Pearl’s appearance in the game was always a little disturbing.

She’s eight years old. Why is she investigating crime scenes and standing at the co-counsel desk at violent murder trials?

It really bugs me that social services are completely oblivious to her existence. With her mother incarcerated, her father absent or dead, her aunt missing, her grandparents presumably dead since neither of the Fey women ever mention them, and her only surviving first cousin barely an adult, someone should have been appointed her legal guardian by now. But she just seems to be free-floating around Tokyo/LA, often alone, with Phoenix and Maya (when Maya’s not kidnapped or in detention) as her only carers. Somehow, I don’t think Morgan would have requested them as Pearl’s legal guardians!

This is the problem, I think. She’s clearly a child, but treated as an adult. It’s disturbing.

In the game, Phoenix says it takes two hours by train to get to Kurain Village. Pearl made that journey on foot. A two hour train journey. By foot. Alone. By an eight year old girl. Who’d never left the village before then. Who didn’t even know what a computer was. She walked all the way to the city. If she channeled someone who knew the way, it would have made some sense, but she says she walked all the way there. What even is this?

It takes exactly 2 hours by train from London Paddington to Derby. According to g00gle maps, this journey would take 40 hours by foot.

FORTY HOURS.

And that’s without breaks. Pearl makes this journey alone. And remember Kurain is up in the mountains, so she’d probably be going along rough terrain, not smoothly paved roads. Even though the distances might be shorter than my example (the train would probably be slower), you could halve this time and it’s still completely beyond the realms of possibility that 1. she made this journey at all, and 2. she made it alone. She then wonders around Tokyo alone (this naive, cosseted 9 year old girl) in The Stolen Turnabout, only gets lost once (and only as a plot device) and then makes a return journey to the village and back all alone in one day.

SHE’S 9 YEARS OLD.

Come on, Takumi, try to put a bit of thought into it! Independent kids work fine as characters in fantasy settings, but the AA world is in a realistic setting. Pearl is a literal child, a naive dependent, who’s been shielded from the outside world all her life, not some street kid who knows how to look after herself.

The thing that creeps me out the most is when she transforms into Mia. I went over the flaws of that in my other post, but an eight year old transforming into a big busty woman exposing said bust to everyone just creeps me out. It’s still a child’s body after all. I wonder how Pearl would feel, seeing a photo of herself transformed like that? Knowing that there well could have been grown men ogling what is actually her body?

Given the Feys know they’ll shapeshift when channelling, why don’t they ever wear clothes appropriate for that? If you’re going to channel a heavy built man, for example, you wear clothes that will fit a heavy built man. An oversize yukata would be enough. It’s not like it happens spontaneously. They know what they’re doing. I wonder how the hell Mia doesn’t lose all circulation to her pelvic area, because no way can she fit into an 8 year old’s knickers. I really dislike the Kurain channelling technique! It makes no sense on any level, and you know 100% it was just to get Mia’s boobs on screen.

Look at this.

In the anime we get to compare their sizes.

This is how big Pearl’s yukata is on her compared to when it’s on Mia.

Do you honestly think I’ll believe that Mia can fit into Pearl’s clothes, even with her boobs busting out? I’m the height of an average 12 year old girl. I can just about squeeze into tops for age 10, but I still cannot fit into clothes for an 8 year old. Look at how the sleeves fit on both on them, especially the shoulder seams.

Mia is quite broad over the shoulders, Pearl is slender even for her age. There’s no way! And how is she fitting into Pearl’s sandals? They show her heel protruding a little over the back, but her feet would never fit widthways anyway! The Kurain technique is so flawed and stupid!

So it seems the clothes also have magical powers and can grow in length and over the shoulders, but there’s a rule that boobs must always be on display, I guess? I really really hate the cheapening of female characters in this way. There’s no need for it. What a mockery of a courtroom, too! I know to non-Brits, our barristers may look silly, but rather that than Mia channeled by Pearl!

Edit: Pearl Fey is a Karen

A Karen Brewer, that is.

I seem to remember disliking Pearl, but I couldn’t remember why. I’m replaying The Stolen Turnabout still, and I got to the end of the first trial, and in the lobby, Pearl sees Phoenix talking to Desirée (and probably blushing) and slaps him. Twice. And no one rebukes her for it. Edit: I just finished that case, and at the end, Pearl literally hits him so many times that he gets knocked unconscious. SHE LITERALLY ASSAULTS SOMEONE TO THE POINT OF UNCONSCIOUSNESS. And no one cares. What the hell, Takumi?!

Call me old fashioned, but kids shouldn’t be allowed to get away with even hitting other kids, let alone adults. I really can’t stand it when kids act like total brats, and the adults around them enable that kind of behaviour, or even worse, look at them with fondness and say how cute it is. AMM treats Karen that way, and Takumi treats Pearl that way. The thing is, in the anime, Pearl was likeable. Although I’m waiting until I’ve finished the OT before I move on to series 2. So let’s see if she’s a Karen Brewer in the anime version of this scene, too. In fact, although Karen Brewer is a narcissistic little brat, one thing I can say in her defence is that she’s not violent.

I look forward to seeing you defend Pearl in a few years when she’s up on charges of assault, Nicky boy! Although if you have any sense, you will leave her to find her own defence. THE END.