Hmm, damn it. You beat me to it.
Wanted to make a proper 502nd thread for this month later tonight with all the links and discussion possibilities in OP, but oh well. I'll just add it to this.

http://w-witch.jp/news/20160901_2
https://twitter.com/w_witch_anime/status/771155249583181825
So yeah, the new season is going to run every Wednesday 1:35 AM on Tokyo MX starting 5th September.

Recycling of what anon said from this year's earlier event of what to expect in the new season for those who might've missed;
- It's a 502nd focus
- Primary Setting is St. Petersburg
- The mysterious unknown witch is a Fuso Witch Hikari Karibuchi, sister of 508th squad's Takami Karibuchi. She wears dark blue fuso navy clothes. She is apparently a witch full of guts, self-confidence, and physical fitness.
- More Military Focus compared to the previous series
- Set in between S1 and S2.

I don't have anything really against Hikari and Takami other than writers, mostly probably just producers being idiot morons adding up to the established cast so dumbly.
Hype is bad anyways always for anything so we'll see what's to come eventually. I have a feeling lots of the episodes will play out like S1 and S2 structure did just to ''playing safe'' but now with more increased grittiness.

http://w-witch.jp/story/

-----

Episode 1 Synopsis:

Not!Yoshika is your typical Fuso Flight Reserve Academy Student. To catch up to her sister, a Fuso Hero, she trains hard every day.

"This afteroon, The 3rd Fuso Fleet has docked into port."

"The 3rd Fleet..? Wait, that's Oneechan!"

Excited at this news, Not!Yoshika immediately flew over there.

-----

So yeah. It's basically Strike Witches S1 Episode 1. Except they replaced Yoshika and Mio with Hikari and her sister.

>>11412
>Not!Yoshika
>Not!Yoshika
Wow I can't wait to see this awful meme everywhere! Especially where the show hasn't even started yet!

>>11413
Blame Kadokawa and try to get used to it. It will only get worse when the anime airs and we start having regular threads on /a/ again.

>>11414

Meanwhile, Girls und Panzer and Kantai Collection has better ratings and fans

I prefer Yoshika 2.0

I dunno about Girls un Panzer but

Kantai Collection, better ratings & fans?
Perhaps it's the secondary anime-only fans you might be talking about.

The original fanbase comprised of admirals are quite elitist and they don't prefer the anime too.

For them, if you don't even play it's gtfo the boat.

>>11423

>GuP
>better fans

If you count fighting over stupid shit all the time and poor knowledge of tank combat besides World of Tank then sure. The SW fanbase is much more mellow.

Not so sure about the Kancolle fans since I wasn't ever a part of that community. Though a friend in the community told me their community is shrinking. As soon as there's some new military type anime people will move onto that while some stay.

>>11414
Kadokawa might be the reason for their addition to the cast but it's up to anons how tolerate and act about them though.

>>11423
Define better fans.

>>11423
I'm not so sure about better but the truth is that both these fandoms appear to be much larger than ours, which in the end results in more variety among them.

How do you guys think the episode structure will look like for the season?
I have a feeling already from the first episode synopsis that they'll mimic the older seasons a lot as well the fact they added on purpose two Fuso witches out of nowhere.

Ep1-2 will be Hikari and her onee-san related introductions and her getting them both join 502nd.
Ep3 will be about introducing the rest of the 502nd as well first neuroi threat with all together.
Ep4-5 are kinda open to things with which witches get focus.
Ep6 is Nipa and Sasha related most likely.
Ep7 is cooldown ecchi sol-ish.
Ep8-9 are another witch focus episodes with neuroi threats.
Ep10+ lastly are about the final threat with a longer 'arc'.

And can't forget that Eila and Sanya might be around for some episodes, given Ayuru and Mai have been so involved with the 502nd cast this whole year and are even presenting stuff at TGS together. Hopefully Aurora gets a cameo too.

>>11431
Kind of like this, but replace Sadako with Hikari and instead shoe Sadako in as an inseparable pair with Jose. Also, scrap episodes 1 and 2 detailed here as obviously those shit won't fly anymore.

In any case, I don't quite think Hikari's older sister will be a major character as unless Fumikane does some retcons, she is affiliated with the 508th and will be busy there. Although it's rather likely that she will be the person that Hikari writes to at the end of every episode or something. Also, in the last major fight, she'll probably act as the Cavalry to save the 502nd from a pinch (And hopefully she brings along some of her 508th friends too.) and to bring full circle to whatever character arc Hikari undergoes, she'll probably comment on how much she has grown as a wonderful witch or something.

>>11431
Ep 1 + 2: Miniscule amount of tiddy.
Ep 3: Da hook maybe some early tiddy.
Ep 4 - 6: Good chance for some good tiddy.
Ep 7: A shit load of fucking great tiddy.
Ep 8 - 10: Work a sweat. Take a bath. Show the tiddy.
Ep 11: Wow dumb nazi aliens give me my tiddy back.
Ep 12: No tiddy but we tell the Big. Black. Cloud. To fuck the right off and hope for the liberation of the tiddy.

Add butts with pants to all of the above.

>>11433
Takami might be doing a visit trip to 502nd or something in during she stays in the base with her younger sister becoming part of the unit.
Hard to say what sort of a timeline the season will cover. It could be just few weeks. Or she does things as you said.

>>11434
I have a feeling your priorities lie in the wrong things.

Eh, I expect E6 to be the Eila and Sanya love story, like it was in the previous seasons.

Perhaps they could include some Nipa and Sasha.

>>11440
>I have a feeling your priorities lie in the wrong things.

Unfortunately, he's probably right.

>>11430

The fandom and products of GuP and Kancolle are just making bigger and bigger while in same time, yes, we will get new anime and new JFW; BUT....It will show a different perspective of SW universe or just will be a copy paste of first season with a rookie main character with a energic personality?

Now, you check GuP movie and KC movie, both just show different perspective and varity of situations, even more, KC movie will close the Fubuki arch and will solve the Kisaragi enigma, if she return or not.

I don't know what thinking in Kadokawa, Hikari is just a character that coming to kick out EVERYTHING about stableshid of 502 and coming to re-write the story that all will be focused around her and not in the Brave Witches.

The question is...Why ANOTHER Witch from Fuso and rookie? Why not an Orussia rookie if after all, the scenario is the Orussia Empire?

Special Early screening happened earlier today.

On a sidenote, have some shots from the episode.

>>11563
>We're getting mini-bath from the first episode already.
Also nice smug twintails witch. But sure is Hikari and Takami revolved episode from what we now see and I assume ep2 will be about the same till we get to 502nd.
Just like certain earlier seasons.

Does anyone know when this is airing on CrunchyRoll? I'm not seeing it on the schedule. Might be one of those things where there's weird/lax communication between the studio and CR.

Just finished watching Ep1.
lots of reference to other world witches series.
some familiar faces, and new faces as well.
looks like a really promising start

Episode 2 synopsis from the website.

>1944年9月、欧州ガリア共和国を占領していたネウロイの巣は、第501統合戦闘航空団
>『ストライクウィッチーズ』の活躍により撃破された。
>人はネウロイに勝つことが出来る。
>「次は我々の番だ」
>第502統合戦闘航空団『ブレイブウィッチーズ』隊長、グンドュラ・ラル少佐は、
>東部戦線を打破する為の秘策として、扶桑皇国から一人のウィッチを呼ぶ。

In September 1944, the nest of neuroi that had been occupying the European Republic of Galia was defeated by the 501st Joint Fighter Wing "Strike Witches".
This proved that the neuroi could be beaten.
"Next It's Our Turn."
In a secret plan to break the Eastern Front the 502nd Joint Fight Wing "Brave Witches" Major, Gundula Rall, has called for one witch from the Empire of Fuso.

I agree. Promising start, although it was kind of what I expected. But Hikari is a very different character to Yoshika which switches things up. Also nice to see proper training.

OP is good too.

720p and 1080p subs are out!

Is it just me but doesn't the anime Fumika look a bit weird compared to Fumi's art more so than the other designs?

>>11610
Isn't it being simulcast on Crunchy as it airs?

>>11614
I'm very surprised that our heroine for once has all parents living and even a nice onee-sama around. Having Hikari come from training grounds is a fun change.

In case you haven't seen the first episode or just want to rewatch it, there's a livestream of the first episode airing in 10 minutes (20:30 UTC-4). Feel free to join.

Link: https://streamchan.org/#bigblackflutes

Raw link: https://streamchan.org/player.swf?streamer=rtmp://stream1.streamchan.org/live&file=bigblackflutes.flv&autostart=true&controlbar=none

>>11616
I was really surprised to see Mie Shindo
Finally 508th witches are making appearances
I'd hope to see witches from 503/505/506 once we get to Europe

Also
>Fumika now wears full pants
DA FUK?

Maybe Fumika has totally lost her powers. Or maybe we'll see her further in the series getting on a Striker Unit after she takes those pants in a very fanservice-y way.