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advancedpottery217x2 · 3 years ago

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ミツメイしか勝たない件について

I don’t know how many people actually look at this, but ミツメイ至高主義者 is the first line of my Twitter bio. I wouldn’t blame anyone for not remembering since I don’t talk about it much online but there is very much a reason why I put it before everything else.

Mitsumei (ミツメイ) is the Japanese pairing name of the characters Miles Edgeworth and Franziska von Karma from the Ace Attorney series (I will be mainly using the English names in this post because I would feel weird otherwise in this English language post). 2022 marks the 10th year since I have started shipping these two, which also makes it the 10th year since I started learning Japanese. Since 2012, I have held an unwavering belief that nothing I will encounter will ever top Miles/Franziska for me, hence the Twitter bio. This belief has shaped a large portion of my life for better or worse. Ten years of time have not changed that, so I thought now would be a perfect time to try to indoctrinate people reflect upon this.

In the first half of this post, I will talk about the pairing itself within the context of the Ace Attorney series and my own experiences. As such, there will be spoilers for the first three games. In the process of talking about why I like it so much I will also probably turn into a incomprehensible fangirl so don’t say I didn’t warn you. In the second half, I will talk about how it has influenced how I view other media. There will be large spoilers for Mawaru Penguindrum, Mirai Radio to Jinkou-bato, Soukou Akki Muramasa, as well as numerous others.

I recall why I started playing Ace Attorney.

In middle school I was looking for DS games to play and I knew a friend was playing the first Ace Attorney. I asked if they found it interesting to which they replied yes, which led to me playing the first game. After finishing that, I continued with the second, third, fourth, and even Investigations, eventually finishing all the available games on the DS in English at the time.

I do not particularly recall why I started to ship this pairing.

I remember being excited for Franziska's appearance in the second game for some reason to the point of staying up a bit to get to the part where she showed up in court for the first time. I remember feeling a bit excited the times she was the partner character in Investigations, the spinoff game where Edgeworth is the protagonist, and the time I spent walking around the map during those times just to see the sprites walk with each other. Timeline wise, something must have changed in the time I spent playing the second game, third game, and Investigations, but I just can’t seem to remember what happened ten years ago. I’m almost frustrated at this fact considering how deep in I am now.

In time I came to do what any budding fan of something does and went online to look for fanart and fanfiction. I searched... and I searched... and I continued to search yet again to the point where I believe I have exhausted most of the available English language content on Mitsumei as of now (If there’s something you want to show me, then by all means go ahead though). This is, in fact, the direct impetus for me improving my Japanese reading skills. And in the following years I worked on that through scouring the internet again for more content, this time in Japanese. While I am less confident than I am for the English side, I have seen a lot of what can be found online. If any people reading this know me as the person who manages to find shit online, I’m pretty sure it comes from this period of my life.

The Story So Far (Roughly)

Okay okay enough of my own backstory that I sometimes type the basic version of when the topic of learning Japanese come up, what I’m here to talk about today is my insane thought processes that lie behind this backstory.

First, an overview of the characters and the stories in the first two games where most of their background is established.

Miles Edgeworth (御剣怜侍, Mitsurugi Reiji)

Everyone’s favorite Ace Attorney prosecutor with lots of trauma. When he was younger, he wanted to become a defense attorney like the father he greatly admired. In fourth grade, he defended his classmate Phoenix Wright who was falsely accused of stealing lunch money, saying that there was no evidence that he did it. Afterwards, Edgeworth became friends with Phoenix as well as another classmate Larry Butz. Then the DL-6 accident happened.

On December 28, 2001, Manfred von Karma killed Gregory Edgeworth in a courthouse elevator. Earlier that day, the two had faced each other in court with Gregory managing to expose a small part of Manfred’s evidence manipulation to the public. As a result, Manfred received a penalty from the Chief Prosecutor--the only one in his entire career. Later that day, an earthquake hit the area causing the courthouse to temporarily lose power. During that time, Gregory and his son Miles were in an elevator along with a bailiff. The power outage led the elevator to stop, trapping the three for hours and the increasing lack of oxygen (or perception of such) led to a skirmish between Gregory and the bailiff. In the confusion, the bailiff’s gun dropped in front of Miles and he desperately threw it towards the fight in an attempt to get them to stop. In a curious turn of events, the gun ended up firing through the elevator window right into the shoulder of Manfred who happened to be standing outside. At that moment, the people in the elevator lost consciousness and the courthouse power came back on, leading to the elevator doors opening. Manfred looked inside the elevator to find the unconscious Edgeworths and a gun on the floor. With the anger of Gregory destroying his near 30-year flawless win record still fresh on his mind, he pulled the trigger.

Of course, Miles didn’t know that Manfred was near the elevator at all. All he knew was that he threw a gun and heard it go off, and that afterwards his father was dead with a bullet in him. Gregory did not know of Manfred’s appearance either, and when his spirit was channeled by a spirit medium in attempt to clear the situation he naturally named the bailiff as the culprit. The bailiff’s lawyer got his client free by pleading insanity. But this created a dilemma for Miles. If the bailiff was truly not guilty, then he was the only other person able to kill his father. If he denied that possibility making the bailiff guilty, that would make the lawyer who got him off a heinous and despicable person. For the boy who had admired his father so much, the prospect of choosing between denouncing defense attorneys and loathing himself was a harsh one to face at such a young age. The fact that he had recurring nightmares about shooting his father and a debilitating fear of earthquakes now probably didn’t help. These conflicting feelings eventually resulted in him wanting to be a prosecutor, someone to make sure criminals were given guilty verdicts.

This led Edgeworth to study under the legendary Manfred von Karma, a prosecutor who had never lost a case. Beneath that prestigious veneer were suspicions of underhanded tactics used to maintain it, such as manipulating witnesses and evidence. When Edgeworth’s career started at the tender age of 20 and he also became known for having a perfect win record, those rumors began to circulate around him as well. This continued until his first loss to Phoenix Wright in the first game (1-2, Turnabout Sisters). Coupled with his loss in the following case (1-3, Turnabout Samurai), Edgeworth again began to question the values instilled into him for over 10 years. This culminates in Turnabout Goodbyes (1-4), where Edgeworth is accused of a murder days before the statute of limitations for DL-6 was to take effect.

In the end, the key persons of that case were all related to DL-6. The accused, Edgeworth. The victim, the lawyer who defended the bailiff in the DL-6 trial. The actual perpetrator, the bailiff who had his life ruined by DL-6. And the person who planned it all, Manfred von Karma. Manfred intended for Edgeworth to be convicted all along. And with any luck, he could also get him to confess to killing his father all those years ago and make sure no one would ever find out about Manfred’s actions. Since the trial ended on the last possible day before the statute of limitations would go into effect it probably would have even worked too if it wasn’t for Phoenix Wright, who partially became a lawyer because of Edgeworth’s defense of him in elementary school. With Phoenix’s unwavering belief in his client, the two of them eventually reach the truth of both the trial at hand and DL-6.

While Edgeworth was finally able to reconcile with the fact that he did not kill his father, the issue of his existence as a prosecutor still remained. His job was to convict criminals in court, but that worked on the assumption that the accused was always guilty. If that was not true, then would his decision to become a prosecutor over a defense attorney have been for nothing? His answers to these problems and more are discussed in the second game...

Franziska von Karma (狩魔冥, Karuma Mei)

With Edgeworth not the main prosecutor anymore, we have a new kid in town. Before Phoenix faced her in court in Reunion, and Turnabout (2-2), he only knew that the prosecutor for the case was a von Karma. Of course, Phoenix had no idea what this meant as he brought Manfred’s crimes to light in the first game. When the trial began, he learned that his opponent would be Manfred’s daughter who became a prosecutor at the age of 13. Although she was born and raised in Germany (localizationized America), she stated that she flew over to face Phoenix Wright in an act of revenge. Of course being an Ace Attorney game, Phoenix gets a Not Guilty verdict in this case, shattering another prosecutor’s perfect record (starting to sense a pattern here).

In Turnabout Big Top (2-3), Phoenix and Franziska end up in a conversation about her revenge. Phoenix assumed she wanted to defeat him in revenge for getting her father convicted and was about to point out the futility of such an action when Franziska pointed out she had never mentioned her father up until that point. Her true reason for revenge was Miles Edgeworth. At the end of the first game, Edgeworth left behind a note in his office saying “Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth chooses death” and disappeared. So in “revenge” for this, Franziska decided to defeat the man who had presumably driven Edgeworth to such a state. She also wanted to confront Edgeworth for sullying the von Karma name and figured defeating Phoenix would be the best way to drag him out of hiding.

Of course being an Ace Attorney game, there is a small scene at the end of this case showing Edgeworth looking at a newspaper with Franziska’s picture in it, and not because she won that case. This leads into the finale of the second game, Farewell, My Turnabout (2-4).

What at first seemed like another Ace Attorney Case for Phoenix quickly took a turn for the worse when his assistant Maya Fey got kidnapped and the kidnapper pressured him to get a Not Guilty verdict if he wanted to see her safe. While he was busy worrying about accomplish this, Edgeworth made his return to the frustrations of both Phoenix and Franziska. In any case, Franziska’s third attempt to defeat Phoenix Wright would have gone on just as planned if it were not for the fact that someone shot her on the way to the courthouse on the first day of the trial. Not only was she shot in the right shoulder just like her father in DL-6, Edgeworth took up the prosecution in her stead to her great dismay.

On the final day of the trial, Franziska helped deliver the final pieces of evidences to the courtroom after an accident nearly prevented the detective in charge from doing it himself and the trial ended with the truth behind the case revealed. Phoenix reunited with Maya and his client got his due justice. Edgeworth revealed that he discovered his true duty as a prosecutor was to not only believe in the defendant’s guilt, but to believe in the defense attorney’s belief in the defendants innocence as well, leading to more possibilities being brought up and the truth being revealed. But Franziska didn’t understand how Phoenix could look so relieved when his client was guilty, or why Edgeworth was so confident in his approach while going against her father’s teachings, and left the scene of celebration while discarding her whip, which Phoenix picks up.

Later, Phoenix gives the whip to Edgeworth and encourages him to return it, leading Edgeworth find Franziska at the airport about to board a flight. Like Edgeworth in the first game, Franziska was on the cusp of questioning her ideals and the very meaning of her existence up until that point, which was part of why she attempted to leave her whip behind. In response, Edgeworth clearly stated that this moment would be their fork in the road if she decided to stop pursuing the path of a prosecutor. In that moment, Franziska burst into tears and declared her intent to keep “competing” with Edgeworth while leaving for her flight.

~The End~

Sorry to anyone who hasn’t played Ace Attorney because I omitted a lot of details here, some because I felt they weren’t strictly necessary for this post at all, some because I will elaborate on them later, and some because I felt they veered more into the personal conjecture territory (and probably some combination of the latter two). If this somehow made you interested in playing the games, then by all means go for it.

You may be thinking “Well this is quite the relationship, but how did you end up shipping this for 10 years?” and you would be absolutely right. Honestly Edgeworth and Franziska don’t interact much in the main games, although there is some improvement in this department in the Investigation games, so I’m used to not seeing much content about these two, official or fan-made, romantic or platonic. Like I said earlier, I don’t remember why I started shipping this. But I do remember the thoughts that have gone through my brain countless times after that point.

The More I Think About This The More I Go エモくね？　～沼怖ぇよ編～

Before I get into the finer machinations, I want to establish the physical/technical characteristics of this pair to make them easier to visualize in the mind after the lengthy story discussion.

In the second game, Franziska is 18 and Edgeworth is 25

Their heights are 162 cm and 178 cm, respectively (Please consult the handy chart below for reference)

In Japanese, they both use the first person pronoun 私 (watashi)

Franziska has a mole beneath her left eye

very important things to keep in mind in this post trust me (especially the last one, fanartists)

Now if you asked me what I liked most about this pairing, the answer I would give would depend on the time of day. But I think I would most likely say the certain immutable aspects of their relationship. Nothing will ever change the fact that Manfred killed Edgeworth’s father, and nothing will ever change the fact that Edgeworth was none the wiser when studying under him. As Franziska also studied under her father, this meant the two of them interacted not knowing just how fragile the foundation of their relationship was for an extended period of time. And as shown in the flashback case of Ace Attorney Investigations 1 (AAI1-4, Turnabout Reminiscence) and S2E6 of the anime, they seem to get along just fine. That probably wouldn’t change much if it weren’t for the fact that they had to find out one of their dads murdered the other. That’s gotta fuck up you relationship at least a little bit. But due to how the games work, it doesn’t quite end up like that.

Although the Ace Attorney franchise mainline games are numbered, you don’t have to have necessarily played the previous ones to play the ones that come later. In fact, the games outright avoid giving major spoilers for previous entries (Dai Gyakuten Saiban being the big obvious exception). This is sometimes talked about online as the no-spoiler rule. Of course, events are sometimes alluded to, but the exact details are never explicitly stated leaving old fans to fill in the gaps and new players none for the worse. This even occurs in the first three games which are seen as a tightly woven trilogy. This means that the relationship between Edgeworth and Franziska’s fathers is never discussed beyond a simple, “Hey these two went against each other in court and Gregory pointed out Manfred’s oopsie.” If you only play the first game with no outside knowledge you don’t even know Franziska exists! This pairing is established through two games but that same requirement means it never explores its full potential in canon!!!

This hurts even more in Investigations 2 which introduces the character Shigaraki (sorry, I played the Japanese version), a former assistant of Gregory and now a lawyer in his own right who heads Gregory’s law offices (he doesn’t even change the name from Edgeworth Law Offices........). When he first meets Edgeworth he is very snappy towards him for his “betrayal” training to be a prosecutor under von Karma because now people know he didn’t exactly do legal things. But the fact that Manfred killed Gregory is never mentioned. Now maybe news in the Ace Attorney world is the kind that doesn’t publicize the fact that a case that went unsolved for 15 years was connected to a prominent figure in the legal world, but if you’re going to hate someone I think hating them for becoming a prosecutor and taking after the person that murdered their defense attorney dad is a very valid reason. No juice in that department though. Although brief, Shigaraki also interacts with Franziska in this game and much like Edgeworth doesn’t dig deep into what the Edgeworths and von Karmas think of each other. Now I understand Ace attorney isn’t exactly the kind of game series you go to for extended character relationship dissections but it does make me a bit sad. Thank you Investigations 2 I enjoyed the game especially that case where you play as Gregory very much but there wasn’t enough bloodlust in it.

Back to the immutable part, even if Edgeworth and Franziska have relatively normal interactions in the games, there will always be that shadow hanging over them. No matter how many people in the world look at them and say that they had nothing to do with the actions of their parents, nothing can ever change the fact that one of them murdered the other. It makes me wonder just what is going through their minds when they talk to each other now that they are adults that know the truth. This contrast between the fact that I wouldn’t blame them if they harbored animosity towards each other and the fact that they don’t show that at all (in regards to their fathers) fucks me up because it’s really good. It’s fucked enough that it works really well as a platonic relationship and I love it enough as it is. BUT it gets so much, much, MUCH more delicious if you decide to add the element of romance.

Perhaps the number one example of this is thinking about when they first realized they had feelings for the other. Lots of juicy variables depending on whether this happens pre-AA1 or post-AA1. While I have imagined a variety of situations and read multiple fanfiction concerning this, usually I settle on Franziska/pre-AA1 and Edgeworth/post-AA1. Pre-AA1 while she does have a desire to overcome him and is slightly antagonistic about this, she knows deep down that they get along normally and takes solace in that fact (but is never fully cognizant of it or shows that to anyone). Over time, those positive feelings would grow closer to what most people would call “love,” whether platonic or romantic, still at the back of Franziska’s mind. The kind of feelings that would have stayed there never to surface if the truth of DL-6 didn’t come to light. When faced with the fact that her father did irreparable damage to Edgeworth, harboring those feelings or even interacting with him at all could be seen as pity/rubbing salt in the wound. And imagining how she channeled those emotions into an intense hatred for Miles Edgeworth (looking back at the screenshots I posted earlier) only for him to interact with her at the end of AA2 in such a firm but nonchalant manner and how this transitions to their interactions in AA3 onward is very good. I have a less firm grasp on Edgeworth’s side of things but I definitely think he would be reluctant in part because of the fact that he was one of the direct causes of her father’s conviction. Due to this and the fact that I think Edgeworth would take the age gap into consideration it would be harder for him to recognize any feelings as romantic love even when compared to Franziska who I think would also have a hard time in this regard. At the minimum I’m actually thinking post-AA2, most of the time around the AA3/Investigations time frame, but having him realizing after the 7 year time skip Apollo Justice (AA4) made the series go through has its own share of delicious minutiae that can only come from these two being around 30 at that point and Edgeworth becoming the Chief Prosecutor. The two of them overcoming their feelings of guilt towards each other and dealing with the ramifications of the sudden absence of a figure who held so much influence on their lives to enter a relationship is one of the most important parts of this pairing for me. I would be here all day if I continued so this is only one example! こじらせ最高！

Another very important part of this pairing is that the relationship between Edgeworth and Franziska is both a childhood friend and brother/sister combination (no not cousins) and not at the same time. Don’t worry, it both makes sense and doesn’t make sense to me too. The fact that there is not much outlined in the games doesn’t help much either.

While it is known that both Edgeworth and Franziska studied under Manfred to become prosecutors, little else is made clear. The exact time Edgeworth began his studies would affect the nature of their relationship and how close they would be pre-AA1 and that is where I’ve seen the widest range of interpretations. For example, in my observations of the western Ace Attorney fandom, it seems to be common consensus that Manfred took in Edgeworth relatively soon after DL-6 and raised him in Germany, with him meeting Franziska around that time as well. When I started reading Japanese fanfiction, it kind of surprised me to see versions where he met her at an older age as the probability hadn’t even crossed my mind at that point. There is also the issue of where these studies took place due to minor setting differences between the Japanese and English versions but that is outside the scope of this post.

There is a clear association of the von Karmas and perfection and there is no doubt that would have extended to Manfred’s education policies as well. This is in fact the focal point of the airport conversation in 2-4. Franziska spoke of the pressure she felt to keep up with expectations with her legendary father and Edgeworth being a prodigy while knowing she was not. Even so, she worked hard enough to become a prosecutor at the tender age of 13—nearly the same time as Edgeworth. But since Edgeworth started his career in America, there would be an ever-present physical distance. In addition, seeing him “choosing death” and coming back in such a seemingly easy manner further instilled the idea that she would never be able to stand on the same level, let alone overcome him no matter how hard she worked (There is also that moment in AAI2 where Edgeworth temporarily renounces his prosecutor’s badge and Franziska has a few words to say to him but yeah... not enough bloodlust...). She thought she could finally achieve that goal by defeating Phoenix Wright while Edgeworth remained in his disappearance, but found herself questioning herself just like Edgeworth must have after the first game. The difference this time was the presence of someone who already went through that soul searching, perhaps the only person who could understand the pressure Franziska felt, as someone who also studied under Manfred. Maybe that’s how he knew he’d get max damage by juxtaposing these lines in that scene.

‥‥キミは今日、私に追いついたのだ。われわれは今、ここに並んで立っている。 ‥‥しかし。私は立ち止まるつもりはない。‥‥キミが歩くのをやめると言うのならば‥‥ ‥‥ここでお別れだな。狩魔　冥。

Bonus: This is the text you get if you don’t present the whip to Edgeworth at the end of 2-4.

Therein lies the crux of the relationship between Edgeworth and Franziska: the exact emotional distance between them (距離感). Or rather, the inexact nature of it. While they did study under the same mentor with an ostensible common goal, the difference in their true goals and inner feelings would later cause events like the above paragraph to happen (especially the AAI2 one... feed me the genuine shock, the unbridled acrimony...). While they did know each other for an extended period of time, the undefined nature of it means that the term childhood friends may or may not be applicable, and that they may or may not be seen as siblings. This ties back to my statement about seeing them as childhood friends/siblings and not at the same time earlier. I believe their relationship is not so easily definable as to allow only one interpretation. I can accept most any interpretation and have it coexist with the others in my brain. I simply believe in all the possibilities of their relationship!

But I do have to dedicate a paragraph to talking about how the western Ace Attorney fandom sees this pairing as incest. In the consensus outlined above that Manfred takes in Edgeworth after DL-6, it seems to be a fait accompli that this was an adoption, making Edgeworth and Franziska adopted siblings. When taken together with the fact that they would have been around the ages of 9 and 2, respectively, during DL-6, I understand why it is an unpopular ship. Now I could go on about about this point in relationship to the western Ace Attorney fandom as a whole and Edgeworth’s sexuality, but that’s a whole other can of worms. What really disappoints me is that I feel calling them siblings, period, without leaving room for anything else erases some of the complexity of their relationship. That’s why it seeing people praise their “sibling” relation makes me a bit sad even if i agree with the points they make. I don’t expect people to think of them the same way that I do but sometimes it feels like an absence of thought. ロマンがない……

Now when that’s all said and done, why do I believe Edgeworth and Franziska would make a good romantic relationship? Their unique shared past of studying under Manfred gives them the opportunity to be emotionally vulnerable with someone who understands them in that part of life and can deal with their difficult personality in a way that other characters cannot. Although on the surface they seem uneven specs-wise, there is a delicate balance when they actually interact from the third game onward and they have a great amount of respect for each other’s careers which sometimes makes me forget they have a seven years age difference (but it is there, a very good one at that). They’re both not good at expressing their feelings honestly even though they’re both capable prosecutors, a profession where words sway the verdict of the case, which makes for one of the the most powerful combinations known to man, the double tsundere. And because I think that having a good talk with each other and choosing to be together in a romantic relationship of their own volition after what Manfred did is pretty raw. ...And so on.

Honestly, I know full well that the version of these two I love in my head is a culmination of everything I’ve seen and imagined of them over a period of ten years, something which is different from anything that was shown or will ever be shown in the games and alien to pretty much anyone familiar with the series. But I don’t care. I’ve been in this hole for 10 years and I’m gonna stay here until I feel like getting out. Although considering the amount of time I’ve already been here I don’t think that’s coming anytime soon...

Miscellanea: This Still Keeps Me Up at Night Sometimes

While I did go over the broad strokes, there are some details that I had to scream about somewhere that didn’t make it so here’s a small bonus section.

While Edgeworth and Franziska are referred to as 兄妹弟子, Franziska always makes it a point to refer to herself as the 姉弟子and I think it’s really cute, just imagining saying Edgeworth is the 弟弟子 to his face when they have a seven year age gap. Due to this I also see the two of them as being both the older and younger sibling type at the same time.

When I said that both of them using 私 (watashi) was very important I meant it. Even if two characters both use watashi, it’s usually a pick two between 私, わたし, and ワタシ. Or maybe 私 is just moonlighting as あたし (atashi), わたくし (watakushi), or any of its variants. But no, in this case both Franziska and Edgeworth use 私 (watashi) which I have not seen much (or at all?) for a het pairing. I didn’t know not being able to distinguish who’s speaking in Japanese from the first person pronoun alone could be so thrilling. As an aside, nine-year old Edgeworth is shown to use boku.

In the third game, Edgeworth calls Franziska to prosecute the first day of the final trial because Phoenix fell off a bridge and got sent to the hospital, with him becoming the defense attorney in Phoenix’s place. At the end of the trial, the following line can be found:

Still thinking about this line since it is quickly moved on from and because Edgeworth uses 相棒 for Phoenix. Tell me what he is thinking Capcom.

While I will consume most anything about this pairing, I will skip most R18 works where Franziska is underage depending on how skeevy the premise is/how it is depicted. Just not into that...

While imagining situations for fictional characters when listening to music is a time-honored tradition I don’t think anything could have prepared me for this official song from the Ace Attorney Pachislot soundtrack:

どうすれば思い出す幸せだったそんな時をうらやんでいるだけじゃダメだとわかっているよ戻れないことがほら僕たちを明日へと導かせぬけど消えないんだ笑いあった日々もすべて僕の中にあるのさ（だから今は）

(Lyrics are personally transcribed so may not be fully accurate)

VGMDB doesn’t have a lyrics credit so I don’t even know who to scream at but to have lyrics that match this close to my mental image in an official songs is bonkers.

Their in-game themes are the same with a different intro.Thank you GBA-era space limitations.

Edgeworth and Franziska occasionally refer to each other by their first names. This stands out even more in Japanese because of how infrequently first names are used. And because when they do it’s in katakana with no honorifics. Even I don’t use Edgeworth's first name where I can help it. You keep on rocking guys.

Franziska’s voice actress in game-related official media is Sawashiro Miyuki. I want more Franziska content even if it’s only for this reason.

That one image from the second ending of the anime’s second season:

What is the explanation for this anime staff???????? It’s been three years and I’m still thinking about this picture. Who decided to put this in???????????????????? I would like to thank them very much.

Last but not least, an unexpected crumb of content in the year of our lord 2022. I watched this year’s Ace Attorney orchestra concert online and one of the songs performed was the ending theme of the third game. The video played on the screen during this song featured a scrolling timeline of the cases in the trilogy along with characters saying what I think were new lines made for this occasion. And then this line appeared:

Now this line is clearly lampshading the airport scene in the second game, a scene has not been referenced in any Ace Attorney media that is not an adaptation of 2. They decide to drop this bombshell for 2 seconds at an orchestra concert video and here I am now, wondering if they ever plan on making Franziska appear in a game again and talking about something that happened in a past game.

The Search for What Once Was or: The Advent of ミツメディア

Unfortunately, there are no bottomless pits of content in this world. Although I am an Ace Attorney fan, I am 90% I was able to stay one for this long because I got into Mitsumei, meaning that I had but a passing interest in other fandom content after playing all the games. And due to the fact that I got really into this pairing at a relatively early part of my Ace Attorney history, I did not (and still do not) have a marked interest or disinterest in any other ships in this series. With all this in mind I had no choice but to set my sights outward.

Of course it’s not like I abandoned all other media even during the early heights of this obsession. But looking for things to enjoy when you know you pretty much have no content in a certain area feels very different. That is why I yearned for something that reached the highs I felt while engaging in fanworks, something that would leave a lasting impression on me. While it’s easy enough to find things to like, finding things that live up to those expectations and years of emotions is a much more Herculean task. For example, if I reread a fanfiction, it doesn’t matter whether I last read it two weeks ago or two years ago, my heart never fails to swell with emotion and I pretty much will always tear up at the same places. When reading/watching other things it feels harder for tears to well up, but if I hit a certain line in a fanfiction they come out whether I want them to or not. Ever since ten years ago, I’ve only ever been chasing for that high in other media. That’s the real reason I decided to get into visual novels starting with White Album 2. I figured that I could find a romance—or any kind of story really—that could take me to similar heights. And White Album 2 did satisfy me in that front a great deal (I even bought the Vita version and replayed it to get to the console-exclusive scenario before Extended Edition was a thing, and I ended up buying EE too). And recently (okay that was 2018... four years ago...) Tears to Tiara has succeeded in leaving a lasting impression in me and recreating the emotions I felt the first time I played every time I see certain quotes from the @arawn_b account on Twitter (See previous blog posts).

But there was still a certain peculiarly shaped hole in my heart. It was only a few years ago that I realized that shape could only be filled by Mitsumei. I don’t know how long it took me to realize that when I’m probably the person most obsessed by this pairing on this side of the internet. Filling that hole is actually quite difficult, especially when you realize that most romances can never even dream of getting close to what my mind soup has been cooking for years. that While I have seen many relationships that have bits and pieces of what Edgeworth and Franziska have such as shit between the parents that may or may not involve murder, age gap, studying under the same mentor, feelings of inferiority, and knowing each other for X amount of years, there is nothing with all of them at once and to the degree at which they are present in Mitsumei (If you have any recommendations hit me up). And I know that finding such a relationship is pretty much impossible, to the point where I realize it makes me a bit more passive/narrow-minded when seeking new things to try out. But still I continue to consume, in hopes of reaching that mountaintop.

I will now introduce some works that I have enjoyed throughout this journey despite my now permanently attached Mitsumei goggles in relation to the pairing at hand. This will be my last warning that I will not hold back on spoiling anything.

Mawaru Penguindrum (2011)

I first watched this around 2012~13 so I didn’t make the ミツメディア connection that much, even when I rewatched it a while afterwards (I don’t remember when this happened). But seeing other people post screenshots I went to myself, “Oh so that’s why I liked it so much“ and decided I had to rewatch it for this post. I still really, really love this show but I’m sure there are many other blogs out their with their own Penguindrum analyses. In this post I’ll mostly be talking about the relationships between the Takakura siblings and their relation to Ringo.

One of the more obvious parallels between Penguindrum and Mitsumei is the fact that the Takakura parents are labeled as criminals, with one of the victims of the subway attack being Ringo’s sister Momoka. In the present, Kanba, Shouma, and Himari live with the fact that a lot of people in Japan hate them through the actions of their parents and Ringo feels she has to take on the burden of the death of her sister tearing her family apart by “becoming” Momoka. Even then, they eventually grow to see each other as their own persons individual from their relatives. I liked how Panguindrum showed that yes, there were people who didn’t through the character of Tabuki. During my most recent rewatch, when I got to the scene where Tabuki denies any ill will towards the Takakura siblings I was pointing at my screen like that Leonardo DiCaprio GIF. Because then there’s the episode where Tabuki puts Himari’s life in danger at the construction site and reveals the hatred pent up inside the darkest corners of his heart (Yes! Bloodlust!) and how petty he was in how far he was willing to go to take the siblings down in an attempt to find their parents and get revenge. Ringo also comes face to face with Tabuki as an individual with his own past and trauma and not as a prize to be won and become a glue to keep her family together.

I also greatly admire how the Takakura siblings are portrayed in this anime in that they exemplify both ends of the family/strangers (他人) dynamic. In the first half of the show, there is no denying that Shouma, Himari, and Kanba are a family through and through, as shown through both words and actions. It feels natural every time the brothers say they’re doing everything for Himari, every time Himari is shown doing what she can to show her gratitude. But it’s clear that there’s something in the background, and I’m not just talking about that one Kanba/Himari kiss at the end of episode 1 (still wondering what this means). In the second half it’s gradually revealed that none of them are related to each other by blood with Shouma being the sole Takakura from birth. Kanba taking his actions to greater extremes, Himari reflecting on her past and how differently things could have gone, and Shouma desperately trying to keep everything together all while a tabloid reporter is clearly trying to seed mistrust among them strains their relationship as both family and 他人. The fight between Kanba and Shouma and Himari leaving the house acts as both the surface-level culmination of those negative emotions and proof of their strong love for each other, no matter what form it may take. Having Himari receive and give back Shouma’s scarf—the symbol of them becoming a family—in consecutive episodes was pretty devastating. Including these quotes because I just like them a lot.

生きるってことは罰なんだね。でも、罰でも晶ちゃんと一緒にいたかった。だから、選ばれたかった。

これで私と晶ちゃんは他人だよ

Everything comes together in the final episode, and I believe that depicting the Takakura siblings as both family and 他人 at length made the finale and the displays of love that much more impactful. Although I didn’t realize it the first time around, I think this is why I’m so firm on seeing Edgeworth and Franziska as both family and not family at the same time, without denying one or the other. I also just like things being vague and defined at the same time. I will eternally thank Penguindrum for being the show that showed me those possibilities with such conviction.

Anyways time for Triple H posting.

Penguindrum is good... I hope the movies get a US release...

Mirai Radio to Jinkou-bato (2018)

When I played Hakuchuumu no Aojashin (See previous blog post), I knew that Cases 1-3 were somewhat based on Laplacian’s previous games although I didn’t bother to play them before Hakuchuumu. But in the end my curiosity got the better of me and I ended up doing them all anyway. While playing Hakuchuumu, the setting of Mirai Radio interested me the most what with the global network connection pigeons and the concept of living in a world without that. And in the end I think it actually is my favorite setting out of all the Laplacian games even over Hakuchuumu.

I see this game getting blasted online for having not enough content and saying the trial version was the peak and honestly I kind of get it. The common route had that build-up leading to the satellite crash with everyone working together to build and distribute the radios and disable the artificial pigeons. But then Kaguya decided to tell everyone that the reason the pigeons don’t function as a communications network anymore is because they’re working to basically be her life support and if they die, she will too. Since the cast is a nice group of people, they try to find another way to stop the satellite crash but at the end of the common route, Kaguya dies as the satellite crashes into her home at Terminal 1. That’s right, the end of the common route has the protagonist Sora desperately running to the terminal trying to save Kaguya as the satellite plummets towards Earth. I got so into the game at this point that although I was also playing Muramasa at the time I decided to finish this first. After this incident, Sora wakes up a month later with no memories of what happened.

I looked up where the trial version ended after I finished the game and it was right after he first woke up after the incident. I can understand the complaints here because honestly while it is a good stopping point it is way too much to put in a trial considering how much content there is afterwards and after this point it does kind of feel like a different game. But that’s why I like it so much. The second half of the game is actually about how people deal with trauma differently and that’s so sexy of Ono to write about even if the routes still feel half-baked like the previous games. While this theme is also present in Mizuki and Akina’s routes, I will mainly be talking about the relationship between Kaguya, Sora, and Tsubaki.

The artificial pigeons and their network functionality was developed by Hazuki Izana (Kaguya’s mother) and Azamino Tsubaki. It is widely known that Izana caused the pigeons to go rogue and stop functioning but even Tsubaki didn’t know the reason why until Kaguya figured out and told everyone. This made Izana an easy target of hate, especially in this case for Sora, who lost his parents in the resulting airplane crashes. Kaguya’s secluded upbringing in the abandoned Terminal 1 made it that much more shocking when Sora outwardly displayed his disgust at her mother’s actions before knowing the truth behind them. The two later develop feelings and and confess to each other, but that only solidified Kaguya’s resolve to sacrifice herself to restore the pigeons’ network functionality for Sora’s sake. But after Kaguya died, the network didn’t come back.

In Tsubaki’s route, Sora finds out why—he is actually being kept alive by the artificial pigeons as well.

Ironically, Sora found himself in the same situation Kaguya did in the common route. Faced with the knowledge that your every breath is dependent on an event that caused the suffering of many and your death would be able to end that can be a pretty good reason to contemplate suicide when push comes to shove. Luckily, Tsubaki was able to convince him to live a natural lifespan and the two worked on compressing the new info they learned into audio data, banking on the fact that it would be caught by the future broadcasts on Sora’s radio. And that’s how Kaguya’s route proper branches from the common route.

While the end of this route is pretty okay.jpg, I like how it highlights the thought processes behind Kaguya’s decision in the original timeline and how her interactions with Sora help her acclimate to living in a world outside the airport and recognizing the human urge to live. Also Izana creating the future radio because she wanted to know there was a possible future where her daughter was happy and healthy is very good.

While the main relationship between Sora and Kaguya is nice enough on its own it cannot compare to how delicious the one with Tsubaki is. The game’s official site states that Tsubaki is bi and you do find out that she had one-sided feelings for Izana (And has been with women but not men before. Cowards.). That makes it so both Sora and Tsubaki are NTRing each other from dead people.

Speaking of dead people, one thing I really liked in this route was the treatment of Izana. She died seven years before the story starts so Kaguya and Tsubaki have no choice but to talk about her through distant memories. Throughout the game I kept wondering if there were going to be any flashback scenes with Izana speaking. In the end there weren’t and I find myself appreciating the game all the more for it. There are only fading memories that appear in dreams and that Zippo lighter Tsubaki has with the photo of her and Izana on it. Specifically I would like to point out the residual Izana voice files in the pigeon data banks. It’s two or three voice files and they are all of Izana’s voice lines in the entire game. Seeing Tsubaki desperately repeat those clips really makes it hit that she still isn’t over losing Izana and is a stark contrast from the nonchalant personality she’s shown up until this point. Sora decided to create a simple AI with Izana’s voice, synthesized from those voice clips. Tsubaki is then able to have a simple albeit fabricated conversation with Izana, and ends up leaving the program within the radio Sora gave her in the place where Kaguya buried the dead artificial pigeons finally putting her lingering emotions to rest. It’s so good how the “real” Izana never truly speaks and this game is one of the few times where I really felt for the pre-story death of a character where there were no flashbacks with them. Even when Sora realizes the person he’s been seeing in his dreams is Izana, he is never able to hear her voice or see her face and I love that. I still want to see Izana interactions with Kaguya and Tsubaki though.

Of course, I can’t talk about Tsubaki’s route without talking about the ending scene, also known as:

Gyakuten Kenji 2 (2011)

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Now that that’s out of my system, I love Tsubaki so naturally I love this scene. How she desperately pleads for Sora to live after having to go through both Izana and Kaguya’s deaths. How they both are “selfish” for leaving the pigeon network as is in favor of living their present lives. The piano version of the opening song fitting so perfectly in this scene. One thing I have to point out is that Tsubaki mentions Kaguya dying before her very eyes which would imply her being in Terminal 1 when Kaguya committed suicide but there is nothing else in the game to corroborate this so I am still confused. Other than that I love Tsubaki. Also she is the hottest character in the game.

Mirai Radio really was a slightly good game that could have been a gooder game if it had some more meat to it but it just... doesn’t. It has some parts about trauma and life that I really like mostly because of the Mitsumei goggles so it’s hard to recommend to normal people. One unbiased thing I can say in its favor is that the music and songs are really good, even though I first heard them in Hakuchuumu. In fact when I replayed Hakuchuumu with the Steam version I found myself feeling emotionally compromised when they played certain tracks. Sorry, after playing Mirai Radio any rendition of Seia no Wata being played in scenes without any of those characters is going to make me feel complicated.

To end this section I will leave the common route ending song and the lyrics that destroyed me.

白い鳥に願う　罪の終わり新しい朝のむこうに自由な空あなたが羽ばたけばどこまでも飛べる　明日はわたしを翼にかえて

「白い鳥に願う　罪の終わり」って、うわぁーーーーーーーーーー

Soukou Akki Muramasa (2009)

I have had an interest in playing Muramasa for quite some time, and finally decided to get around to playing it when I saw the English version was going to be released (Note: I actually got around to starting it after the English version was released). I was interested in the alternate history and wondered about the 善悪相殺 memes going in but nothing could have prepared me for how much I would obsess over what would continue to occupy my mind to this day: Ootori Kanae.

I enjoyed my time with Muramasa much more than I expected and found a lot of things to like about it but Kanae simply eclipses everything else in that section of my mind, so I will not be talking about other parts of the game much.

Even in the common route, I could tell Kanae was definitely the kind of heroine I loved, and I’m the type who saves their favorite routes for last so I would have done her route second even if that wasn’t the most recommended order. But seeing her in the common route tempted me just a bit not gonna lie.

First her uniform looks really good on her (not that we have any other female GHQ officers in this game to compare) and I love women with guns so the sprite above sent the serotonin rushing in the brain.

Sometimes she acted flirty but there was definitely an unhinged side to her that I was extremely curious about.

And after going through the emotional turmoil of common route chapter 5 and Ichijou’s route with a basic grasp of 善悪相殺, I finally reached the promised land...

I think just seeing this title card got me excited. And miraculously, that excitement never waned in the entire route.

Even the scene in the very beginning where Kanae and Kageaki are in the rain and you can feel them probing into each other through their conversation got me very worked up because I was sure that this route would deliver what I wanted.

And it did so in quite a spectacular manner with Kanae killing Kageaki’s foster father right in front of his eyes. Since Kanae was in her tsurugi (the mechs in this game, okay I know the European ones are called cruxes) and Kageaki didn’t know she had one, he didn’t even know it was her. But since Kanae did know about Kageaki’s tsurugi, but not the fact that the person she killed was related to Kageaki, this created a very delicate situation, a situation ripe for DRAMA unfolded before my very eyes and I brought out the popcorn for the fun times ahead. I was about to get the bloodlust I wanted, and this time with the blood included.

Also with that brief dream scene that took place after I can’t believe Muramasa made itself Ace Attorney media so quickly.

But what everyone’s looking forward to is the scene after that, the initial confrontation between the two of them after such a charged scene (They also casually drop that Kanae has a sister seven years younger than her no I’m not going anywhere with this).

Kanae reveals that Yuuhi, the boy Kageaki killed at the beginning of the game, was her cousin and one she loved very dearly. And of course, she won’t forgive him. But to her surprise, Kageaki does not beg for forgiveness, but instead thanks her profusely after confirming multiple times that she will never forgive him for his actions. His absolute desperation here after being denied his desire to be put on trial for his actions from the people he thought would give it to him is great. And then he starts going on about dedicating himself to her because he sees her as a sort of savior in a world he believes will never acknowledge the true horror of his actions. The CG in this scene is very good at showing the absence, with neither of their eyes being shown. Everyone rightly screenshots the line where he thanks her and I do agree that that is the highlight of the scene but what really gets me is this small part near the end.

Throughout the scene, Kanae has just been standing there dumbfounded at Kageaki’s reaction to her terse judgements. And then at the end there is this one line, this one simple line that got my brain juices flowing more than Kageaki’s words of thanks ever did. In her stupor, Kanae can only think about how she does not understand Kageaki at all. Thinking back to the common route, she gradually finds out Yuuhi is dead and Kageaki is the one who killed him, all while interacting with Kageaki in an unchanged manner. Due to her nature as an undertaker of revenge, she must have conjured an image of what Kageaki must be like underneath what she could see on the outside. And all of that came crumbling down the moment his knees dropped to the floor in front of her. That was the moment I became enamored between the relationship between Kanae and Kageaki. I think people having imprecise mental images of each other only to realize they don’t actually understand the most critical points is very sexy.

This moment brought to mind that AAI2 scene where Edgeworth renounces his badge and Franziska expresses disbelief at him leaving her behind again which I totally get when you think back to what he said to her at the end of AA2. Franziska thought he would stay in that sort of rival/fellow prosecutor position and he threw it all away in such a simple manner (in her view). Edgeworth certainly had balls for doing that after saying he would part ways from her if she did something similar. This is completely unforgivable if it weren’t for the no-spoiler rule because this is the game where Edgeworth doesn’t recognize DeKiller which I also could not begrudgingly handwave otherwise. I kind of love that Edgeworth just does shit like what I mentioned above and the “choosing death” incident because while he is quick to discern what he wants to do to further his ideals as a prosecutor he also does not really consider the effect these actions will have on the people around him which gives us scenes like Phoenix and Franziska not holding back on the malice when he comes back in 2-4. Edgeworth having that legit asshole side to him in addition to Franziska having an unabashedly selfish personality (although they do improve a bit) is very good actually.

Back to the topic at hand, Kanae finds out that the person she killed in front of Kageaki was his foster father which puts a wrench in her cleanly laid plans to kill Kageaki in revenge. Now that Kageaki unknowingly also has grounds to enact revenge on her, Kanae has to think a bit more about how to apply her life principles. ...But not now because it's time to stop an atomic bomb from being deployed!

Had to mention the airship section. It was pretty fun and I managed to solve it without guides. The atomic bomb couldn’t be stopped though so lots of things went boom and Kanae and Kageaki escaped to the countryside for a bit.

This section of the route includes the infamous coin-stacking scene but I also want to mention the scene the CG above was in and how there is zero comment as to what Kanae is wearing and instead they talk about politics and the types of pottery of cups used in tea ceremonies which I think is sexy in a different way.

I just think this line is kind of funny out of context but if only I knew how true this line would come to be in the coming hours...

After this the gang heads to the Ootori estate for some political fun and turmoil and also to kill Shishiku. The train conversation that happens here before Sorimachi decides to ruin the fun is one of my favorite scenes in the game. I just love the atmosphere of it with both Kanae and Kageaki having so many things to say to each other but voicing none of them, opting instead for empty pleasantries and forlorn gazes out the window. The silent, growing tension between these two until the climax of the route is palpable. It boggles the mind why I did not take any screenshots of this when I played the game.

Sorimachi appearing leads to the trauma-inducing Guts Eider fight—and quite literally at that as Kageaki throws up at the end of it. He already hated himself enough for killing Yuuhi and then he had to realize he was about to kill Konatsu as well when it was too late. Although he didn’t actually end up doing any killing in the end, Guts Eider still came to a deadly stop taking the people inside with it. The horror of these actions furthers Kageaki’s self-loathing as well as his desire for Kanae’s swift judgement.

God he’s so pathetic here... I love it... The pathetic little screams... The fact that Kanae is secretly there just staring in a daze at the scene in front of her...

Anyways they head to the Ootori estate and to one of the funnest arcs in this route.

She’s perfect... Guns under the skirt are so good... I love her...

The scene where she kills Shishiku is very good with them screaming at each other and Kanae’s gutteral laughs and the transition where you only see the sky as the mansion burns and you hear what sounds like Kanae sobbing until it turns into laughter and you really feel the unhingedness settling in. But the best part is still yet to come.

Well there is the H scene where Kageaki fully embraces his fate of getting killed by Kanae, which is excellent and one of the most visceral ones I’ve ever read, but nothing could have prepared me for what lay ahead.

The final showdown of this route, the true beginning and end of Kanae as a character, is what mind broke me (compliment) more than anything else. To be honest, up until this point while I really did vibe with this route, you didn’t really see things from Kanae's side so it felt a bit off. If only I knew they were saving everything for this one moment.

There is a substantial flashback showing how Kanae’s tendencies for killing and revenge got their start in her childhood, and how firm those tendencies were grounded within her to her father’s great dismay (and also partially his fault). Her love of killing and revenge-based justice went well together, so enacting that revenge in place of others became kind of a life duty for her.

I love Ace Attorn(ry

But she had never met anyone who so willfully desired that revenge, who basically prostrated themselves in their desperation to be killed, who denied their right to exist in the world until the moment Kageaki did so right in front of her. Kanae’s revenge had always consisted of both her and the opposing party’s belief in their sense of justice, that their killing was right in the eyes of at least one person. That was why she fulfilled her revenge in combat with the other party. But Kageaki was always hesitant in killing due to Muramasa’s curse. He knew the weight that taking a life would bear on his soul even as his blade sunk into human flesh. Unfortunately due to the denial of his wish to stand trial, the “safety net” he had that tied him to human society disappeared, making him cling to the existence of Kanae all the more. That kind of revenge would be far too one-sided, which plays a part into why both of them use their tsurugis in the final battle. To Kanae, she is getting revenge on Kageaki for killing Yuuhi. To Kageaki, he is getting revenge on the mysterious crux who killed his father. Ironically, this veil of metal separating them was the only way to make their acts of revenge more “equal”.

To Kanae, Kageaki’s thought process was like a denial of her very existence. If her revenge didn’t bring anguish to her target, would it truly be in the benefit for the ones who died? Who does benefit from revenge in the end? This small blip in her world view that popped up was the start of a mental spiral into questioning her actions up until this point. The game poses the age-old dilemma: Is revenge truly fruitless? Perhaps it is; after all there is no shortage of works depicting how revenge draws people into madness and often ends up in their deaths as well.

But this revenge story is not of those people, it is about Ootori Kanae, a woman practically born to enact revenge in this world. And her revenge is not for anyone in the living world, least of all herself.

It exists solely for the dead. It does not matter what she feels about the people involved because she is simply a tool used for that revenge, that justice. And that is why there was only ever a single option in the end—to kill.

Goddddd everything in this sequence just sequentially destroyed my brain (compliment) more and more. It answered all the questions I had about Kanae’s character and then some. It made all the little moments in the route fall into place in such a satisfying manner. And the “answer” to revenge that she derived was really refreshing to see and quite fitting for her character. Really, a perfect conclusion to this route.

But my true favorite scene in this route (and possibly the entire game) is the post-credits scene. Kageaki is dying in the snow after the two of them attacked each other and then he faintly recognizes Kanae and goes “大鳥大尉...” Right at that moment her theme starts playing, which made me absolutely convinced that that song was made for that moment alone because of how well it fit the scene and how perfect the timing was. I’m probably wrong but let me dream with this one.

At the very end, they were able to kill the person they wanted to, and at the very end, they died without ever truly knowing each other. Kageaki doesn’t even realize that Kanae killed his father (although he does get very close). And so, the curtains close on their tale of revenge.

Honestly I would give Kanae’s route alone an 11/10, that’s how much I enjoyed it. I have nothing bad to say about it. It’s the one thing I’ve read that’s come the closest to what I’ve been searching for all the time. Some of the finest クソデカ感情 I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing. Kanae is definitely one of the most characters ever. I also enjoyed the rest of the game but I never reached the ridiculously high highs when playing Kanae’s route. Somehow I ended up playing the fandisc/spinoffs Janen-hen and Shokuzai-hen right after and while I enjoyed them in varying degrees I was also pleased by the new Kanae art in them. She is very pretty.

Special mention to Kanae’s crux which is my favorite tsurugi in the game for a very simple reason: it has a fucking crossbow. Its dormant form is the bass she plays. What really makes it special is that its power is a copy of Williams Tell’s auto-tracking arrow ability but shittier, so the user has to manually change the target coordinates every time they want to change the arrow’s direction. In the hands of any other person this would be way too inconvenient to use in battle due to things moving around all the time, but Kanae just so happens to have some... ”special” eyes so she has the ability to perceive time at a far slower rate than humans normally can, making her able to control the direction of her arrows at will. The fact that Kanae and Barrows were pretty much made for each other is very sexy.

Also couldn’t resist screenshotting every instance of “The paradox of ‘Tell and apple’.” because of how cool it sounds.

Bonus: this game has a character named 来馬豪 when Manfred’s Japanese name is 狩魔豪(かるまごう) so this makes Muramasa certified ミツメディア. You cannot change my mind.

Honorable Mentions: It’s Almost Over, I Swear

Unfortunately, not every piece of media can cause my brain worms to multiply like the ones above did, but there are a lot that get me thinking. Here is a small selection of such instances.

In Aete Mushi Suru Kimi to no Mirai, the protagonist is an adopted child of the Sawatari family and in his sister Nanagi’s route, it is revealed that this was due to the guilt the Sawatari parents felt as the other party in the car accident that caused the protagonist to lose his parents. There were some good quotes in there but unfortunately this revelation happened after the H scene quota was filled so there was no brooding over this fact while having sex, although I guess I shouldn’t have expected to see that from a brand named Alcot Honeycomb. Also Nanagi is a pretty standard Eroge Imouto™ so the relationship doesn’t set my radar off in any other department.

I have never interacted with anything in the Muv-Luv franchise, but sometimes I remember that one of the characters is named Mitsurugi Meiya (御剣冥夜) making me wonder if I accidentally stepped into the worldline where Mitsumei is married (no).

I played Riddle Garden because one of the heroines also voices Arawn from Tears to Tiara and I really enjoyed it (except for Phils route fuck Phil's route). It made my heart beat faster than anything I've read outside of fanfiction which I have to tip my hat to. Interestingly enough, there were two (2) characters I liked more than the one voiced by Arawn, although I liked them all (except Phil(ry). It also made me think that maybe 女性向け is really where it's at because in my time scouring the Japanese web for content I have a feeling most of the Mitsumei content was 女性向け (furtively glances at my doujinshi collection). The same goes for Ace Attorney in general I guess, especially now that its doujin heyday is way past. I do have an increased interest in otome games but I am still as lazy in starting things as ever. Where else can I scream at things like this?

ｱｱｱｱｱｱｱｱｱｱｱｱｱｱｱｱｱｱｯｯ

In the novel series Sakurako-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umatteiru, there is a line in one of the earlier books that’s remained in my mind: 「遺族は一生遺族」 (paraphrase). The series is pretty good at going through the implications of this while Sakurako solves mysteries and the like, especially near the end when she finally finds out the truth behind the death of her little brother. When’s season 2 of the anime........

I think this cover of the season 1 Kaguya-sama opening (the best one) by Kaguya and Shirogane is very good.

(Direct link because cucked from embedding by Sony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=motF91gTdO0)

Here’s to Ten More ～至高主義��の道～

Congrats, you made it to the end of this post! If you read it all, good for you. If you just decided to just skip to the end, I commend you for wanting to see what the hell is down here. This concludes my post on how I ended up shipping something 10 years ago and how it affected my life way too much.

The first ideas of this post came around the time I played Mirai Radio and Muramasa. Because I played them both in a very close time frame and had all those thoughts I wrote above pop up in my brain in the same time, I felt that I had to write them down somewhere. But I also felt I couldn’t truly express why I liked them so much without also explaining how Edgeworth and Franziska dominated my mind and media consumption. I also kind of wanted to let people know that no matter how much anyone thinks I ship them, it’s actually much, much deeper and much, much worse than other people can feasibly imagine. I saw that this descent started nearly 10 years ago and came up with the mega post idea for this year, which leads me here.

Will I ever stop thinking like this? Maybe, maybe not. What I do know is that finding something you truly enjoy from the bottom of your heart is a very lovely feeling and I hope everyone gets to experience that in their lives.

Thank you for reading about the endless thoughts in my head and I hope you have a nice day.

ミツメイはそのうち万病に効くようになると信じてるあと世界平和の鍵にもなる。まる。

#ミツメディア

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