Through the day today we’ll be keeping a running tally of April Fools pranks we find scattered throughout the Japanese 2D internet, with an emphasis on items from eroge and hobby sites.
Goodsmile Udon
Figure maker Goodsmile announces the latest addition to their business empire! They’ve decided to go into the profitable world of restaurant entrepreneurship, opening a chain of udon stores. There is apparently a competition heating up between Goodsmile’s new udon operation and Max Factory’s established Indian restaurant Indotei… who will emerge the victor in this war of figure maker-sponsored ethnic cuisine?! Stay tuned!
This just in - the Goodsmile Udon mascot character Gumako is headed for production as a Nendoroid!
Queen’s Gate Historical Series
Queen’s Blade spinoff series Queen’s Gate brings bishoujo characters from other settings into the combat artbook series format, and the latest two characters have been announced! They are Ono no Komachi and Cleopatra, two of the most famous beauties of history - sure to be attractive additions to the lineup that currently includes the likes of Nijihara Ink and Iroha.
Jinkou Shoujo 3: Mokkori
Illusion has announced a new expansion for their Jinkou Shoujo 3 artificial girl sex sim game, entitled “Jinkou Shoujo 3: Mokkori”. It apparently features a set of very dubiously gendered heroines, and is set for release… today?
Clicking through to the product description page reveals that development and sale of the expansion have been suddenly canceled. Alas.
μOON PHASE
Everyone’s favorite linkblogger Moon Phase has been renamed to μOON PHASE in honor of the April Fool’s occasion. He also has a comprehensive list of pranks online today that I’ll be drawing from in fleshing out this post.
Ryoujoku Gakuenchou DS
This just in from eroge maker Clockup: a portable version of their hypnotism / mind control / training sim Ryoujoku Gakuenchou has been announced for the NUNTENDO BS! Its tagline is “I have the power of touch”, and is set to retail on October 26th, 20008 at 5,500 yen.
Sena Sena Ultimate
Senaka Otaroad Blog has announced the production of bishoujo game Sena Sena Ultimate, in which the Senaka mascot characters venture into the game worlds of popular makers such as Leaf, Unisonshift Blossom, Overdrive, and others. The game site is complete with sample CG gallery, product description, and demo movie download, though details such as price and release date are undisclosed.
Sekai Days
0verflow, makers of the hit animated eroge School Days, today announced the next game in their lineup: Sekai Days. A demo movie is available on Nico Video as well as via torrent, and instructions on how to create your very own Nice Boat out of paper are also available via torrent. The game’s Engrish subtitle is “After it meets of that day, the girl keeps drawing the desire of which it falls in love with the boy for a long time.” It seems the first lot release will come with a very special extra…
Da Capo II ~Blue Label~
Eroge maker Circus has opened an official page for their new Da Capo game, D.C. II B.L. ~Da Capo II~ Blue Label. It features bishounen versions of the cast from Da Capo II, and is scheduled for release in 2,801 AD at 9,800 yen. It will ship on Blu-ray, requires a Pentium II or III 801 Mhz processor, 80.1 GB of recommended free hard drive space, and will run at 1920 x 1080 “blue color” screen resolution. “801″ can be read as “ya-o-i” in Japanese.
Propeller launches Nixi Social Networking Service
Eroge maker Propeller (of Bullet Butlers fame) has taken the bold move of replacing its site content with a social networking service… for cats. Based on the theme of popular Japanese SNS Mixi, in addition to standard social networking services such as links to friends and communities the new “Nixi” provides such racy content as an erotic dating service - if you or your cat hasn’t been getting much loving recently you should definitely check it out!
Toukon Moon
Type-Moon, creators of Tsukihime and Fate/stay night, present professional wrestling magazine TOUKON (”fighting spirit”) MOON! The publication details the exploits of members of the FWF (Fate Wrestling Federation), the MWE (Moon Wrestling Empire), and the SSF (Radio Tiger Dojo?) including combatants such as “dynamite RIN”, “knight the SABER”, “the darkhelmet”, and “Hell’s Promoter Caren”. The relationships between the various characters are explained (?) here. Complete with articles on recent matches and interviews with the players involved, this is a magazine for all your Type-Moon pro wrestling needs!
Nitro+ goes wild
Multimedia eroge creator Nitro+ has updated with a series of announcements today, some of which seem much more plausible than others. A Vjedogonia anime in September sounds realistic enough, and Sumaga hijacking the cover of Comptiq doesn’t sound out of the realm of possibility. I’m less sure about the announcement of the Blood Tune animation, the Danny Choo collaboration eroge seems implausible, and 698 yen for five pairs of socks - sheer madness. On this day though I’m not counting anything out entirely…
Code Pink does Strip Jan-Ken-Pon
Eroge maker Code Pink, known for their recently released Sweet Home as well as flagship release Sexfriend, has announced that their third title will be an arcade game! Kirishima Taichi de Yakyuuken takes place in a purikura-style booth, where you insert a credit to play virtual rock-paper-scissors with a beautiful girl (character designs by Kirishima Taichi, hence the name). When you win, she removes an article of clothing! If you can get her down to nothing the “touching mode” is engaged, where you can try to find her weak point and get her into love-love mode… the only downside is that the game isn’t scheduled to hit arcades until winter of 20008.
Other Eroge Headlines
- Minato Soft to produce yandere gangster eroge (?) I Love You
- May Be Soft produces Another One, “heartful maid action AVG”
- Candy Soft produces Tsuyoki Musou, Tsuyokiss x Sengoku Musou hybrid
- Key announces Rewrite as their next original title
- Black Cyc to produce Yami no Koe 00 (double zero), riffing on Gundam 00
- Ole to produce Super Oppai Taisen L, riffing on Super Robot Wars
- Unisonshift launches new “BL-ssom” brand, features BL title from Itou Noiji!
- Xuse announces Seinarukana BL fan disc, Eternity Love
- Makura Soft does ….. something really fucking scary
- Rune’s Haruruko is playing a trick
- Atu Works pulls another Mixi parody
- Cotton Soft goes 50 years into the future
- Eushully cannot be found
- Alice Soft has added a gif
- Minori will not tell a lie
- Triangle brews beverages based on its heroines
- Apricot is making a rather disturbing film
- RSK announces the development of new eroge technologies: the Red Thread of Destiny system to find your heroine soul mate, the Eronical Keyboard that responds to the typing of dirty phrases with the appropriate voice and CG, the Bishoujo Game Gakuen where you can learn how to make them like the pros, and the stress free Flag Scouter visual enhancement system for navigating those difficult dating routes
Real news of the day below:
Taki Corp’s Kanu (china dress/school swimsuit ver.) came out on Sunday, and I’ve finished the photo shoot for her review, which will be coming soon. She’s available for a very nice price via the Play-Asia link above.
Before Kanu however will be a review of Nendoroid Hatsune Miku! I got an email from Hobby Stock saying she shipped last night, so she should be in when I get off work tonight. The Yamashita Shunya designed Revoltech Fraeulein Pocco and Goodsmile / Comic Gum’s Ryomou (black pearl maid ver.) have also shipped.
Further (legit) updates coming soon
[...] Mainichi Junk: April 1st, 2008 [...]
i hope they do make a Gumako nendo she’s a cute one lol
Sekai…
some more updates, Eushully top is now 404 error claiming their new game is cancelled, Nitroplus’s webpage top banner has a Danny Choo X Nitroplus Collaboration, Minori’s page is claiming EF the latter Tale would be cancelled.
The âge website has a series of birthday audio clips for Mikoto Yoroi from Muv Luv, some of which mention April Fool’s.
The Alice Soft website has a dancing “Denpa-chan” animated GIF at the bottom of the front page (could there be more?).
Apparently that is not Jinkou Shoujo, but Jinkou Shounen - aritifical BOY! Don’t say alas it’s cancelled. ‘Thank god’ it was just a joke.
At least there were no figures cancelled, even if they could have been april fool’s jokes - could you imagine the uproar? ^_^
[...] and someone is impersonating Lillian DP on the internets. And Heisei Democracy is keeping tabs on Japanese April Fool pranks (probably [...]
[...] manga, etc.) then some hate it with a passion. Why? Spoofs of course! Thanks to Akihabara Channel, Heisei Democracy, and Canned Dogs we receive a list of jokes that Japanese companies and gaming studios are making [...]
[...] Oh yeah, happy April Fools Day (no, the headline is srs, rly). I’m totally out of idea on what special prizes should I present for this day (fake suicide? Nope. Blog shutdown? Lame). Have instead, a whole list of April Fools Day news in Akihabara Channel, Canned Dogs, Danny Choo and Heisei Democracy. [...]