Hortense & Violette

Hortense  and  Violette  (紫陽花の姫君と菫の姫君 /  Princess of Hydrangeas  and  Princess of Violets ) are two main characters of the album  Roman. They are dolls that serve as assistants and companions to  Hiver Laurant  in upholding the balance of life and death, and travel through different worlds in search of his story. Their speaking voices are provided by  Yukari Tamura  and  Mamiko Noto, while their singing voices are provided by  YUUKI  and  KAORI  respectively.

Name
As implied in the songs, Hortense and Violette are named for their respective flowers. Although hydrangea come in various colors, the June rain in Japan is notably heralded by the blooming of the blue flowers, with the color deepening throughout the rainy season.

Hortensia have come to mean a number of things: boastfulness, vanity, sincerity, and gratefulness. Violets often convey positive meanings in the language of flowers, such as faithfulness and modesty.

Appearance
Hortense and Violette are twin dolls, almost completely identical in appearance. Their clothes may be described to be in the gothic Lolita style: both dolls wear ruffled white blouses, dark jackets, flared skirts, black stockings and boots with headbands to match.

The dolls also differ in physical appearance on a number of points: for one, Hortense's clothes follow more of a blue, sometimes blue-green color scheme while Violette's are purple. Their eyes are similarly colored. Hortense bears the marking of the sun on her left cheek, while Violette possesses one of a moon on her right cheek. Hortense's hair is also cut straight across her forehead while Violette's bangs are swept to the side.

Role
The two dolls make an appearance in all of the songs on Roman as well as a few other extra songs, although they only sing in three of them. The stories that they discover on their journeys come to comprise the contents of the album.

Asa to Yoru no Monogatari
Hortense and Violette appear in the first song alongside Hiver Laurant, singing of searching for the meaning of life and death. Hiver expresses his desire to find a "Roman" or a story leading to his birth, and sends Hortense and Violette to travel in his stead.

Several symbolisms are introduced in this song that will be repeated throughout the album, such as Hortense being associated with the sun, hortensia flowers and life, and Violette by the moon, violet flowers and death.

Honoo
This song is the first to be found by Hortense, although it is worth mentioning because the two dolls make an appearance here. The two dolls that the mother buries with her stillborn child appear to be Violette and Hortense, thus the child is presumably Hiver. The live performance seems to confirm this as at the end of the song, Hiver comes up to take the two dolls placed at the grave.

Norowareshi Houseki
The second song to be found by Hortense is also worth mentioning as the dolls make another brief cameo in the song. Hortense and Violette appear with Noël while she waits for her brother, Hiver, to return. Although she is mentioned as the daughter of a doll maker, the manga portrays Noël as the creator of the dolls herself.

Other Songs in Roman
The songs in the album from the second to the eleventh tracks are presented in alternating order; the first of these is found by Hortense, the second found by Violette, and so on. At the end of each song, the discovering doll wonders if a Roman can be found there. Presented in the following table are the songs Hortense and Violette found:

Yaneura Roman
Hortense and Violette are heard to be answering Michèle Malebranche, saying "Oui, Madame," in the same manner that they had addressed Hiver. The dolls pose the same question about whether there is a Roman to be found there at the end of the track.

Another Roman
The song itself is mainly a remix of Asa to Yoru no Monogatari, although the ending dialogue in Yaneura Roman by Hiver and the two dolls are repeated. Hortense and Violette are introduced as "broken dolls" and sing in a more mechanical manner, reflecting their deteriorated appearance on the cover.

Manga Portrayal
Hortense and Violette also appear in the Roman manga, wherein they reprise their roles as the dolls of life and death serving under Hiver Laurant. Their master comes to question the meaning of life and death and awakens them from their place on a shelf, passing on the brands on his cheeks to each one before bidding them off to travel to different worlds.

As in the album, the dolls separate from each other and come upon different Roman; presumably, Hiver Laurant views the stories as the dolls see them through their eyes. Dolls similar to Hortense and Violette are also seen appearing in the Honoo, Norowareshi Houseki, and 11-moji no Dengon chapters. At the end, the dolls are seen reaching out to each other over space; although it is never made clear whether they returned to Hiver, twin dolls bearing their appearance are seen in the display nearing the end of the last chapter.

Live Portrayal
<p style="line-height:19.1875px;font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">YUUKI and KAORI also play Hortense and Violette respectively in the live performances, although there were actual dolls commissioned to resemble Hortense and Violette that were also used throughout the concerts. Although their roles were initially restricted to observers in the first live performances of Roman, they have recently been shown to sing some of the songs they have found themselves, such as Hoshikuzu no Kawahimo and Miezaru Ude. They sport remade outfits for the Revival Tour.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">Interestingly, the Roman concerts have them reappear during 11-moji no Dengon, with Violette presenting the baby to the mother for a final farewell and Hortense returning the child to the seat where Hiver would reappear.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;">They also make brief appearances in the Miezaru Ude PV: around the beginning, they stand opposite Hiver as he regards the jewel, and at the end they take up positions similar to that found on the album cover.

Related Pages

 * 5th Story Roman
 * Another Roman
 * Roman Manga
 * Hiver Laurant
 * Michèle Malebranche
 * Noël