AnimeVision

We'll start with the one that seemed to send the anime-watching Twitterverse into a collective fangasm when the news broke yesterday. Toradora is a romantic comedy that relies heavily on the antics of its tsundere star, Taiga Aisaka, and her friend-of-convenience Ryuji Takasu. The pair are each in love with the other's best friend, and make a pact to help each other get together with the partner of their dreams. The "twist" is that Ryuji is a gentle guy who unfortunately looks like a hoodlum, while Taiga is the complete opposite of that - so as you'd expect, comedy ensues. Haven't seen any of this one, but with the following that it has it seems to be doing something right.

Next up is Pandora Hearts, which follows the adventures of Oz Bezarius, heir to a dukedom who's thrown into the Abyss, a top-security prison on his 15th birthday. The secret organisation Pandora seems to be behind this move, and after managing to escape the Abyss, Oz is determined to find out why. This one (and the other two titles to follow) have slipped beneath my radar, so can't comment on how good the series is meant to be.

Our Home's Fox Deity (or Wagaya no Oinarisama, to give it its Japanese title) features brothers Noboru and Toru, and the fox spirit Kugen who protects them from demons that have taken a particular interest in them.

...and finally, we have Persona -trinity soul-, a supernatural mystery series based around a series of strange events that take place around Ayanagi City, a place built after 'Apathy Syndrome' hit Japan. High school student Shin Kanzato with his brothers Jun & Ryo (Ayanagi City's chief of police) investigate the incidents, in the process awakening the mysterious Persona. Supernatural shows are always a little hit-or-miss with, so we'll have to see how this one turns out.

NIS says that release information & pricing for all four titles will be announced soon, but have confirmed that they'll each be getting collector's items. Which makes me think they may not be cheap. There's an old saying in anime fandom that no-one can mess up a release quite like the Japanese, with the fear that NIS will turn out to be more in the Bandai Visual USA mould than the Kadokawa Pictures USA one, but it's too early to judge them yet. Fingers crossed it'll be the latter, though.