Ace Attorney/Ho Yay

Gumshoe: You know, there's something about that lady... I mean, guy.
Phoenix: Huh!? You can't stop thinking about him!?

Gumshoe: Not like that, pal! Gimme a break! He's not my type.

—Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations

Phoenix: [Regina] must have some sort of strange power over [men].
Maya: You're not kidding. Two people in one day. Even I want to profess my love for her.

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• The relationship between Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth in the Ace Attorney series starts to creep into the picture in the first game, but hits its stride in the second when Phoenix acts like a spurned girlfriend over Edgeworth's self-imposed disappearance, considering it a betrayal.
  • And it only starts there. The final case in Trials and Tribulations was filled with it. Like when an earthquake threatens to collapse the freezing cavern Maya's trapped in, and all Wright can think about is how Edgeworth (who, to be fair, has a crippling phobia of earthquakes) is doing at the time. Or when he follows Edgeworth into the garden afterwards to "hug it out with him."
  • To say nothing of suggesting that Phoenix let Franziska, a whip-wielding female prosecutor, take her frustrations out on him while Edgeworth watches, saying that it would make a good souvenir of his visit.
  • Not to mention how an official art released by Capcom showed Edgeworth in a pink apron helping Maya make a Valentine's Day chocolate statue of Phoenix, using a picture of Phoenix for reference. Proof here, and Phoenix is even shirtless in the picture.
  • The fact that, in Justice For All, the item you give Miles at the end is supposed to be a whip, to...express his feelings for Edgeworth.
  • That instance in Trials and Tribulations where Edgeworth calls Phoenix his 'partner'. Even in the Japanese, the term used was ambiguous.
  • And then there's the simple fact that Phoenix has essentially based his entire life and career around Miles Edgeworth. After knowing him for only one year. In grade four. Although Phoenix manages to avoid being a Stalker with a Crush because he doesn't actually try to hunt Edgeworth down until he reads an article about the 'Demon Prosecutor' and decides that his purpose in life is to save Edgeworth from what Edgeworth has become.
  • After Edgeworth vanishes at the end of 1-5, poor, bereft Phoenix can't even stand to hear the briefest mention of his name. As far as Phoenix is concerned, this is apparently a tragedy on par with the end of the world.

Maya: It was always back and forth with them. But when you're rivals for life...
Phoenix: Maya! Please don't mention that name ever again...
Maya: Huh...? But why, Nick?
Phoenix: I'm... I'm sorry, Maya. I forgot you don't know...
Phoenix: He... He's... He's gone... And he's not coming back...

• • By Trials and Tribulations, the writers and translators, having noticed their large fanbase, seemed to go out of their way to insert homoerotic Double Entendres in otherwise unremarkable scenes. Pretty much every scene with Gumshoe in it, for instance, ends up with at least one jab at someone's sexuality.
  • Apparently the Ho Yay's memetic enough for it to show up when Phoenix and Edgeworth make cameos in Marvel VS Capcom 3. In She-Hulk's ending, the two are scared enough of the green-skinned woman that they start holding each other out of fear.
    • If you don't know the context, it almost seems as if she is interrupting something.
• Even after Godot arrests and prosecutes him for murder Ron DeLite has an adoring interest in the coffee fiend. He admits fully to having a lifelong fascination with "mysterious masked men" and Godot refers to him as a 'kitten', a term he usually reserves for attractive women.
• There's also the Guy Love vibe from Gumshoe and Edgeworth, especially the way Gumshoe is almost always around Edgeworth and becomes incredibly defensive when anyone badmouths Edgeworth even in the slightest.
  • It's just as easily interpreted as one-sided puppy love. Gumshoe is all happy and excited to see Edgeworth (until being scolded, in which case he cringes); if anyone insults Edgeworth, he does the human equivalent of growling and snapping at them; and no matter how many times he's kicked ("Detective, isn't your salary review coming up soon?") he keeps on coming back -- and he's still always happy to see Edgeworth. There's also the total devotion thing.
• In the fifth episode of the DS port of the first game, Les Yay and Ho Yay reside happily. Attracted to Mia intellectually, Lana. Right...
• There's also how (engaged to someone else) Max Galactica refers to both Phoenix and Maya with terms of endearment, although this may well be part of his stage persona, given that his act is very much being a visual kei/glam rock-styled illusionist.
• Adrian/Franziska fanart seems to be gaining steam lately, thanks in no small part to Adrian's ending in the third game where she tells Phoenix that she got a chance to meet Franziska in her home country, and learned how to use a whip. Wonder what kind of lessons she learned there, hmm?
  • There's also the fact that by the end of the third game, it's clear that Franzie's starting to soften up... but just to other females.
  • There's also Adrian's tendency to get close to and imitate other women...
• Klavier and Apollo have those vibes in Apollo Justice, especially with Klavier's line about Apollo inspecting him the same way the ladies do.
  • In the last case Trucy tells Apollo, in regards to Klavier, "I know it's hard for you but he's a handsome guy." to which Apollo replies, "What's 'hard'?"
  • Heck, at one point, Apollo outright thinks that, "I'll wipe that smile off your pretty face, Gavin!"
• This rather interesting pic of the Fey Sisters and April May seen here closely embracing each other. While Maya seems uncomfortable, Mia and April sure don't. ^{[dead link]} Some fans have joked that the Les Yay would have been REALLY blatant if Maya wasn't there.
• And the Lang/Edgeworth vibe in the last case of Investigations, especially during the final-final-final-final-final-final confrontation, and directly afterwards.
  • Lang's patronizing taunts of "My ignorant little pretty boy" are fun, too. Especially considering Edgeworth's reactions.
• From Gyakuten Kenji 2 we have Manosuke and Souta. They're confirmed to be Heterosexual Life Partners, to the point where Edgeworth refers to them using terms normally reserved for couples.
• Also in Gyakuten Kenji 2 in the final case Yumihiko, starts idolizing Edgeworth in the Ho Yay manner after Edgeworth saves him in the final case and later breaking him out of his Heroic BSOD.
• A squicky example from the final case of Ace Attorney Investigations 2 between Yumihiko and his dad. It's pretty much impossible for one's eye to not at least twitch when a grinning Bansai suggests "going home to 'play' with dad" and Yumihiko starts trembling as a reaction.

Yumihiko: D- Dad…
Bansai: Hm? Hey, hey, what’s the matter? You want dad to play with you?
Bansai: That's it, isn't it? Let’s go home. Shall we?
Yumihiko: G- get back on the witness stand.
Bansai: What's wrong? Why, you're trembling.

• From Case 4 of Ace Attorney Investigations, the players get this piece of Les Yay:

Franziska: And you there, Ms. Yew! Continue with your testimony. If you fail to do so, I shall whip you into shape!
Calisto: Ha ha ha... That's nice. Sounds kind of fun actually.