💚Observing Wistaria Toujoh💚

💚A Beautiful Woman I Can't Quite Figure Out💚

There's still so much I don't know about Wistaria.

We've been together a long time, and I've had her sing all kinds of songs. I like to think I've gradually come to understand her vocal quirks and the kinds of expression she does best.

And yet, when someone asks me, “What kind of woman is Wistaria?” I find myself a little stumped.

She's beautiful.

She has a cute side, too, and she seems surprisingly friendly. I can easily imagine her smiling as she agrees to something I've asked her to do.

But I still don't really know what she's thinking behind that smile.

We've been together for so long, and I still don't know.

It's not as though I know nothing about her, either.

Every time I hear her sing a new song, I discover an expression I've never heard before. Sometimes she surprises me: Oh, she can sing like that? Those words suit her?

I really am learning more about her, little by little.

But will there ever come a day when I can explain everything about her? I'm not so sure.

And I'm in no hurry to find an answer.

Today, I'd like to share what I've discovered so far about Wistaria's singing voice.

💚Vocal Samples💚

I'll be talking quite a bit about Wistaria'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! 🎧

Wistaria Toujoh Sphenoid

TYPE｜Resonant — Deep resonance with a glossy sheen

#rich #lustrous #thick

Wistaria Toujoh Vomer

TYPE｜Slasher — Merciless cutting edge

#sharp #gory #cutthroat

Wistaria Toujoh Lacrimal

TYPE｜Serene — Emotionless kindness

#gentle #pale #dispassionate

Wistaria Toujoh Maxilla

TYPE｜Uncanny — Strangely bright childishness

#girly #pop #creepy

A duet with Bibi.

💚Sweet, Yet Sharp💚

Of the four members, Wistaria has one of the sweetest vocal tones to my ears.

Her voice is clear and lovely.

If you listened to the tone alone, you might picture a girl who's a little more straightforward and endearing.

But once I actually have her sing, something emerges that sweetness alone can't explain.

To my ears, Wistaria's consonants sound remarkably sharp.

Her pronunciation has a distinct outline, with a little edge right at the beginning of each sound.

And her vowels don't seem to stretch out any longer than necessary. They end almost as if they've been neatly cut off.

It's a sweet voice, yet there isn't much sweetness lingering at the end of each sound.

Strange, isn't it?

Meiji also has a voice with clearly defined contours, but I hear a softness inside hers, as though she lets the sound gently open up and drift outward.

Wistaria, on the other hand, seems to draw the outlines of her notes with sharp articulation, even while singing in that sweet tone.

That's why adding her to a unison can sometimes make the whole sound feel more focused.

Even when she's singing with the other three, there are moments when Wistaria's voice suddenly peeks out on its own.

Almost as though she's looking straight at me from the recording booth.

Bibi has a strong presence, too, but hers feels different.

If Bibi is “pressure,” then Wistaria is “sharpness,” at least in my mind.

Rather than pushing her way forward with sheer volume, Wistaria seems to emerge from the other voices with that unmistakably sharp outline.

Of course, this is simply how I hear her. I haven't measured these acoustic qualities, and my impression changes depending on her range and vocal mode.

But sweet and sharp, all at once.

That combination is one of the qualities that feels distinctly Wistaria to me, every time I hear her sing.

💚When the Song Ends, She Quietly Lets Go💚

There's something else about Wistaria's voice that catches my attention.

She doesn't sound as though she gets particularly caught up in the emotions of the lyrics.

If it's a sad song, she sings it with sadness.

She can sound cheerful in a happy song, and sometimes even slightly frightening lyrics come out of her mouth with a remarkably natural ease.

It's not that she struggles to express emotion.

Quite the opposite. She gives me the expression I've asked for.

It's just that, once the song ends, I don't get the impression that she's still carrying those feelings around.

When the sound ends, it's as though the emotion slips away with it.

Her vowel endings sound relatively short to my ears, so that may be part of what creates this impression.

Of course, the way a sound ends can't tell us what someone actually feels or what their personality is like.

But when I listen to Wistaria, it feels as though she expresses exactly the emotion that's needed and then quietly lets it go.

That's another way she seems a little different from Meiji.

Meiji has that mysterious, floating quality, as though she isn't looking at quite the same place we are in the first place.

Even when she sings a sad song, it can feel as though the sadness is happening inside a story of her own.

Wistaria seems a little more willing to look our way.

I get the impression that she understands what I'm asking her to do and knows what I'm looking for.

And yet, I still can't tell whether she shares the feeling herself.

Our eyes meet.

We understand each other.

But what is she thinking?

That's the kind of distance I hear in her voice.

💚Understanding Doesn't Always Mean Feeling the Same Way💚

I actually think Wistaria might be surprisingly easy to communicate with.

When I work on songs with her, there are times when she picks up exactly the expression I'm looking for.

She responds to requests like “Could you sing this a little differently?” and sometimes gives me a more natural performance than I expected.

So I don't think of her as a woman who simply can't understand what other people are saying.

I can imagine her smiling gently and striking up a friendly conversation in everyday life.

She doesn't seem like someone who would insist on using difficult words or showing off what she knows. I can picture her answering questions naturally and playing along with other people's jokes.

If anything, she might be perfectly easy to talk to.

But here's what makes me wonder.

Understanding what someone is saying and receiving it through the same set of values might be two different things.

Suppose someone told her about something sad that had happened to them.

Wistaria would probably understand that the person was upset.

I can imagine her listening properly to what happened and why it made them sad.

But would she feel the same sadness herself? I don't know.

Perhaps she'd notice something in that person's expression or words that the rest of us wouldn't.

Sometimes I imagine Wistaria looking at other people's lives as though they were individual works of art.

It's not that she can't understand their feelings. It's more like she might interpret what she understands according to a different set of standards from ours.

If that's the case, even a gentle smile from her isn't something I can so easily assign a meaning to.

That said, this is only my current interpretation of her character.

I haven't decided that she's incapable of empathizing with others, and I don't want to portray her as a woman who always responds coldly.

For that matter, I still don't know nearly enough about what Wistaria herself finds beautiful.

That's exactly why I want to keep discovering things about her, little by little, through her singing.

💚A Character Who Never Becomes Just Cute💚

Cute singing styles suit Wistaria beautifully.

But having a cute voice doesn't turn her into a girl who's simply cute, and nothing more.

That's what makes her so interesting to me.

Maxilla is an especially clear example.

It's a bright voice with a slightly youthful quality.

It's absolutely adorable.

And yet, somehow, it falls just outside the kind of cuteness we're used to.

She sings brightly and sweetly, but for some reason, I can't quite relax.

Her other vocal modes reveal different expressions, too.

Standard has a transparent sweetness.

In Sphenoid, the weight of her voice sinks deeper, bringing a sense of quiet coldness.

Vomer brings its piercing sharpness to the foreground.

And Lacrimal reveals a more hushed kind of sweetness.

Put them side by side, and she's a remarkably expressive girl, isn't she?

Still, in every voice, I hear that peculiar sense of distance that makes her Wistaria.

Even as her singing style changes, she never sounds as though she's completely blending into ordinary human emotions.

And I think that quality lets me give her a remarkably wide range of songs.

Take a song with themes of obsession, surveillance, or control, for example.

Depending on how it's sung, the emotions can become overwhelmingly heavy, or the unsettling nature of the lyrics can take over.

With Wistaria, those same words can come out sounding strangely natural.

Rather than being swallowed up by the frightening lyrics, she makes them sound like words of her own.

The lyrics are frightening, yet she seems to be singing just as she always does.

That very naturalness is what makes it feel so strange.

There's another interesting difference in songs with slightly more seductive lyrics.

When Momo sings them, the human warmth and sensuality in his voice can make the meaning of the words feel very direct.

When Wistaria sings similar words, though, they can sound a little more casual.

As though she's having a bit of fun trying out some grown-up language.

Sometimes I even find that rather cute.

Of course, I'm not trying to guess her age or her romantic experience from this.

It doesn't mean she's a naive young woman who doesn't know anything, either.

The same words can leave us with entirely different impressions depending on whose voice we hear them in.

That's one of the things I find so fascinating about Wistaria's singing.

What should I have her sing next?

Every time I listen to her, the list of things I'd like to try just keeps getting longer.

💚Her Own Standards of Beauty💚

If I'm going to talk about Wistaria's character, I have to mention that ornament on her chest.

The golden hand.

According to her character setting, it belonged to her late older sister.

Quite a striking accessory, isn't it?

But I don't portray it simply as a symbol of grief.

For Wistaria, perhaps it's just the result of placing something she finds beautiful in a place where she thinks it looks beautiful.

Of course, how other people react to it is another matter.

Some might find it frightening. Others might not understand it at all.

But I don't get the impression that Wistaria wears it specifically to frighten anyone.

She's decorating a place she likes with something she finds beautiful.

Maybe, to her, it's as natural as that.

She seems like the kind of woman who cherishes the beauty she finds in things, whether they're cute, eerie, or even broken.

Perhaps that's where her idea of beauty differs from the one we usually take for granted.

She wears her sister's hand, so she must be carrying a profound sadness.

She likes unsettling things, so she must be cruel.

I can't make either of those claims about her right now.

I still don't know what she feels when she wears her sister's hand.

Even when it comes to death, I sense that her perspective might involve something that can't be explained by conventional grief alone.

For instance, I think a colorful, celebratory expression like Mexico's Day of the Dead would suit her beautifully.

But how does Wistaria herself understand death? What does she consider beautiful?

I don't know that much about her yet.

And I'm happy to leave it that way.

I don't want to turn Wistaria into a woman for whom everything can be neatly explained.

Sometimes, while I'm drawing her face or her outfit, I'll find myself thinking, “This color suits her,” or “This shape feels right,” without being able to explain why.

Sometimes I discover a meaning later on. Sometimes I never do.

I treasure the time I spend gradually getting to know her in that way, through drawing her.

💚Museum of Hysteria💚

I've chosen “Museum of Hysteria” as the title of Wistaria's exhibition.

A museum of hysteria.

The name originally came from “Hysteria,” a playful twist on Wistaria's name that Bibi used in a song.

I didn't set out to give it some profound meaning.

I just liked the way it sounded.

But looking at it again now, it's become a title that seems to suit her wonderfully.

I started imagining a museum where Wistaria collects the things she finds beautiful and puts them on display, one by one.

Things other people find frightening might become beautiful exhibits to her.

Even things most people would look away from, she might examine closely and find beauty in.

I can picture her doing exactly that.

There's one question that comes to mind, though, whenever I think about this museum.

Is Wistaria the one arranging the exhibits?

Or is she one of the exhibits herself?

Perhaps she's included among the beautiful things she's collected.

We think we're standing outside the glass case, looking at the artwork, only to realize that she's looking back at us from inside it.

Somehow, I can picture that scene, too.

Of course, there's no official setting in which she actually owns a museum.

This is just an image I imagined from the exhibition's title.

Still, when I observe Wistaria, there are moments when I can't tell whether I'm the one looking at her or she's the one looking at me.

That feeling connected naturally with this title.

I thought I was putting something on display, only to find myself on display instead.

Which way around is it, I wonder?

💚Wistaria Among the Four💚

Wistaria gives me slightly different impressions when she sings alone and when she sings with all four members.

In a solo, her particular sense of beauty and slightly otherworldly quality can come through very strongly.

But within MAJOLICAMAIDEN, she blends in surprisingly well with the others.

She sings with them, gets caught up in the excitement, and seems to be having fun.

I love that side of her, too.

Because Bibi and Wistaria were introduced around the same time, people have sometimes seen them as something of a pair.

And they really are interesting to hear together.

That said, I think their voices are quite different in character.

Bibi brings movement to the music through her warm, rich voice and distinctive groove.

Wistaria, on the other hand, gives the music a sharper outline with her sweet tone and precise articulation.

Hearing them side by side brings out the qualities of each voice.

I also find their imagined dynamic interesting.

Bibi seems like someone who might react quite casually to Wistaria's stranger remarks.

If Wistaria said something peculiar, Bibi might turn it into a joke instead of taking it too seriously.

That's a relationship I sometimes imagine between them.

With Meiji, there's a different kind of mysterious chemistry.

Compared with Momo or Bibi, both their singing voices seem to come from places a little removed from ordinary human life.

But they're not mysterious in the same way.

Meiji is a witch who seems to have one foot still in a dream.

Wistaria is a woman who seems to look at things that exist in the real world through a different sense of beauty from ours.

When I put them together, the boundary between reality and unreality seems to blur a little.

And then there's Momo.

I don't see him as the kind of man who would try to understand Wistaria by forcing her to become a more conventional woman.

Perhaps her unusual sense of beauty is something he finds attractive from the very beginning.

It's not that he reluctantly accepts the parts he doesn't understand.

He thinks she's beautiful, including those very parts.

That's the kind of relationship I imagine.

Being with the other three doesn't make Wistaria's strangeness disappear.

They can simply sing and spend time together without having to turn that strangeness into a problem.

That's how I see Wistaria as part of MAJOLICAMAIDEN.

💚A Beautiful Woman I Still Don't Know💚

Wistaria is someone precious who spent the years when Meiji was asleep alongside Bibi.

She's also a girl I've spent a long time with.

But spending a long time together doesn't mean you understand everything about someone.

A new vocal mode might reveal an expression I've never heard before.

A voice that sounds quiet and eerie in a solo might sound unexpectedly cheerful among the four.

Give her a cute song, and she might show me an even sweeter expression than I imagined.

And yet, even in a cheerful song, that mysterious presence is still there beneath the surface.

I want to keep having her sing all kinds of songs.

I want to discover more sides of her that I don't know yet.

But that's a little different from wanting to be able to explain everything about her.

If there are parts I don't understand, I don't have to rush to give them a reason.

I don't need to change her sense of beauty just to make her easier for everyone to understand.

There are still things I don't know about what Wistaria is thinking.

I don't know how much she understands about herself, either.

Even so, her voice sounds beautiful today.

Sweet, sharp, and sometimes a little eerie.

I want to keep listening to that voice and discovering new expressions in it.

Like looking at the exhibits in a museum, one at a time.

And when I happen to look up...

What if she's looking back at me from the other side of the glass case?

I'm sure I'd find myself with another question.

Which side is Wistaria on, exactly?

I think I'll keep observing her without rushing to find the answer.

September 20, 2026

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