Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Official Casebook Volume 1: The Phoenix Wright Files

Del Rey Manga

$14.95

304 pages

Creator: Capcom

Release date: September 30, 2008

Format: Manga read Right to left

ISBN: 978-0-345-50355-8

Age rating: 10 up

ICv2 Stars: 2 out of 5

What feels like a fan-driven project rather than a cohesive graphic novel, this first of two volumes focuses on Phoenix Wright, defense attorney. The characters are based on the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney videogames for Nintendo. The main characters of the game are showcased here: Wright, Maya, Pearl, and Edgeworth. There are twenty short stories and the volume concludes with four-panel strips and creator comments. Many of the stories have a supernatural edge to them due to Maya and Pearl’s ability to channel spirits.

Each story conveys the creator’s love of the games. Unfortunately, if one has not played the game, the story and jokes will go over their heads. The assumption of this casebook is that the reader is familiar with the game series, and understands all of the characters and their relationships. Most of the stories focus on the humor rather than the drama of the game. Each story has a different artist, so the artwork varies drastically causing the reader to pause in some instances to figure out which character is which, particularly with Maya and Pearl. Though there is little to no controversial content, besides the mentioning of murder, pre-teens and older readers are recommended for this volume. The second casebook volume, which will be released in 2009, will focus on Edgeworth. Overall, fans of the Nintendo game will find a reason to put down their DS systems and read, everyone else will pass this one over.

-Kristin Fletcher-Spear

Teen Librarian at the Foothills Branch Library in Glendale, Arizona.