The Japanese anime and gaming scenes have regularly celebrated the annual April Fools’ Day by publishing joke materials, and 2025 is no different than the previous years. We have earlier covered the Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis high school alternate universe, the Palworld dating sim releasing for real, and Fate/Final Journey, the latter of which is the 2025 edition of the annual Fate/Grand Order April Fools app. However, those are not the only jokes on the 2025 April Fools’ Day, as many other franchises also join the festivities.
Here are some of the best April Fools’ jokes from Japanese anime and game franchises we have seen in 2025.
Level-5 published a Fantasy Life i-themed video titled Life Crossing: Fantasy Horizons, which is also a very obvious jab at Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons. This video is also available in Japanese in addition to English.
Kadokawa uploaded a prank video showcasing Re: School life in a different world from zero, a Re:Zero-themed otome game where players could date the franchise’s key male characters like Subaru, Reinhard, Julius, and Ferris.
Shift Up launched a premiere trailer for a Goddess of Victory: Nikke-themed movie titled “Final Battle.”
Square Enix tweeted a screenshot from an 8-bit parody game based on NieR: Automata, where the player controls 9S against a horde of 2Bs.
There is also a two-way collaboration prank between Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion and Pop Team Epic. The respective social media account for each franchise published a new poster with the character designs based on the other title.
The Code Geass franchise also has another 2025 April Fools’ joke, with the Japanese social media account for the free-to-play game Code Geass: Lost Stories revealing a Golden Luck version of Charles zi Britannia.
Bandai Namco released April Fools’ Day exclusive content for Hatsuboshi Gakuen: The Idolmaster that temporarily adds dressing options and musical stage performance for Asari Neo. This character is not supposed to be playable, as she originally appears as a college professor who teaches players how to produce the idol candidate students.
Cygames published “BoC-izm,” a new song from the BoC’z we\n group that comprises several characters from Umamusume: Pretty Derby. The company also published an official webpage, which will remain available until April 10, 2025.
Cygames also announced that it is really adding the joke illustrations from the 2024 April Fools’ prank title, Granblue Fantasy Versus Rai-Jin-Gu, to the actual Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising game.
Sumzap shared a Crows & Gold magazine cover featuring Jujutsu Kaisen‘s Mei Mei via its Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade social media account.
Koei Tecmo published an original Dynasty Warriors: Origins screenshot that shows Xu Zhu presenting a giant meatbun to the game’s protagonist Ziluan. This scene does not appear in the actual game.
Sega released a 2025 April Fools’ Day-exclusive storyline in Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage. The company will also follow up with an epilogue for the story on the following day.
The Apothecary Diaries‘ official Japanese social media account published a school-themed spin-off titled School Diaries to celebrate the 2025 April Fools’ Day.
And the Oshi no Ko anime social media account tweeted a newspaper article showcasing Kana Arima as an ambassador for bell peppers grown in Japan’s Miyazaki prefecture.
Published: Apr 1, 2025 05:15 pm