As I was reading The Edogawa Rampo Reader, I came upon a essay ("An Eccentric Idea") by Edogawa about tricks used in detective literature and part of it was very familiar:

(The original story is "The Lion's Smile" by Thomas W. Hanshew)

I was kinda surprised to find this, the Gyakuten Saiban series surely uses stock-mechanics of the genre, but I never expected to find a complete trick lifted from a story ^_~' (Well, at least it was the motive storyline, and not the main trick)

Edit: dang typos.

---

Hmms, that is very interesting! I wonder if they used that sort of idea?

---

Wow, that story just got jacked. Very original, Capcom.

But imagine if they never heard of that story before. Wouldn't that be a freaky coincidence?

---

It would be a very freaky coincidence. But while I doubt the GS writer knew about the original story, I think it's very possible they read this essay by Edogawa Rampo (the father of Japanese mystery literature). Edogawa wrote two excellent essays ("An Eccentric Idea" being a supplement to the larger, better "Collection of the Classification of Tricks" ) which simply grouped tricks used in detective literature (e.g. locked rooms, switching of identity) and gave examples. In Japanese mystery circles, it is quite a famous essay and it is often recommended to new writers to read it due to its comprehensiveness.

I have read a lot of detective literature and this was the first time I encountered such an instance of copying ("plagiarism") in the GS series. Makes me wonder if other tricks were borrowed from other stories.

---

Wow, GJ Capcom

---

Y'Know what they say: "Intellegent borrows, Genius Steals..."

---