Amazon Prime isn't exactly an anime fan's first go-to for new series, but it seems that the subscription streaming service wants to change that: Amazon recently signed a deal with Fuji TV that will bring series from its Noitamina programming block to Prime members.
Amazon will begin airing Noitamina shows this spring, starting with Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, which will become available on Prime just hours after the show airs on Fuji TV.
Eventually, though, Amazon plans on simultaneously streaming Noitamina shows as they air in Japan, but it isn't yet clear if that means worldwide or only in Japan. Amazon was also not clear on what countries will have access to the Fuji TV programming, although the Anime News Network reports that the website for Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress states that Amazon Prime has the exclusive right to stream the series in the U.S. and Japan.
In the very steampunk-inspired Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, a world in the middle of an industrial revolution must face a monster with iron protecting its only weakness, its heart. This monster goes around biting humans, infecting them with a virus that turns them into zombie-like creatures called the Kabane. However, many people live on stations on the island of Hinomoto that protect themselves from the undead, including Ikoma, a boy who helps create a weapon that could defeat the monster.
Attack on Titan's Tetsuro Arai directs the series with Ichiro Okouchi (Code Geass) writing.
Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress premieres on Fuji TV and Amazon Prime on April 7. Japanese movie theaters will also air a prologue special to promote the series a week before that.
There's no word on what other series Amazon will bring to its service from Fuji TV, but the current show airing Noitamina is ERASED, a series about an out-of-work manga artist who has the ability to turn back time and protect people from untimely deaths. However, after the murder of his mother, he time travels back to when he was in elementary school, just before a series of mysterious disappearances of children begins in his town.
