Thursday Notes (September 7)...

Bah... Labor Day holiday really threw off my sleeping schedule, so I've been up odd hours of the night and then not sleeping very well at all.. like that's anything new for me, though. Anyways, it's been somewhat difficult to keep up with things this week because of things (playing FF3 DS, then going a day without watching stuff, which really messes things up), but I have finally been able to catch up with Simoun, so I think I'll have something to say about it later on :) But for now, a bit of news.

---

New Kino's Journey Movie (via MOON PHASE)

A new Kino's Journey (Kino no Tabi) movie is in the works, no details on release date or anything as of now. I really liked the series and the first movie (even one of my friends that doesn't watch anime liked it), so good news :)

Update: The official website has the news now

SHUFFLE! MEMORIES this Winter
SHUFFLE! MEMORIES, a "director's cut" version of what was shown on WOWOW, will be on Chiba TV and other channels for the upcoming winter season. There will be a new OP/ED, and also new episodes, so there's still something for those that already watched SHUFFLE!

Manabi Straight! Director
...is nobody in particular, just "Team Manabi Room". Always being one for doing things a bit differently, ufotable will be using a new system -- each episode director and animation producer will work together to take care of directorial duties.

And in not really anime-related news:
Death Note, Hikaru no Go Mangaka Arrested for Weapon Possession (via Yahoo News)
Takeshi Obata was arrested early in the morning on the 6th for possession of an 8.6cm army knife (it's illegal to possess a knife longer than 6cm without a justifiable reason) after being pulled over because one of his car's headlights was out. He said he had the knife for camping, but nothing else indicated that to be the case.

Japan celebrates male heir to the throne (via Yahoo News)
Congrats to Princess Kiko and Prince Akishino :) And of all the people on the street that TV Tokyo could have gotten to do an interview about this, they somehow got Meijin Takahashi (might recognize him as the titular character of Takahashi Meijin no Boukenjima, otherwise known as Adventure Island in the US). Quite a coincidence there ;)

PS3 Delayed in Europe; Shipments to US and Japan Reduced by Half (via GameSpot)
I'm not surprised in the least that Europe got screwed again. But more than that, the 400,000 units for US and 100,000 units in Japan for launch (ramping up to around 2 million total for both by the end of the year) is going to leave a lot of people without a PS3. Good luck to those of y'all that'll be trying to get one on launch day (^^;;) Meanwhile, Nintendo says that they'll have 6 million Wiis by the end of March next year. There's an event in NYC next Thursday (in Japan as well, and in Europe the next day) where details on launch will supposedly be revealed, so we'll what the price and date are then :)