Once again it’s time to recap all the bits and pieces that fell through the cracks in the last few days. Before we get into that, I’d like to use this space to announce my vacation next week. It’s actually been a very long time since I’ve given myself some real time away from updating the site and now seems like as good a time as any. So as a holiday present to myself, next week I will be stepping away from daily updates. Hopefully I’ll get to use the time to catch up on some things that aren’t anime, write some reviews and other things that I’m behind on. I’ll be back in time for the new year and subsequent new winter season of anime so have a happy winter gift giving celebration of choice!

Now, on with the news…

Detective Conan Gets 14^th Film, Sgt. Frog Gets 5^th and SD Gundam Gets February Premiere: Detective Conan will be getting another movie premiere in the spring of 2010. The movie, titled Detective Conan: The Lost Ship in the Sky, will feature the detective facing off against his nemesis Kid the Phantom Thief with a jewel aboard the world’s largest airship as the prize.

A trailer for the fifth Sgt. Frog movie was launched on the official website following a press conference held last Wednesday. The movie will premiere on February 27^th as part of a double billing with the new SD Gundam Sangokuden movie. The new Gundam movie will feature super deformed mechs recreating the Chinese story Romance of the Three Kingdoms which I am going to avert my eyes from.

Manga Gamer and JAST USA Lay It out Early: After a couple of small incidents this year for both companies regarding censorship in their games, it seems that JAST USA and Manga Gamer have taken a new transparency approach. On the Manga Gamer staff blog and official JAST website, notices were put up this month addressing any localization changes to their upcoming respective releases.

On their blog, Manga Gamer staff noted that there are some features missing from their release of Higurashi. While no censorship will be taking place, their release will not have the music room, staff room or mini game included due to license and copyright issues.  Over on the JAST USA site, it was noted that no major changes or alterations will be made to the upcoming release of Cat Girl Alliance though a few lines of redundancy were removed. Higurashi is available for order now from Manga Gamer while Cat Girl Alliance is still available for preorder from J-List and Right Stuf.

LAMES

Imagi Loses 25% Of Its Staff: I’m not an expert on big business or how large companies work but I can’t imagine that sacking 100 employees is a good sign. Most of the staff that was released were from the animation department and seems to be a direct result of the colossal thud left by Astro Boy upon its release to theaters earlier this year.

In the linked report, it’s stated that Imagi put $60 million into Astro Boy and have barely earned back a third of that which disproves my theory that it ever stood a chance at recouping costs on DVD. No idea what this means for Imagi’s planned adaptation of the anime series Gatchaman but hopefully they’ll have good news regarding that in 2010.

STUFF YOU DIDN’T KNOW YOU NEEDED UNTIL NOW

Ten Free Songs from FFXIII: As part of their ramp up to the release of the latest Final Fantasy, ten songs from the first disc of the soundtrack (which will be released as a 4 disc set January 27^th) were posted to the official site for fans to enjoy. Luckier for fans, Gigazine has pointed out that the virtual player is flash based meaning fans can easily download the songs for their own personal enjoyment. Just click track list on the official site and you’ll see the tracks composed by Masashi Hamauzu (FFX). The game itself hit store shelves in Japan today (December 17^th) while US players won’t get to enjoy it until March 2010.

<Higurashi – When They Cry image ©Manga Gamer>