| NOTE: This page is only about his original Visual Novel series and live action versions as his anime adaption counterpart do not qualify as Pure Evil, thus, only the original trilogy and Live Action versions of Manfred Von Karma’s info and crimes should be put here. |
| “ | Decisive evidence... A decisive witness... What else could possibly be required? | „ |
| ~ Manfred von Karma |
| “ | You and your father are my curse! Your father shamed me with a penalty on my record! And you... you left a scar on my shoulder that would never fade! I...I'll bury you! I'll bury you with my bare hands! DEATH! DEATH! | „ |
| ~ Von Karma's iconic breakdown. |
Manfred von Karma (Japanese: Gou Karuma) is one of the two overarching antagonists (alongside Excelsius Winner) of the Ace Attorney franchise.
He is the main antagonist of the fourth chapter of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and the posthumous antagonist of Justice For All.
He is the "God of Prosecution" who is obsessed with protecting his perfect record of winning cases, forging evidence and killing anyone who stands in his way in order to do so. He is also the biological father of Franziska von Karma and the adoptive father of Miles Edgeworth.
He was originally voiced by Masakazu Sugimori in the Japanese version. In the movie, he was portrayed by Ryo Ishibashi. While in the anime, he was voiced by Akio Ōtsuka in the Japanese version, and by Bill Jenkins in the English dubbed version.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- For forty years, he forged evidence to get countless people sentenced to prison in order to leave his perfect record of winning cases intact, uncaring about if the people truly were guilty, abusing his subordinates and intimidating investigators to obstruct investigations.
- When Artie Frost's body went missing during the IS-7 case, he attempted to use a forged autopsy report from Excelsius Winner in order to prove the "guilt" of Samson Tangaroa, before psychologically torturing Tangaroa for a year to extract a false confession from him, reaching the point where Tangaroa's hair turned white, finally coercing him after threatening to incriminate his adoptive daughter Judy Bound for the murder instead.
- He murdered Gregory Edgeworth just because he ruined his perfect record, making him responsible for DL-6 which affected many people in a negative way, such as giving Miles nightmares about potentially killing his father for fifteen years and ruining Yanni Yogi's life due to his wife committing suicide and Yogi still being seen as the culprit despite his innocence being proven.
- Additional fallout of DL-6 included the Fey clan becoming pariahs due to Redd White finding out about Misty Fey's secret summoning of Gregory Edgeworth and leaking it to the press. This would cascade into the corruption of Morgan Fey and Dahlia Hawthorne, who would play significant roles in the second and third games respectively.
- He adopted Miles Edgeworth solely for the purpose of turning him into the antithesis of his father just to spite the two of them.
- He abused his two children, Miles Edgeworth, his adopted son, and Franziska von Karma, his biological daughter, by forcing them to constantly compete against each other to gain his approval, with him being cold and neglectful towards them even in his best moments.
- He manipulated Yanni Yogi into murdering Robert Hammond and framing Miles for it, all so he could spite Gregory for something that happened fifteen years prior.
- He tampered with the testimonies during the trial for Hammond's murder to gain an advantage and assure Edgeworth's conviction.
- He tazed Phoenix Wright and Maya Fey with a stun gun to steal the DL-6 evidence despite knowing the stun gun could potentially kill them, with him then seemingly destroying all of the DL-6 evidence that could incriminate him.
- He trained Yanni Yogi's pet parrot, Polly to prevent her from bringing up DL-6 in order to gain an advantage against Phoenix in court.
- As Miles was testifying about DL-6, he momentarily manipulated him into fully believing he killed his father despite knowing about the nightmare he had been having about it.
- He showed no remorse after being convicted, only blaming Gregory for giving him a penalty and Miles for giving him a scar on his shoulder, fully believing they were at fault instead of himself with him threatening Edgeworth that he will "bury" him with his bare hands.
- Although he died shortly after being convicted, this death is off-screen and not played for sympathy, with even his own daughter stating that her grudge against Phoenix is not for her father's sake.
- While he may have funny moments such as blurting out his ATM card's number in the middle of court, he is still taken very seriously by Ace Attorney's narrative and all of his crimes are played for maximum horror otherwise.
- Despite the high Heinous Standard, he easily passes it due to his torture of Samson Tangaroa along with his actions causing the series due to being the culprit of DL-6, giving Edgeworth nightmares about his fathers murder for 15 years and getting defendants falsely convicted for 40 years, giving him the highest amount of lives ruined in the entire series.
Trivia[]
- Manfred von Karma is only a Pure Evil in the games and the live-action movie. His anime counterpart is noticeably less evil, having some moments where he shows genuine love for Franziska and respect for Miles, as well as his role in orchestrating Hammond's murder being more ambiguous, furthermore, his most heinous moments (e.g., psychologically torturing Samson Tangaroa for a whole year to extract a false confession from him and tazing both Phoenix Wright and Maya Fey to steal a evidence) were omitted.
External Links[]
- Manfred von Karma on the Villains Wiki
- Manfred von Karma on the Ace Attorney Wiki
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 Pure Evils
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Games Movie Fanon See Also | ||
 Pure Evils
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Strider Darkstalkers Devil May Cry Asura's Wrath Crossovers See Also | ||