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Silent Service Live-Action Film Gets New Series on Amazon Prime With Worldwide Streaming

Amazon Prime Video announced on Thursday that the live-action film of Kaiji Kawaguchi's The Silent Service manga will be continuing the story in a live-action series on the service. Chinmoku no Kantai Season 1: Tokyowan Daikaisen (Silent Service Season 1: The Battle of Tokyo Bay) will debut on February 9 with the first six episodes. Episodes seven and eight will be released on February 16. Amazon's announcement states the work will stream worldwide.

The first four episodes will focus on unreleased scenes not depicted in the film. Episodes 5-8 will tell a sequel story.

The promotional image features Takao Osawa (live-action Sky High, Tsukiji Uogashi Sandaime), who plays protagonist Shiro Kaieda. Osawa also serves as a producer for the series.

The film opened in Japan on September 29, and sold 274,000 tickets for 370,136,800 yen (about US$2.46 million) in its first three days. Takao Osawa and Shinzō Matsuhashi produced the live-action film, Kōhei Yoshino directed the film, and Hikaru Takai wrote the script. B'z, with singer Ado as vocalist, contributed the film's theme song "Dignity." The song will also serve as the theme to the new series.

In the story, Shiro Kaieda is appointed the captain of Japan's first nuclear submarine, jointly built by Japan and the United States in top secret. However, he and his 76 crew members go rogue in this story that delves into themes of nuclear war, international politics, and world peace.

Kawaguchi (Eagle, Kūbo Ibuki) serialized the manga in Kodansha's Morning magazine from 1988 to 1996. The manga already inspired a television anime special from Sunrise in 1996, followed by Sunrise's two-part original video anime from 1997 to 1998. Central Park Media offered the anime on videotape and later DVD.

Sources: Prime Video Japan's Twitter account, Comic Natalie