Apollo Justice


 * You may be looking for the game Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney.

"Phoenix Wright"

- You know what changed her mind? Hearing your defense in there today. She could feel your gaze, unwavering, always looking straight at the truth.

Apollo Justice is a defense attorney working for the Wright Anything Agency. He is notable for his involvement in a test trial for the Jurist System, an effort to reintegrate the jury into court proceedings, along with co-council Trucy Wright and Prosecutor Klavier Gavin and mentor Phoenix Wright.

Early life
Justice was born to Thalassa Gramarye and a stage performer. His father died a year after he was born, and his mother left him soon afterward, giving him one of her bracelets and later remarrying and having Trucy Wright. Justice thus grew up not knowing who his mother was, and he came to idolize and respect defense attorney Phoenix Wright. However, Wright was disbarred in 2019 following a vaguely reported forgery incident. Nonetheless, Justice worked to become a lawyer like Wright.

Law career

 * Main article: Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney

Justice passed the bar with badge number 29003, and he came to work for Kristoph Gavin's law firm, Gavin Law Offices. Gavin aided him during his first case, in which the defendant was the disgraced former lawyer Phoenix Wright. The trial was a very standard one until Wright began to hint that Gavin was the real killer. Wright guided Justice to figuring out the truth about the case, and Gavin was arrested as the real killer. After the trial, Wright told Justice that he had faked a key piece of evidence. Horrified that someone he respected would openly admit to forgery, Justice punched Wright and then left, intending never to see Wright again. Gavin Law Offices was consequently dissolved.

Wright invited Justice to work for the Wright & Co. Law Offices, which he refused. After two months, however, with nowhere else to turn for a job, Justice reluctantly visited the old firm. He found that it was now a talent agency run by Wright's adoptive daughter, Trucy Wright. After the confusion was settled, Trucy hired Justice as the agency's lawyer. Because Justice had no entertaining talent to speak of, Trucy renamed the agency the Wright Anything Agency to account for Justice's involvement in it.

At first, Phoenix assigned Justice to three minor, seemingly pointless cases, but he found that all three cases were tied to a murder that had occurred in People Park. Desperate for real work, he offered to defend the prime suspect of the murder. With the help of Trucy and Detective Ema Skye, Justice gathered evidence and then faced off against Kristoph Gavin's brother, Prosecutor Klavier Gavin, in court. Justice implicated the defendant's fiancee as the real killer, and as Klavier began to figure out that Justice was right, he helped Justice with the process of proving his claims. Justice wondered whether he had really earned his victory.

Klavier also had his own band, and he invited Justice and Trucy to one of his concerts at a discounted price. However, during the concert, someone was shot, and Justice defended the prime suspect in court against Klavier. A blind witness implicated one of Klavier's band members, Daryan Crescend, as the real killer, and while Crescend had set up an alibi for himself, Justice was able to show that Crescend had set up the crime to throw off the time of the shooting, and that he had been smuggling a Borginian cocoon, which had led to the confrontation that had killed the victim. Lacking decisive evidence, Justice convinced his defendant to testify to his involvement in the smuggling, proving Crescend's motive.

Three months later, Justice participated in a test trial for the Jurist System, defending Vera Misham against the charge laid on her for the murder of her father Drew Misham, with Klavier as the prosecutor. Although Phoenix promised Justice a "simple" case, the case quickly ballooned into a monstrosity as the murder weapon, a Troupe Gramarye commemorative stamp laced with atroquinine, was tied to Vera's secret life as a forger, as well as the case that had cost Phoenix his attorney's badge. It was revealed that Phoenix had continued his investigation into his last case for the past seven years.

Eventually, Kristoph Gavin was summoned from his prison in Solitary Cell 13, accused by Justice of setting up the murder seven years ago. As Justice and Klavier closed in on the truth, they found that they had no decisive evidence to prove that Kristoph had committed the deed. However, they had no need for this under the new Jurist System. As Kristoph utterly broke down upon finding out that the common people would decide the outcome of the case, Klavier and the judge gave their justifications for the new system, though Justice was rendered speechless. Justice vowed that he would learn what law was for himself, and fight to change it if he had to.

Personality
Apollo Justice is highly sarcastic and critical. He often makes blunt comments concerning his mentor Phoenix Wright's piano playing in particular. He occasionally even shows some disdain for some of his clients. He also has a vain side; he frequently makes puns out of his own name, and he practices his shouting for hours at night, calling it his "Chords of Steel", which sometimes makes his voice raspy. He frequently worries about and feels sorry for Trucy Wright, and is confused by Phoenix and Trucy's odd relationship.

In court, Justice is noticeably more unsure of himself and more easily flustered than Phoenix Wright ever was. He is just as determined, however, although he tends to base his arguments more in fact and discernible thinking than his mentor did.

Justice shares other rough character traits with Phoenix Wright. During trials, Justice's unusual hairstyle frightens many of the defendants or witnesses whom he sees. Unlike Phoenix however, who claims his hair is "natural," Justice uses hair gel. Another similarity is Justice's fear of heights.

Justice has a strange dynamic with his rival Klavier Gavin, in that the prosecutor does not seem to see Justice as a rival at all. He often calls Justice "Herr Forehead" in reference to an objection made by Justice about where a murder victim had been shot, as well as to the defense lawyer's rather large and exposed forehead. However, unlike the prosecutors whom Phoenix Wright had to face during his time as a lawyer, Klavier is pretty friendly towards Justice out of the courtroom, even talking openly to him about cases on which they are both currently working. Justice, on the other hand, often shows jealousy and a sense that Gavin is "stealing the show", while also showing a certain morbid disdain towards Gavin's brand of loud music. Despite this, the two eventually worked together in court to convict Kristoph Gavin.

Justice claims to be good with astrology and to be fairly skilled with hula hoops.

"Perceive" ability
The bracelet Justice has helps him to focus on the nervous habits of other people. When Justice feels his bracelet getting tighter during a cross-examination, he knows to focus on the witness. Justice inherited the bracelet from his mother.

Name

 * His Japanese surname, "Odoroki" (王泥喜), comes from the word for "a surprise".


 * The kanji that make up "Housuke" (法介) can be broken down into "hou" (法) meaning "law", and "suke" (介), which is a common suffix for male Japanese names. This makes the meaning of his first name literally "boy of law" or "law boy".


 * The name "Apollo" comes from Apollo, the god of (amongst other things) light, the sun and truth in Greek and Roman mythology. It may also be a nod to Phoenix Wright's first name originating from mythology.


 * The surname "Justice" is a reference to his job; he likes to make puns with his last name.


 * In both Spanish and Italian, Justice's nickname "Pollo" means "chicken", which might be a reference to his hairstyle being like that of a chicken's comb.

Other media

 * In episode 19 of the anime Lucky Star, Hiyori produces two drawings to show Yutaka and Minami. These are of chibi versions of Klavier Gavin and Apollo Justice, complete with "Objection!" written beside the picture of Justice. The episode premiered in Japan on August 12, 2007, four months after the release of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney in Japan. The scene can be viewed here.


 * Apollo Justice has a cameo in the Capcom game We Love Golf on the Wii, along with Pearl Fey.