Well... I think we'll get a good first view of it in the russian open skates, that usually takes place at the beginning of September. Japan Open is almost a whole month after.
But of course it doesn't have the official air of Japan, with their gigantic (and amazing) crowd, and we'll probably won't see the costume until then. I think we're all dying with excitment already, but what's eating me is that every year she has gotten sooo much better than the one before, the difference between her in 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 is monstrous, even more on 2017-2018. Even with that in mind, I don't think she'll get much better on the technical aspect, but seeing how Medvedeva, that arguably (in my very personal opinion) hasn't changed much since her junior years, showed a big gap between her first and second year on seniors on her confidence and control on the ice, makes me expect a lot of Alina on her season debut as olympic champion.
I guess only time will tell, if this isn't a succesful season I'm sure there will be others and no matter what happens I'll still be cheering for this amazing girl.
I'm sorry for all the spelling and grammar mistakes, and for the maybe repeated ideas from this thread. Btw hi! big fan here.