Posted in: Current News, Digital, Editor's Picks TV News, Movies, Recent Updates, TV, Video, YouTube | Tagged: amazon, Amazon Prime, amazon prime video, Ayame Goriki, face, FACE: Cyber Crime Special Investigation Unit, japan, japanese, pop culture, streaming, television, tv
Amazon's About FACE: Orders First Original Japanese Sci-fi Series
Amazon Prime Video said it was investing in more original content for and from Japan, and they took their first major step towards fulfilling that promise with the announcement that FACE: Cyber Crime Special Investigation Unit, the streaming service's first original sci-fi series, would premiere on July 11 and then release new episodes of the series on a weekly basis. The series will follow Ayame Goriki (Seven Women in Prison) as a cyber-crime special agent who is in a daily life or death struggle against criminal hackers. Produced by Oscar Promotion, FACE: Cyber Crime Special Investigation Unit will be directed by Ayato Matsuda (Dr. DMAT) and Hideki Hori and was written by Masaki Fukusawa and Toshio Sekine.
Both Neflix and Amazon have begun investing heavily in original content from and for the country of Japan, with Amazon announcing nearly two dozen new titles for its Amazon Prime service including: Tokyo Vampire Hotel, a nine-episode series by international cult director Sion Sono; The Bachelor Japan; and updated iterations of the Kamen Rider, Ultraman, and Crayon Shin-chan franchises. For James Farrell, head of Asia Pacific content at Amazon Prime Video, the decision to diversify their programming to this extent seem only logical:
"Following our drama series such as Kamen Rider Amazons and Tokyo Vampire Hotel, this is Amazon Prime Video's first Japanese Amazon Original series set in the world of cyber crime."
For those new to Amazon's Tokyo Vampire Hotel, here's a look at the trailer with an official description below:
Manami (Tomite Ami) is targeted by vampires on her 22nd birthday and K (Kaho), who possesses tremendous power, tries to save her in a raging battle. On that day, young men and women are invited to Hotel Requiem where a huge nationwide matchmaking convention is being held by the mysterious Yamada (Mitsushima Shinnosuke). He lives and runs this ornately beautiful, palatial hotel with a bizarre empress (Adachi Yumi) and Elizabeth Báthory (Kagurazaka Megumi). Then Yamada suddenly declares to the gathered crowd that tomorrow will be the apocalypse and only the people inside this hotel will be saved.