Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Kodansha Comics manga)

The Volume 1 cover.

The Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney manga is a manga series based on the Ace Attorney video games and distributed in the United States by Kodansha Comics. It was written by Kenji Kuroda and illustrated by Kazuo Maekawa and ran for a total of five volumes, with the first volume being originally published in Japan on April 6, 2007.

Kodansha comics released an English translation of the first volume in 2011 and has currently released all five volumes in the United States. Unlike the Del Ray manga, the Kodansha Comics manga is written and illustrated by one team and told more in the style of the games; an investigation of a crime followed by a trial. Unlike the games, however, there is only one investigation and one trial for each case.

Chapters

Chapter 1: Turnabout with the Wind

Phoenix Wright has to once again defend his friend Larry Butz in a murder trial.

Chapters 2 - 5: Turnabout Gallows

Wright is invited to the home of a rich computer company president and asked to defend the man in court as he has been accused of killing an employee. Wright investigates the computer company president's case, but the story takes a twist when the mysterious "Spider Man" appears. After an unexpected murder, Wright soon finds himself defending a new client for an unexpected murder, while a familiar face stands at the prosecutor's bench before him.

Chapter 6: Turnabout Showtime

Wright and Maya Fey go to a stage show at Sparkleland, only to witness the death of one of the actors. Wright has to defend the show's hostess, who reminds him of a special someone he once knew.

Chapters 7 - 9: Turnabout Prophecy

Fey drags Wright to Lordly Tailor to see some famous fortune-tellers at the Fortune Circle. However, the pair soon find themselves in the middle of another murder and Wright has to defend Russi Clover, who was supposedly possessed by a demon of death. Franziska von Karma, who (as "Madame Lovetap") was substituting for a fortune teller at Fortune Circle, acts as the prosecutor for the case.

Chapters 10 - 11: Turnabout from Heaven

Pearl Fey finds a stray cat and brings it to Wright and Maya. In an attempt to return the cat to its owner, Wright and friends soon become involved in another murder. Wright finds himself defending Diana Wheatley, who claims that her mother came back from the dead to kill the victim, her father. Edgeworth returns as the prosecutor for the case.

Chapters 12 - 13: Turnabout Gurgitation

When Milo "Fairplay" Kent, a well-respected competitor a television eating competition, is poisoned by a bowl of noodles during said competition, Wright and Maya soon find themselves defending the show's announcer for the crime. Their subsequent investigation reveals the cast and crew to be desperately trying to cover something up...

Chapters 14 - 15: Turnabout Power vs. Supernatural Power

Russi Clover once again gets herself in trouble after converting to the "Great Tengu Society", a cult that claims to give its followers supernatural powers. When an enemy of the cult is found dead, Wright must once again defend her in court against Franziska von Karma. But was the victim's death the divine retribution of the Great Lord Tengu? Or was it simply murder?

Story relation to the trilogy

The cases in the manga take place during consecutive months, strongly suggesting that they are chronologically ordered and take place all within a single year. Moreover, Pearl Fey appears in the first chapters, and both Miles Edgeworth and Franziska von Karma make appearances as rival prosecutors to Phoenix Wright throughout the manga. All this is essentially impossible within the storyline of the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy. During Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Pearl and Wright have never met. During Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice For All, Edgeworth is nowhere to be seen until Farewell, My Turnabout, to the point that Wright believes him to be dead. During Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations, von Karma does not encounter Wright until Bridge to the Turnabout, in which she greets him by saying they have not met in about a year. The aforementioned final episodes of the latter two games are precisely the only times all four characters are in the same general location, aware of each other's presence. The manga could fit into the timeline of the trilogy by ignoring one of these facts, with the one in Trials and Tribulations being the least consequential.