Rejoice, Strike Witches fans, for Luminous Witches finally has an (and appropriately musical) official trailer! Not only that, but it even reveals the long-awaited takeoff (i.e. release) date for this latest entry into the Strike Witches universe. Check it out below:

An Alternate WWII Historical Musical?!

With “Amazing Grace” as the theme song of this PV to boot.

AniTV posted this latest Luminous Witches official trailer on YouTube. Unfortunately, the said trailer doesn’t have any English subtitles to complement the Japanese audio for anyone who doesn’t know how to read Japanese. Fortunately, though, the actual announcement of the release date is in English. Fitting for the anime series really, since they heavily imply that everyone is speaking English in-universe.

According to the trailer, Luminous Witches will take off sometime in July 2022. They don’t give any more specific release date than that, but that’s okay. After having the release date delayed from 2021 and having nothing to go on other than a vague 2022 release date for a year, this is a much better situation than before. Especially since as of this writing, July is 4 months away. Not that long a wait compared to, well, everything else. Tune in later for more Luminous Witches news as we get closer and closer to July.

Luminous Witches Official Trailer: Analysis

"Luminous Witches" official trailer screenshot featuring Virginia singing her heart out on a sunny day with barrage balloons in the background.
A song about liberation sung amidst barrage balloons. A perfect picture for Strike Witches as a whole.

Like in some of the previous PVs of Luminous Witches, this official trailer prominently shows off the witches’ familiar animals. This is something no other Strike Witches media has ever done, anime or manga, save for a single manga series. That would be the Strike Witches: Maidens in the Sky manga that lasted for only 2 volumes, and is now considered to be non-canon to the rest of the series.

"Strike Witches: Maidens in the Sky Vol. 1" cover art.
Thus far, the only Strike Witches media to feature toe beans.

With Luminous Witches reintroducing familiar animals back into Strike Witches canon, it creates some interesting possibilities for any future anime series. It could mean that witches would actually show up with their familiar animals hanging around them and being the ultimate funny background event. Heck, we even saw that in the official trailer, where some of the witches’ familiars get into fights with each other. It reminds me of His Dark Materials in some ways, since almost all witches (save for 1) have familiar animals bonded to them.

Then there’s Luminous Witches featuring “Amazing Grace” as their theme song in their new trailer. The hymn experienced a folk music revival in the US beginning in the 1940s, so that’s a nice nod to history there. It seems to suggest that the music of the anime will consist of nods to historical music like that. So if you’re a fan of WWII period music, then this might be the anime for you. When it takes off in July, that is.

Source: AniTV YouTube