Spoof manga

I Actually Want to Read These Fake Manga From Viz, but Alas, It’s April Fools’ Day

I'm already in love with the wine cheetah.

Despite knowing that today is “don’t trust any announcements” day, I found myself looking for a preorder button for a manga announcement Viz had made over on Twitter. The manga focused on a family of sloths who ran a winery, but they were too slow to meet the demands of their customers. Enter an extremely attractive, speedy cheetah to help with their business.

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Considering the fact that we have manga like Beastars, the thought of wine-drinking sloths having a good-looking cheetah (who I’d definitely ship with someone or several someones) coming to their aid was NOT odd at all. The page count for the manga and the release date, however, were highly suspect. Scrolling down the timeline revealed two more manga announcements, both fake, but both sounding like stories that I’d read and review immediately.

Alas, it’s April Fools’ Day, so the manga aren’t real, but they are a great example of a brand putting together a fun gag for the day.

The Intern

Spoof Manga

Summary: The Intern, a swole, buff, hulking, killer of a copywriter. He prowls social media and destroys all that’s in his path. He does not eat. He does not sleep. And he does not stop. In Winter 2022 you will meet… THE INTERN.

Fangirl Response: Workplace comedy about a man who is so scarily good at his job that he might as well have superpowers? Or a bitter look at life similar to Life Lessons With Uramichi Oniisan where the protagonist lost his soul somewhere near the broken copy machine. Either way, this looked to have the potential of being a series that would end up having moments where you realize, shit, there are lessons to learn from this, and oh god, those lessons are personal attacks against me.

Harem no Y2K

Spoof manga

Summary: Sayaka gets transported back to the land of chain wallets and side-swept bangs, a time when eyeliner ran and guitars wept, where rejected suitors await. Harem no Y2K drops Winter 2006!

Fangirl Response: The fandom response to this would’ve been gold! Imagine, an entire chapter of Sayaka discovering what “Hot Topic” USED to look like. How would she react to there not being a wall of FUNKO Pops? And I would absolutely need a volume dedicated to the 2006 anime convention scene, complete with AMV contests where fans made vids using Linkin Park songs and all of the cursed vendor room items that are best left behind. In order to get this manga, you have to go back to 2006 with Sayaka, as the release date is Winter of that year.

Sloth x Winery

Summary: A family of sloths runs a quaint winery, but they can’t keep up with customer demand. The solution? Hire a speedy new employee: Cheetah Sauvignon! See what ferments in the 3000-page edition of Sloth x Winery, coming Fall 2055!

Fangirl Response: Okay I’m like, legitimately upset that this isn’t a real release. I would read this. I would want plush of the sloth. I would want fanart of Cheetah Sauvignon. This looks like it would be a cute, slice-of-life story about some loveable sloths and a handsome cheetah who probably comes to really care for them. I sense some work-family bounding, maybe some competition from another winery, and maybe a bit of tension since sloths are herbivores and cheetahs are, well, not. While the scheduled release isn’t in the past like Harem no Y2K, we do have to wait 33 years to get the 3000-page edition.


Happy “manga announcements are a lie” day, everyone!

(Image: Viz)

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Author
Image of Briana Lawrence
Briana Lawrence
Briana (she/her - bisexual) is trying her best to cosplay as a responsible adult. Her writing tends to focus on the importance of representation, whether it’s through her multiple book series or the pieces she writes. After de-transforming from her magical girl state, she indulges in an ever-growing pile of manga, marathons too much anime, and dedicates an embarrassing amount of time to her Animal Crossing pumpkin patch (it's Halloween forever, deal with it Nook)