Board Thread:Anime/@comment-24356739-20170701075622/@comment-25093938-20170702020614

If Katsugeki is before the events of Hanamaru and Nitro+ wants to confirm where Katsugeki is on the timeline of the series in a canon aspect of the game's story, then it would makes sense about Kanesan dying in Katsugeki and brought back in Hanamaru.

In Katsugeki Kanesan has death flags placed on him during the first episode and the opening animation. He gave Hori his red studded earring, which ingame and Hanamaru Hori has them both on and Kanesan has the same pair when he was brought into the citadel in Hanamaru but it wasn't explain where he gotten the earring aside from game lore about Hori wearing the earrings until in Katsugeki, that was Kanesan who gave Hori the earrings earring which leads to the possibility of Kanesan being broken/"killed" if that was the case of which sword is going to get broken/"killed".

Red Spider Lilies was showing in the opening animation, red spider lilies means death and the other shore that guide souls into the afterlife in flower language. Another thing add to red spider lilies shown in Katsugeki, bloom along the paths of departing lovers and one reason or another are destined to never meet again which is some cases for the KaneHori shippers to assume about the whole Kanesan is dying who are watching the first episode or after the first episode. And if those hints points to Kanesan dying in front of Hori as a death flag, it's possible that Hori won't see the same Kanesan never again but a different Kanesan that was smithed in Hanamaru which makes him happy to see Kanesan but not the same Kanesan he remembers from the events of Katsugeki that he fought alongside with the other swords.

If Kanesan did died in the final moments of Katsugeki, there's another death flag for him to add, when the opening animation showed him with cherry blossoms along with the other swords. Cherry blossoms's symbolism in traditional Japan means a time of renewal, and the fleeting nature of life. Their life is very short, the events of Katsugeki is limited timespan for Kanesan him as the leader of the mission along with the other swords before they go back to the citadel and Kanesan knows that he has to see the mission to the end even if it costs him his life to protect history and the Sani when he told Hori during ep 1. Both red spider lilies and cherry blossoms holds a meaning in Katsugeki in the opening animation, that ends up being death flags for Kanesan dying to see the mission the Saniwa entrusted him and Hori to carry out.