Marlon Rimes

Marlon Rimes is an aquarium aquarist. He appears to be scrawny at first, but he had a more muscular alter ego who makes a debut in trial after swallowing a bucket of fish.

Rimes and Summers
Rimes came to know the Shipshape Aquarium through his girlfriend, Azura Summers, who worked as an orca trainer. She would often send him videos via phone of her training sessions with the aquarium's resident orca, Ora Shipley. However, Rimes was unaware that Summers suffered from a severe heart condition.

A year later, Rimes attended one of Summers' "Swashbuckler Spectacular" shows. During the show, however, Summers suffered from a heart attack and fell into the water, dying instantly. Ora, in an attempt to rescue her, grabbed hold of Summers and shook her, but to no avail. To the viewing public, Rimes included, it appeared as though the orca had deliberately attacked and killed Summers.

Jack Shipley, the aquarium's owner, and Herman Crab, the resident vet, secretly moved Ora to another aquarium (as they did not wish to euthanize her) and replaced her with her sister, Orla. This went unknown by the public, who assumed they were the same orca. Rimes, devastated by the death of his girlfriend, vowed revenge against Orla and began training in order to become stronger, even fighting sharks.

Revenge
About a year later, Rimes had gained a job as an aquaist. Although he was not entirely fond of preparing the animal food due to being a vegetarian, he continued his job, waiting for his moment to kill Orla.

First attempt
On the anniversary of Summers' death, Orla's pool was due to be cleaned. Orla was moved to the show pool by hoist while Sasha Buckler, her trainer, worked on cleaning the pool. Rimes was to watch over Orla whilst her pool was being cleaned. Seizing his chance, he began to drain the pool of water, in order to suffocate the orca.

Just as the pool was almost completely drained, Shipley caught sight of what Rimes was doing. He rushed over to stop him, but in doing so accidently slipped and fell into the empty pool. Rimes was able to grab hold of his right wrist but was unable to pull him back up. Shipley tried to explain that Summers' death was not Orla's fault before Rimes' grip finally loosened, and the aquarium owner fell to his death, 65 feet at the bottom of the empty pool.

Second attempt
Although devastated by the death of Shipley, as he had unintentionally caused it, Rimes quickly formulated a new plan to have Orla killed. He climbed into the empty pool and placed Shipley's body into a skull-shaped rock which was used as a prop. He then called for Buckler to bring the rock and Orla back to the orca pool. After this, he contacted writer Norma DePlume and asked her to attend the aquarium, with the intention to use her as a witness.

When DePlume arrived, about ten minutes after the aquarium opened, Rimes used his walkie-talkie to play a recording the "Lifesaver" whistle command. Orla responded, headbutting the skull-rock until Shipley's body was released, before grabbing him in her mouth and bringing him to the surface. Once he had done this, Rimes headed back to work, only to run into Pearl Fey, who had wandered into the staff corridor after getting lost. It took about five minutes for Rimes to pick up the fish he had dropped and help Fey return to her summer-camp group, although he insisted she keep their meeting secret.

As intended, Orla was blamed for the death of Shipley. Buckler, not wanting to have her put down, contacted attorney Phoenix Wright to defend the whale in court. Not long into his investigation, Wright began to suspect a human culprit, much to Rimes' dismay; he only wanted Orla to be blamed for Shipley's death.

Personality
He likes rapping so much that he will often rap when describing his own feelings, even phrasing one of his testomonies as a rap. He is also very kind to most of the animals he takes care of, the only exception being Orla due to his vengefulness, but even this changes when he realizes he had no good reason to hate her, and feels extremely remorseful due to his role in his boss' death, initially believing himself responsible. He is also fairly protective of Sasha, repeatedly asking the Judge to declare her innocent during her trial, and mainly focusing on getting Orla convicted. He can, however, be very confrontational and belligerent, especially in his buff form.

Name

 * "Iku" (育) in his name means "grow up" or "raise", most likely referring to the abnormal muscular growth his body develops after swallowing a bucket of fish in court.
 * "Itsuka" (伊塚) comes from the word "itsuka" (何時か), which means "someday".
 * His English name "Rimes" is a play on the word "Rhymes", as Marlon is fond of rapping, and rapping uses rhyming clauses.  Rimes could also refer to Rime, a type of ice formation, relating back to his aquatic theme.
 * His first name "Marlon" is a play on "Marlin", a type of fish. After he "transforms" in court, he wields a large one.

Trivia

 * When first encountered, Marlon claims to be a vegetarian. This is probably a lie, as he downs an entire bucket of small fish before revealing his muscles, his first rap after revealing said muscles proclaims the virtues of meat eating, and chews on his marlin as one of his animations.
 * Marlontransforms.pngn's muscular form resembes another Capcom character, Ryu from Street Fighter.
 * The backside of his ID card is a name bling badge, a piece of golden jewlery often associated with rappers.