NIS America gets into anime

[ilikegir33]

Yesterday, NIS America, the game company behind Disgaea et al., announced that it will get into releasing anime DVDs. Their first titles licensed are Toradora!, Persona Trinity Soul, Pandora Hearts and Wagaya no Oinarisama.

Link: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/press-release/2010-02-11/nis-america-to-release-anime-titles-in-north-america

First, they release Sakura Wars for the first time in the United States, and now this...Wow. That's all I can say. I thought Trinity Soul and Toradora would never get licensed.

[Strafe]

ToraDora was good. I really liked it. Funny, cute, and dramatic at times. Are they going to be dubbed?

[TheSubtleDoctor]

I am glad this is happening, and I hope they succeed. I am really interested in Pandora Hearts, so that ratchets up my excitement level even more. Have also heard good things about Toradora. Looking forward to seeing how this lil project goes.

[blkmage]

Out of the four, I'd say only Toradora can be considered good/successful. Wagaya no Oinarisama definitely did poorly. Both Pandora Hearts and Persona -trinity soul- started off decently due to brand loyalty but dropped off sharply pretty quickly. I've also heard fairly unfavourable things about Persona and Pandora Hearts. I personally couldn't make it through the second episode of Pandora Hearts. Essentially, these are fairly odd picks and I'm not even sure Toradora was that popular with the North America crowd (it is super popular in Japan).

[LadyRushia]

I am so stoked that Toradora is getting licensed. I love it so much, XD. I'd also love for the light novels to come over here, but I guess we'll see what happens.

[MasterDias]

Out of the four, I'd say only Toradora can be considered good/successful. Wagaya no Oinarisama definitely did poorly. Both Pandora Hearts and Persona -trinity soul- started off decently due to brand loyalty but dropped off sharply pretty quickly. I've also heard fairly unfavourable things about Persona and Pandora Hearts. I personally couldn't make it through the second episode of Pandora Hearts. Essentially, these are fairly odd picks and I'm not even sure Toradora was that popular with the North America crowd (it is super popular in Japan).

Oh, I don't know. Nothing really stands out as exceptionally unusual to me. It's all the type of stuff the other studios would probably go for. Toradora's high-profile/popular, Persona's a video-game spinoff...Wagaya no Oinarisama is a comedy/harem thing right? Those tend to be licensed...and I was under the impression that Pandora Hearts was generally well-received (at least, among the people who were actually watching it) until the "almost caught up to the manga, let's fake an ending" disease hit it at the end.

NISA already releases niche RPGs (compared to Square-Enix or whoever). I would be more surprised if they licensed Cross Game or Kaiba or something...although this still did come out of nowhere.

[CrimsonRyu17]

and I was under the impression that Pandora Hearts was generally well-received (at least, among the people who were actually watching it) until the "almost caught up to the manga, let's fake an ending" disease hit it at the end.

This.

[ilikegir33]

Out of the four, I'd say only Toradora can be considered good/successful. Wagaya no Oinarisama definitely did poorly. Both Pandora Hearts and Persona -trinity soul- started off decently due to brand loyalty but dropped off sharply pretty quickly. I've also heard fairly unfavourable things about Persona and Pandora Hearts. I personally couldn't make it through the second episode of Pandora Hearts. Essentially, these are fairly odd picks and I'm not even sure Toradora was that popular with the North America crowd (it is super popular in Japan).

It's all the type of stuff the other studios would probably go for. Toradora's high-profile/popular, Persona's a video-game spinoff...Wagaya no Oinarisama is a comedy/harem thing right? Those tend to be licensed...and I was under the impression that Pandora Hearts was generally well-received (at least, among the people who were actually watching it) until the "almost caught up to the manga, let's fake an ending" disease hit it at the end.

NISA already releases niche RPGs (compared to Square-Enix or whoever). I would be more surprised if they licensed Cross Game or Kaiba or something...although this still did come out of nowhere.

Well, I am not surprised that Persona Trinity Soul got licensed, considering that Persona 3 and 4 were critical and commercial successes in the US. And yes, Toradora and Pandora Hearts are pretty high-profile titles in America (I know many people who watch both). Not so sure about Wagaya no Oinarisama...

And considering that NIS usually provides cool bonus items in their special editions of their games (just look at the PS2 special edition of Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love), I wonder what kind of swag we'll get with Toradora et al. NIS did say that there would be bonus items in the special editions of these series' DVDs.

[Falx]

Personally I'm hoping for a Bokken with Toradora.