D3’s Simple DS Series Vol. 48 THE Saibanin, the adventure game about a ghost who haunts a judge and jury to influence the trial of his own murderer, is even more interesting than I thought.

As pointed out by a retailer sign posted on Akibablog, the game launched on May 21 — the same day as Japan’s new jury system law went into effect. Under the new law, around six jurors, called saibanin (“lay judge” as Wikipedia translates it) decide the outcome of criminal cases along with up to three professional judges.

Not only does the saibanin law make THE Saibanin more topical, it does the same for last year’s Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney. The advent of a jury system is one of the major plot points in that game as well!

The AsoBitCity employee who made the retail signage for THE Saibanin was much less concerned with the topic than with the identity of the writer, Shojiro Endo. I can’t really find any good information about his game work, even on his website, so I’m just going to assume he’s amazing.

Import: Simple DS Series Vol. 48: THE Saibanin

tags / the saibanin / d3 / simple ds / apollo justice