Turnabout Idol (2016) by Mie Takase (translated by thewrightstuff)

Image taken from The Case Files of Ho-Ling

Considering how big the Ace Attorney series is, it might come as a shock to people that there aren’t a lot of tie-in novels. I mean, it’s a surprise to me. You’d think that it would be catnip. I guess that’s what the manga stories are for.

But, as Ho-Ling has noted in some of his posts on the series, the format of the games doesn’t really translate well to “traditional” mystery fiction. Ace Attorney is more about adjusting to new information. Series protagonist Phoenix Wright is no Perry Mason. He often goes into court with no idea about what happened or who’s responsible, and even when he does know the latter, there are always unanswered questions he has to figure out in court. So while the series is fair-play, and while it does foreshadow and clue some of its twists, the nitty-gritty is worked out in real-time. You can argue that the series’ focus on exposing contradictions, getting new testimony, exposing the contradictions that come from that, etc., means that you’re solving the mystery in real-time. But my point is that it’s deceptively tricky to make that formula into a book, or to translate a mystery into that format.

But that didn’t stop author Mie Takase from giving it a shot. Takase has written a handful of horror novels (Ho-Ling reviewed one here), but she’s also done a lot of tie-in novels for other video game franchises, from Persona to Kirby. Turnabout Idol was the first of her two books for the Ace Attorney series.

The book opens with Phoenix, along with his assistants, Apollo Justice and Anthea Cykes, arriving at the Pegasus Town mall to support Phoenix’s adoptive daughter Trucy, a magician. Trucy is sharing the stage with two others: idol singer Melody Cutter, who cuts up fruit with a giant knife during her songs, and Wade Ukulfaskul, a painfully unfunny comedian. After Wade crashes and bombs, Melody takes the stage, but it’s clear that her heart’s not in it, not to mention that she’s missing her knife. Phoenix goes to talk to mall’s owner about another job for Trucy, when he’s interrupted by the news: Wade’s been stabbed to death! And guess whose knife did the deed, and who is now in desperate need of a lawyer. Not that she’s very forthcoming about some very important information…

Takase made a real effort to translate game mechanics into book form. It’s not obvious unless you’ve played them, but there were multiple points where I saw gameplay moments like identifying locations on a map or the “Thought Route” seamlessly transferred into a conventional narrative. The characters feel like Ace Attorney characters too, quirky and memorable with funny dialogue. The case against Melody looks bleak, but Phoenix points out some minor flaws in the witnesses' testimonies that stack up to show that they’re lying. I think that some of the series staples like the witnesses having over-dramatic reactions to their lies being pointed out didn’t carry over well, but that’s a minor point.

But nevermind the fannish stuff, how’s the mystery? That’s pretty good too! You have to keep in mind that this was aimed at a younger audience, but with that caveat in mind, the mystery holds up. I suspect that most readers will figure out who the killer is, and maybe even have a pretty good idea of what they did after the crime, but the fun is seeing Phoenix prove that. The final confrontation has a lot of great back-and-forth as Phoenix almost corners the killer, but they come up with a lie to get out of it, but that creates another mistake that Phoenix can push back on, etc., until he finally catches them in a lie they can’t weasel out of. There’s a minor locked room mystery here, as the crime takes place in a room where one entrance is locked and another is under observation, but it’s a pretty small part of the story with a simple solution.

The main weakness is the motive. Not the motive for the murder—that’s fine. If I told you what it was it would sound stupid, but in context it’s actually kind of sad. No, the weakness is in why the killer frames Melody. We’re even told at the end that it was“Undue resentment due to a misunderstanding.” I think that this motive had an interesting core to it that could have been explored, but this book didn’t do that. But that’s the only flaw.

I must also give a shout-out to the translation by “thewrightstuff.” As long-time fans know, the AA series isn’t just a translation, it’s a localization, where the translators change the names and context to set the work in the country of the translation. And while this translator does provide a copy of the book with the original Japanese names, they also have a very good localization. “Melody Cutter.” That’s inspired.

So yeah, this was great. Turnabout Idol is a fun junior mystery novel. Fans of the series should absolutely check it out, but even someone who’s never played the games would enjoy this. Recommended.

The book can be found here.

Other Reviews: The Case Files of Ho-Ling, Bad Player's Good Reviews.