Archived fic rec - One of Every Color

[sakura_no_miko]

Title: One of Every Color

Author: Croik

Fandom: Phoenix Wright / Gyakuten Saiban

Rating: NC-17 (maybe a hard R)

Pairing: Phoenix/Edgeworth

Warnings: explicit sex (gay), violence, arson, loss of a child, murder, angst

Other notes: court case fic, alternate universe, friendship,

Length: 85k

Summary: After GS3 Phoenix appeals an old case, which forces him to choose between a woman’s life and an old friend.

 

I am so glad I found this. I originally read it at adultfanfiction.net, which seems to have crashed the formatting on several old stories, making them utterly unreadable. (No, really, try.) I give a small prayer of thanks that this story survived the many fanfiction.net purges of “adult” fic, because this was a great story to come back to.

This fic was written before the third game was translated, hence why there’s an odd mix of Japanese and English names in the fic. As you might know, the English version of the game was heavily localized, changing names and puns and giving the English version a life of its own. In recent years, the louder fringes of fandom have been crying out for more literal translations of anime and games, partially as a backlash to the heavily edited, censored, and just plain made up “translations” that plagues the 80s and 90s. Now it seems like the scale has tipped back way into the other direction, with people leaving in all the honorifics, leaving attack names untranslated, etc. I think the Phoenix Wright games are a really good example of localization done right: humorous, energetic, and easy-to-read, even if not a strict translation.

But, yes, you might need a character guide to figure out who is who. The main changes seem to be Ayame/Iris and Urami/Viola, if that helps.

This is a great story. The author not only manages her characters and their growth with a deft hand, she makes up a compelling original character and an entire court case. This fic reads like it could be part of the games–albeit with more sexuality and violence than the games contain. I don’t mean that in the “grimdark, mature things are violent and sexy” way. The games are great fun, but they tend to be a little–well, I shouldn’t say “family friendly,” since there is still murder–but this story takes it a step further. The morality is much more grey in this story, the motivations more complicated, both horrific and sympathetic. By the end of the story, both Phoenix and Miles have taken a massive step forward in their lives, lost a bit of innocence, started trying to make amends.

It’s a great read.

 

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Originally posted on tumblr on 09/25/12