| Judy Bound |
Image Gallery | Sprite Gallery |
| This article contains information about Ace Attorney media that has been recently released and thus likely contains spoilers! | |
|---|---|
 Readers of this page should be aware that this article likely contains MAJOR SPOILERS concerning the media in question. You have been warned! | |
| Samson Tangaroa |
| She always puts aside her own preferences and things that she wants to do herself. ...I want Judy to choose to live her own life. I do not want her to waste her valuable life because of me. |
Judy Bound was a housekeeper who worked at Samson Tangaroa's mansion, as well as being his program partner on the musical cookery television program Bake 'n' Bop. After Tangaroa was incarcerated for murder, Bound worked as an actress until she could afford to buy back his mansion and turn it into the Zodiac Hall, of which she became the curator.
Early life[]
The title for Bake 'n' Bop.
Bound was abandoned by her biological parents at Tangaroa's doorstep on Christmas Eve, so he took care of her and raised her as his own daughter. She occasionally tried to mimic his skill in the kitchen to various levels of success. Bound worked hard in the kitchen and on Tangaroa's show, Bake 'n' Bop, as a means of expressing her gratitude. She regularly made Tangaroa chocolate, his favorite food. She also became a fan of the French sculptor Paul Halique, some of whose works were on display in the mansion.
IS-7 Incident[]
Meeting Edgeworth and Fender.
In December 2000, Tangaroa held a confectionery competition at his mansion to find someone worthy to receive the "Ultimate Cookbook", a document from the Tangaroa Group pharmaceutical company that his late father had owned. The Ultimate Cookbook contained various "recipes" for as-yet unreleased pharmaceuticals, and included procedures for making a cure for taste-affecting illnesses like ageusia and dissociated taste disorder. The Tangaroa Group disapproved of Tangaroa just giving away their trade secrets like this, so they sent one of their own, Delicia Scone, undercover to participate in the competition and win the prize. Bound wanted to protect Tangaroa, so she secretly agreed to help Scone with her dessert entries.
As part of his judging of the competition, Tangaroa would take photos of everyone's work. However, he ran out of film during the finals, so Bound went upstairs to fetch more. When she came back, she heard a crash coming from Tangaroa's room. She investigated and found the body of Artie Frost, one of the competitors. Seeing the "PH" design on his ring, she immediately realized that he was the true identity of Paul Halique. She took a photo of the scene and left to inform the authorities, but by the time she returned, the body was gone.
Tangaroa was accused of the murder, and Gregory Edgeworth took on his case with Eddie Fender acting as his assistant. Frost's entry was a set of little sherbet sculptures based on the 12 zodiac constellations; Bound feared that they might be tampered with by the police during their investigation. Because of this, Bound took photos of the completed sculptures from various angles, and transported all of them to the house cellar, one by one, using a tablecloth and baggage lift, unaware that Frost's body was hidden inside one of them. The tablecloth covering the casings made the set-up look like a tea cart rather than a lift, and she even served tea to Edgeworth and Fender, with the only hint of the sculptures underneath being that the saucers were cold. She also melted the unfinished sculptures, and later claimed that she must have tripped over the refrigerator wires as she was taking pictures, causing all of the sculptures to melt. During this time, she saw Carmelo Gusto, one of the contestants, entering the victim's room.
Frost's sculptures.
Although the police under Manfred von Karma claimed that the victim's body was in their possession, Edgeworth soon deduced that the corpse had gone missing. In court, von Karma presented a forged autopsy report, and the police backed him up on its legitimacy. The trial lasted a year until von Karma was able to force a false confession from Tangaroa. Edgeworth was able to prove that the confession had been forced, but the trial ended in a conviction for being an accomplice to the murder. Edgeworth's accusation resulted in von Karma's first and only penalty, and the beginning of the infamous DL-6 Incident.
After Tangaroa's conviction, Bound was kicked out of his mansion by his relatives. She visited Tangaroa and made chocolates for him every day. She swore that she would buy the mansion from Tangaroa's relatives. Eventually, she became a world-famous actress. After obtaining enough money to buy back the mansion, she retired from the business after 18 years and hired Scone as a resident pharmacist.
Exposing the truth[]
Gumshoe's investigation.
By the time she had bought back the mansion, the statute of limitations had run out on what became known as the IS-7 Incident. The real culprit would be immune to prosecution unless they had been out of the country for three years. Bound found the sculptures that she had hidden all those years ago, only to discover that Frost's body had been frozen inside the Gemini sculpture for all that time. The body had been disguised using one of Scone's fluorescent cloths, which she had used to decorate her entry against the rules. Bound decided to take matters into her own hands and lure out the killer herself.
Realizing that only she and the true killer would know where the body was, Bound turned the mansion into an art gallery dedicated to the works of Paul Halique, where she would claim that the sculptures were replicas of the originals. A week before the grand opening, she stole Scone's bottle of Infesticide Ultra. Having bought the Ultimate Cookbook along with the mansion, she found out how to make a poisonous gas using Ubiquium, a commonly available substance, and Asphyxion, the active ingredient in Infesticide Ultra.
On the day of the grand opening, Bound placed the sculptures in the four rooms on the first floor, themed after the seasons. However, she intentionally put the Autumn and Winter Palaces in the wrong order, and used Scone's fluorescent cloths to disguise the Autumn Palace sculptures as the Winter Palace sculptures. She booby-trapped the Pisces sculpture, disguised as the Gemini sculpture, with the Infesticide Ultra and a sample of Ubiquium, which would mix and form a poisonous gas if anyone opened the sculpture's case. She then locked the other rooms, leaving only the Autumn Palace open.
Sure enough, Gusto arrived early and took the bait. He locked the Autumn Palace door from the inside to examine the sculpture alone, while Bound opened the other rooms in preparation for the official opening of the museum. Gusto eventually reopened the Autumn Palace door, having triggered the trap, and collapsed, but he had managed to escape before the gas did too much damage. He was sent to the infirmary to recover, and Bound planted the bottle of Infesticide Ultra in his pocket to make the incident look like an attempted suicide.
Gusto was not the only one who had been drawn to the gallery. Fender brought Miles Edgeworth, Gregory's son, to look at the sculptures and talk about the IS-7 Incident. They were thus thrust into an investigation of the poisoning incident. Meanwhile, Bound moved the real Winter Palace sculptures and the Ubiquium that she had used, using the same method as before, and took Frost's body, hidden in a hollow cube of ice, to the Summer Palace, where she dumped it into a stream that led to the fountain at the entrance. The body eventually thawed and floated to the surface, finally revealing that Artie Frost had never left the scene of his murder after all.
Bound's smile.
Eventually, Edgeworth figured out what Bound had done, and accused her of both the attempt on Gusto's life and Frost's murder; she admitted the former crime, but strongly denied the latter, and Edgeworth realized that Gusto himself was Frost's murderer. When confronted, Gusto claimed that he could no longer be arrested due to the statute of limitations having expired. Bound began to despair, but Fender convinced her not to resort to further drastic measures. It was soon revealed that the statute of limitations was extended due to Gusto's three-year stay in Zheng Fa, as well as the fact that Tangaroa had been tried as an accomplice to the murder for one year, and eventually found guilty. This allowed Gusto to finally be arrested for his crime.
Bound was charged with tampering with a crime scene and attempted murder, but Fender offered to be her defense attorney. At that, Bound smiled with tears in her eyes and happily accepted the offer before being reluctantly placed under arrest by Detective Dick Gumshoe. A freed Tangaroa later stated that it was now his turn to wait for her, as she had been doing for him for all those years.
Personality[]
Aged 16.
Aged 34.
Bound was polite to a fault, and always eager to play the generous hostess, but could at times be slightly over-dramatic. She was greatly devoted to Tangaroa, to the point of doing everything for his sake rather than her own desires. Due to the expiry of the statute of limitations on the IS-7 Incident, she was willing to take drastic measures to expose the truth behind the murder for which Tangaroa had been arrested, even if it meant taking a life.
Name[]
- Japanese - Tsukasa Oyashiki (緒屋敷 司):
- Her full name in Japanese is a play on the phrase "o yashiki o tsukasadoru" (お屋敷を司る), which means "[to] manage the residence."
- The kanji "yashiki" (屋敷) in her surname mean "resident or mansion" (explained in-game as Tangaroa naming her after where he found her), but may also be a play on "Okashi" (お菓子), which means "sweet" or "candy." "敷" by itself means "blanket" or "tablecloth," likely a reference to how she moved Frost's body.
- English - Judy Bound:
- Her English name is a play on the phrase "duty bound", nodding to her personal obligation to see Tangaroa freed.
- French - Lisette Mescène:
- "Mescène" comes from "Mécène" ("Benefactor"), which is likely a reference to her purchase of the mansion and the creation of the museum.
- Chinese - Cháidǐ Sī (柴邸 司):
- "Cháidǐ" derives from "zháidǐ" (宅邸), meaning "residence". "Sī" has the same meaning as Japanese which is "[to] manage".
- "Chái" literally means "firewood", which may be a reference to one of the seven Chinese daily necessities, the other six being rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and tea (柴米油鹽醬醋茶 chái mǐ yóu yán jiàng cù chá), fitting with the housekeeper theme.
Unofficial[]
- English - Katherine "Kate" Hall:
- Her English name in the unofficial translation of Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit is "Katherine Hall," which is likely a pun on "catering hall," in-fitting with the chef theme. This is further established by her given nickname, "Kate."
- Brazilian Portuguese - Cátia Fitriam:
- In the upcoming unofficial Brazilian Portuguese translation of Prosecutor's Gambit, her name is changed to "Cátia Fitriam." "Cátia" is a feminine name meaning "pure/caste". Put together with her surname, it forms a pun on "anfitriã", the Brazilian Portuguese word for hostess, fitting with her occupations as housekeeper and museum curator.
Development[]
- She is Motohide Eshiro's favorite Prosecutor's Gambit character.[1]
- She is the only culprit in Prosecutor's Gambit who is not directly connected to the mastermind's motive or intentions throughout the game.