FUNimation has confirmed to ICv2 the licensing of the first season of the Jigoku Shojo anime series, which will be re-titled Hell Girl for the North American market.  The first Hell Girl DVD is slated for release in October in plenty of time for Halloween.  The 26-episode psychological horror series has been a big hit in Japan, where it has been renewed for a second season.  There's also a 12-episode live action drama series and a manga (published by Kodansha, so Del Rey will probably have first dibs).

 

The Hell Girl anime is based on an ingenious premise (created by Hiroshi Watanabe) -- each episode begins by detailing the sufferings of a different individual at the hands of a tormentor.  When the pain is too much to bear, the tormented protagonist visits a Jigoku Tsushin (literally 'correspondence with the Devil') Website, which is only accessible at midnight.  By entering the name of their tormentor, the victims can damn their enemy to an immediate one-way trip to Hell, but this comes at a price since the victims who cause the death of their tormentors must also go to hell whenever they happen to die.

 

The show's anthology format (Hell Girl and her helpers are in every episode, but the victims and their tormentors change) has allowed the show's producers, Studio Deen and Aniplex, to employ a great number of Japan's leading voice artists (seiyuu).