Breakdown

The breakdown is a special, normally one-off, animation that occurs when a witness (usually the true culprit of a case) realizes that he or she has been defeated. Such animations are normally quite long and over-the-top, especially in the later games. Other breakdowns are present for non-culprits, for example April May. Breakdowns are not to be confused with the "damage" animations which occur when a witness is briefly shocked, but soon recovers. "Damage" animations, unlike breakdowns, occur frequently and often in quick succession, such as Trilo Quist's limbs exploding and firing across the courtroom, which occurs multiple times during his Cross Examination.

Villains

 * Frank Sahwit - Suddenly grabs his toupée and throws it at Phoenix Wright's face, which then slides off in a comical fashion to reveal Wright's not-too-impressed facial expression. After Sahwit is revealed as the true murderer, he begins to hyperventilate, frothing at the mouth before finally collapsing to the ground.


 * Redd White - Lowers his head onto the witness stand, then rapidly lifts his head up in the air, screams, then suddenly slams his head down and twitches, possibly crying, face down on the stand.


 * Dee Vasquez - Grimaces and clenches her pipe until it snaps in two, then quickly returns to her usual calm persona.


 * Yanni Yogi - Suddenly transforms from his hunched and sleepy "Uncle" persona to his true self; upright and with a serious expression on his face, admitting defeat.


 * Manfred von Karma - Pounds the desk and roars while the events of the DL-6 Incident play rapidly behind him. He then bangs his head off the courtroom wall, pauses, then resumes much faster than before, all the while cursing Edgeworth and his father's names.


 * Damon Gant - Starts laughing and clapping, starting slowly but gradually becoming faster and faster as he leans back, and slows down at the end of his breakdown. At his fastest, Gant is clapping once every 2 frames, or 30 times a second; this means that his animation is shifting on every single frame, which causes most emulators to lag, or if the emulator is using frame skipping, not every clap is shown.

Witnesses

 * April May - Crosses her arms over her face while she roars and the hearts on her blouse spins rapidly. She then suddenly uncrosses her arms, causing her breasts to bounce a few times.


 * Cody Hackins - Suddenly bursts into tears.


 * Jake Marshall - Acts as if he's been shot by placing one of his hands on his chest and reaching out with his other arm, while his poncho billows around him and he yells "NOOOOOO!!!" He then stands panting at the witness stand with his hand still on his chest.

Villains

 * Richard Wellington - When he was accused of murder, he laughs insanely while alternating between messing up his hair with his hands and squishing his face. After he was found as the real murderer, he pulls on his scarf so tightly that he begins to lose air until his face turns blue and he passes out.
 * Mimi Miney - Removes her beret, opens her eyes, and wipes away her tears with the aforementioned beret.
 * Acro - Tears suddenly begin to stream down his still-smiling face, not letting his calm persona be altered by the outcome of the trial.
 * Matt Engarde - When Wright confronts him as the true killer in the detention center, Engarde pushes back his fringe to reveal scars over his eye, and 'introduces' his real self. Later, after being told he has been found guilty, he screams the word over and over, scratching his face multiple times, not wanting to let his perfect image be stained by the sentence. Alternatively, if he is told he is not guilty, he realizes he will be hunted down by Shelly de Killer the moment he leaves the courthouse, and as such he begs for the guilty sentence, again scratching new scars into his face while repeatedly yelling "GUILTY!"

Others

 * Regina Berry - Bursts into tears.
 * Franziska von Karma - Suddenly starts crying.

Villains

 * Dahlia Hawthorne - When revealed to have killed Doug Swallow, she screams Mia Fey's name and turns to glare at her with demonic eyes, while the butterflies that usually surround her burst into flames. Later in the game, while she is being exorcised from Maya Fey's body after being discovered as Dahlia and not her similar-looking sister, Iris, she puts her head down on the desk, while her ghostly spirit appears behind Maya's body, pale with crimson hair and also holding her head and screaming. Her spirit then reappears with a demonic glint in her eye and her red hair flowing out fire-like in every direction behind her. A wave of blue fire suddenly engulfs her and ten balls of blue fire appear in the shape of a Magatama. After the magatama has been shown, all the flames but the center one indicating the hole disappear, and the last remaining flame descends to the center of the screen while events of Dahlia's past play behind it. The final part of Dahlia's spirit then disappears, and the barely conscious Maya Fey is seen standing, exhausted, at the witness stand.


 * Luke Atmey - Crosses his arms over his face while slowly rising up, then suddenly uncrosses his arms, laughs hysterically, while moving his head rapidly from side to side, and again begins to speak his verses very quickly. This happens twice, once when "revealed" to be Mask☆DeMasque and one when he's shown not to be DeMasque, but instead the murderer of Kane Bullard.


 * Furio Tigre - Roars so loudly that the lights in the courtroom go out and images of the murder appear behind him, both Tigre and the events displayed only in black and white. When the light and colour return to the scene, he stays frozen in place while the rest of the courtroom returns to normal.


 * Godot - The screen around him slowly darkens, and suddenly, his visor explodes and he recoils backwards, screaming. Godot then returns to his normal self, and takes a sip of coffee, before a trickle of blood makes its way down his face from his visor as he confesses his guilt.

Witnesses

 * Terry Fawles - After swallowing the poison in his hand, he begins coughing until a trickle of blood flows out of his mouth. After a while, he falls dead on the witness stand.

Others

 * Winston Payne - Brings his arm up with a shocked expression on his face while his hair is blown away. At this, he screams about his 'beautiful hair' flying off.


 * Diego Armando - Grips his coffee mug so tightly that it shatters, causing his hand to bleed.

Villains

 * Kristoph Gavin - When revealed to have killed Shadi Smith, he looks aside as the courtroom shakes around him. He then slowly raises his fist in the air while the courtroom continues to shake and the dishes and lobster Olga Orly was carrying in her disguise levitate behind him. Suddenly he slams his fist on the witness stand, making the levitating objects fall and the shaking cease. Finally, he clenches his fist on the stand. When his second murder is found out, he becomes suddenly crippled, his mouth twitching. He once again raises his fist, while the courtroom shakes, before slamming it onto the witness stand, clenching it just like the previous time. He then crosses his arms in front of him, screams, his glasses fly off and his hair billows above him. He then leans over the stand, arms crossed and glares with a manic look in his eyes while his normally well-kept hair is now disheveled, his face twitching even more than before. Finally, after an innocent verdict was given for Vera Misham, Gavin laughs insanely with his hand over his face, and is taken away.


 * Alita Tiala - Screams while holding her head while the wings on the front of her dress flap wildly and feathers fly off. This is similar to her "damage" animation, but during her "breakdown" a drastically increased number of feathers fly off and the animation lasts much longer.


 * Daryan Crescend - Stops, straightens his hair, then suddenly cries for help, flailing about madly, his pompadour slashing about like a sword.

Witnesses

 * Olga Orly - Yells then slowly falls backwards, while her dishes and the lobster fall down in order onto the witnesses stand. Later, she drops her timid Russian guise, swiftly pulling off the coat and hat to reveal a pirate-themed costume. When finally defeated, she yells while her camera goes off and the dishes and lobster fall slowly behind her.


 * Wesley Stickler - Freezes while his cape billows and the pages of his book turn as if he is being blown by a strong gust of wind. He then drops his book and collapses on the stand.


 * Wocky Kitaki - Keeps down his attitude briefly while showing a concerned look on his face.


 * Valant Gramarye - Screams, then freezes whilst flowers and miniature flags pop out of his staff, rabbits appear on each shoulder and doves fly out from under his cape. Notably, his younger self produces two rabbits and five doves whilst his older self only produces one rabbit and one dove.

Villains

 * Jacques Portsman - Rapidly bites on the medal around his neck, causing golden dust to fall in the background. After a few seconds of this, it breaks off its chain and he swallows it. He then faints.


 * Cammy Meele - When Edgeworth begins to figure out her involvement, she drops her usual sleepy act, pushing her long hair behind her ears and begins to blow bubbles. When defeated, she pauses, blowing one bubble, then suddenly blows many bubbles which then repeatedly pop around her, barraging her.


 * Lance Amano - Abruptly shatters the handcuffs around his wrists and suddenly begins to sob tears, apologizing for both the fake kidnapping and the murder.


 * "Calisto Yew"/"Shih-na" - Begins laughing even more hysterically than usual, rocking backwards and forwards, tears in her eyes. She then pulls a gun on Edgeworth and escapes. When discovered later on as Shih-na, she laughs in the same hysterical way as she did as "Calisto". When she is finally defeated, she spreads her arms wide and cackles madly with fangs in her mouth.


 * Quercus Alba - When forced to drop his defenseless old man persona, he rises up to his full height and breaks his staff into pieces. When finally defeated, he screams Edgeworth's name while his skin cracks and is blown away by a strong gust of wind. He then screams again with the wind blowing his medals and hair upwards and spots of light appear above his head, the sound of a falling tree playing in the background. He then suddenly collapses into a hunched old man with an almost mummified face, with no eyes visible.

Witnesses

 * Zinc Lablanc - A steadily increasing gust of wind blows right at him which forces his lips back to reveal his gums, as if he was in a centrifuge used for high-G training. The wind increases until he is blown over.

Others

 * Young Kay Faraday - She grasps her shirt, leans her head back, and begins to cry with tears streaming down her face and her mouth wide open.

Villains

 * Manosuke Naitō - Bites down on his lip while spinning his gun faster than usual. He then starts tossing it back and forth before losing control and sending it up into the air, whereupon it presumably dislodges something in the ceiling, causing various debris (including The Thinker, Mr. Ifly, a box of Samurai Dogs, and Blue Badger doll) to land on his head, knocking him into his neck brace, before his gun lands on his head and finally knocks him out. Though it likely was for a comedic purpose, he is the only person to be struck with The Thinker and survive.


 * Marī Miwa - The prison alarm rings as she and her pet fox fluffs up in anger, and she proceeds to scream in horror. Her pet fox jumps off her neck, and her fur coat turns into a number of other foxes which similarly jump off, leaving her shivering in a prison outfit.


 * Yutaka Kazami - Stays silent while his theme plays and starts to blow up the dough he's working with to a huge size, then carves it into a life-sized sculpture of himself by rapidly punching the statue with his bare fists, his punching becoming increasingly fast by the second. He examines his dough sculpture for a moment, then draws a baster and slices it in half, in a manner reminiscent of a samurai, which reveals its hollow insides.


 * Bansai Ichiyanagi - His lighter sends up a huge plume of flame, burning his beard and hair clean off, revealing them to be fake and uncovering the burn mark on his chin from his earlier confrontation with his victim, Tsubasa Kagome. He then coughs out some smoke. When finally defeated in court by his son, Yumihiko, and Edgeworth, he screams his son's name while his lighter flares up like before and the screen fades to white.


 * Sōta Sarushiro - When confronted as the culprit, he snaps his fingers, causing his monkey, Money, to re-apply his clown makeup and two birds to fly down and rearrange his hair. When they fly away, two mice proceed to run up his arms and begin to brush his hair with miniature combs. Money then salutes Sarushiro and his expression suddenly turns stern, at which point Money and the two mice dive off of him. He opens his eyes and revealed his true, sinister self. When finally defeated, he protests as his animals begin to attack him fiercely as his leitmotif starts playing: first the birds strike his face while he was carrying a pair of rabbits, then Money the Monkey scratches his face, then the pig lets the cat jumps up by its nose and kicks Sarushiro's face, the squirrels pull strands of his hair apart so that a gorilla can punch his face, which sends him whirling until an elephant's trunk grabs the top of his head and pulls him off-screen as the sound of further brawling is heard.

Witnesses

 * "Teikun Ō" - Roars mightily, letting all the air out of his body, leaving him flabby and disheveled.


 * Shūji Orinaka - When one of his pieces in Logic Chess is destroyed, he removes the chains he wears. Later on, he reacts as though he's being punched, getting knocked back and forth until finally his mouth guard (and some teeth) fly out. His bear, Mark, jumps off him and he collapses.


 * Frank Sahwit - Throws his toupée at Edgeworth. Unlike Wright, Edgeworth shows a shocked expression instead. He got his toupée back after a couple of minutes.


 * Tsukasa Oyashiki - When Tateyuki Shigaraki tells her that he shall defend her no matter what, she cries comically exaggerated tears of joy.


 * Tōko Mutō and Otome Itami - Mutō begins slapping Itami's hair bun back and forth extremely fast, causing it to pop open, knocking Itami's glasses off and sending Mutō falling to the floor.

Others

 * Kay Faraday - Puts her hands on her head and screams in agony as she starts to remember.


 * Issei Tenkai - Starts crying while placing his hand on his chest.

Villains

 * Olivia Ardente - Yells out in fury and tries to chop off the head of the giant fish she has with a butcher knife. It dodges, spins, and knocks her to the ground with its tail.


 * Madalla Bogen - Screams in horror and throws her flower basket high into the air. As the petals scatter all around and she continues to flail about, the basket comes back down and lands upside-down on her head, and she falls to the floor.


 * Patras Algery - Puts her hand to her mouth and fights back tears.


 * Jordalla - Clutches her head and shakes in denial as she starts to remember.

Witnesses

 * Espella Cantabella - Clutches her head in pain, screams, and falls to the floor.

Others

 * Bartley - Rears back in shock, causing his glasses to fly off his face. He scrabbles around desperately looking for them and slowly slides down beneath the prosecutors' bench out of sight.

Villains

 * Ted Tonate - Bites and pulls the red wire on his model bomb repeatedly, eventually rearing back while his goggles extend to an absurd length. With his goggles still extended, he then snaps forward and smashes his extended goggles on the bomb, causing it to break with two seconds left. His goggles finally retract, but then overload, causing them to explode in his face. He falls, and the bomb reactivates and counts down to 0, announcing "GAME OVER - DISARMING ATTEMPT FAILED."
 * Florent L'Belle - Shakes his head back and forth as he sprays himself with cologne faster and faster until a cloud of it has formed around his head. When it dissipates, his hair has returned to its natural white color and his skin color having all of its makeup removed. He then weakly answers a series of calls on his cell phones and finds out that a project of his was canceled, has lost his sponsors, been fired, and had a $100 million claim filed against him. In response to the shocking revelations, he throws his notebook up into the air and collapses forward.
 * Aristotle Means - After being accused of murder, he angrily looks downwards, then proceeds to slam his staff to the ground, causing a chalkboard to roll behind him. He then stops it with his right hand, then shapes his hair similar to that of a Greek helmet before looking up with an angry expression. When defeated, Means starts to write multiple intentionally more lenient "alternate punishments" to the very long prison sentence he would otherwise receive on his chalkboard, which include bathroom detail, retaking his bar exam, 30% salary reduction and dismissal, with the audience reacting negatively towards each suggestion by "booing" and throwing small pieces of chalk at him. On his fifth and final try, he attempts to write "Guilty," as his left hand tries to stop his other hand writing the word, but after writing the first letter, his teeth break under immense pressure and he collapses backwards onto his chalkboard.
 * Phantom - Looks around in fright after being objected to thrice, finally able to feel emotion. The background darkens as he pulls his mask of Phoenix Wright and turns into the other culprits (Ted Tonate, Florent L'Belle and Aristotle Means) as debris falls and covers his face. Afterwards, he turns into several other characters, such as Hugh O'Conner and Solomon Starbuck, and repeatedly transforms his face into the aforementioned killers, suspects, witnesses, and attorneys, with no debris to cover his face this time, while questioning who he is now that he has lost his own identity behind his masks. Phantom's face then finally turns into Bobby Fulbright's torn one and he subsequently gets shot by an unknown shooter. As Phantom falls, his mask is torn off, leaving his face hidden only by the dark after he collapses.
 * Marlon Rimes - When realizing he is cornered, Rimes grabs the barrel he holds and gulps down its contents. He tosses away the barrel and briefly wipes his mouth. Rimes then suddenly gets buffer, causing his shirt to rip, his blue cap to fly away and his ID card hanging on his chain to flip to its other side showing a chain with his name written on it in gold. Rimes takes out his pirate hat and wears it and produces a giant marlin to hold with his left hand. When defeated, the background darkens around Rimes and the ground starts to sway around, as if it were part of a rocking ship. Rain starts to pour down as Rimes is befuddled and the ground sways hard enough for him to drop his fish and support himself by holding onto the witness stand. Lightning and wind appear and Rimes starts to hold onto his pirate hat but the wind blows hard enough for the hat to blow away. Eventually, the floor rocks hard enough for Rimes to fall over after he desperately holds onto the witness stand. As the storm ends, Rimes is seen crouched under the witness stand and holding onto its bars as if it were a jail cell.

Witnesses

 * Myriam Scuttlebutt - Throws her box upwards in surprise but manages to catch it in time to conceal her face. Pencils, protractors, and scissors fall out of the box and when her laptop falls, she throws her box in surprise and notices her face is now shown. She quickly covers her face until her box falls and covers her.
 * Solomon Starbuck - Panics and accidentally activates his parachute, a strong gust of wind blowing him to the ceiling.
 * Yuri Cosmos - Becomes dizzy and falls for a short moment then accidentally smashes and breaks the main button on his mini scooter, causing it to zoom back and forth, crashing him around the courtroom, his stars flying all around him. After a while, he crashes though the main door, leaving an outlined hole of himself.
 * Simon Blackquill - When angered, he breaks his shackles, shocking everybody in the courtroom. In Turnabout for Tomorrow, when it was revealed that he lied in court about encountering Athena Cykes during the UR-1 Incident, he flinches, puts his left hand on his chest and his right on the witness stand while saying "Curse you, Phoenix Wright!" and starts breathing heavily, similar to his damage animation. In this case, however, the camera zooms out.
 * Norma DePlume - Starts to sweat as the camera zooms into her face. The camera progressively zooms out and a gust of wind suddenly blows around her. The buttons of her coat pop off, and her top starts to flop open. The scene cuts to the judge pounding his gavel and begging for her to cover up.
 * Herman Crab  - When accused of murder, he becomes completely enraged and starts kicking the witness stand with his right foot, scaring the courtroom.

Others

 * Gaspen Payne - Suddenly becomes shocked and runs out of the courtroom. This happens twice; once after Ted Tonate threatens the court with his model bomb and once when he finds out that Edgeworth wishes to see him during the end credits.
 * Athena Cykes - Whenever visualizing events from her childhood, she stumbles back with her hands in front of her then looks down at the defense bench and cradles her arms around her, falling into a mental breakdown. After Simon Blackquill reveals the truth about what happened during the UR-1 Incident, she yells "NOOOOO!" and shakes her upper body in denial.
 * Aura Blackquill - When meeting with Simon in the Defendant Lobby and seeing him thank her sincerely for what she did, Aura looks away and holds her hand near her chest, holding back her crying.

Recurring Breakdowns Throughout the Series

 * Frank Sahwit - Tears his toupée off and throws it at the person confronting him.
 * Phoenix Wright - Suddenly holds his head with both hands in despair.