The official website for the Sword Art Online II television anime series announced on Saturday that the series will premiere on July 5. The show will host various premiere screening events in the United States, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan.

The United States premiere screening event will be held at Anime Expo in Los Angeles on July 4. Original light novel author Reki Kawahara and illustrator and character designer abec will be in attendance.

Additionally, the website confirmed that Crunchyroll will stream the series starting on July 5.

The other world premiere events include:

Japanese premiere: June 29 at Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills

French premiere: July 4 at Japan Expo

German premiere: July 4 in various Cinemaxx and Cinedom theaters

Taiwanese premiere: July 4 at Cinemark Taipei

Korean premiere: July 4 at Megabox Dongdaemun

Hong Kong premiere: July 4 at MCL Telford Cinema

The series will stream in China on LeTV, in Taiwan on i-funtv, and in French-speaking countries (France, Switzerland, Belgium, Algeria, Monaco, Tunisia, and in Quebec, Canada) on Wakanim. The show will also stream "in German-speaking countries" (Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Austria, but also Poland) on Peppermint.TV. Daisuki will stream the series in the rest of Europe. Additionally, the show will air in Korea on the cable TV station Aniplus and will also air in Thailand and Singapore on cable TV.

The show will air in Japan on Tokyo MX TV on July 5 at 11:30 p.m. before the show also airs on MBS, TV Aichi, tvk, BS11 and several other other stations. The series will also stream in Japan on niconico and the d Anime Store.

Yoshitsugu Matsuoka will reprise his role as the main protagonist Kirito from the Sword Art Online anime series. Miyuki Sawashiro will also reprise her role as Sinon from the Sword Art Online: Infinity Moment PSP video game.

Tomohiko Ito will again direct the series at A-1 Pictures, and Shingo Adachi will again adapt abec's original character designs for animation. The series will adapt volumes five and six from Reki Kawahara's original novel series. Eir Aoi is returning to perform the series' opening theme, and Luna Haruna will perform the ending theme.

Update: Noted discrepancy in Japanese announcement. ThanksTakeshi-kun