Miles Edgeworth is not pleased to know he's not animated… yet
It has always struck me as a little odd that Capcom hasn’t capitalized on the popularity of their Ace Attorney franchise as they should have. For a series that has sold just shy under 3 million copies across 5 games for the Nintendo DS (2.96 million) around the world it’s really surprising that Capcom, known for having a plethora of Street Fighter animated works produced, hasn’t gone down the obvious route and hired an animation studio, such as Studio 4°C which produced the Street Fighter IV: Ties that Bind short film, to animate an Ace Attorney series. There is easily enough material, from the 5 games, to create at least a 26 episode series and even more should they decide to create new cases and content, such as the stories covered in the official Ace Attorney comic, yet Capcom hasn’t made the most of this opportunity.
It just strikes me as odd when a title such as Valkyria Chronicles (not to knock it, as I think of it as a brilliant game which had an equally brilliant animated series) which sold less than the remake of the first Ace Attorney title (for the DS) has been animated. Is it just that Sega has more confidence in their properties? I don’t know how true this is as Capcom has produced a few comic adaptations of the Ace Attorney series, such as one based off the most recent Ace Attorney: Investigations game and even a comic with short stories in the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Official Casebook volumes, and oddly enough Capcom licensed the property for a Musical that was performed by the all-female Takarazuka Revue troupe.
There is also fan demand for an animated series as last fall the Dengeki website (publisher of various comic serializations in Japan) polled fans on what video game franchises they would like to see animated; Ace Attorney ended up second right behind Persona 4. So the demand is there, so what is the holdup?
Since last year’s release of Ace Attorney: Investigations there hasn’t been much in the way of new content being released for the Ace Attorney franchise besides the upcoming iPhone port of the remake of the original Ace Attorney game for the Nintendo DS, although Shu Takumi, the creator of Ace Attorney and voice behind Phoenix Wright in the original Japanese version of the franchise, is working on another unique Nintendo DS gaming experience, Ghost Trick. This lull in new material for Ace Attorney is the perfect opportunity to announce an animated series. Come on Capcom, do it, make an animated Ace Attorney!
Below, an example of how an animated Ace Attorney would be awesome (it’s a promotional clip for the Tokyo Game Show and the remake of the original Ace Attorney game):
Sources: Dengeki (日本語), AndriaSang – Gaming News from Japan, VGChartz, Kotaku, Anime News Network, IGN