Manfred Von Karma

""Decisive evidence... A decisive witness... What else could possibly be required?""

- Manfred von Karma

Manfred von Karma is a master prosecutor, who never lost a case in his 40-year career until he faced Phoenix Wright. He lives for his carreer, and is very obssessed with perfection. He is the main antagonist in the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney case, Turnabout Goodbyes.

The DL-6 Incident
Von Karma was known as the god of prosecutors. On his trials, he always played the judge, the attorney, the defendant and the testimonies like marionettes. The main characteristics of his achievements were perfectly clean testimonies and perfectly clean evidences, leaving no shadow of doubt on anyone. He never lost a case, prizing his perfect record above all else. But once in a case, he got a penalty, because the attorney of the case, Gregory Edgeworth, accused him of using forged evidence. Von Karma won the case, but the loss of his perfect record affected him deeply. Gregory and his son, Miles Edgeworth, as well as the bailiff Yanni Yogi, entered the elevator to leave the court, when a earthquake struck the place, leaving the three of them trapped, and von Karma dizzy and totally lost. The oxygen inside the elevator started to run low, leaving the three desperate and confused. Yogi drew a gun, but Gregory knocked it. The gun fell near Miles, who picked it and threw it blindly at Yogi. At that time, von Karma was near the elevator, when the gun hit Yogi and fired. The bullet hit von Karma in the shoulder, who shouted a demonic scream that became the nightmare of Miles. They fell unconscious shortly after, and as the door opened, von Karma saw the three lying on the floor and the gun near them. Never thinking twice, von Karma picked the gun and shot at Gregory, who died instantly. Yogi was accused of the murder, but was found innocent because his attorney, Robert Hamond, pledged for insanity. Yogi's life was totally ruined, the he decided to play as a crazy person, renting boats on a lake. In order to not raise suspicion, von Karma took a three-month vacation, this being the first and only time in his life he ever took a vacation. He hid the bullet from everyone, and after healing from the shot, he decided he would have an even bigger revenge on Gregory. So he adopted the young Miles and raised him along his daughter Franziska.

Training Edgeworth
Von Karma taught Miles everything about prosecution, and Miles became a prosecutor, as well as Franziska. Years later, von Karma put his revenge plan into work. He contacted Yogi through a letter, giving him instructions about a plan to take revenge on Robert Hammond and Miles Edgeworth, who Yogi held for his ruin. So Yogi contacted both Robert and Miles to go to the lake at different times. As Robert arrived, Yogi killed him with a point-blank shot and threw him at the lake. As Miles arrived, Yogi and him used a boat to go to the center of the lake, and Yogi shot at nothing in particular just to call the attention of anyone who happened to be at the lake, the shot again and dropped at the lake, leaving the gun behind. Miles was obviously accused of the murder, and von Karma assigned himself as the prosecutor of the case, to make sure everything would go according to his plan, and to see Miles ruined by himself.

Miles Edgeworth's Trial and defeat
Phoenix accuitted Miles, only for miles to confess to murdering his father Gregory. Remembering evidence that TWO bullet shots had been fired, Phoenix became convinced that something else was happening. Although von Karma stole most of the evidence, he failed to steal the bullet recovered from Gergory Edgeworth. In the final trial, Phoenix realized that von Karma kept the bullet in his shoulder, so he used a metal detector to prove this. Von Karma tried to argue otherwise, but when Phoenix revealed the other bullet and got consent to remove von Karma's bullet, von Karma realized that he was finished and released the same scream that he had 15 years earlier. Edgeworth finally realized the truth and as von Karma confessed, he banged his head repeatedly against the wall screaming Edgeworth's name. After 40 years, he had finally been defeated, and now he was exposed as the murderer that he truly was. Von Karma was then arrested and sentenced to death.

Breakdown
Von Karma slams his hand at the prosecutor stand and literally roars Edgeworth's name while images of the DL-6 Insident flash behind him. He then begins to slam his own head in the wall behind him, getting faster and faster by the moment.

Personality
The main aspect from Von Karma's personality is his perfectionism. He is totally obssessed with perfection. He is very arrogant and egoccentric, and seem to be devoided of emotions. Von Karma is also shown in Ace Attorney Investigations to be restrictive with his daughter, which obviously reflected in her personality. As he is always accostumated with winning a case regardless of evidence value, von Karma hates to lose, and tries everything in his power to prevent the defense from winning (going as far as to knock Wright unconscious with a stun gun).

Name

 * "Manfred" is the German word for "man of peace", which can be considered ironic due to his personality. It can also be an allusion to Manfred von Richthofen, know in World War I as the "Red Baron", who also had a great amount of victories and was, indeed, defeated by a single bullet much like von Karma.
 * "Von Karma" is an allusion to the bad karma he developed over the years. His daughter carries the same influence and power as her father did.
 * His Japanese name, "Karuma" (狩魔), is the romanization for "karma", while "Gou" (豪) may come from "gouka" (ゴウカ), which means "from the fires of hell".