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Japan's Anime, Manga, Game Creators Celebrate April Fool's Day: Part I

It's April 1 in Japan, and the anime, manga, and software studios have been marking the occasion with a slew of April Fool's spoofs and jokes. Here are some of those that have cropped up this year — click on the thumbnail images to see the original!

Accel World

The main webpage for the spring anime Accel World replaced its website with an 8-Bit version.

Arika

The game maker re-imagines itself as an annual shōnen manga magazine.

Blue Exorcist

The official website posted four minutes of "special footage" from the upcoming film — but it was actually a video of the characters from Jigoku no Misawa's Kakko-Kawaii Sengen! gag comedy manga in the setting of Blue Exorcist.

CloudCore

Inspired by Microsoft Taiwan's Silverlight mascot Hikaru Aizawa, CloudCore hosting services introduced its mascot "Coa Kumono."

Daily Lives of High School Boys

Square Enix's Gangan Online Magazine announced a live-action Hollywood adaptation of Daily Lives of High School Boys featuring "Hopper" as Tadakuni, "Jack" as Hidenori and "Malkovich" as Yoshitake.

Dragon Quest/Google Maps

The Dragon Quest website updated with a message from Dragonlord Alefgard claiming world conquest in conjunction with Google Maps. In Bōken (Adventure/Quest) mode, the Google Map website now displays the entire world in 8-Bit. Check out Area 51, Google's headquarters, Square Enix's headquarters, White House, and other famous locales.

Fate/Zero

Animation production company ufotable announced the film Tankman: A True Tank Story featuring Rider and Waver Velvet from Fate/Zero under the name ufochair cinema. "Tankman/Sensha Otoko" is a spoof of the Densha Otoko ("Train Man") story and live-action film.

Final Fantasy XI

The next version update will offer a new job: gymnast.

Gundam

Gundam.info announced that the life-size statue of the Mobile Suit Gundam Seed anime's Blitz Gundam will rise up from Odaiba Shiokaze Park, the park that hosted the life-size statue of the first Gundam anime's original RX-78-2 Gundam. Blitz Gundam happens to have cloaking technology ….

Nyarko-san: Another Crawling Chaos

The main webpage for the upcoming spring anime updated with a spooky flash animation.
There are many more anime/manga/game April Fool's Day celebrations out there, so if you know of one we've missed, feel free to let us know in our forums or by email (newsroom at animenewsnetwork.com).