What a coincidence! I just started AA as well

Sad I missed this! I just started replaying the games in Japanese and have a lot to say. Some notes from this VOD, apologies if these have been addressed in the next one: 1. I believe the exact reason for why the first two cases reveal the murderer is because Shu Takumi was inspired by Columbo, and wanted to put emphasis on the the thrill of cornering the culprit rather than figuring out whodunit. Generally speaking (as I'm sure you've noticed) the AA games are far more focused on howdunits than whodunits as a whole, even in the cases where the culprit's identity is kept secret. 2. Redd White isn't actually American in Japanese-his name is Masaru Konaka. Rather, he's a Japanese businessman who *spent* a lot of time in America, so he pretends to speak mostly English, except a lot of the English he uses is intentionally broken and incorrect. He's essentially LARPing as an American business tycoon. That's why in the localization, he uses a lot of made up words in English, like Cogniferous, and uses other high vocabulary wrong. 3. Maya's "burgers" are "ramen" originally. The idea in localization is that ramen is cheap, somewhat unhealthy but tasty treat, and burgers can be considered similar from an American perspective. 4. Shu Takumi actually went to a few trials in order to study up for making the first Ace Attorney, though he ended up thinking they were really boring, which I think is funny. On that note, though, while the courtroom in Ace Attorney is definitely very whacky, it is very much based on the Japanese legal system and acts more as a satire, exaggerating all of its parts for entertainment value and to say something about it.

Sad I missed it. 😔