Manfred von Karma was a renowned prosecutor who went undefeated for 40 years, earning him numerous "King of Prosecutors" awards, before finally meeting his match in Phoenix Wright. He was Miles Edgeworth's mentor, responsible for teaching him everything about prosecuting until 2016. He was also the father and mentor of Franziska von Karma. For all the cases he took on until the case of Robert Hammond's murder, only one was left unsolved, and all of the defendants that he prosecuted were convicted. ADVERTISEMENT The defiant attorney Main article: Turnabout Legacy IS7missing Discovering the melted ice sculptures. On December 24, 2000, during a confectionery contest held by television confectioner Samson Tangaroa in his mansion, one of the finalists, Artie Frost, was murdered. Manfred von Karma was placed in charge of the case, which would later be known as the IS-7 Incident. As the body had been discovered in a room accessible only to Tangaroa, he was arrested for the murder. Initially, Ian Sideman, a police detective loyal to him[5], was made the lead detective for the case, but was soon replaced by Tyrell Badd, someone von Karma had never met before; Sideman, however, was left in charge of interrogations. Von Karma kept a tight grip on the investigation, causing him and Badd to conflict. By the time von Karma had reached the mansion on Christmas Eve, the body had already been removed. He investigated the room containing the entry of another finalist, Delicia Scone: a castle made of cream. Along with finding out that she had cheated in the contest (in that her dessert was just a model covered with a layer of cream), von Karma also found the murder weapon, a rock salt lamp, inside the castle. He learned that Tangaroa had disqualified Scone and confiscated some of the props that she had used, including the murder weapon. As von Karma was leaving, he encountered defense lawyer Gregory Edgeworth, who was representing Tangaroa. He allowed Edgeworth to investigate Scone's room, knowing that he would not find anything that the prosecutor would not anticipate. After Edgeworth's investigation, he argued with von Karma over the facts of the case. To von Karma's surprise, Badd had allowed Edgeworth to investigate the crime scene, giving him the means to poke holes in von Karma's theory. The two decided to investigate the room containing Frost's entry, a set of sculptures made of flavored ice, only to find that they had disappeared. Von Karma hurriedly kicked Edgeworth out and tried to make sense of what had occurred. He learned from Judy Bound, Tangaroa's adopted daughter, that she had seen Carmelo Gusto, the last finalist, entering Frost's room. Von Karma questioned Gusto and learned that he and Frost had secretly collaborated on each other's entries until the day before the finals, and that Gusto had entered Frost's room to retrieve a photo of the two of them with their respective sons, fearing that it would implicate him. Von Karma then took all of the witnesses to the police department for further questioning. The prosecutor returned the next day, wondering why he had still not received an autopsy report. Edgeworth was there as well, investigating with Badd. An argument ensued, during which Edgeworth used forensic evidence from a fountain to suggest that the body had been taken by the killer, not the police. Von Karma was shocked and took Badd off the case for helping Edgeworth. Desiring to protect his perfect record more than anything, von Karma decided to leave and say no more until he could figure something out for the trial. It was then that coroner Hilda Hertz finally gave him an autopsy report. Manfred Trial In court during the IS-7 Incident trial. During the trial, Edgeworth accused von Karma of hiding the fact that the body was missing, but the prosecutor presented the autopsy report, and the police vouched for its legitimacy. Despite this, the lack of evidence caused the trial to last a year. Finally, von Karma told Sideman to threaten Tangaroa into confessing to being an accomplice to the murder, by saying that Bound would be accused next if he refused. Tangaroa thus confessed, but thanks to Badd, Edgeworth obtained a recording of the confession, proving that it had been coerced. Ultimately, the trial ended in a guilty verdict on December 28, 2001, with Chief Prosecutor Excelsius Winner penalizing von Karma and firing Sideman from the police force. ADVERTISEMENT The perfect crime Main article: DL-6 Incident Turnabout Goodbyes 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! Manfred von Shot Being accidentally shot. Karmaenters Entering the courthouse elevator to kill Gregory Edgeworth. As the one thing von Karma valued above all else was his perfect record, the penalty left him shocked beyond belief. Soon afterward, an earthquake struck the courthouse, leaving von Karma wandering in the darkness. He felt his way to an elevator and tried to use it, but nothing happened. Suddenly, a gunshot rang out and von Karma was struck in the right shoulder, causing him to utter a terrible scream. Then, the power came back on, and the elevator doors opened. To his surprise, von Karma found a pistol at his feet, along with three people lying unconscious inside the elevator from oxygen deprivation: the court bailiff Yanni Yogi, a young boy, and Gregory Edgeworth. Seeing his chance for revenge, von Karma picked up the gun and shot Edgeworth in the heart, killing him instantly. Von Karma left the gun at the scene and fled, taking a "vacation" to heal his injury from the incident. Meanwhile, the blame for Edgeworth's murder, known as the DL-6 Incident, was laid at the feet of Yogi, who escaped conviction due to defense attorney Robert Hammond's argument that he was suffering from temporary insanity. Six months later, von Karma returned to work and found that Eddie Fender was appealing Tangaroa's case. He decided to assign a different prosecutor to the case, however, as he knew that the verdict would not change without new evidence. Von Karma came to train the young boy from the elevator - Miles Edgeworth, Gregory's son - to become a ruthless prosecutor like himself. For the following 15 years, von Karma's horrifying scream from the DL-6 Incident would haunt Miles, and he would believe that he had shot his own father. Eleven years later, Miles officially became a prosecutor. Soon afterward, von Karma showed him a copy of the case files from the IS-7 Incident, though he doctored them so that it read, among other things, that Tangaroa had been convicted as the perpetrator of the murder. Von Karma did this so that Miles would believe that his father's last case had been fully solved, and thus would not investigate it further. ADVERTISEMENT The second KG-8 Incident Main article: Turnabout Reminiscence Manfred and his daughter Franziska later accompanied Miles on what was to be his first trial. The defendant had accused the original prosecutor on the case, Byrne Faraday, of being the Great Thief Yatagarasu, and Miles had been selected to replace Faraday. Manfred quizzed Miles on the details of the case and then told him about a connection between the case at hand and another case, the KG-8 Incident, to which few in law enforcement were privy. However, the trial was canceled when Faraday and the defendant were found dead. Manfred assigned Miles and his daughter to lead the subsequent investigation, overriding the protests of Detective Tyrell Badd. When another detective was arrested for the murders, Manfred decided to leave the District Court. Miles and Franziska asked him to allow them to continue their investigation, arguing that it would be good experience, and he reluctantly let them proceed. The pair eventually uncovered the true culprit, although she managed to escape. ADVERTISEMENT Downfall Main article: Turnabout Goodbyes Reunion, and Turnabout (THE HORRIBLE AFTERTASTE OF THE EVIL HE FORCE-FED ME IS SOMETHING I'LL NEVER FORGET.) Fifteen years after the DL-6 Incident, Manfred sent a letter to Yogi with a detailed plan to murder Hammond (whom Yogi blamed for ruining his life by making him feign temporary insanity) and frame Miles. He instructed Yogi to burn the letter after reading it, but Yogi chose to lock it in his safe. Manfred had chosen this time to frame Miles because it would be his last chance to get Miles convicted of the DL-6 murder before the statute of limitations expired on the case. The night of "revenge" was Christmas Eve, four days before the expiry date. On schedule, Yogi called Hammond and Miles to Gourd Lake. Hammond arrived first, and Yogi proceeded to kill him. He then put on Hammond's coat and waited for Miles. Once the prosecutor arrived, the two went out on a boat, where Yogi fired a pistol twice with his left hand, both bullets intentionally missing Miles, and then fell backwards into the lake, as if he had been shot. He then put the coat back on Hammond and threw the body into the lake. Meanwhile, back on the boat, Miles picked up the pistol in his right hand, in shock at what had happened. On the shore, Yogi called the police, claiming to have witnessed the murder, and Miles was arrested. Manfred was the prosecutor in the resulting trial of Miles Edgeworth on December 26. Like most of his other cases, he intended for this case to be a quick and clean guilty verdict, and applied his usual unbearable pressure on the presiding judge, as well as Miles's lawyer, Phoenix Wright. Quite unlike most of the other lawyers he had faced, Wright persevered through Manfred's increasingly desperate tactics with desperate tactics of his own. After two days in trial, Manfred took a serious effort at covering his bases, retraining Yogi's parrot Polly so that she would not mention the DL-6 Incident and visiting the police department's Records Room to destroy the files pertaining to DL-6. However, Wright caught him in the Records Room, having figured out most of what had happened and only needing the DL-6 evidence to win the trial. In desperation, Manfred took out a stun gun, used it on Wright, and stole all of the evidence save the bullet that had killed Gregory Edgeworth, which Wright's assistant Maya Fey had managed to grab before being shocked herself. Eventually, Yogi was unmasked in court. However, after the Not Guilty verdict was rendered, Miles immediately confessed to killing his own father in the DL-6 Incident. Nevertheless, Wright soon proved Miles wrong, as Manfred had been the real killer. Wright knew that Manfred would have left the bullet Miles had shot in his body and suggested that a metal detector be used to prove that the bullet that had been fired when Miles had thrown the gun at Yogi all those years ago had really shot Manfred. The metal detector revealed that there was a bullet in Manfred's right shoulder, and the bullet that Fey had successfully retrieved was the decisive evidence needed to prove that the bullet was from the same gun. At this, Manfred emitted the same scream Miles had heard before passing out during the DL-6 Incident. His plans finally exposed, he started banging his head against the wall behind him. He had suffered his only two defeats at Wright's hand, and failed to exact his revenge on Miles. He was arrested and died soon afterward.[1] Not only did his plans for revenge ultimately fail, he never learned that Winner had manipulated the IS-7 case that had ignited his 15-year quest for revenge. The autopsy report he had received had been falsified; Winner had known all along that the body was missing and had coerced Hertz into falsifying the autopsy report. He had also used von Karma as a scapegoat, and made it look like he masterminded the false autopsy report. ADVERTISEMENT Personality Turnabout Goodbyes DECISIVE EVIDENCE. A DECISIVE WITNESS. WHAT ELSE COULD POSSIBLY BE REQUIRED? Manfred Manfred von Karma. Manfred von Karma was an intimidating prosecutor who held great sway over the courts. This was not just due to his long-spanning win record, but also thanks to his forbidding appearance complete with stoic glare and occasional sneering grin. He also had a distinctive deep, threatening voice, which manifested itself in the "horrible scream" Miles Edgeworth heard during the DL-6 Incident. His authority was enough to override those of veteran detectives such as Tyrell Badd, and he could assign his students to any trial of his choosing. He commanded respect from everyone, especially his students. Miles and Franziska address him as "sir" and "papa", respectively, and Miles has referred to him as "legendary" and a "god" among prosecutors, while Kay Faraday simply thought him "scary" when she met him. Manfred was extremely arrogant, seeing defense attorneys as nothing more than flies to be swatted and bugs to be crushed. He would often almost take over the judges' jobs during trials (such as sustaining his own objections or overruling those of the opposing defense attorney), with the judges themselves being too terrified to attempt to reassert control. He had a habit of piercingly snapping his fingers when he wanted to help get his point across and took such great pride in considering himself as "number one" that he not only set his ATM card number to "0001", but also openly proclaimed that it was such in court. Manfred von Karma's most prominent trait, however, was his obsession with perfection in every area of his life. He would do whatever it took to win a case, regardless of whether or not the defendant was actually guilty, even if it meant hiding undesirable evidence, rigging witness testimonies - even going as far as retraining a parrot - and attacking the defense team with a stun gun. He also considered other prosecutors, such as Byrne Faraday, weak for failing to get defendants convicted. However, this obsession was also his greatest weakness. The small blemish on his previously-perfect record from Tangaroa's trial led to a disproportionate response from Manfred: dissociating for several hours, murdering the defense attorney, taking in Miles as his student and then framing him for murder despite nurturing such a relationship. When Miles was to take his place as a prosecutor for the first time, Manfred seemed proud of him. However, Miles himself always speaks of him as a mentor whom he respects rather than as a parental figure. Miles was not surprised that Manfred would prosecute his trial with the aim of winning, evidently seeing his mentor as a man who would gladly prioritize his "perfect" career over him. Whatever feelings Manfred actually developed toward Miles were, they did not dissuade him from carrying out his plan to get back at the man who had ruined his perfect record. ADVERTISEMENT Name Japanese - Gō Karuma (狩魔 豪): "Gō" (豪) may come from the word "gōka" (ゴウカ), which could mean "the effect of karma" or "fires of hell". "Gō" comes from "erai" (偉い), which means "great" or "excellent". "Karuma" (狩魔) is pronounced similarly to the word "karma". In kanji terms, "karu ma" (狩 魔) means "a demon who hunts". English - Manfred von Karma: "Manfred" means "man of peace" in German, which is somewhat ironic considering his crimes and his questionable career. Although it is a common German name, "Manfred" may have also have come from Manfred von Richthofen in particular, more widely known as the infamous World War I flying ace, the Red Baron. Both men were feared in their lines of work, highly skilled, and achieved an impressive number of victories. Both were also finally defeated by a single bullet and by an opponent far less famous than themselves. "Karma" likely comes from the bad karma he had built up over the years from his questionable tactics. "Von" is a German preposition which approximately means "of" or "from". Also, German names containing a "von" are usually names of aristocrats. Alternatively, his full English name could be a play on "man freed from karma". ADVERTISEMENT Development Manfred von Karma's character design was adapted from the original idea for Miles Edgeworth, that of an older rival prosecutor for Wright. Manfred's jabot also hints at the influence he had on Miles's upbringing.[6] In addition, during his early days as a prosecutor, Miles is shown wearing an outfit very similar in style to that of his mentor. Manfred von Karma gained an animation in Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit, namely a "zoomed-in" sprite of him in the style generally reserved for protagonists and rivals. Additionally, his "shocked" sprite is a modification of the one seen in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney; he rears back in shock, but does not clutch his shoulder, as he had not yet been shot in that shoulder at the time. The sound of Manfred von Karma's piercing finger snap also appears as a sound effect in another game by Shu Takumi, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. Manfred von Karma's three physical appearances in the series to date have all been in reverse chronological order; Turnabout Goodbyes is set in 2016, Turnabout Reminiscence was in 2012, and the flashback case of Turnabout Legacy is set in 2000. ADVERTISEMENT Differences in portrayals The various media involving Manfred interpret the character and certain events in subtly different ways. The game trilogy is ambiguous about Manfred's fate, with Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All mainly stating that Franziska has "lost" her father. In Bridge to the Turnabout, it is finally mentioned that Manfred is "gone from this world". The Ace Attorney anime adaptation implies that he is still alive and imprisoned at the end of the episode "Reunion and Turnabout - 1st Trial". In Turnabout Reminiscence, Manfred seems to care more about perfection than the actual broader goal of bringing criminals to justice, as he claims that there is no point in dealing matters outside the scope of a prosecutor's job, such as criminals who are not brought to court. The live-action film reverses this in a conversation between him and Miles. The anime episode "Sound the Turnabout Melody" expands on Manfred's characterization compared to other media. It "confirms" that he in fact adopted Miles, but also that he had intended to give him up to an orphanage, but had failed to find one that would take in the boy. A scene at the end of the episode reveals that Manfred sees being "stuck" with Miles as a form of karmic justice, seemingly feeling guilt for the murder that he had gotten away with. ADVERTISEMENT References Phoenix: (Franziska was born and raised in Germany, and became a prosecutor at the age of 13. Her father was the legendary prosecutor, Manfred von Karma. He had a perfect win record for 40 long years... But now, he is gone from this world...) Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations. Capcom. Episode: Bridge to the Turnabout (in English). 2007. von Karma: How many times must I explain this to you!? Assertions require proof! And one person's entirely subjective statement is not proof of anything! Besides, even amateurs can occasionally make delicious food. Perhaps Frost was simply lucky! My wife, for example, is an amateur whose cooking puts first-class chefs to shame! Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit. Capcom. Episode: Turnabout Legacy (in English). 2024. Ash (2016-07-31). About Franziska's sibling / von Karma's other child. Court Records Forums. Retrieved on 2025-11-01. Phoenix: Exactly, Your Honor! He wanted to remember the name of his fiancée who had committed suicide. That's why he named his parrot after her! Judge: I see! I guess that is possible. Karma: Objection! Karma: Bah! A mere coincidence, that's all! My granddaughter has a dog she calls "Phoenix." Well, Mr. Phoenix Wright? Does this make you my granddaughter's fiancée!? She's only seven years old!!! Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Capcom. Episode: Turnabout Goodbyes (in English). 2014. Badd: ...Because I wasn't the first one they assigned. One of von Karma's pets was on the job before me. Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit. Capcom. Episode: Turnabout Legacy (in English). 2024.

“Wrong. There is only one thing you need to do here. You WILL slam down your gavel and say the word "Guilty". THAT IS YOUR ROLE!”