Vice Chairman Antino Nivantes is the overarching antagonist of the Ace Attorney stage production Gyakuten Saiban ~ Gyakuten no GOLD MEDAL. Nivantes is an official of the World Judicial Union, as well as the mastermind behind the union's hidden corruption rumored to exist in its history. He takes all measures possible to erase the history of his crimes, including and up to murder, even if it means risking destroying the Union itself.
He was portrayed by Japanese actor Hiroshi Tagami.
Biography[]
Nivantes had a lengthy history in the Judicial Federation, the subordinate under Kim Cromack and eventually also under Kim's son Jack, who succeeded his father. As whispers would tell, the Union was rife with corruption, Vice Chairman Nivantes being the source. He made backalley deals with syndicates all over the world for the Union to maintain influence while pretended it enforced the law as it should, isolating form the public and barely making statements. His primary enforcer was a hitman under the alias Maldeo Valenbough, assisted by two henchmen, Shorty and Sleepy. Valenbough was dispatched to retrieve dossiers taken by Fukashigi Yukari, the leader of the Rabbits protest group, naming Nivantes as the chief of the Union's criminal operations as well as a list of its affiliates. Valenbough ended up shooting Yukari dead, while her children Yoko and Kojiro hid in a closet to protect themselves. Yoko inherited the Rabbits group from Yikari, while Kojiro earned a law degree and decided to infiltrate the organization. he kidnapped the daughter of an employee, Junant Maltson, for the ransom of the microchip with the digitized information Yukari was to release fifteen years ago when she was shot. Maltson hid the chip in the gold medal for the Union's Judicial Olympics, and the president, Prosecutor Godot, decided to find the kidnapper, he'd lure all attorneys worldwide to the Olympics. Nivantes was against it and just wanted the chip back, but Godot stuck his authority out to override Nivantes' agendas. Kojiro did attend, but not as a contestant; he was Truth-kun, the Olympics' mascot. When he recognized Valenbough at the award ceremony as his mother's assassin, he confronted Valenbough and stabbed him with a custom knife Yukari passed onto him. With his last ounces of life, Valenbough tried to take the chip from in the medal Phoenix Wright was awarded, as did Yoko, who pulled her own custom knife. The lights went out, and when they came back on, Valenbough was dead. Yoko realized Kojiro returned and was guilty, so she tried to take the fall. The press demanded a trial, and against Nivantes' insistence, Jack Cromack agreed. Nivantes tried to get the chip back from Nick vehemently, scrambling to avoid the revelation of its contents. Nick revealed he swallowed it from the altercation at the ceremony, so he needed to pass it through his body with laxatives. When Yoko was proven to be innocent of murder, as her knife was found in a promotional sign and not in Valenbough, Nivantes sent Shorty and Sleepy to kidnap Nick and Franziska von Karma to either beat the chip out of him or make him defecate it out. The other leading characters rescued them, and Kojiro disrupted the trial by taking Jack hostage. He demanded the chip be accessed and the contents published to save Jack's life, but the passwords weren't accepted in. Nick signaled Franziska to cause another blackout, knowing the criminal mastermind would go for the chip. Nivantes saw his chance, entered the password, and then swallowed the chip. He alternately pleaded to Jack it was to protect the Union, while smugly professing there would be no more evidence to investigate the Union. Additionally, footage revealed he keyed the correct password to the chip (the first 16 numbers for pi in reverse), but he was denied and the data locked. Godot boasted his trap finally worked, then revealed the chip in the medal was a decoy, producing the real one. The password finally worked, and Nivantes was revealed to be the director of the Union's criminal operations. He laughed and went on a long confession about how he believed crime was controlled by participating in it, insulting the Cromack family for their beliefs in justice. He beat Shorty and Sleepy or their failures, and Kojiro was near killing him, but Yoko stopped him. Nivantes then stole his knife and slashed his arm, hoping to get out of the standoff. Jack grabbed the knife and punched Nivantes to take him down. He and his accomplices were all arrested. Kojiro was also detained, but he said goodbye to Yoko before he went into custody. The Union vowed to clean up after its own history with transparency, and Nick won the prize of the chairman's throne for his success in the Olympics.