Audio Play / Wasurenagusa

aka: Shinsengumi Wasurenagusa

Wasurenagusa ("Forget-me-nots"), sometimes referred to as Shinsengumi Wasurenagusa, is a female demographic Situation CD series produced by Rejet, and one of its longest drama CD series in general. Taking place during the active years of the Shinsengumi, it follows instead a young girl rescued in the wake of the Raid at the Ikeda-ya, who works for the Shinsengumi as thanks. Depending on the CD, she can pursue one of the figureheads and learn about their stories and motivations as they go through the ever changing times of the era.

For the most part it's historically accurate, having each story take place on a singular timeline that details the battles and political separations that the organization had to deal with. Whether the heroine joins them in those decisions or not is up to the listener.

The series got its start in 2012 and had three additional installments, adding new members to the cast lineup. The series goes as follows:

• Shinsengumi Mokuhiroku Wasurenagusa: The first installment, released in 2012. Takes place a little after the raid at the Ikeda-ya and goes through the first few years of the Shinsengumi as we know it today. Introduces the principal cast of Okita, Hajime, Heisuke, Yamazaki, Kondou, and Hijikata.
• Shinsengumi Kekkonroku Wasurenagusa: The second series, beginning in 2014. Takes place in the middle of the timeline, but ends pretty much where the Shinsengumi timeline ends. Introduces Harada Sanosuke and Nagakura Shinpachi. The bloodiest of the main series, with most of them ending bittersweetly.
• Shinsengumi Hiyokuroku Wasurenagusa: The third series, beginning in 2015. Adds Itou Kashitarou and Yamanami Keisuke to the lineup and covers the cast taking up the heroine as a wife. Takes place roughly around the same time as Kekkonroku, with some minor differences here and there. The most overtly romantic of the CDs.
• Shinsengumi Gyofuuroku Wasurenagusa: The fourth series, beginning in 2016. Serves as a prequel, taking place 3-5 years prior to the Mokuhiroku timeline. Introduces some of the Joi factions with Takasugi Shinsaku and Katsura Kogorou.

The series is not fully translated, but most of them (up to Hiyokuroku) can be found and translated by a fan here.

In 2020, the main Mokuhiroku and Kekkonroku volumes were made available for free listening via Rejet's Rejet Archive YouTube channel, but after the first Archive's shutdown the links are currently unavailable.

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Tropes Present in the series include:

• Action Prologue: The bulk of the work may be romantic in nature, but the first two CD series like to remind you that the plot is still centered around hardened warriors by having each character's first few spoken lines take place on the battlefield as they cut down their enemies. You can even hear them tear through flesh with their swords.
• Alternate Universe: The series might take place during one, seeing that Saitou ends up engaged and married to the heroine near the end of the Shinsengumi's timeline. According to history, he wasn't officially married until after 1874 to a woman named Tokio.
  • The entire Hiyokuroku series may as well have taken place in this, since some of the characters act very different there and the heroine does not die in Harada and Nagakura's routes. Some of the dialogue in Hiyokuroku is parallel to that in Kekkonroku.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: In a way, the heroine that is featured in Gyofuuroku is not the same heroine that interacted with the cast from Mokuhiroku to Hiyokuroku due to the background differences this heroine has with the heroine from Mokuhiroku to Hiyokuroku.
• Animal Motifs: Dogs in Hijikata's paths, and birds in Shinpachi's paths for the heroine. Yamazaki was associated with butterflies in Kekkonroku.
• Arc Symbol: Pinwheels for Souji. They show up in both Kekkonroku and Hiyokuroku as the heroine wishes to learn how to make them, and Souji offers to teach her. When he proposes, he gives her an old pinwheel he made with her, mostly so she can't pick the other two more romantic gifts he had in mind (finally telling her "I love you" and a proposal comb). He decides to give her one extra, though.
• Art Evolution: The CD Jacket and character art has grown overtime. For example, this CD Jacket◊ of Saitou's drama CD in Mokuhiroku to his drama CD Jacket◊ in Gyofuuroku.
• Award-Bait Song/Love Theme: "Hiyoku no Tori"/"The Happily Married Couple", the theme of Hiyokuroku. It's also the first of the theme songs to have lyrics.
• Backhanded Apology: Yamazaki in Mokuhiroku forces a kiss on the heroine in an attempt to fool the public that they're passionate lovers rather than Shinsengumi members. While he does feel bad for doing so later, he apologizes not for his behavior, but for the fact that she was so passively tempting in his mind that he wants to do it again.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Desipte Harada's inability to reciprocate the heroine's feelings, she keeps pursuing him because he comforted her during her mourning period, in his own weird way.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Heisuke's route has signs of being this, as the heroine is more prone to hit him or touch him whenever he's particularly annoying her, and he sometimes makes passes at her.
• Bittersweet Ending: Okita's most definitely. At the end of the canonical timeline, he and the heroine are engaged, but even he acknowledges that he's not going to live very long afterwards and only promises her that he'll make the most of his time as he has it. Okita in general has the most bittersweet tone of the men in the series.
• Blatant Lies: Before Nagakura leaves the heroine in Gyofuuroku, he tells her that he's about to lie to her for the last time. His "lie" is his Love Confession.
• Bloodier and Gorier: The Kekkonroku volumes in general have a lot more violence involved compared to the other volumes.
• Blood Knight: Harada in all routes until the Heroine's intervention, and Katsura in Gyofuuroku. Itou in Hiyokuroku likes to turn his bloodlust towards the dregs of society and criminals, and also uses it as a substitute outlet for sexual desire.
• Break His Heart to Save Him: Saitou attempted this in Kekkonroku to the heroine so she could stay alive and not get involved with the Shinsengumi's battle any longer. It didn't stick as the heroine chose to stay with him.
• Broken Bird: In the beginning, the heroine of all people was this. She'd just come into the Shinsengumi with both of her parents killed and no home to return to, so her first few months there were spent in sadness and mourning. It's not until one of the other members starts warming up to her that she starts smiling again.
• Call-Back:
  • When Sanosuke sees the heroine cry about the deaths of her parents, he asks her why she doesn't kill herself— not out of malice, but because she loves them enough to join them in death. Sanosuke ends up actually making that decision at the end of the volume, after the death of the heroine.
  • Yamazaki brings up another aphrodisiac in Kekkonroku, but he mentions that the second one works much faster than the one he used in Mokuhiroku.
• Characterization Marches On:
  • Sanosuke gets hit with this in Hiyokuroku onwards. Whereas he was more cold and hid his feelings better in Kekkonroku, he's suddenly gentler and more prone to scold the heroine.
  • Shinpachi is way more openly affectionate with the heroine in Hiyokuroku than he is in Kekkonroku. He flirts with her in both series, but in the former's case he finds her attractive from the get-go, while in the latter's case it takes him a while to actually start falling in love with her.
• Crazy Jealous Guy:
  • Yamazaki in Mokuhiroku.
  • Nagakura in Hiyokuroku. He doesn't take it well when he sees other men talk with the heroine, and decides that he should probably stop pursuing her because other men were taking up her time.
• "Dear John" Letter:
  • The letter that the heroine receives from Hijikata in Kekkonroku was actually meant to be this, as he intended for it to be delivered if he did not come back from the Battle of Hokudate.
  • Before Katsura leaves the school in Gyofuuroku, he writes the heroine one of these in the diary he left behind.
  • Everyone sends one to the heroine at the end of Gyofuuroku, just as they go off and make the decisions that define their actions for the next five years of their lives.
• Defrosting Ice King:
  • Sanosuke. Initially, he doesn't care much about the world or about regular human emotions, since he can't quite understand them. After the heroine starts getting through to him throughout his CDs, he begins to take an interest in her, and even stays with her in order to understand what exactly love is.
  • Souji in all routes. He does almost nothing but berate the heroine and call her an idiot, and is often cold to her without ever changing his polite speech patterns. However, he lets his heart slip through at times, especially when he talks about Kondou and Hijikata. And over the course of the first three CD series, he starts to soften up around the heroine. Even the way he proposes is his usual deadpan-hiding-sweet attitude.
• Delicate and Sickly:
  • The heroine, in Nagakura's Kekkonroku path.
  • Okita, as is standard Shinsengumi fiction fare, but he still tries to keep fighting even at the cost of his health and his peers' concern.
• Double-Meaning Title: The "kekkon" in the second series title, Kekkonroku, means bloodstain. But when written differently, it spells out the word for marriage, which is implied to have happened near the end of their routes. At the very least they solidify their relationship with the heroine despite the turmoil.
• Downer Ending: Kekkonroku isn't a cakewalk for anyone in this series, but Sanosuke gets hit with this hard. An enemy gets the jump on him and the heroine when they're taking a walk together, and manages to fatally wound her. Sanosuke is enraged with grief, and promises to wipe out all of his enemies on the battlefield, and then kill himself to be with the heroine once all is said and done. He needed that alternate end in Hiyokuroku badly.
• Driven to Suicide: Sanosuke's CD in Kekkonroku reveals that Itou had committed suicide sometime before he tests the heroine's love again. This is a cover for what actually happened to him— he was assassinated by some of the other Shinsengumi members.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: The Hiyokuroku volumes in spades, as it has a much happier ending to each of the characters starred in that volume. Especially when compared to its predecessor, Kekkonroku.
• Exactly What I Aimed At: When Harada and the heroine get ambushed, the enemy mysteriously dodges him during the fight. He was aiming correctly in fact— at the heroine, not at Harada, just to spite him.
• Faking the Dead: Yamazaki ends up doing this in his Kekkonroku route. He and the heroine elope after he makes himself known to the heroine again, but he does so under a new identity.
• Fighting Your Friend: Shinpachi often talks about how he's going to have to be doing this at some point due to differing opinions and people splitting off from the Shinsengumi, especially concerning the Goryou-Eji, since Heisuke leaves the Shinsengumi with some others in order to form it. In Heisuke's case he never has to come to it at least, since the Shingengumi give him enough time to escape battle.
• First Guy Wins: If the heroine picks Saitou. He was the first of the Shinsengumi members to discover her after the Ikeda-ya event, and was the one that took her back to headquarters.
• Flower Motifs: The big one is the forget-me-not, representing 'true love' in hanakotoba, neatly tying into the romantic tone of the CDs. It also starts to become the heroine's motif flower, given that the love interests like to connect their feelings for her to it. All of them have individual flower motifs as well:
  • Heisuke's motif flower is the forget-me-not itself. It appears in Kekkonroku and Hiyokuroku.
  • Hydreangeas for Harada. He always mentions loving the deep red of spilled blood and constantly refers to it as flowers, and in Hiyokuroku, Harada and the heroine (and later the other men of the Shinsengumi) begin raising a hydrangea plant that never blooms until near the end of the CD. When it does, he comments that the bud that appears is blue.^note Red hydrangeas symbolize cruelty, coldness; blue symbolizes a "patient love", which he gets to experience by slowly falling in love with the heroine. It's also worth noting that Harada describes the color as "sky-blue"— the same color as the infamous Shinsengumi haori.
  • Yamazaki consistently gets sunflowers.
  • In Hiyokuroku, Itou gets wisteria.
  • Saitou is frequently featured with Camelias. Red Camelias mean "To perish with grace" and "In love", while White and Yellow Camelias mean "Waiting" and "Longing" respectively.
  • Okita gets the cherry blossom flowers in Hiyokuroku. While it is usually associated with kindness, cherry blossoms also represent life and also death due to how quickly these flowers die. Outside of that, Okita gets the Chrysanthemum flowers.
• Four Is Death: In Sanosuke's debut CD, The heroine's death occurs on the fourth track of the second part.
• The Ghost: As Hijikata doesn't get a Hiyokuroku or Gyofuuroku CD yet is mentioned in both series, he's this in those stories. Kondou applies only to the Hiyokuroku set.
• The Hero Dies:
  • For the first time in the series, the heroine bleeds to death in Harada's Kekkonroku chapter. Needless to say, it doesn't end well for Harada.
  • In Nagakura's route, she dies by falling seriously ill.
• He Who Must Not Be Seen: The heroine. Of course it's a situation CD, so the most we know of her is that she's a girl with pale skin, but that's it. We don't even get a picture of her in any of the official drawings.
• High School AU: A bonus CD gives us "Wasurena Gakuen", splitting the cast up into the Student Council and the Public Morals Committee.
• I Can Still Fight!: Souji is convinced that he can still contribute to the Shinsengumi even with his failing health, and tries to train in his spare time. He can't. Kondou reluctantly sends him off for his own good, and all of his routes end with him retired from fighting.
• The "I Love You" Stigma: It occurs to Okita in his Hiyokuroku path that he has never told the heroine this, since he's determined to drive her away at all costs due to him slowly dying of tuberculosis and his own shortcomings as a captain of the Shinsengumi. Only at the end of his route does he finally tell her the words he'd denied her for the past 5 years.
• Incurable Cough of Death:
  • Apparent in all of Okita's routes. Pretty much inescapable because of his tuberculosis.
  • The heroine comes down with this in Nagakura's Kekkonroku CD. Nagakura insists that it's Definitely Just a Cold, but he knows that he's lying to her.
• It's Not You, It's My Enemies:
  • Gyofuuroku has this at the end of a couple of routes, choosing to leave the heroine in order to spare her the heartache and tragedy.
  • In Kekkonroku, Kondou leaves the heroine while she's sleeping so he can face his destiny without her coming into harm's way.
• Last Guy Wins: Yamazaki fulfills this role. He's the last of the men introduced in the original series, and for every installment his CD traditionally comes after everyone else's. Therefore, should he win, he'd be the last option.
• Last Request: The heroine asks for a brush and some paper a little after she and Nagakura get fully intimate, and tells him that she wanted to draw. Turns out she knew she was going to die that night, and only wished to write down her gratitude to Nagakura before she passed on.
• Love Confession: It's an otome series, so they all give one to her eventually in roundabout ways. Parodied in the Mokuhiroku bonus CD, where they give one to the heroine as part of a game and almost completely mess it up.
• Love Epiphany:
  • Harada finally has his after the heroine is killed. In a happier timeline, he realized that because he had the heroine to look forward to, he did not want to die anymore and lost pleasure in seeing the blood of his enemies. He later asks the heroine what that all meant, and she responds that it's because he'd fallen in love with her.
  • According to Shinpachi in Hiyokuroku, the heroine has one after she's warned by Shinpachi not to fall in love with a man like him. After knowing him for quite some time, she reevaluates her feelings instantly and decides she's smitten.
• Love Martyr: The heroine in Hijikata, Okita, and Harada's routes, since she has to put up with a lot of crap from them before they even come close to loving her. And in all of their routes, she keeps pursuing them even when they don't feel the same way and question why she even likes them.
• Lunacy: Alluded to in Souji's Mokuhiroku path, where he asks if they've been charmed by the moonlight as he leans in for his First Kiss with her.
• Men Can't Keep House: According to Nagakura, the men of the Shinsengumi can't quite keep headquarters clean, even when they're trying to tidy up. This is part of the reason why he's elated to have the heroine around in Hiyokuroku.
• Mistress and Servant Boy: Gender-inverted for Hijikata/MC and especially for Souji/MC, given that the heroine is expected to take care of Souji throughout the volumes.
• The Nicknamer: The heroine gets "Little Bird", Yamizaki gets "Zaki-san", and Sanosuke gets "Sano" from Nagakura.
• Odd Friendship: Nagakura has been friends with Heisuke and Harada for quite a while. While in Heisuke's case it's not so strange, someone as cynical as Harada being anyone's friend is an eyebrow raiser.
• Pet the Dog: After Heisuke leaves the Shinsengumi and joins another faction, their next encounter on the battlefield has Kondou ensure that Heisuke escapes alive despite differing sides and viewpoints.
• Please Kill Me if It Satisfies You: In Mokuhiroku, the heroine finally responds to Okita's threats with such a phrase, but tells him to do it only after he's been restored to full health.
• Please Wake Up: In a rare moment of weakness, Harada is pleading with the heroine to keep with him and not succumb to their wounds.
• Prequel: Gyofuuroku is this to the rest of the series, set a few years before the events of Mokuhiroku.
• Put on a Bus: Hijikata and Kondou aren't present for Hiyokuroku. In Hijikata's case it makes a bit of sense, since his story arc had already wrapped up in Kekkonroku, around the time the Shinsengumi broke up following the Battle of Hakodate. However, Kondou made it just in time for Gyofuuroku. Hijikata continued to have no CD for that installment, which is strange considering the series canonically predates Mokuhiroku.
• Relationship Upgrade: Hiyokuroku as a whole is this for the heroine and each subject of the CDs, as they each propose to her at the end of the volume. In some of these cases, the boys end up fathering a kid with the heroine.
• Repeating So the Audience Can Hear: Due to being a Drama CD and because the heroine is The Voiceless.
• Secret Relationship: Each and every one of them, since relationships and lovers were discouraged in the Shinsengumi, even by punishment of death. Somehow, they manage to make it work for five whole years.
• Sex for Solace:
  • After he realizes that he's been hesitating when wielding his sword and all of the implications that follows, Okita decides he wants to sleep with the heroine to forget about all of his troubles. Turns out he never actually goes through with it, and lets her off with a makeout session.
  • Harada does this in Hiyokuroku, asking the heroine to lie with him in order to forget the sight of the blood he spilled on the battlefield.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: Some of the love scenes fade to the next track before anything really steamy happens between the two lovers. Downplayed Kekkonroku and onward, because they don't shy away from it (noises and all), but they cut away after a bit.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • A few in Kekkonroku:
    • Hijikata's bonus track reveals he survived the fateful encounter at the battle of Hakodate. He and the heroine get to live a long happy life together, but his real-life counterpart does not, as he dies a little after that battle at the age of 34.
    • Kondou's bonus track also reveals that he managed to escape prison after surrendering at Nagareyama in 1868, and was able to meet up with the heroine. His historical counterpart however, was executed at Itabashi on May 17 1868.
  • In Hiyokuroku, Harada's volume ends with him living together with the heroine at the end of the Shinsengumi timeline following his departure from the Shinsengumi. His historical counterpart, on the other hand, dies at July 6 1868.
  • Toudou has this case in both Kekkonroku and Hiyokuroku, as in the end of both volumes, he is said to have survived at the end of the timeline. His historical counterpart, however, dies at December 13 1867 during the Aburanokoji incident.
• Start My Own: Heisuke, Saito, Itou, and the heroine (in some routes) choose to bow out of the Shinsengumi because of difference of opinion, forming the Goryou-Eiji afterwards.
• Supporting Protagonist: The heroine may be the viewpoint character, but it's the Shinsengumi men's show here. She doesn't have to fight or make the political decisions since she only serves as a maid.
• Supreme Chef: The heroine's cooking is said to be very delicious no matter what she makes. It comes from running a restaurant with her parents before the Ikeda Inn incident.
• Sweet Tooth: Kondou is explicitly shown with sweets on hand and in his office, and his obsession with sweets is known by all of his men. Nagakura has a bit of a sweet tooth as well, but he treats it as a sort of Unmanly Secret.
• Teacher/Student Romance:
  • In a way, with the Heroine and Hajime in Mokuhiroku. She wants to learn a bit of swordsmanship in order to better protect herself, and Hajime ends up obliging her. Over the course of their lessons, they begin to fall in love.
  • Despite being a teacher as well as a member of the Shinsengumi, Itou's teaching angle is downplayed with the heroine.
• The Tease: Nagakura likes to flirt with the heroine in his CD sets, but nothing really comes out of it until he falls in love with her. Itou is much the same in Hiyokuroku.
• Their First Time: Everyone gets it at some point, some later than others. At the very least the listener is aware that they make love near the climax of their introductory albums.
• Together in Death: Harada raises the possibility of the heroine committing suicide in order to achieve this with her parents. While callous-sounding, he really just meant that she'd be willing to rejoin her loved ones if the pain of losing them was that unbearable. After the Heroine gets cut down, Harada's hoping to either get killed in battle or kill himself after his opponents have been finished off, after he comes to realize how dear she was to him.
• Tragic Dream: Kondou's desire for peace isn't particularly listened to, and he knows that whoever comes out of this era as the victor will ultimately bring Edo to its own version of peace.
• Urban Legend Love Life: Nagakura is the playboy of the Shinsengumi and often makes mention of charming young girls. Due to the nature of the Situation CDs the audience never gets to hear him out with girls or going anywhere near the red-light district, since it's all from the POV of the heroine. In Kekkonroku at least, he's just a flirt.
• Voiceover Letter: Hijikata's letter to the heroine in his Kekkonroku CD is this.
• Wants a Prize for Basic Decency: When the heroine starts spacing herself from Itou, he thinks about the previous day's interactions (kissing her, then licking her legs and feet) and wonders why she's so wary. After all, in his words, "It's not like I hurt you, or forced you to go all the way".
• Wham Line: "Where are you going? I'm your opponent, aren't I?" Second volume of the second series, and it tells you even the heroine isn't exempt from tragedy.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: According to Harada, the heroine has a pure honesty in her that reflects in her eyes. He can't stand to look at them for long because of this.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Sanosuke doesn't exactly say this, but he admits that he can't quite understand the emotion as he's never felt it before, both romantically and platonically. By the end of Kekkonroku he's more or less accepted that the heroine's in love with him and enjoys her company, but tries to practice saying "I love you" so that he'll be able to say it with feeling one day. He gets the idea after the heroine was killed. However, in Hiyokuroku he learns it gradually and even comes to love her towards the end of his situation. This does not apply to sex however, as he has it from time to time and still feels urges.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: As in history, not everyone thought of the Shinsengumi as a force of good. Itou comments that they were the subject of ridicule for being under the emperor's orders, and even heard them described as ruthless assassins.