Note: Phoenix uses the phrase "umai koto" meaning "clever or wise things", but "umai" also means "tasty". Gummi uses "oishii tokoro" is his next line. "Oishii" means "delicious". I think he interpreted it as the wrong "umai"? Unless oishii has another meaning. There's a reference to a line from Reminiscence 1. I can only assume that "miken ni hibi ga haitteru" (a crack appearing on one's forehead) is ruder than saying "shiwa", which means "wrinkle" or "crease"? I can't find any info on this phrase.

Page 137 — Character Blog 28/10/2005 — Melody

Phoenix: Hey, Edgeworth. Thanks for giving me a lift.

Edgeworth: ...It's no big deal. We're going to the same place, after all.

Phoenix: Man, I was in big trouble, with both my bike tyres punctured.

Maya: Hey, how about you buy a car, too, Nick? A bright red sports car?

Phoenix: Before that, I need to get my driver's licence.

Gumshoe: Honestly, pal. You're a disgrace of a defence lawyer, needing to get a lift from a prosecutor!

Page 71 — Ask About Anything at the Fey & Co. Law Offices

This is nice, isn't it?

What's going on, Kitten? I don't know why you keep bringing me here day after day.

Why can't you be a bit more serious when commenting on the postcards?

Okay, you win. I'll be serious from now on.

Well, thanks for joining us again this month.

by J/K, unknown prefecture

Phoenix Wright

Voice Actor — Shuu Takumi

Series Director

Phoenix's voice is a little high-pitched. Will Mr Takumi be able to voice him in an anime?

Translator's notes: So we're finally on the last page. To anyone who's been following this since I posted my first translation effort 9 years ago: my apologies, and thanks for your patience. Anyway, here it is. I actually felt sad translating this. The end made me feel nostalgic for the old Ace Attorney world.

Illusory Episode 20 — Special Compilation

Final Farewells — At the Airport

Phoenix and the gang have come to the airport to see off Edgeworth, who's about to set off on his travels. It seems it's also time to say farewell to "Naruhodo Gyakuten Saiban!". This is specially written for this compilation edition.

Pearl: Mr Nick, he's here! Hurry, hurry!

Translator's note: There is a bit of wordplay carried over from the last page (ponkotsu [a hit or strike] rhyming with tonkotsu [piggy noodles]).

Episode 19.2 — March 2006 Issue

Takumi Snippet

Takumi Shuu (??)
Ace Attorney's director and scriptwriter. It's rumoured his fuel is alcohol.
Status: ...You'll have noticed we're at episode 19. It's just rushed by. I'm so full of gratitude to all of you who've joined us all the way till now. Farewell!

Info Corner

• "Ace Attorney Court Figurine Collection"... The Ace Attorney characters finally have their paintwork completed, and the figurines have launched! The lineup is Continue reading →

Episode 19.1 — March 2006 Issue

Letters Corner

• I enjoy every issue. When I read this month's issue, and Edgeworth brought along the anything "bowl", I understood it and thought it was funny! And the way Suekane-san drew the Blue Badger was cute ♥ (Tenko, Fukuoka Prefecture)

• I'm waiting in excited anticipation for the Dorimaga phonecard drawn by Akiman-san! Please keep doing more and more of these types of projects in the future (Kyontai, Miyagi Prefecture)

Turnabout Goodbyes 1 — At the Yesterday Café

Having being summoned by a young Mia Fey, defence lawyer Diego Armando has come to meet her at the stylish "Yesterday Café". With her court debut just around the corner, what advice will a subdued Mia receive from from her senpai — ?!

This page involved a lot of word play, which I found hard to convert to English. The game they are playing is "Old Maid". In Japanese, it's called Babanuki, which is written ババ抜き and means something like "extract/pull out the old maid". This is the reason for Gumshoe's logic for why he is the winner.

Gumshoe's concept for the year is "念には念を" which means something like "be doubly sure", and I translated more figuratively as "always be prepared". The character used, 念, is read "nen", and pops up later when Pearl tries to recite her proverb.

Gumshoe also makes a play on the phrase "sore loser". In Japanese, the word is 負けず嫌い (makezu girai) which literally means something like "without losing, hates". When Phoenix calls him this, Gumshoe then uses a word play on 食わず嫌い (kuwazu girai), which means a person who hates a food that they've never even tasted ("without eating, hates").

Pearl is trying to use a Japanese proverb 馬の耳に念仏 (uma no mimi ni nenbutsu), which means "reading the nenbutsu (prayer) into a horse's ear", equivalent to the English, "It's like talking to a brick wall". However instead she says 馬の耳に . . . てんねんきねんぶつ which means "into the horse's ear, protected species/natural monument". I tried my best to come up with a similar wordplay in English that also includes Gummi's earlier 念 (preparation), but it feels a little awkward!

"Happy New Year" in Japanese is written 賀正 (gashou). Gumshoe writes the first character in kana (が正), possibly because the first character is harder to write (although he should be able to).

Also, Ema Skye: you gross.

Episode 17 — January 2006 Issue

Takumi Snippet

Takumi Shuu (??)
Ace Attorney's director and scriptwriter. It's rumoured his fuel is alcohol.
Status: ...The production of Ace Attorney 4 has launched! I wonder how things will go from this. And so the new year has arrived at the Wright & Co. Law Offices.

Translator's Notes: Larry uses the word yomikaki which means reading and writing, as in having the skill. Maya then uses the word dokusho, which I think means just reading in general. I translated it as "literature" to make Larry's next line work, even though it's not an accurate translation. I am also stumped at Maya suddenly bringing up Nagoya out of nowhere. Larry has a very casual, rough way of speaking that I'm just not familiar with, so there is a lot of guesswork on his lines.

Episode 3 — November 2004 Issue

Takushuu Column — Autumn of..?

"Everyone can enjoy it!" ...That's the column's one fast rule. However. Is that really enough? "No one can enjoy it" ...Such a column would be good, wouldn't it?

So this time, using "autumn of reading" as my excuse, being about "mystery" and being super self-centred, I think I'll narrate a personal story.

Translation note: the characters use the English phrase "new music", so the bit when Pearl says "'new' means 'NEW'", she's saying atarashii, the Japanese word for "new", for the second "new".

Episode 12 — August 2005 issue

Takumi Snippet

Takumi Shuu (??)
Ace Attorney's director and scriptwriter. It's rumoured his fuel is alcohol.
Status: ...The song that goes, "I want to set sail on a ship over the sea to another land" can, these days, elicit tears of agreement.

Letters Corner

• Last month's issue was fun and hilarious and really good. "Polypropylene" really hit the mark. When Maya said, "It's cute," it seemed that girl had good sense, thank goodness. Takumi-san, despite your difficulties with the game, thank you so much. Suekane-san, your illustrations are always enjoyable, too. (Kazutotoro, Hyougo Prefecture)

Cultural notes: If you speak Japanese, you may know that the months are boringly named "month one", "month two", and so on, but the months have traditional names as well. The traditional name for December is Shiwasu. It is written 師走, which uses the characters "priest"/"master" and "run", the meaning of which is often said to be that December is so busy, that even the priests are running about in a hurry. You can read more here.

There is a punny bit, where Maya uses another character for master 士, which also has a reading of shi, but has the meaning more of a person qualified to do a job. For instance, the word for "lawyer", bengoshi, uses the character: 弁護士. In this case, I have written it in uppercase: SHI.
The official name: Shiwasu = 師走
Maya's version: SHIwasu = 士走

I do wonder how she was able to communicate this with just the spoken word. Maybe the pitch accents are different.

In the letters corner, a reference is made to an Akiman illustration in the previous issue. This wasn't included in the book. The only thing I can find matching the description is this image. I don't know if it's the one, but it's tagged Akiman, and features "the two of them", but I really don't know.

Episode 16 — December 2005 Issue

Takumi Snippet

Takumi Shuu (??)
Ace Attorney's director and scriptwriter. It's rumoured his fuel is alcohol.
Status: ...Well, this year is almost over, too. How can I put it? Recently, I have an image of just rushing about all year. I wonder if it's the year's fault?

Translator's Notes: I've updated this (Oct 2021) to fix a really stupid mistake I made the first time, although somehow, I found that version funnier. Anyway, at the end, Maya is referencing katsudon. From Wikipedia: It has become a modern tradition for Japanese students to eat katsudon the night before taking a major test. This is because "katsu" is a homophone of the verb "katsu", meaning "to win" [also the reason for my translation mistake the first time round!]. It is also a trope in Japanese police films: suspects will speak the truth with tears when they have eaten katsudon and are asked, "Did you ever think about how your mother feels about this?". This explains why Pearl serving him katsudon makes him feel more like a prisoner than before.

Episode 13 — September 2005 Issue

Takumi Snippet

Takumi Shuu (??)
Ace Attorney's director and scriptwriter. It's rumoured his fuel is alcohol.
Status: ... The production has somehow reached a stopping point. Things are more laid back. With a feeling of fullness, I properly signed it off. My apologies.

Info Corner

I'm going to show you the contents of the deluxe limited edition of the DS release of Gyakuten Saiban — The Resurrected Turnabout.