| “ | Desserts are the only things that are important to me! | „ |
| ~ Carmelo Gusto |
| “ | What reason do I have to let those who obstruct me live? He was the one who drew first blood. I simply gave him his just desserts! | „ |
| ~ Carmelo Gusto on why he killed Artie Frost. |
Carmelo Gusto (Japanese: Yutaka Kazami) is a major antagonist in Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit, serving as the main antagonist of the episode "Turnabout Legacy". He is a pastry chef who took part in Samson Tangaroa's confectionery contest in 2000.
Biography[]
Gusto specialized in making candy into various shapes by using candy pumps to fill them with air and then molding them, yet he had trouble with the taste due to Dysgeusia. With his issues, he makes his son his taste tester. One day, Samson Tangaroa announced a competition with the prize being the Angel's Recipe which would help cure his illness. He entered the competition alongside Artie Frost as his collaborator. Unfortunately for Gusto, Frost was planning on betraying him by cutting off his ties with him. Desperate, Gusto cheated his way to the prize by taking pictures of the Angel's Recipe after breaking into Tangaroa's room. Catching him in the act, Frost planned to tell the others about his misdeed, which led to him murdering his fellow contestant and attempting to pin the blame on Delicia Scone. This event became known as the IS-7 incident, which unintentionally pinned the blame on Tangaroa for 18 years after Gusto hid Frost's body inside an ice sculpture. He would go on with his dreams to be a better pastry chef during his time abroad in Zheng Fa for training before returning to the United States to kickstart his career.
Gusto would eventually find himself back at the crime scene when Judy Bound planned to bring the ice sculptures for display. Panicked that the body would be discovered again, he planned to retrieve it only for poison gas to be released from the sculpture, nearly killing him. After Judy Bound's attempted murder was uncovered, Edgeworth questioned Gusto about his past which led them to discover that he was the true culprit behind the incident. Gusto laughed and confessed after pointing out that the statute of limitations had officially passed, rendering him legally innocent of wrongdoing. However, after some encouragement from Eddie, Edgeworth realized that while it may have passed, it didn't pass for Gusto due to a couple of legal extensions based on the case and Gusto's actions. After realizing there was nowhere left to run, he proceeded to sculpt a statue of himself before cutting it in half as he's taken away and eventually tried for his crimes.
Personality[]
Before Gusto was revealed as the killer, he came across as an aloof and stoic yet helpful and cordial man who wasn't incredibly gifted in confectionery but still found joy in it. In reality, he was an opportunistic and selfish man who saw people as tools to help further his ends. After regaining his taste and murdering Frost, he abandoned his son and fled the country, leaving the innocent Samson Tangaroa to take the fall.
When encountered in the present, he had become far more cunning and crafty, as well as a far better confectioner. He retained his dismissive aura but was far more aggressive and arrogant, believing himself to have gotten away with murder. His selfishness had only grown over time, as he solely blamed Judy Bound for poisoning him, despite only getting poisoned due to trying to remove Artie Frost's body to avoid suspicion.
His arrogance turned out to be his downfall, as Gusto gloated to Edgeworth that he did indeed kill Frost but couldn't be prosecuted due to the statute of limitations. Unfortunately for him, as he had left the country for 3 years and Tangaroa was only convicted as an accomplice rather then the culprit which halted the statute of limitations for a year, he was still within the law as only 14 years had passed within the law, leading to his arrest for the murder.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Gusto's name was Dane Gustavia in the fan translation, with his last name sounding similar to "gustatory", which is a word used to refer to things associated with tasting or the sense of taste. "Dane" is the demonym for a citizen of Denmark, although in-game he is said to be Russian.
- Gusto abandoning Saint was the first step of Saint's descent into misanthropy, meaning Gusto inadvertently caused many of the events of the game, despite being the culprit least involved in the game's story.
- Gusto is likely to be blind in one eye, due to the scars as well as the fact it's always closed, even when he's shocked. As the scars on his arms only appear in the present day as well as the fact his hat has a small part of it slashed, Gusto likely had some sort of cooking mishap that partially blinded him.
- Gusto is the only culprit not directly related to the events of the main storyline, as Bronco Knight, Fifi Laguarde, Excelsius Winner, and Simeon Saint are all closely connected. He's instead a cause of Saint's villainy.
External Links[]
- Carmelo Gusto on the Ace Attorney Wiki
