At the recent Tokyo Game Show, Square Enix announced its plans to release the CG anime "Final Fantasy VII Advent Children" in a Blu-Ray format sometime in 2007. The Blu-Ray version will feature higher resolution and multiple language tracks. The cost has not yet been determined.

It has been revealed that there will be three new Genshiken OVAs coming out. Just as the Kujibiki Unbalance OVAs were added to the Genshiken DVD releases, the Genshiken OVAs will be added to the Kujibiki Unbalance DVD releases. The Kujibiki Unbalance anime airs on TV this fall, and the first DVD will be released on December 22.

Popular actor Tetsuro Tamba died of pneumonia on Sunday at a Tokyo hospital. Although he made his debut at the age of 30 in 1952, Tamba made over 300 appearances in television dramas and films, including the 1967 James Bond movie "You Only Live Twice" and the recent "Sinking of Japan."

Mari Takada, a former member of the '70s folk trio Aoi Sankakujougi, was found dead on Tuesday near an apartment building in Iruma, Saitama. He had fallen from the emergency stairwell. The shoulder bag he was carrying contained a note saying, "I want to die." His death appears to have been a suicide.

It is not clear what his reasons for committing suicide were, but he appears to have been unhappy with his life. He was unemployed, and he was mostly living in seclusion even though he resided with his parents.

Earlier this month, Takada was arrested for drunk driving on a minibike, but he was released soon after. That incident appears to be unrelated to the suicide, however.

On Tuesday, former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi officially stepped down from office. Shinzo Abe, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, was elected to succeed Koizumi as prime minister. Abe, who is 52, is Japan's youngest postwar prime minister, as well as its first prime minister born after World War II.