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Roger Retinz, also known as the "Ratings Rajah", was a producer for Take-2 TV. He was called as a witness during the trial of Trucy Wright for the murder of Manov Mistree. Before he became a producer, he was Mr. Reus, a professional stage magician and former colleague of the Gramarye troupe.
Retinz was an aspiring magician who trained under Magnifi Gramarye as a part of his troupe under the name Mr. Reus. However, sometime in 2015, he was injured while practicing an extremely reckless trick. Magnifi had Retinz removed from the Troupe during a public performance before he could ruin their reputation or injure them in turn. This humiliation caused Retinz to harbor a grudge toward them.
Despite his relative obscurity compared to the rest of the Troupe, he had his fans like Manov Mistree. In fact, Mistree was such a big fan of his that Retinz took him under his wing, training him to be a magician.
Afterward, he became a producer for Take-2 TV, even starring in some of the shows he produced, and gained popularity for his charismatic on-screen persona. "Hang loose, baby!" was one of his famous catchphrases. He also developed a reputation for being impossible to please and extremely abusive toward his performers and staff.
In April 2028, Retinz saw his chance for revenge against the Troupe in the form of the sole heir to the Gramarye magic rights, Trucy Wright, making her television debut. He promptly offered to produce and broadcast her magic show. At the same time, Retinz had Mistree stand in for him as Mr. Reus and hired the twin magician sisters Bonny de Famme and Betty de Famme to play a prank on Wright. Mistree would be placed in a coffin Wright would escape from and stab with a rubber sword, at which point his "corpse" would fall out. Betty would then lift Mistree into the air, suspended by a wire and harness, and have a laugh at Wright's expense.
In actuality, Retinz planned to have Mistree murdered as a result of the prank – after Mistree was lifted upwards out of sight, he would be fatally stabbed by a steel sword that Retinz had earlier planted at the stage's skywalk. With Mistree seen alive before he entered the coffin for Wright's escape trick, it would appear to everyone that Wright had killed Mistree by stabbing him through the coffin. Furthermore, Retinz made sure to be at Take-2 Studios when the trick took place, ensuring that he had an alibi.
To make the death seem like a murder, Retinz forged a note with Wright's signature that suggested she had prior knowledge of the prank, and he planted Wright's Gramarye notebook in Mistree's belongings. He intended for the prosecution to give Wright a motivation for killing "Mr. Reus", on the grounds that Mr. Reus wanted revenge for his removal from Troupe Gramarye and intended to ruin Wright. In addition, Retinz reused the forged signature and planted it on a contract that required that Wright pay him three million dollars if her show was cancelled as a result of her incompetence, guaranteeing the financial ruin of the Wright Anything Agency.
As planned, Mistree ended up dead from the "prank", and Retinz made use of the chaos that ensued while visiting the crime scene by swapping Wright's prop sword for the bloodied steel sword. Retinz also planted Mistree's blood in the coffin hole where Wright had thrust her sword. However, he later realized that Wright had stabbed the coffin on the opposite side because Bonny set up Mr. Hat over the wrong trapdoor. Since he could not wipe the blood – as this would still leave traces that could be detected with luminol – he had to tamper with the coffin by swapping the sides to make the scene appear consistent. He also edited footage his crew had taken of the trick to further cement the impression that Wright had used a steel sword to stab the coffin – specifically, removing the playing cards Wright released when switching the steel sword for a harmless rubber one.
Despite Retinz's various manipulations, Wright's defense attorney and close friend Apollo Justice was able to figure out the truth behind everything, forcing Retinz to reveal his magician persona and involvement in Mistree's death. In defeat, Retinz cursed the Gramarye name, blaming them for having humiliated him and eventually driven him to murder to get his revenge. Wright suggested that it had been this hatred and disregard for life that Magnifi had witnessed and ejected him out of the troupe for, to which Retinz gloated that he had proved himself the better magician, since Wright had not figured out the truth behind his magic until Justice had.
Personality
Mugshot.
Retinz usually portrayed the typical traits of a television producer, namely always being on the lookout for things that would lead to high ratings on television. Employing a confident façade, Retinz would often talk down to people he considered beneath him, but he would switch to an overly ingratiating persona whenever approaching someone he sought to curry favor with, such as the judge or Betty – the latter of whom he even feigned attraction for to trick her into believing she was the more powerful individual in their professional relationship. He also claimed to have a low opinion of magicians to conceal his hatred specifically directed at the Gramaryes. When in conversation with someone, Retinz would often act like a producer on set, pulling out cue cards and using a video camera to record the other person's reactions.
When his identity as Mr. Reus was revealed, Retinz adopted a much more serious demeanor, displaying considerable confidence and showmanship as an illusionist and performing tricks with coins, cards, and fire. He also demonstrated an ability to easily switch between his producer and magician personae.
Ultimately, Retinz was an incredibly self-absorbed person who would do and disregard anything to achieve his goals, even if it meant sacrificing the life of the one person who actually admired him as a magician.
Name
His Japanese name can be translated by following the customs in Japanese TV production crew lingo, which involves flipping the names around. "Shinoyama" becomes "yamashino" (山師の). "Kanenari" (金成) turns into "narikin" (成金). Together, "yamashi no narikin" (山師の成金) means "a swindling/cheating nouveau riche". "Nouveau" and "riche" are French for "new" and "rich", respectively, so put together, his name literally means "a new, rich swindler/cheater".
His Japanese stage name comes from the word "Menyō" (面妖), meaning "strange" or "suspicious."
His English stage name, "Mr. Reus", is a play on "mysterious." Reus may also come from the Latin word "reus," which means "guilty."
His English surname, "Retinz," may be a play on the word "Ratings".
His English alias, the "Ratings Rajah" possibly references to his Japanese alias, which involved flipping the names around and "Retinz Roger" sounds like "Ratings Rajah."
He is referred to as "Mr. Retinz" in court, which may be a play on words of "misdirection", which is relevant not only to his true identity as a magician but also how he was hiding in plain sight.
Development
Unlike other members of Troupe Gramarye, Retinz, as Mr. Reus, did not wear a card suit brooch. Instead, he wore a crown-shaped cravat. However, he wears a mask highly reminiscent of the Joker found in playing cards.
Retinz holding up the Ace of Spades.
Retinz has several poses not used when he has his sleeves up (such as typing on his phone) or down (like performing with his coin), yet all of his animations contain a sleeves up and down version, although some of his sleeves up animations are glitchy and unused. Curiously, he also has an unused pose in which, his sleeves rolled up, he holds up an Ace of Spades (much like how he holds up his business card in game).
