MANFRED VON KARMA

Manfred von Karma was the mentor of Miles Edgeworth and the father of Franziska von Karma. (Revealed thru the guidebooks, its mentioned by Franziska she has a older sister. Although she is never shown or mentioned in-game. Its likely she is also the mother of the granddaughter mentioned by Manfred.) Manfred was a feared prosecutor with a 40 year win streak, which was maintained thru means of corruption such as witness intimidation and forgery of evidence. He was involved in the DL-6 and IS-7 incidents. Manfred met Gregory Edgeworth during the IS-7 incident in which they investigated the murder of Issac Dover/Pierre Hoquet. The trial lasted for about a year, during the trial Manfred presented a forged autopsy report. Which was called out by Gregory Edgeworth. Manfred, for the first time in his career, recieved a penalty for presenting the autopsy report. (Which was given to him by Blaise Debeste) Afterwards, the power went out in the building leaving Gregory Edgeworth, Miles Edgeworth, and Yanni Yogi trapped inside a elevator. They all passed out from lack of oxygen. Manfred, in a dissociative state (Not explictly stated, but heavily implied it was one) walked near the elevator. Inside, Yanni and Gregory were fighting inside, and Miles threw the gun at Yanni in a attempt to make them stop fighting. It fired, but shot Manfred in the shoulder instead. The elevator then opened, and Manfred believing it was destiny, picked up the gun, and shot Gregory. He then took the first and only vacation in his life to recover from the bullet. (Its unknown how he managed to leave the courthouse and go home after being shot and probably bleeding.) And then adopted Miles to spite Gregory, and shaped Miles into a prosecutor. After the incident, no one knew Manfred was the one to shoot Gregory. So Yanni Yogi was accused instead, which ruined his reputation and caused his fiancee, Polly, to commit suicide. Miles also believed he was the one to kill his father by accident. Years later on the anniversary of the incident, Manfred sent a anonymous letter to Yanni Yogi, telling him to get his revenge on Miles by dressing up as Robert Hammond (The defense attorney for Yanni) and make it look like Miles murdered Hammond since he got Yanni off the hook for his fathers murder. However the plan backfired as Phoenix Wright, Miles defense lawyer, proved that it was orchestrated by Manfred, and also he was the true murderer of Gregory Edgeworth by using a metal detector to reveal the bullet in his shoulder, and also by cross examining Yanni Yogis pet parrot, Polly, who was also named after his late fiancee. After this, its implied by his daughter, Franziska, he was executed. Although it should be noted that its really unknown what counts for the death penalty in Ace Attorney, but its likely his past crimes of corruption may have also played a part in his sentencing. (Or Franziska may have just been dramatic since she says Miles is undeserving of "The von Karma name", believing he is a criminal. So she may have just disowned Manfred similarly.) As for Manfreds personal life, its mostly unknown apart from knowing a few family members. But none are ever named apart from Franziska. In the first game he mentions having a granddaughter with a pet dog named Phoenix, (And, once again, in guidebooks its mentioned by Franziska she has a older sister.) and in Investigations 2 he mentions having a wife. (But Investigations 2 should be taken with a grain of salt as I cannot verify the original text since we are going by the fan translation*) Personality wise, Manfred is perfection obsessed and despises defense attornies. Its unknown why Manfred dislikes defense attornies so much. Manfred was also strict to Franziska and Miles, which also lead them to have insecurities in their later years. It should be noted though that Manfreds obsession with perfection may be similar to Franziska and Miles obsession with it, being that he may have gone thru a similar experience. But that is unknown along with his years before becoming a prosecutor. Manfreds only known friend is Ernest Amano, who we meet in the first Investigations game.

PAGE IS MISSING: HD AAI sprites

Manfred appears in the fourth case of the first game, he appears in the fourth case of Investigations 1, and in the third case of Investigations 2. Both are in flashback scenes. He appears in the anime, live action movie, and pachinko. Below are official art and things hes in!

Official media from Capcom or other sources. Hover over images for more info!

Sprites

Below here are fan works! From fan art to fiction.
Dm me if you wish to be included!

These are doujin works including him! Including as much info
about them as possible.

Name: KEEP OUT 爺さんトリオアンソロジー
Characters: Manfred von Karma, Damon Gant, Blaise Debeste
Pairings: N/A
Authors/Artists: えす, めぐみ, あかつき
Circle: カラフル
Other: A5 / 84p / Novel + Manga + Anthology / Suruga-ya / Otaku Republic / Twitter

One of Manfreds concept art has him as a conductor, he was also taken from Miles Edgeworths original design, being that Miles was originally much older looking. The sound used for his fingersnap is also used in another game made by Shu Takumi, being Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective!

Manfred was really the first character that made me fall in love with all the villains of the series, so he has a bit of a special spot for me. I know I say this about every villain, but it is espically true with Manfred, I really wish we knew more about him! We have so much vague information it leaves so much room for plot dev and just ugh I'd love to learn more. Espically his relationship with other characters like Ernest Amano and Blaise Debeste. Its a given hes a asshole (obviously), but I feel like people overly hate him and really miss out on his potential. Or idk, maybe I'm just a sucker for evil old dudes :P