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Japan's Anime, Game Studios Celebrate April Fool's Day

It is already April 1 in Japan, and the anime and software studios have been marking the occasion with a slew of April Fool's spoofs and jokes. The Moon Phase website has been compiling a list of them, and so has its anonymous tip blog Moon Phase Comments. The Canned Dogs, Akihabara Channel, and Heisei Democracy blogs have posted lists in English. Among the notable April Fool's entries this year:

• In a spoof of the official Lucky Star brunch and shrine visit, the Seventh Expansion developer has announced a Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Kai shrine visit in "June 3008." For a mere 3 million yen (about US$30,000), a total of 0 attendees can visit the shrine to try Rika's mysterious drink and the Sonozaki family's house-recipe soy sauce, view the collection of a certain creepy freelance photographer, and participate in a festival.
• The Circus game developer (D.C. Da Capo) has announced the bishōnen game D.C. II B.L.: ~Da Capo II~ Blue Label (pictured above).
• The Nitroplus studio (Blassreiter, Demonbane) has announced the Miracle Mirai "heartful" romantic adventure game starring the Mirai-chan mascot of Danny Choo's blog.
• Eiga.com advertises the Nico Nico Douga preview of a new movie: Honey and Cloverfield.
• Yahoo! Japan has been taken over by Space Invaders (with a playable online version of the arcade game classic).