April May |
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Phoenix Wright |
(This is not good... She's already captured the heart of every man in the court!) |
April May was a secretary at Bluecorp and a witness in the murder of Mia Fey. She claimed to have seen Mia's younger sister, Maya Fey, committing the crime from her vantage point in the Gatewater Hotel.
A blackmailer's assistant[]
April May was the secretary of Redd White, the CEO of Bluecorp. Bluecorp was an information-gathering corporation that frequently used illegal methods to obtain their information and would then often use said information to blackmail various important individuals, including those in the legal system, making Bluecorp almost untouchable by the law.
"Tippity-tapping" Fey's phone[]
- Main article: Turnabout Sisters
White suspected that Mia Fey, a defense attorney, was investigating him and thus had May plant a wiretap in Fey's office to keep an eye on her. It turned out that Fey had spent most of her life gathering evidence to take him down. The wiretap also picked up a phone conversation with her younger sister Maya Fey, telling her to hold on to evidence that was stored in a clock shaped like The Thinker.
On the night of September 5th, both White and May booked a room in the hotel across from Mia's office. A little before 9:00, May ordered some iced coffee for both of them and flirted with the bellboy so that he would remember her and thus create an alibi later. White meanwhile went over to Mia's office to take the evidence and destroy it. He also killed Mia in order to silence her permanently. To guarantee the success of his plan further, he had May call the police and testify that she saw the victim's sister Maya kill her. She was told by the police to stay in her hotel room until she was called to testify.
Meeting Wright[]
April May |
You're the lawyer, aren't you? The detective told me... He said, "Don't say nothing to that lawyer, pal!" Tee hee! |
May soon received a visit from Phoenix Wright, Mia's protégé and also Maya's defense attorney. May declared that she had to go "freshen up" so that she could "look the part of the beautiful eyewitness." Upon returning, May found Wright rummaging around in the drawer she was hiding the wiretap in and quickly stopped him, letting her temper get the better of her for a second. May refused to tell Wright anything about what she had seen, what she did for a living or whether there was anyone staying with her in the hotel room. Later, while May was in the bathroom, Wright returned and found the wiretap in the drawer.
Trial tantrum[]
April May |
Oooh? Oh ho ho. Mmmrrrrrph! Ooooorrrrrrrggggghhhhhhh... hhh!!! What's it to you, porcupine-head!? That stupid clock doesn't matter, okay!? She did it! And she should die for it! Die! |
In court the next day, May was called to testify as to what she had seen. She tried to twist the facts to make it seem that Maya was the culprit, but Wright was able to find the contradictions in her testimony. Firstly, he pointed out that May made no mention of Maya's unusual clothing or hairstyle in her description of her. She then let slip that she knew about The Thinker being a clock, which was odd because it was one of only two in existence and, although it "spoke" the time, the clockwork had been removed at the time of the murder. Upon having her testimony questioned, May temporarily lost her temper and yelled at the defense attorney, much to the shock of the court. Wright then presented the wiretap as an explanation as to why May knew about the clock, and May properly lost her temper, breaking down on the stand and revealing her true personality: aggressive, sneering and temperamental. Despite this, Wright was unable to pin the murder on her and thus called the bellboy to the stand. Using the bellboy's testimony, Wright deduced that someone else had been staying with her in the hotel room. After the trial, May was arrested for wiretapping and as a possible accomplice to murder.
In detention[]
April May |
Well hello! I didn't expect anyone to visit me in such a dank place as this... It's really quite... moving. Not! You stinking lawyer! I hope you die! Have you come to laugh? Yes, laugh at the fallen Miss May! |
- The canonicity of part of this section is unclear, since the player may have to find out White's identity from Marvin Grossberg instead of May depending on which conversation choices are selected.
Wright went to visit May in the detention center to find out about the man who was in the hotel room, but May was hardly pleased to see him and refused to help. However, Wright eventually found a photograph of May's boss, Redd White, from Grossberg's law office, as well as an affidavit from the bellboy claiming to have seen White in May's hotel room with her. Wright showed the bellboy's affidavit to May and was able to find out who and where White was by bluffing to take what he had learned to the press. May still did not tell him whether or not he was responsible for Mia's death since she was scared of her employer, having seen him silence someone with her own eyes. Wright went on to prove that White was the true murderer and that Maya was innocent.
Personality[]
First impressions of April May gave the appearance of a cute, lively, and flirtatious young woman who liked to tease people and knew how to get her way. She would normally do this with her sex appeal, using a combination of ample cleavage, an innocent expression, and a cutesy style of speech.
When cornered, however, May would reveal her true personality: aggressive, sneering, and temperamental. Whenever this happened, the top heart-shaped button on her blouse turned upside down, and her left eye would start twitching subtly. Although a formidable individual herself, she was shown to be frightened of her boss Redd White, most likely since she knew he was certainly capable of murder.
May enjoyed iced coffee, ordering it at the Gatewater Hotel when she stayed there. She also appeared to believe that everything was sold in stores; this proved to be her undoing when she tried to explain that she had seen the murder weapon in a store, despite only two copies existing of said statue/clock of The Thinker, with both being made by Larry Butz.
Name[]
- Japanese - Umeyo Shōchiku (松竹 梅世):
- The first three kanji of her name (松, 竹 and 梅) mean "pine", "bamboo" and "ume" (the Japanese apricot/plum) and together make up the word "shōchikubai", which means "high, middle, and low ranking" (making it similar to White's Japanese name, which is made up of the kanji for "small", "medium" and "large"). The pine, bamboo, and plum are common subjects in Chinese and Japanese art that have come to represent winter. The "low, medium, and high" refer to the roots of the pine tree (low), the stalk of bamboo (middle), and the flowers of the plum tree, which are the first to blossom in late winter (high).
- English - April May:
- Her full name comes from months of April and May.
- French - Masha Vril:
- In a similar manner to her English/German/Spanish/Italian localized name, her full name comes from the French words for March (Mars) and April (Avril).
Unofficial[]
- Brazilian Portuguese - Márcia Abril: [1]
- "Márcia" is the feminine form of the English name "Martin", which in turn originates from the Latin "Martīnus", meaning "of war/warlike/martial" or "of [the Roman God] Mars"; the etymology of the month of March comes from Mars, thereby linking it to month-theming of her name in the English/German/Spanish/Italian and French localizations.
- "Abril" is a existing surname that originates from the Spanish and Portuguese for the month of April, thereby adapting the English/German/Spanish/Italian and French localized names.
- Notably, the months referenced in her name are different from the English/German/Spanish/Italian and French localized names (i.e., March & April, rather than April & May).
Development[]
- Her outfit consists of a business suit with a lavender pink blazer with rose pink hearts, a white skirt with slits, and matching shirt. She wears lavender pink high-heels with a rose pink heart. She also has rose pink hair in a stylized flip and wears make-up, small rose pink heart earrings, and matching nail polish. In the anime, her hair appears somewhat less detailed.
- The hearts on May's suit turn upside-down when her temper gets the better of her. Her suit would also vary from two or three hearts throughout her artworks and sprites.
- April May and Redd White's Japanese names were chosen together. They were some of the first characters created and they set the standard for all the witnesses that would follow them, both in terms of eccentricity and pun-based names.
- Originally Wright was not to meet May until her court appearance, whereupon he would get "heart eyes". The script was changed, however, so Wright would meet her during his investigation instead. The affiliated sprite was cut from the final version of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
- Both May and White accused individuals whose surnames rhyme with their own; April May accused Maya Fey and Redd White accused Phoenix Wright.
- While most unmarried female witnesses are addressed by the title "Ms.", April May is referred to as "Miss".
References[]
- ↑ "Nomes - Jacutem Sabão". Advogados de Primeira. Retrieved on 2022-02-22.