- The musical citadel seems to follow at least some of the browser game logic when it comes to forging swords, as they have (or had) a starter sword and a first forged sword. However, the Saniwa managed to forge Mikazuki Munechika and Tsurumaru Kuninaga, two extremely rare swords, as his third and fourth swords, respectively, and back to back if Mikazuki's memory serves correctly, meaning he is either extremely lucky or some Adaptation Deviation is happening for story purposes. Or maybe the Saniwa used an Ofuda…
- What's even stranger is that seemingly no other swords were forged after those two until Yamanbagiri Kunihiro several months later. How was the citadel operating with only four swords?
- How did Mikazuki manifest just before Tsurumaru despite having a longer forging timer (4:00:00 vs 3:20:00)? Did the Saniwa use a help token for Mikazuki just before Tsurumaru's timer was finished?
- According to Tsurumaru's conversation with the Saniwa, and later with Mikazuki, none of the veterans were aware that the starter sword was the one who initiated the tradition of planting cherry blossom trees for newly manifested swords. That seems unlikely given that there were only six Touken Danshi in the original citadel and everyone seemed a little close to the starter sword, if Mikazuki's memory is to be believed and given their reactions to his death. Did they not think to ask? How come they didn't find out in passing?
- This also further gives the impression that Kasen died extremely early on, so early on that he wouldn't have had the opportunity to communicate this information to the three.
- At the end of the play, Tsurumaru says he often comes out and talks to the cherry blossom tree. However, he didn't know the tradition of planting cherry blossom trees was started by Kasen until the mid-point of the play, so who is he talking to through the tree? His hallucination of Mikazuki at the end of the play, which plays out similarly to his hallucination of talking to Mikazuki by the Plum Blossom tree in Honmaru Hana Koyomi, suggests he might be talking to Mikazuki through the tree, but it's left ambiguous.
- When exactly did Kashuu Kiyomitsu and Hachisuka Koutetsu appear? In Shinken Ranbusai 2016, Kashuu claimed that he and Hachisuka had been protecting the citadel since the beginning, implying that they were among the first forged swords; however, this play revealed that they were not even among the first six and were manifested later. There must have been a significant gap between the mission where the starter sword broke and their appearance in the citadel for them to have no idea what happened during the early citadel, implying that they are either second or third generation Touken Danshi, "old" enough to be considered veterans themselves, but "young" enough to be unaware of what the old citadel was like and the old traditions started by the original group. However, Kashuu's veteran status does not explain why he is so immature and focused on Shinsengumi leadership in Atsukashiyama Ibun.
- Why does Mikazuki believe the starter sword is still alive, despite the fact that Tsurumaru, Yamanbagiri, and the Saniwa seem convinced that he's gone? Tsurumaru and Yamanbagiri were both on the mission and most likely witnessed what happened. Is Mikazuki simply in denial? And if that's the case, why don't the others force him to give up on his hopeless mission and return to the citadel? Tsurumaru tried, but in the end seemed to accept what Mikazuki's mission, despite being fully aware that it's dangerous. Are they secretly hoping Mikazuki can find him? What is the point of allowing him to endanger himself if not?
- What happened to the other two swords that were on the doomed mission? The veteran trios grief seems solely focused on the starter sword and never mention the other two, meaning it’s likely that they’re still alive, but they're never alluded to anywhere outside of Mikazuki's memories. They should be as important as the veteran trio and likely suffered from the same trauma of losing a friend, but no one ever talks about them, to the point if they showed up now and were stated to be veteran swords, it would almost seem out of the blue. Are they Kiwame training?
- If Mikazuki hadn't been in the citadel in a while, when would Tsurumaru have had the chance to plant a crane feather tracking device on him? Did he do it while Mikazuki was still in the citadel? Is Mikazuki just not changing his clothes or removing his clothes at any point during his days long loops? And if it had been there for a while, why did Mikazuki only notice it during this play?
- The technology of the crane feather Tsurumaru planted on Mikazuki is never explained. How does it act like a tracking device? Is it fueled by magic of some kind?
- If Mikazuki hasn't been to the citadel in a while, where are his wounds being treated? Where does he eat and sleep? Does he periodically return to the citadel for a break and leave before anyone realizes he's there?
- How does Tsurumaru know the Hana no Utena song when he has never been around to hear it, as far as the viewers can hear? Does the crane feather double as a listening device?
- Toward the end of the play, Tsurumaru uses Suishinshi as bait to lure Mikazuki into a confrontation, knowing that Suishinshi has been recruited by Mikazuki for his mission, which he even sadly acknowledges before attacking him. However, a lot of questions can be raised about this scene and how it played out:
- Why, first of all, did Tsurumaru think it was necessary to use Suishinshi as bait? Did he believe that if he didn't, Mikazuki wouldn't come out to talk to him? Why not, when Mikazuki went out of his way to interact with the entire group earlier in the play unprompted?
- There's also the fact that Suishinshi's decision to accompany Tsurumaru was unplanned; Yamanbagiri was the one who advised Suishinshi to do so, realizing that Suishinshi had questions of his own for Mikazuki in addition to Tsurumaru's. Since Suishinshi happened to be there, did Tsurumaru just see it as a convenient way to get Mikazuki's attention? Without Suishinshi, how else would he have gone about things?
- Why does Mikazuki intervene, when it was unlikely that Tsurumaru would have actually gone through with the threat given their shared trauma over losing a friend? Is it because he was concerned about Sushinshi, someone who could be considered his disciple, or because he knew Tsurumaru was trying to bait him into a confrontation and was annoyed by it? It's not entirely clear either way, but it seems to lean more on being the latter given that Mikazuki doesn’t acknowledge Suishinshi during or after the ensuing confrontation, nor does he check on his well-being. He also had no way of knowing for sure that Tsurumaru was beating up Suishinshi specifically unless he's omniscient, given that Tsurumaru never refers to Suishinshi by name during the baiting, only calling him the "number 1, kindest sword in the citadel" which could have been referring to anyone on the team.
- Why is Mikazuki actively avoiding the group in the first place? He may be on a solo mission, but it's not as though anyone except Tsurumaru is in direct opposition of what he's doing and they're all working toward the same goal of making sure history stays on track.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Headscratchers/MusicalToukenRanbuMichiNoOkuHitotsuWaChisu
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