Courtroom hijinks on stage – Ace Attorney: Turnabout Spotlight

Background context

Ace Attorney (AA) is a visual novel/adventure game series by Capcom (Creator: Shu Takumi) about solving crimes by acting as a defence attorney (in most games) and gathering evidence, pointing out contradictions in statements and so on. The games take place in Japan USA, and the first three focus on Naruhodō Ryūichi Phoenix Wright as the main protagonist, who is also the protagonist of this play. As you can see from the strikethroughs, something is amiss. The localisation of the series tried its hardest to change the actual locale of the games and this is particularly glaring in the play where there are new characters without official localised names mixed with the western names of old characters.

Play’s premise

Turnabout Spotlight is the first of the four AA plays so far, and its original run was in 2013, which is also the version I watched. Prior to this, I have seen the live-action movie adaptation, which I thought was good enough. As such, I had decent expectations for this play.

The beginning of the play has Phoenix Wright and his assistant Maya Fey enter a theatre to watch a play about the Steel Samurai. There, by a coincidence, they also meet with Phoenix’s childhood friend Larry Butz, prosecutor friend/rival Miles Edgeworth and the goofball detective with a name to match, Dick Gumshoe. During the play, they witness an accident happen, which is quickly declared an attempted murder by the fierce looking, yet extremely meek “Steel Samurai” actor Will Powers, and so the quest for truth begins.

Humour overshadowed by yelling

While drama and the capability to tug at your heartstrings have been present in the games, they’ve also always been ripe with humour as a core part of the experience. Did the play manage to capture it? Sort of. The play has its moments, like Gumshoe tripping on a banana peel and doing breakdance before finally falling over. But sadly, these moments are far and between. There’s also just so much of YELLING that the actors probably developed tinnitus from all of it. In other words, be prepared for lots of overacting.

Mixed bag of characters

Eccentric characters are also a core trait of AA games and they’re very much present in the new characters like the sponsor of the troupe Hananitsuku Erito, who admittedly has the funniest scenes overall with his ringtone antics. But even this falls flat simply because these characters do not get enough screen time to make themselves stick out more. Heck, there’s a short side plot involving Larry’s hopeless love schemes, which introduces two characters into the play, both mattering very, very little outside of this side plot. That said, the older, already existing characters were exactly like their game incarnations, in fact, Phoenix’s actor plays out these little “animations” of Phoenix tapping his case files (like within the games), which I found extremely cute.

Spoiler warning of the mildest kind (about the overall plot)

But what is an (attempted) murder mystery without the revelation of the real culprit? Not much. This is sadly another part where the play fails, as the culprit is almost spoon-fed to you before the play gets going, and so you don’t have that much to look forward to. There’s also no epic breakdown by the villain, which is often the highlight of cases within the games. It doesn’t help that the decisive evidence is Deus Ex Machina’d by a literal spirit, whom only Maya can see as she is a spirit medium-in-training.

Verdict: Guilty of mediocrity

If you’ve played AA games, it’s still probably worth your time to check this play out. I genuinely enjoyed the costumes, make-up, the stage props, and the usage of the game music at decisive points of the play. And, of course, the classic “OBJECTION!” is there. For those who haven’t played AA, I’d very much recommend playing the games instead. Honestly, the beginning with Phoenix and company being literally part of the audience before the in-play play begins was such a strong start that I expected something more. It’s a shame that the poor plot development and unnecessary characters bog the experience down.

Basic info:

Original run date: July 31 – August 4, 2013
Original run location: Rikkoukai Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Director: Makoto Ohzeki
Screenplay: Eisaku Saito
Planning & production: ADK Arts Co., Ltd.
Play length:  Around two hours
Fan subtitles by Rayne 😀 (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW46Txk1jaZfc6Q2wVJJjPA)
Play viewable at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yx1PIqVrWA
Images are screenshots taken from video above

More from Game-related media

---