You may not have heard of Katanagatari yet, but the works of writer NisiOisiN should be familiar to anime fans, with his Bakemonogatari stories turning into one of the best anime of 2009.

Now, you can see a preview of the first hour-long special on the Katanagatari anime site. The story, a medieval Japanese fantasy about a quest for twelve legendary swords, is split told over twelve novels – one for each of the swords sought by main character Shichika. Each novel will be adapted into a one-hour special over the next year, and while White Fox animation is relatively new to the animation game, they are almost assuredly not going to cut as many corners as Shaft did with Bakemonogatari in adapting NisiOisiN’s excellent writing.