🤍My Interpretation of Meiji🤍

🤍A Witch with a Soft Side🤍

I've always thought Meiji was an incredibly cute girl.

People sometimes describe her singing voice as “powerful,” “dignified,” or “commanding.”

And I can see why.

Especially if you've heard Meiji back in her UTAU days, or listened to Hunter, a vocal mode that excels at powerful singing, you might come away thinking of her as a cool, strong female vocalist.

But strength isn't the only thing I hear in her voice.

Its contours are crisp and clearly defined, yet there's an extraordinary softness at its core.

If I were to compare it to a face, I'd picture a girl with striking, well-defined features, but an expression that's gentle and utterly adorable.

That's what her voice sounds like to me.

🤍Vocal Samples🤍

I'll be talking quite a bit about Meiji's singing voice in this article, so I've put together a few vocal samples.

Each vocal mode has its own distinct character, and I've included a short introduction to each one.

If any of them catch your interest, please give them a listen! 🎧

Meiji Gahata Briar

TYPE｜Rasp — A thorny growl

#edgy #thorn #gritty

Meiji Gahata Duchess

TYPE｜Sarcasm — Elegant sarcasm

#sassy #wicked #dominant

Meiji Gahata Candle

TYPE｜Lull — Sleep-inducing warmth

#warm #sleepy #cozy

Meiji Gahata (Test Sample)

It's still a work in progress, but this is the voice you usually hear her singing with on YouTube.

🤍The Shape of Her Voice, the Softness Within🤍

When I listen closely to Meiji's singing, her consonants seem surprisingly gentle, and her vowels seem to flow smoothly into one another.

And yet her voice carries beautifully.

The onset of each note sounds powerful, which can make her delivery seem sharp. But to my ears, it doesn't sound as though she's hitting the notes all that hard.

There's a sense of attack, yet it's legato.

You might be wondering what on earth I'm talking about, but that's genuinely how it sounds to me.

Her voice isn't particularly rough or raspy, either.

Even when she's singing powerfully, I hear an open quality to the sound, almost as though there's still room for a little breath to pass through.

The outline of her voice is taut and clearly defined, but the space inside doesn't feel packed tight.

Maybe that's why, even when she sings with force, she retains a springy flexibility and an airy lightness, as though her voice could float right off the ground.

I notice this curious quality when I give Meiji harmony parts, too.

Once, I emphasized the high frequencies too much in a mix, and the whole thing ended up sounding a little dry and cramped.

Then I layered Meiji's voice into it, and somehow it became easier to listen to.

It was like suddenly pulling open the curtains in a small, dark room.

I'd added another sound, but the space seemed to open up.

Of course, this doesn't mean adding Meiji automatically fixes a mix.

I still have to check the levels and frequency ranges of each part and adjust the balance of the song as a whole.

It's just that sometimes, when her voice comes in, the sound seems to gently loosen up to my ears.

If Bibi and Wistaria add body or sharpness to a sound, Meiji seems to do something a little different.

Rather than pushing the sound outward with all her might, she seems to give it somewhere to breathe.

Maybe that's part of why I think of Meiji as the member who fills the mezzo role among the four.

There are plenty of MAJOLICAMAIDEN songs where she isn't the lead vocalist or the one at the center.

And yet, without her voice, something doesn't quite feel right.

She's not standing in the middle all the time, but the moment she starts singing, I find myself thinking, "There it is. That's MAJOLICAMAIDEN."

To me, Meiji's voice is at the heart of the group.

Not that she seems particularly concerned about being given such an important job.

🤍A Catlike Girl Who's Tricky to Work With🤍

I've heard people say that Meiji is "hard to mix" or "tricky to work with" more than once over the years.

Incident reports, apparently. Haha.

I've spent so much time with her that I don't find her especially difficult these days.

But I can imagine how someone trying to handle her like any other singing voice might be thrown off by her unusual vocal shape and singing habits.

Meiji has her own way of singing.

Trying to polish her voice into some conventional idea of what a singing voice should sound like might actually make it harder to hear what makes her herself.

That's what makes me think of a cat.

Not so much a feisty, rebellious girl as a whimsical one who won't necessarily do things just because they're convenient for us.

Instead of trying to make her sing exactly as I imagined, I get to know her habits and try working with the way she sings.

When I do, she'll sometimes show me an unexpectedly gentle expression.

Oh, she looked this way!

That's what it feels like.

A cat won't necessarily turn around just because you want its attention, either.

But then, before you know it, it's sitting on your lap.

And even after coming all that way, it might not actually be looking at you.

I sense something similar when I layer Meiji's voice with Momo's.

Even when Momo's voice seems to be there to catch and support hers, Meiji doesn't quite lean against him.

But she doesn't move away, either. She just seems to stay right there, doing as she pleases.

See? Very catlike.

🤍A Voice That Doesn't Meet Your Eyes🤍

There's another strange thing about Meiji's voice.

Somehow, I feel like it never quite meets my eyes.

It sounds strong-willed and commanding.

Yet when I listen closely, there's sometimes a slightly absent-minded quality to it.

It's as though, even while I'm speaking to her, she has a landscape of her own to look at, somewhere else entirely.

I once described her voice as "a voice without a human heart."

That's a pretty harsh way to put it, isn't it? I don't mean that her voice is emotionless.

There's joy, sadness, and anger in Meiji's singing.

It's just that, to my ears, those emotions don't always seem to take quite the same shape as human emotions do.

Take a sad song, for example.

Rather than pleading with the listener to understand her sadness, it can feel as though something sad is happening inside Meiji's own story.

She's singing the emotions in the lyrics, but they don't necessarily seem to be directed at us.

Meiji is singing in a world of her own.

That's how I hear her, at least.

Of course, this is only the impression I get from listening to her voice.

But this curious sense of distance has become important to the way I think about her character, too.

Meiji is a witch who adores fairy tales.

She's the kind of girl who might stand in the real world with one foot still in a dream.

The floating quality I hear in her voice, and the feeling that she isn't quite looking at us, fit that image naturally.

Rather than having her come over to where the listeners are, I find myself wanting to peek into her world.

Maybe that's part of what draws me to her.

🤍The Heroine She Dreams of Becoming🤍

Meiji dreams of being the heroine of a story.

But she's a witch herself.

Witches in fairy tales don't always get happy endings, do they?

They might curse the heroine, stand in the protagonist's way, or even end up being the one who gets defeated.

Perhaps Meiji sees some of that role of "the witch" in herself.

She doesn't just want to be the witch who appears in somebody else's story. She wants to be the heroine of her own.

She wants a prince to call her by name, and if true love exists, she wants to see proof of it.

I find that romantic side of her incredibly cute.

But perhaps there are moments when she can't quite believe that a happy ending has been prepared for her, too.

Even if someone calls her cute, she might not immediately believe those words are meant for her.

Even if she's receiving affection, she might not yet think she can be the heroine of the story.

Sometimes I imagine her as a girl who's a little awkward in just that way.

That said, I don't want to decide that her happiness has to mean falling in love with someone.

There are still things I don't know about the ending Meiji herself might want.

That's why I want to keep letting her sing and discovering those feelings little by little.

🤍About Frill🤍

I can't talk about Meiji without mentioning her familiar, Frill.

Frill is a small candle familiar with a flame burning on top of their head.

They look after Meiji, prepare her tea, and take care of all sorts of little things.

In videos featuring all four members, Frill even makes the camera float so they can film everyone together.

They carry cross-shaped pouches on either side, with storage inside that works rather like a four-dimensional pocket.

Small, but hardworking. A remarkably capable little familiar.

Frill's designer gave them a couple of character traits: they're strong-willed and quick to tears, and the color and shape of their flame change with their emotions.

I think that's adorable.

If Meiji tends to be lost in thought, making it a little difficult to tell what she's thinking, Frill might be just the opposite.

Happiness, frustration, sadness: it all shows up in the flame on their head.

Wouldn't it be cute if Frill thought they were hiding their feelings, but the flame had already given them away?

In my imagination, Frill also takes pride in being a capable attendant.

They'd want to be better at looking after Meiji than anyone else and to be someone she can rely on.

If someone else started fussing over Meiji, Frill might even get a little competitive.

I can especially imagine that happening with Momo. They might both care deeply about Meiji, but show it in very different ways.

That part is still just my imagination, though.

I'm gradually exploring what Frill might be like, starting from the established detail that their emotions show in their flame.

And there's something else I've been wondering about.

At one point, I thought, "What if Frill's blue flame doesn't give off any heat?"

That's not an established part of the setting yet.

Blue flames usually make us think of high temperatures. But what if Frill's flame had no heat, so it wouldn't burn Meiji?

Frill can take all sorts of things out of those little pouches, set up a tea service, and make sure Meiji has everything she needs.

As a familiar, they can do plenty of things humans can't.

But if that flame really had no warmth...

Maybe the one thing Frill couldn't do would be to warm Meiji with their own body when she's cold.

They can be so close to her, yet unable to give her that simple human warmth.

The thought makes me a little sad.

Of course, I still don't know whether Frill's flame really is heatless.

But if Frill wants to stay by Meiji's side, I can't help imagining what they can do for her with that tiny body, and what they wish they could do.

Frill stayed beside Meiji throughout the time she was asleep.

I wonder how Frill felt when she finally woke up.

Knowing how easily Frill cries, that flame must have been awfully busy.

To me, Frill isn't simply someone who looks after Meiji. They're someone precious who has spent a long, long time alongside her.

Even when Meiji has her eyes turned toward her dreams, Frill is there beside her, their little flame flickering.

Still beside her, whether she turns around or not.

There's so much more I want to learn about these two.

🤍Grimchant Goosewitch🤍

Meiji is a girl whose story has been told in many different forms over a long period of time.

Her design has changed, and the range of expression in her singing voice has grown.

Different people who use or listen to her voice will have different favorite singing styles and different performances that stay with them.

That's why I sometimes hear people say, "Meiji's vibe has changed, hasn't it?"

But personally, I don't really feel as though she's become a different girl.

After spending so much time with her, it feels more like I've simply collected more and more stories about the same witch.

Like an old folktale gradually branching into slightly different versions as it gets passed down.

Different stories about the same witch.

I've chosen the words "Grimchant Goosewitch" as the title of her exhibition.

The name originally came about for a self-introduction rap.

I combined a sound that calls to mind dark fairy tales and incantations with the rather odd, endearing image of a "goose witch."

I think the name suits Meiji beautifully.

Fairy tales have frightening witches and slightly silly ones.

Beautiful witches, whimsical witches, and witches who dream of someone else's happiness, too.

Meiji has shown many different faces depending on who's looking at her and who's telling her story.

"Grimchant Goosewitch" isn't a name meant to pin her down to a single personality.

It's more like a title given to just one of the many stories about her.

Both the UTAU and DiffSinger versions have charms of their own.

The lightness of Standard, the heart-piercing power of Hunter, the translucent presence of Phantom...

Their expressions are different, but to me, they're all the voice of the same Meiji.

I want to cherish the interpretation of people who see her as a strong, cool girl, too.

That side of her really is part of her appeal.

And yet, when I listen to Meiji myself, the girl I picture is soft, whimsical, and a little mysterious.

She might not meet my eyes or sing exactly the way I want her to.

But after spending enough time with her, she'll suddenly show me an expression I've never seen before.

And beside her, Frill is there today as well, their little flame flickering.

I don't yet know what songs Meiji will sing next, or what new faces she'll show us.

Meiji is a witch who longs to be the heroine of a story.

Perhaps one day I'll understand what kind of story she wants for herself.

When that day comes, I want to be there with Frill, listening to her voice.

Article written: September 20, 2026

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