You can practically see their...*turns pale* their...YES! It's a disgrace!"

An unemployed grouchy old man that has a thing for the Trés Bien waitress uniforms and always has a box of birdseed with him (most likely for the purpose of having a weapon within arm’s length). He comes from a family of kimono embroiderers. A key witness to the case.


  • Be as Unhelpful as Possible: Ultimately subverted. While it takes quite a lot to drag information out of him in the investigation phase, once he's actually on the stand he is largely upfront and truthful about what he thinks he saw. Even the contradictions Phoenix uncovers ultimately turn out to be a case of him being tricked by the culprit as opposed to him lying or forgetting what he saw.
  • Butt-Monkey: He's basically on Butt Monkey duty for most of the case, doubly so when he's on the witness stand.
  • Crippling Overspecialization: He's (presumably) really good at embroidering kimonos...and not much else, which comes back to bite him when he's living in either a time (Japanese version) or a place (English version) where kimono embroidery just isn't in that big of a demand.
  • Dirty Old Man: It's not immediately obvious, but it's trait that the heroes at one point actively exploit to get him to talk. While Maya can't get him to talk despite wearing the waitress uniform he has a thing for, she channels Mia to ask the questions. Yes, it's Mia Fey as a waitress. He later complains that his reputation's taken a hit since Phoenix used the fact that he only goes to Trés Bien to look at the waitresses to discredit his testimony, bitterly suggesting that he'll be remembered as the old man too busy staring at the serving girl's butt to notice the murder.
  • Everyone Has Standards: Even he isn't willing to perv on young Maya when she dresses as a waitress.
  • Gag Nose: Just look at that big round red nose!
  • Good Old Ways: Always preaching about these, and complaining about those damn kids and their newfangled words like "radio" and "glasses" (it's "wireless" and "spectacles", dammit!).
  • Grumpy Old Man: All too apparent from the moment you meet him, though he's mellowed out a bit, come the epilogue.
  • Implausible Deniability: His reasons for going to Trés Bien don't hold up when presented with evidence.
  • Infinite Supplies: His birdseed, lampshaded.
  • I Read It for the Articles: He claims that he goes to Trés Bien for the food, reinforced by Psyche-Locks.
  • Jerkass: He doesn't use that box of bird seed to feed pigeons. He uses it to throw it AT them, as well as people who annoy him.
  • Leitmotif: "How Sad, the Memory of This War Song".
  • Punny Name: "Victor" comes from "victory", and "Shohei" means "soldier".
  • Red Herring: Invoked by Furio Tigre. He used Victor Kudo in his staged murder to set up a fake witness, as there wasn't any in the actual murder that wasn't on Tigre's side.
  • Scatterbrained Senior: Subverted. At first, it seems that his memories of Glen Elg's murder are completely inaccurate, thanks to a combination of his apparently poor memory and being Distracted by the Sexy. As it turns out, however, his memory of the incident is actually near-perfect, and the inconsistencies are the result of Furio Tigre's inaccurate imitation of Elg during the staged murder.
  • Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Rude, perverted, and all-around unpleasant.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: "I don't have a strap fetish!"
  • Throw the Dog a Bone: He spends most of the case being thought of as a nuisance by most other characters, but in the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue he talks about how visibly touched he was after his grandchildren threw him a birthday party.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Set up by Tigre to witness the fake murder, done to incriminate Maggey.

    Lisa Basil (Keiko Koike
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lisa_basil.png

The head of Blue Screens Inc. and Glen's old boss. Incredibly precise and may very well actually be a robot.


  • Adapted Out: She doesn't appear in the anime, since Maya and Phoenix never visit Glen's workplace.
  • Alliterative Name: In Japanese, Keiko Koike.
  • Catchphrase: Addresses Phoenix and Maya pretty much exclusively as "you good people".
  • Fun with Palindromes: Her, Glen and her new hire Adam Mada in the ending. In all languages.
  • Honest Corporate Executive: There's no indication that she's anything other than ethical in her business practices.
  • Making a Spectacle of Yourself: She doesn't even NEED to wear an HMD but does anyway.
  • Meaningful Name: Her English name might be derived from the Apple Lisa, fitting for someone who runs a computer company.
  • Medium Awareness: Whenever you mention someone or something with a picture, it pops up on the screen; she's the only character in the series who moves slightly out of the way to make room for it, because her leaning-to-the-left pose makes it so the image would otherwise cover part of her head.
  • Nice Girl: Very polite to Phoenix and Maya, even as Phoenix uses the Magatama to drag info out of her.
  • Red Herring: If you think she has anything to do with the case or trial, think again. You pressure a little minor info about the victim out of her (that probably could have been deduced through other means) and she's never mentioned again.
  • Robot Girl: May or may not actually be a robot, but sure acts like one; like a Ghost in the Shell, as Phoenix puts it.
  • Satellite Character: A satellite character to a Posthumous Character, at that. She exists mostly for the sake of having somebody who personally knew the victim and his occupation.
  • Sci-Fi Bob Haircut: Fitting, given the futuristic aesthetic of her tech company.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: Phoenix describes her as "definitely not a robot" in his records.
  • Theme Naming: All Blue Screens Inc. employees have palindrome names.
  • Tron Lines: The buttons on her clothes light up periodically.
  • Verbal Backspace: When Phoenix asks her to elaborate on Glen Elg being a loser with "bugs" in his personality, she backtracks and acts as though she hadn't said that at all.

    Furio Tigre, aka The Tiger (Toranosuke Shibakuzo, aka Zenitora

Voiced by (Japanese): Satoshi Mikami (anime)

Voiced by (English): Sam Riegel (anime)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/furio_tigre.png

"Gwoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...!!"

Thanks to his similarly-spiky haircut, he looks a lot like Phoenix and even uses that to imitate him, prompting the nickname "Xin Eohp" (pronounced "zin eeope") from Maya. He's the loan shark in charge of Tender Lender, and lent money to Jean Armstrong and Glen Elg. His nickname pretty much sums up his personality.


  • Adaptation Dye-Job: He isn't a bright red-orange in the anime, and is instead given a more plausible tan.
  • Adaptational Jerkass: While the game makes it clear he's only "with" Viola out of fear for what her family might do to him, the anime has him outright call her a "gloomy bitch" when he thinks she's not in earshot of him.
  • Amazing Technicolor Population: Orange skin, making him resemble his namesake. Most likely a spray-tan, which would explain how he was able to pass as Phoenix so easily, he just washed it off.
  • Animal Motifs: A tiger.
  • Asshole Victim: Not yet, but Viola makes it clear that, once they get the chance, her family will kill him for what he's done. The epilogue suggests she ends up doing just via a poisoned meal.
  • Bad Liar: You don't really need to press his statements to find contradictions within his testimony.
  • Bilingual Bonus: His name is composed of Italian words. "Furio" is a common name for a pet (and fittingly sounds like "furious"), and "Tigre" is... Well, you know.
  • Brooklyn Rage: "WHADDYA THINK YOUSE DOIN'?!"
  • The Bully: He roars in the courtroom to scare everyone, even the judge, and make things easier for him. He also constantly talks and acts like a tough guy. He also is a loanshark who will even kill debtors, but is afraid of people even more powerful than him like Bruto Cadaverini.
  • Casting Gag: In the English dub of the anime, Furio Tigre is voiced by Sam Riegel, the voice of Phoenix himself in the video game series. Amusing as he's impersonating Phoenix Wright.
  • Complexity Addiction: His plan to get Maggey convicted for Glen Elg's murder would likely have gone much better if he hadn't bothered with setting up the second, fake murder, and just gotten Viola and Armstrong to testify that they saw Maggey killing him. Between Victor Kudo's seemingly poor memory and his own carelessness when it came to impersonating Elg, it actually ends up backfiring.
  • Delayed Reaction: Towards the end of "Recipe for a Turnabout", he doesn't realize that Phoenix tricked him into implicating himself as the culprit until it's outright spelled out for him.
  • Digging Yourself Deeper: In the anime, he tries to pass off his knowledge of the poison bottle as him learning about it while imitating Phoenix during the first trial. The real Phoenix points out that the only reason he would've impersonated a defense attorney in the first trial is if he was the murderer.
  • The Dreaded: With the exception of the completely unflappable Godot and the much more powerful and fearsome Cadaverini crime family, everyone who gets on the Tiger's bad side is quick to run and take cover: in case of the trial where he takes the witness stand, quite literally too, with both Maya and the Judge hiding underneath the desk. Even Gumshoe has to muster up enough courage to restrain him.
  • Evil Twin: Parodied; when Phoenix and Maya first find out about that Nick's got a phony, Maya suddenly exclaims, "I got it!" Phoenix replies, "If you're going to ask if I've got a twin brother, the answer is 'no'."
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Weaponized during his cross-examinations. The Judge and Godot implement a penalty system on Nick when Tigre is pressed on matters that are likely going to piss him off, mainly if it covers old ground with no new insights.
  • Hate Sink: He's a rather despicable person who runs a loan shark operation and kills someone to get the money he needs to save himself. The only people he so much as pretends to be nice to are those he's afraid of.
  • Healthcare Motivation: Not by choice, but he finds himself forced to reimburse Bruto $1 million for Viola's operation. He plans on seizing Glen's MC Bomber virus as collateral and selling it on the Black Market, but when Glen manages to secure enough money to pay off his own debt (which is not enough to pay off what Tigre owes), Tigre kills him.
  • Hidden Disdain Reveal: In the anime, he complains that "this is all that gloomy bitch's fault" loudly enough for Viola to hear.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: His entire plan was built upon posing as Phoenix, lies and false evidence. He's ultimately taken down by the real Phoenix, who in turn lied about a piece of false evidence; Phoenix pretended that the victim's medical cream bottle was the poison-filled murder weapon, only for Furio to do some Evil Gloating and calls Phoenix an idiot for thinking that was the case, then gives a perfect description of what the murder weapon looks like, something he shouldn't know.
  • Hot-Blooded: He don't got the look of a boiled lobster for nothin', y'know.
  • Incoming Ham: The first indication that you'll be encountering him in any given scene? Just look at his character quote!
  • I Never Said It Was Poison: Phoenix catches him by tricking him into explaining how the poison bottle looked like with enough detail. A fact he shouldn't know if he weren't the murderer.
  • In-Series Nickname: "Xin Eohp" by Maya.
  • Jerkass: After killing a man, he goes to very far lengths to make sure Maggey gets convicted, even disguising himself as Phoenix in order to "defend" her and lose on purpose. There's also his treatment of Viola.
  • Large Ham: He literally roars like a tiger.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: There's something poetic about a two-bit Loan Shark being extorted for money by an even more dangerous criminal.
  • Laughably Evil: His insane temper, exaggerated accent, and special brand of sheer stupidity help to make him as silly as he is despicable.
  • Leitmotif: "Swingin' Tiger".
  • Loan Shark: The head of Tender Lender.
  • Meaningful Appearance: His bright red-orange skin is reflective of his Hair-Trigger Temper.
  • Most Definitely Not a Villain: Despite wearing an attorney badge made out of cardboard, having a drastically different personality and skin tone (which he said was a tan), everyone (with the exception of Godot, who didn't take the case) thought he was the real Phoenix Wright. It's only after practically spelling it out in the courtroom that the Judge realizes he was tricked - a whole month after the first trial.
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: His name. Also, the French version changes Tender Lender's name to Sadouille-Crédit; that is, "credit scammer".
  • No Indoor Voice: Whenever provoked (which isn't hard for him at all).
  • Obviously Evil: He looks like Phoenix but Red and Black and Evil All Over. It goes as far as the game not even trying to hide he's the murderer in the case - he is seen as the one who poisons the coffee cup in the introduction. Furthermore, his first actual appearance has him threatening to beat the crap out of Phoenix, right before HE claims to be the real Phoenix, giving himself away as the imposter.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise:
    • His Phoenix disguise consisted solely on a blue suit, his spikey hair, and a cardboard cut-out badge. And everyone fell for it, except Godot, because he didn't take the case the first time.
    • He also managed to disguise himself as the already dead victim, and gets found out by making a few crucial mistakes, namely wearing an earpiece over the ear the victim had injured and was rendered deaf in.
  • Propping Up Their Patsy: He impersonates Phoenix Wright so he can serve as Maggey's defense attorney and intentionally lose the case to get a Guilty verdict for her.
  • Punny Name: He's a furious tiger. "Toranosuke" means "tiger boy" and "Shibakuzo" means, more or less, "I'm gonna kick your ass!" "Zenitora" is roughly "Cash Tiger". Also, tigers are, according to legend, enemies with dragons (i.e. Phoenix, or Ryuichi).
  • Real Men Wear Pink: He drives a pink scooter. And accidentally crashes it into a Mafia Princess.
  • Red Right Hand: His silhouette looks a lot like Phoenix, but his bright orange skin is a dead giveaway that he's not who he claims to be.
  • Screaming Warrior: Roars like a tiger.
  • Scrolling Text: Most of his roars cannot be contained by just one textbox.
  • Sdrawkcab Name: Maya nicknames him "Xin Eohp".
  • The Sociopath: It quickly becomes clear that this guy just does not know how to relate to anyone in any way other than bullying. The only one he bothers to be nice to is Viola, and that's just because her grandfather bullied him into it.
  • Stupid Evil: The fact that his convoluted plot to fake Glen Elg's murder for Kudo just to get Maggey framed and then impersonating Phoenix as a lawyer to cinch the guilty verdict made it as far as it did is something of a miracle. He doesn't even realize that he implicated himself for the murder before having it explained to him outright. Him standing in the courtroom among Stunned Silence thinking that he has won by exposing Phoenix's bluff shows just how stupid he is. Maggey's notoriously bad luck must be the only reason he got as far as he did in framing her. If he pinned this on anyone else from the start, he wouldn't have had a fighting chance with this gambit.
  • Tampering with Food and Drink: He poisoned Glen Elg's coffee.
  • Tiger Versus Dragon: His shirt has a picture of a tiger biting the head of a dragon—Phoenix's Japanese given name has the kanji for dragon in it. Funnily enough, however, he is more of a Dragon than Phoenix, preferring to use complex machinations and skilled planning alongside a healthy dose of intimidation to get his way while Phoenix goes into court with less evidence than he feels he needs and bluffs until he can piece something together, much like the Tiger.
  • Too Dumb to Live:
    • Despite coming up with a quite elaborate plan to frame Maggey and get her sent to prison, he really is one of the dumbest criminals in the entire series. Not only are the lies in his testimonies quite easy to spot, he falls for an obvious trap when he makes what turns out to be his fatal mistake, and doesn't even realize what he's done until it is fully spelled out for him.
    • Even though he feared the Cadaverinis, he still treated Viola poorly, despite her status within the family. This only turns him into a target after he's convicted.
  • Uncertain Doom: Viola sent him poisoned food after his true nature was revealed. Whether or not he's still alive is anyone's guess.
  • Villainous Breakdown: After Phoenix tricks him into proving himself the murderer, he screams so loudly that the lights go out.
  • Yakuza: Certainly looks the part with his style of dress but actually he's on the outside looking in (normally he runs a two-bit loan shark operation that shakes people down for money to serve his own ends rather than being tied to a larger criminal enterprise but his "incident" with Viola drags him into the larger picture of the Cadaverini crime family's affairs).
  • Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Upon being caught out on whether or not he even knew the victim, Furio laughs and comments that Phoenix isn't bad, and that he was only messing with the lawyer to test him. Phoenix is... not impressed.

    Bruto Cadaverini (Gonta Shikabane

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bruto_cadaverini.png

The head of the mob and doting grandfather to Viola.


  • Bald of Evil: As befitting an old man.
  • The Don: Which makes him a force to be feared even by Furio.
  • The Dreaded: Nobody crosses this guy. When he makes someone owe a million dollars to pay for his granddaughter's brain surgery, the poor debtor will work to make that money happen without question and by any means possible.
  • The Ghost: He's spoken of by several characters, but he doesn't appear in the case in person.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: His actions towards Furio set in forth all of case 3, and he's a large crime boss, but he's never actually directly involved.
  • Papa Wolf: More like "Grandpa Wolf", but same principle. Viola is his little girl; thus hell falls on whoever hurts her in any way. Furio helping Viola is because he severely injured her in a motorcycle accident, and her grandfather saddled him with a million-dollar debt's worth of brain surgery procedures in retaliation for what he had done.
  • Meaningful Name: He sure seems like a brute. "Cadaverini" and "Shikabane" both mean "corpse". "Gonta" roughly means "big authority" while Bruto means "Brute".
  • An Offer You Can't Refuse: Forces Furio to pay Viola's medical bills.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: One reason why the police haven't arrested him yet.
  • Shotgun Wedding: More like "Shotgun Paying For Granddaughter's Medical Bills", but similar principle: when Furio got into an accident that caused Viola to be hospitalized, Bruto immediately put a huge debt on him to cover her medical bills and then some, or else...
  • The Unfought: He never gets brought to the witness stand to be cross-examined.

Turnabout Beginnings (Hajimari no Gyakuten)

    Terry Fawles (Michiru Onamida

Voiced by (Japanese): Kenichiro Matsuda (anime)

Voiced by (English): Kyle Hebert (anime)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/terry_fawles.png

"... Ugh. Sorry. I told a little lie."

Mia's first-ever client, an escaped death-row convict. Has a poor grasp of grammar and acts mostly like a scared little kid.


  • Acquitted Too Late: For several crimes he's suspected of; it becomes clear that he didn't kill Dahlia when "Melissa Foster" is revealed to actually be her, but by that point he's suspected of killing Valerie, meaning that Dahlia being alive isn't enough to get him off the hook. And he kills himself just before Mia is about to clear him of Valerie's death, so he never gets the chance to be officially exonerated for either crime.
  • Biting the Handkerchief: Uh... biting the heavy iron ball he's chained to.
  • Blood from the Mouth: After he poisons himself.
  • Catchphrase: "I din't do nuttin'! I din't kill nobody!" and "Sorry, I told a little lie."
  • Died in Your Arms Tonight: In the anime, he dies in Mia's arms after drinking the poison.
  • Doomed by Canon: He's the defendant in both Mia and Edgeworth's court debuts. In 1-2 it's mentioned that Edgeworth had never lost a case until he goes up against Phoenix, and in case 3-1, it's mentioned that Mia's first case ended so badly that she didn't step foot in court again until over a year later. Also, Dahlia is involved in the crime. In short, the player knows it'll be bad... it's how bad that's the mystery.
  • Driven to Suicide: He has a Suicide Pact with Dahlia that both will commit suicide if they could no longer trust each other. He honors it while Dahlia does not.
  • Dumb Muscle: He's strong, to the point where he's got no problems carrying his ball and chain, but highly childlike.
  • Ephebophile: Sure does seem like the odd man out on this list, but he dated 14-year-old Dahlia Hawthorne when he was 20 and refers to her as his 'teen angel'.
  • Fall Guy: Dahlia and Valerie betrayed him, leaving him to take the fall for the kidnapping and "killing" Dahlia.
  • Gentle Giant: The only crimes he’s committed are participating in a jewel heist disguised as a kidnapping and stealing a car. Other than that, he’s a very sweet and trusting guy.
  • Go Mad from the Isolation: His many years spent on death row are implied to have driven him insane. He was once hired as the Hawthornes' tutor before his arrest, but in the present he is more like a gullible, dim-witted child in a grown man's body.
  • Love Martyr: He's still in love with Dahlia, so much that even after Mia exposes her wrongdoing, he kills himself because he can't trust her anymore—fulfilling the suicide pact that they supposedly made, not that Dahlia had any intentions of doing the same.
  • Manchild: He's a very gullible child in a grown man's body.
  • Punny Name: Both his English and Japanese names refer to falling tears. Not only that, but he was also framed for a murder that he didn't commit twice; meaning he was the "fall guy", so to speak.
  • Puppy-Dog Eyes: When he feels like he's about to cry.
  • Suicide Pact: He has one with Dahlia that both will commit suicide if they could no longer trust each other. He honors it while Dahlia does not.
  • Super Gullible: His childlike nature means that he tends to believe in others, even those who are rather obviously setting him up. Dahlia always intended him to be her fall guy and the "suicide pact" was just Dahlia's way to ensure he'd die before giving her up, but he believes in Dahlia's love so much that he kills himself genuinely believing that she'd do the same. She didn't, and instead used his suicide to get away with murdering Valerie.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Terry's choosing to commit suicide rather than give testimony that would have fingered Dahlia as Valerie's killer plays a major part in setting up the events of not only Trials and Tribulations, but arguably even the entire original trilogy. Had Terry helped convict Dahlia, then at the very least Doug Swallow wouldn't have been killed, and Diego Armando would never have been poisoned, but possibly even Mia herself would have lived, and the events of 3-5 would never have come to pass due to Diego not being so full of self-loathing and hatred towards Dahlia.
  • Unwitting Pawn: His biggest flaw is that he believes everything Dahlia tells him without fail, including their supposed Suicide Pact, which she clearly never had any intention of honoring. Given this character trait, it's also clear that Dahlia and Valerie intended for him to be their fall guy from the very beginning.
  • You No Take Candle: He speaks like a caveman most of the time. It goes with his brutish appearance. Remember that this guy originally met Dahlia when he was hired to be her tutor. Either the Hawthornes had incredibly low standards in tutors, or being in a solitary cell in prison for so long really took its toll on Terry's mind.

Other Mentioned Characters

    Adam Mada (Kazutomo Motozuka
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/adam_mada.png
A programmer hired by Blue Screens Inc. to fill in for Glen Elg's position after his death.

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