#aisu

ワスレナグサ Forget-Me-Not Honebami Toushirou | Aisu | Hyakka Kenran

声を聞かせて　昔のように Koe wo kikasete mukashi no you ni Let me hear your voice like the old times

君を忘れた罪を背負う Kimi wo wasureta tsumi wo seou I carry the guilt of having forgotten you

依る在処を求め　今をさまよい続けてる Yoru arika wo motome ima wo samayoi tsuzuketeru I continue to wander in the present, searching for the night

真実は何処へ Shinjitsu wa doko e Where is the truth?

焼き尽くされた記憶の灰を Yakitsuku sareta kioku no hai wo The ashes of burnt memories

胸に抱えて Mune ni kakaete Hold it close to your heart

ひびわれた心の隙間から Hibi wareta kokoro no sukima kara From the cracks of my breaking heart

誰かの泣く声が Dareka no naku koe ga Is someone's crying voice

下弦の月は　知っているのか Kagen no tsuki wa shitte iru no ka Do you know about the waning moon?

薄く微笑み　問いに応えず Usuku hohoemi toi ni kotaezu A faint smile and no response to the question

断ち切ることでしか　前に進めないのならば Tachikiru koto de shika mae ni susumenai no naraba If the only way to move forward is to cut it off

真実はいらない Shinjitsu wa iranai I don't need the truth

あふれそうになるこの感情 Afuresou ni naru kono kanjou These feelings that are about to overflow

何を示すの Nani wo shimesu no What do you show?

未来が輝いているのなら Mirai ga kagayaite iru no nara If the future is bright and colorful

歩き出してみようか Aruki dashite miyou ka Let’s start walking

時代を超えてなお　結び目はほどけないなら Jidai wo koete nao musubime wa hodoke nai nara If the knot remains untied even after the passage of time

たどり着いた先に　何が見えるのか Tadoritsuita saki ni nani ga mieru no ka What will you see when you reach the destination?

焼き尽くされた記憶の灰を Yakitsuku sareta kioku no hai wo The ashes of burnt memories

胸に抱えて Mune ni kakaete Hold it close to your heart

ひびわれた心の隙間から Hibi wareta kokoro no sukima kara From the cracks of my breaking heart

光が差し込んで Hikari ga sashikonde The light shines in

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Romanization: kuronotsukikage

"My memories are gone. It has always been that way."

This song could be about Mikazuki Munechika.

Let me elaborate.

Mikazuki and Honebami Toushirou were both owned by the Ashikaga clan. This has been mentioned in-game, in Katsugeki, the live-action movie, and Warriors. Both swords were taken  by the Miyoshi clan after the Eiroku Incident, or the event where Ashikaga Yoshiteru died. Then he was passed from the Miyoshis to the Toyotomi clan (but Bami went through Otomo because it was Otomo who gifted it to Ashikaga first and when Miyoshi took it Otomo wanted it back—whatever.) Unlike Honebami’s brothers, Namazuo Toushirou and Ichigo Hitofuri, he did not burn during the Osaka Castle Incident. He was instead kept safe, but later burned during the Great Meireki Fire in Edo. 

His amnesia hit harder than it hit his twin and emotional support Namazuo. It seemed to have caused him quite a deal of trauma, judging by his very quiet, aloof, and antisocial behavior. 

Throughout multiple adaptations, Jiji and Bami have been depicted as old friends rekindling their relationship, however, this album came out in 2015. All we knew in 2015 in-game (his kiwame does not count as it was released in 2017,) was Mikazuki and Honebami’s recollection about their time together in the Ashikaga clan. Honebami does not remember Mikazuki and it’s the only mention of Honebami’s forgotten memories of any specific sword in 2015. But, Mr. PolyphonicBranch probably did more homework to frame this song as not a Mikazuki one, but a Namazuo one. However the loophole is that he would have been grasping at sticks, but it's not the first time TKRB fans like PB would be grasping at sticks, (me included).

If I were to make my argument about Namazuo being the subject of the song, I would have to ignore the mentions of “night” and “moon” as pertaining to Mikazuki. Namazuo is like his emotional support… catfish. Namazuo is the cheery twin and remembers more than Honebami despite being burnt first. He could be the “light” Honebami refers to at the end, or even the one he desires to walk into the colors of the future (you can make this argument about Mikazuki, too, and his desire to rekindle their friendship. And that the moon is bright.) 

Well fuck, it all just circles back to Mikazuki, doesn’t it?

“A faint smile with no response” to his question about the waning moon and the cutting off the fact he’ll never get the answer could be about either Jiji or Namazuo, both alluding to the fact that they can remember pre-burnt Honebami, but refuse to tell him about it. However, the Mikazuki argument is much, much stronger. They “knew” each other longer. For a dying Namazuo argument, in 2015, all we knew (or at least, in-game Honebami knew) that he burnt at Osaka Castle with his brother Namazuo, and who wouldn’t be heartbroken if they forgot their emotional support catfish?

Whoever it is he’s talking about, he laments about forgetting their voice and his guilt about it. He was close to this person in particular, friend or brother. 

What I love about this song is when I looked up what Wasurenagusa meant. It means “forget-me-not,” as in the flower. It just about broke my heart in two. (And do you know who mentions flowers? Mikazuki in “Akatsuki no Shizuku.” Okay I’ll stop.) While Honebami did forget the people he used to love, he doesn’t want them to forget about him; he doesn’t like the idea of being alone. Why would we leave Honebami alone?

Aisu has to be my second favorite utaite. He has been for a long time. While he doesn't show up often in the PB TKRB albums, he always represents Honebami. Lovely song for a lovely voice.