{"id":64548,"date":"2026-04-01T18:09:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:09:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=64548"},"modified":"2026-04-01T18:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:09:09","slug":"japanese-visual-novel-studio-key-announces-it-wont-be-horsing-around-on-this-years-april-1st-for-real-because-its-too-busy-developing-new-title-anemoi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-visual-novel-studio-key-announces-it-wont-be-horsing-around-on-this-years-april-1st-for-real-because-its-too-busy-developing-new-title-anemoi\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese visual novel studio Key announces it won&#8217;t be horsing around on this year&#8217;s April 1st &#8220;for real&#8221; because it\u2019s too busy developing new title anemoi"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Each year, April 1st has gamers keeping their guard up as devs bombard them with joke announcements, fake edits and even full-on parody trailers that make you wish they were actually real. Though of course, it all depends on how the jokes land (this year\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NieR_JPN\/status\/2039168554541679088?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">new NieR series game announcemen<\/a>t was an emotional rollercoaster for fans).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the other hand, visual novel studio Key, known for developing Clannad, Kanon and Air, made a rather unusual announcement, apologizing to their fans for not having anything prepared for April Fools Day. As per their official X account, the development team has decided to skip the holiday this year in order to pour all their effort into working on their upcoming visual novel <strong>anemoi<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u3010\u304a\u77e5\u3089\u305b\u3011<br>\u672c\u5e74\u5ea6\u306e4\u67081\u65e5\u3001\u30a8\u30a4\u30d7\u30ea\u30eb\u30d5\u30fc\u30eb\u306fanemoi\u958b\u767a\u306b\u5168\u529b\u3060\u3063\u305f\u70ba\u3001\u4f55\u3082\u3042\u308a\u307e\u305b\u3093\u3002<br>\u672c\u5f53\u306b\u3042\u308a\u307e\u305b\u3093\u3002<br><br>\u3054\u7406\u89e3\u306e\u307b\u3069\u4f55\u5352\u5b9c\u3057\u304f\u304a\u9858\u3044\u7533\u3057\u4e0a\u3052\u307e\u3059\u3002<br><br>Key\u958b\u767a\u30b9\u30bf\u30c3\u30d5\u4e00\u540c<\/p>&mdash; Key\u958b\u767a\u5ba4 (@key_official) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/key_official\/status\/2038905523228328007?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 31, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-palette-color-5-background-color has-background is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p><em>Post translation:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>[Announcement]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Due to our team pouring all their effort into developing anemoi, we don\u2019t have anything prepared for April 1<sup>st<\/sup> (April Fool\u2019s Day) this fiscal year. We really don\u2019t.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>We sincerely appreciate your understanding.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Key development Staff<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Doubling down on the sentiment, Key\u2019s studio director and scenario writer Kai <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/kay_comment\/status\/2038928214664552857?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u00a0jokingly commented<\/a> that \u201cif we\u2019re going to make a funny image as an April Fool\u2019s joke, we\u2019d better [use that time] to make one more image asset for anemoi.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That being said, with only a couple of weeks left until the game\u2019s planned release on April 24, it\u2019s not surprising that the team is focusing all of their energy on developing anemoi. Back in December last year, <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/keys-new-romance-visual-novel-anemoi-release-postponed-to-april-devs-will-be-making-no-compromises-until-the-game-reaches-intended-quality\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">it was announced<\/a> that the original January release date would be shifted to April precisely because they wanted to work on the game \u201cwithout compromise\u201d and help it reach a quality that meet both the fans\u2019 expectations and the developers\u2019 standards. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Key\u300eanemoi\u300f\u30aa\u30fc\u30d7\u30cb\u30f3\u30b0\u30e0\u30fc\u30d3\u30fc\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eqqfdG_QbDc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Consequently, it seems like the game is going to be pretty hefty, as Key <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/keys-new-visual-novel-anemoi-will-be-at-least-18gb-and-take-up-two-discs-to-account-for-extra-content-much-to-fans-delight\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">recently announced <\/a>that the physical version of the game will be released in a two-disc package to account for extra content, with the digital version being at least 18GB in size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anemoi is set to release on April 24,\u00a02026\u00a0for PC (Windows) in Japan.\u00a0A future Steam release with English and Simplified Chinese language support has also been <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/key_official\/status\/1957385224461177095?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">confirmed<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key makes an unusual announcement that this year they don&#8217;t have any April Fool&#8217;s content prepared on account of developing anemoi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":64550,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-64548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Japanese visual novel studio Key announces it won&#039;t be horsing around on this year&#039;s April 1st &quot;for real&quot; because it\u2019s too busy developing new title anemoi - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Key makes an unusual announcement that this year they don&#039;t have any April Fool&#039;s content prepared on account of developing anemoi.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-visual-novel-studio-key-announces-it-wont-be-horsing-around-on-this-years-april-1st-for-real-because-its-too-busy-developing-new-title-anemoi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Japanese visual novel studio Key announces it won&#039;t be horsing around on this year&#039;s April 1st &quot;for real&quot; because it\u2019s too busy developing new title anemoi - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Key makes an unusual announcement that this year they don&#039;t have any April Fool&#039;s content prepared on account of developing anemoi.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-visual-novel-studio-key-announces-it-wont-be-horsing-around-on-this-years-april-1st-for-real-because-its-too-busy-developing-new-title-anemoi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-01T09:09:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-01T09:09:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260401-64548-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"\u0110or\u0111e P\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\u0110or\u0111e P\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Japanese visual novel studio Key announces it won't be horsing around on this year's April 1st \"for real\" because it\u2019s too busy developing new title anemoi - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"Key makes an unusual announcement that this year they don't have any April Fool's content prepared on account of developing anemoi.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-visual-novel-studio-key-announces-it-wont-be-horsing-around-on-this-years-april-1st-for-real-because-its-too-busy-developing-new-title-anemoi\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Japanese visual novel studio Key announces it won't be horsing around on this year's April 1st \"for real\" because it\u2019s too busy developing new title anemoi - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"Key makes an unusual announcement that this year they don't have any April Fool's content prepared on account of developing anemoi.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-visual-novel-studio-key-announces-it-wont-be-horsing-around-on-this-years-april-1st-for-real-because-its-too-busy-developing-new-title-anemoi\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2026-04-01T09:09:06+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-04-01T09:09:09+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260401-64548-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"\u0110or\u0111e P","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"\u0110or\u0111e P","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-visual-novel-studio-key-announces-it-wont-be-horsing-around-on-this-years-april-1st-for-real-because-its-too-busy-developing-new-title-anemoi\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-visual-novel-studio-key-announces-it-wont-be-horsing-around-on-this-years-april-1st-for-real-because-its-too-busy-developing-new-title-anemoi\/"},"author":{"name":"\u0110or\u0111e P","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/e62deb6406bad91fe5f441afc29c1696"},"headline":"Japanese visual novel studio Key announces it won&#8217;t be horsing around on this year&#8217;s April 1st &#8220;for real&#8221; because it\u2019s too busy developing new title anemoi","datePublished":"2026-04-01T09:09:06+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-01T09:09:09+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-visual-novel-studio-key-announces-it-wont-be-horsing-around-on-this-years-april-1st-for-real-because-its-too-busy-developing-new-title-anemoi\/"},"wordCount":405,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-visual-novel-studio-key-announces-it-wont-be-horsing-around-on-this-years-april-1st-for-real-because-its-too-busy-developing-new-title-anemoi\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260401-64548-header.jpg","keywords":["News (Japan-related)"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-visual-novel-studio-key-announces-it-wont-be-horsing-around-on-this-years-april-1st-for-real-because-its-too-busy-developing-new-title-anemoi\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-visual-novel-studio-key-announces-it-wont-be-horsing-around-on-this-years-april-1st-for-real-because-its-too-busy-developing-new-title-anemoi\/","name":"Japanese visual novel studio Key announces it won't be horsing around on this year's April 1st \"for real\" because it\u2019s too busy developing new title anemoi - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-visual-novel-studio-key-announces-it-wont-be-horsing-around-on-this-years-april-1st-for-real-because-its-too-busy-developing-new-title-anemoi\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-visual-novel-studio-key-announces-it-wont-be-horsing-around-on-this-years-april-1st-for-real-because-its-too-busy-developing-new-title-anemoi\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260401-64548-header.jpg","datePublished":"2026-04-01T09:09:06+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-01T09:09:09+00:00","description":"Key makes an unusual announcement that this year they don't have any April Fool's content prepared on account of developing anemoi.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-visual-novel-studio-key-announces-it-wont-be-horsing-around-on-this-years-april-1st-for-real-because-its-too-busy-developing-new-title-anemoi\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-visual-novel-studio-key-announces-it-wont-be-horsing-around-on-this-years-april-1st-for-real-because-its-too-busy-developing-new-title-anemoi\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-visual-novel-studio-key-announces-it-wont-be-horsing-around-on-this-years-april-1st-for-real-because-its-too-busy-developing-new-title-anemoi\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260401-64548-header.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260401-64548-header.jpg","width":1280,"height":720},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japanese-visual-novel-studio-key-announces-it-wont-be-horsing-around-on-this-years-april-1st-for-real-because-its-too-busy-developing-new-title-anemoi\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Japanese visual novel studio Key announces it won&#8217;t be horsing around on this year&#8217;s April 1st &#8220;for real&#8221; because it\u2019s too busy developing new title anemoi"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/e62deb6406bad91fe5f441afc29c1696","name":"\u0110or\u0111e P","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/profil-150x150.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/profil-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/profil-150x150.jpg","caption":"\u0110or\u0111e P"},"description":"Automaton West Editor","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/djordje-p\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64548"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64552,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64548\/revisions\/64552"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}