Ace Attorney - From Wishful Thinking to an Animated Reality

Back in 2011, I wrote an article wondering why Ace Attorney hadn’t yet received an anime adaptation. At the time, the franchise had already seen five games and sold nearly 3 million copies worldwide. Given Capcom’s track record with adapting Street Fighter into multiple animated works, it seemed baffling that they hadn’t done the same with Ace Attorney. There was more than enough material from the games — and even additional stories from official comics — to justify at least a 26-episode series. Yet, Capcom had only dabbled in side projects like a few different Ace Attorney mangas and, of all things, a Takarazuka Revue musical adaptation.

Interestingly, in 2011, the franchise did get a live-action film adaptation directed by Takashi Miike. While an intriguing choice for director — given Miike’s previous films — the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney film was a pretty accurate adapation, considering some of the more wacky elements of the game.

Fast-forward a few years, and Capcom finally delivered: Ace Attorney received an anime adaptation covering the events of the first trilogy. While it followed the games closely, what really stood out to me was the inclusion of an original episode featuring a case on a train. This was exactly the kind of fresh content I had wished for back when I wrote my original article.

It makes me wonder why Capcom hasn’t taken advantage of platforms like iOS, Android, and home consoles, especially with Ace Attorney 5 and newer games being available on devices with internet access. With the long gaps between mainline releases, it would be great if they used these platforms to release new DLC content, like additional cases. Even if they didn’t include full audio, something along those lines would have been a nice way to keep fans engaged between major entries.

It’s been over a decade since I originally lamented the lack of an Ace Attorney anime, and while that wish has been fulfilled, Capcom still has plenty of opportunities to expand the series beyond the main games. Here’s hoping they take advantage of them.

Unfortunately, Ace Attorney fans haven’t seen much new content in recent years. Since 2016 when the last mainline title was released, Capcom has only released previously developed titles like The Great Ace Attorney: Chronicles in 2021, and an Apollo Trilogy collection as well as a Ace Attorney Investigations¹ collection — for the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PC, and PlayStation 4.

With all that said, I can’t help but feel like there’s still so much untapped potential for the franchise. How about an anime adaptation of The Great Ace Attorney? It would be an exciting way to delve deeper into the prequel characters and mysteries, offering more content to tide us over until the next Ace Attorney installment. But for now, we’re left wondering when Capcom will finally return to the series with something fresh and original — preferably in both game and animated form.