Let's talk about flowers/floral imagery in anime!

Fario-P said:

I haven't seen it yet, but I love how roses are drawn and featured in Revolutionary Girl Utena! Need to watch it ASAP!!

spaesu said:
idk but this one scene in spirited away was really nice

Judevin said:
Wonder Egg Priority symbolizes a lot in flowers and thus has a lot of flower scenes


Most if not all of the images are taken from this blog.

Snoozukun said:
Cliche answer but I really love it when they show Red Spider Lillies in an anime. Never have I seen something so haunting yet beautiful..........

Also, there are these flowers. Forgot the name or anime it came from but these look lovely too.

Cerber106 said:
The first one that comes to my mind is Mononoke:


The whole aesthetic of this anime is unique but I don't really know if I can recommend it to you based solely off of that fact, if you're into the Horror genre and want to learn more about Japanese myths and Folklore I would be sure not to miss out on this one.

I'll try answering some of your questions:

I actually don't really have a favorite flower and I don't focus on that when I'm watching anything, but I can surely appreciate when its uniquely presented. There is some meaning in the presentation of flowers in Mononoke but I wouldn't make it sound like it has some really big impact in the show, some bits here and there I guess.

Actually yeah we should have a solid use of flowers to spruce up the scenes if nothing else, I found Ghibli movies to have some of the best use of flowers, like the person above me put into a gif Spirited Away, but u can see the use of them in so many more works like for example:

Kiki's delivery service:


How's moving castle:

I'd honestly go on with other movies but I don't want to fucking bombard you with images and take up space in the replies... but if you need some more recommendations, Made in Abyss uses some really cool flower shots iirc, I haven't seen this one yet but I know for sure that Mushishi won't disappoint in it's use of flowers as well.

Tasel said:
Phosphophyllite blooming like a flower.

Mirabem said:
I just checked your previous discussion and I'm surprised that no one recommended you Chihayafuru anime/manga or Takane no Ran-san manga. Well, both are almost unknown and far from the mainstream sphere, Chihayafuru only being noticed because of a pathetic score manipulation and Takane no Ran-san having less than 2,000 members as of now.

Chihayafuru is about karuta and its hundred traditional poems, a sport that united Chihaya and her friends during their childhood. Visually, flowers aren't always animated, but symbolically, they convey essential inspiration and imagination for the characters, being the focus of many poems. Overall, nature (seasons, trees, mountains, flowers) is one of the most prominent thematic of the hundred poems.

In Takane no Ran-san, the flowers are basically the background of this romantic story, what bring all the lovable characters together. The flowers almost give a charming scent to the atmosphere of each chapter, each one being centered about a specific flower and its literal and symbolical meaning. Therefore, everything subtly flows in concordance with the flowers messages and characteristics.

I hope this will be helpful!

Seijatachiiii said:

Roses are very important in Revolutionary Girl Utena, it would take me forever to explain it, even harder to without spoiling you. So I really urge you to, as you say, watch it asap!! This article/blog on the rose in Utena is very good, it does have spoilers, lots and lots of spoilers, so either skim through it or wait until youve watched the show to read it.
https://smallestsliceoflife.wordpress.com/2019/10/04/language-of-the-rose-interplay-of-color-flower-meaning-in-revolutionary-girl-utena/

Moruna said:

Yes, the flowers were definitely used to present some kind of symbolism in some of my examples.
Some of them were maybe symbols of young love (1.), perhaps warmth and happiness (5.) or some could be heralds of death(7.)
But in most of them, I think they are only there to make the scene/drawing look even better than it already does (2., 3., 4., 6.)

I don't know tbh lol. Maybe lilac or honeysuckle, but I wouldn't get sad if they don't. And yes, I agree about the roses part, they could try tulips sometimes lol. They can be red, as many other flowers too. :D

Now, I just want to say, what a lovely thread OP.
I really enjoyed trying to remember, search for the examples and answer to your questions.
I must say I really like the dedication you put in your threads and I like reading them from time to time.
They are always a breath of fresh air in the sea of average, but annoyingly common threads on this forum.
Please, keep on making discussions like this in the future too and don't let the haters stop you from it.
I'm most of the time just an one-liner on the forums, but threads like yours makes me want to actually try to better participate in discussions.
You are one of the rare users here who try to use more than two words when creating a discussion or when answering to other threads.
Wish you the best of luck with the future thread ideas too! This one was very cute.

Fario-P said:
Agreed. Not entirely sure if the flowers here were CGI, but if they were then this is definitely a good use of CG.

Lucifrost said:

My favorite CG flowers are from episode 8 of Demon Slayer.

I reacted much like Tanjiro did.

Elzombi47 said:
This is such an unique topic. Nice idea!

These two are from the Fate franchise


And this one is from Aria the animation, 3rd season:

Moruna said:
@Fario-P, I'm glad you liked my reply.

I also don't know tbh, could be all the reasons you've named. In the past it looks like people wanted to make something good. Something that makes others awe. Something that will last. Today, they do it too, but you can feel some kind of lack of dedication in their works.
Or it could just be that we grew up with cel animations and stuff made that way looks wonderful to us lol.

I need to check Cardcaptor Sakura then. It's on my ptw for a long period. I really need to find time to at least start it. :D
Yup, tulips are simply wonderful and imo far more easier to draw or animate too, but ya know, we need only roses and sakuras everywhere, so who cares about other flowers, they are not that important. :P

You are welcome. It was my pleasure replying to your thread Fario. <3

Why is the example(s) you posted a favorite for you?

How were flowers used in the example(s) you would like to mention? Did flower language/symbolism play a role for it?

Do you have a particular bias for a specific flower? Did this specific flower that you like appear in your example(s)?

What flower do you want to see featured in more anime? Any underrepresented picks? Are you tired of seeing people always using roses lol

Did the example(s) in question introduce to you a flower you had never seen/heard before up to that point?

KMSpico said:
I'm not to good on flower language. I will be happy if someone reccomend me website or book about this topic.

Fario-P said:
The opening "Hoshi to Hana" for Yuki Yuna is a Hero. The other OPs for the franchise are great for this as well.

konkelo said:
Someone also posted Makoto Takahashi's art here and if anyone is a fan of retro shoujo better check his illustrations. They're amazingly detailed and the way he uses flowers is just amazing.

Oh plenty. I want to see more evergreens and not only flowering plants. As an example hiba that are native in Japan have decorative leaves too. For flowers common zinnia, scabiosa, heliotrope, horse chestnut, common lantana, passion, persian onion, snapdragon... I think that's enough of a list.

And about roses, instead of me being tired of them (since they're my favorite plants) I'm more tired and irritated how people use modern roses even when it would be inaccurate. There is so much variety in roses, huge amount of native species like native in Japan Japanese rose has simple flower, then compare it to its varieties cultivated in Europe 'Snow Pavement'/'Schneekoppe' and 'Ritausma'. Redleaf rose looks completely different from other species and from moss roses 'Nuits de Young' is all time favorite of mine. If anything I'm tired of seeing Grandiflora roses and Hybrid tea roses, because goddamn when Marie Antoinette was alive those roses didn't even exist and rather in Europe old garden roses were cultivated like Rosa gallica. Yes, the last one is a rant about Rose of Versailles.

For British Flower language this website has decent amount of flowers and this one has also listed color differences. Language of Flowers by Kate Greenaway is a good dictionary for Victorian era meanings.

Crow_Black said:
5 Centermetrs per second for me personally and here's a excerpt from a review i've done from it a while ago.
The title of the film refers to the speed that cherry blossoms fall. From the movie perspective, it represents the slow pace of life.

GlennMagusHarvey said:


The entire Yuuki Yuuna (a.k.a. Yuki Yuna) series heavily uses floral imagery as a theme (and ) for its main characters and their abilities.

I'm surprised it didn't get another mention in this thread.

Catalano said:
currently reading boku no chikyuu wo mamotte and the flowers are everywhere, the moon characters are named after flowers and the main girl makes flowers/plants grow when she sings, she can also communicate with them, it's a beautiful manga/anime with a mysterious vybe. I think the lotus is the most important in the story, there is a character named mokuren/moku ren who is the central character in the plot

MercuryLamp_ said:
Sailor Moon R: The Movie



Not my favourite Sailor Moon film by a long shot, but I really appreciate the imagery and symbolism in it.

I also really like the petals frequently accompanying Haruka and Michiru, I suppose they represent their maturity and they add a really classy touch.

Fario-P said:
Oh shit, I somehow forgot to check this thread again for replies lol. Sorry for late replies.

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Wow, that looks like a really nice picture!! I've never heard of this artist before. Thanks for sharing.

Wow, that's quite a lot of flowers haha... you're quite knowledgeable! I've never even heard of some of these before; had to look up scabiosa and common lantana, and I didn't know what horse chestnuts or Persian onions looked like. They all look so beautiful!!

Not sure if anyone can tell from the way I worded that last part on roses, but... no, I don't hate roses. I still think that they are really nice looking flowers. I just feel like it's overused and there's so much more flowers out there that people could try giving a shout-out to instead. Like this flower in the 8th episode of Bottle Fairy.



I could never figure out the name of this flora for the longest time. They never say what kind of flower it is in the whole episode, as the characters just refer to it as "Hanana" (very cute nickname XD). The closest I got to figuring out what flower this was is "sedum telephium", but even so I still don't know for sure if that is the right flower. Sure looks like it though. (This episode of Bottle Fairy is also a nice example of flowers in anime in general, can't believe I didn't even mention it in my original post...)
But yeah, whatever flower this is, sedum telephium or not, I think it'd be cool to see more of it in anime.

...Oh and thanks for talking about those other roses, didn't know redleaf roses existed. Once again, it's great to learn about more flowers.

I know this reply wasn't directed at me, but I very much appreciate the links! Will give them a look sometime, thanks again!!

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That's what the title was referring to?
...Well I haven't seen the movie yet but thanks for the reminder haha.

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Yeah, I'm surprised that no one else even mentioned YuYuYu either.
Wasn't even aware that you liked that show to begin with (unless I just forgot again.....) tbh.

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Oh, I've heard about Please Save My Earth quite a bit... always thought about reading it especially now after reading your post, but 21 volumes seems a bit long... would you recommend it?

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You brought me right back haha, I surprisingly haven't rewatched any Sailor Moon movies yet. I did like how flowers and meadows were depicted in the movie, and the way flower-giving was used into the plot was pretty heartwarming to me back when I watched this as a young kid. I hope to rewatch it sometime soon, I wanna see if it aged well or not.

I agree, I really loved how those petals (and that theme whenever they showed up in their civilian forms hahahaha) helped make them seem a lot more different from the other Sailor Senshi.

Catalano said:

I highly recommend please save my earth, the volumes are easy to read, the manga has big panels and the text flows quickly. I read it one volume a time and it takes me 50-70 minutes but most importantly, the story will surely hook you.
I have to tell you something in regards to the content, it's kinda strong. Never mind the situation where a 7 year old boy is in love with a 16 year old girl, there's a sex scene which almost falls in the category of rape. I don't really know your prefferences if you hate thing like these, but I still recommend it, it has great moments and the characters are great to follow, lots of feelings and emotions in this manga.

SkyFullOfStars said:
I know this thread focuses on pretty flowers but the following images can be sorta disturbing. I hope the anime does it justice :)

Kii_Ibarra said:
Firstly, apologies, since I don't know much about flower language/symbolism and the like, I just thought all of these examples I'm about to list were pretty, I guess

Speaking of Touhou, the 9th game, Phantasmagoria of Flower View was all about flowers. Lots of lily-of-the-valley symbolism, since one of the new characters introduced in it was a shinigami and lillies-of-the-valley are associated with death (I believe). The game was adapted as the 4th(?) episode of Memories of Phantasm I don't care about MAL's database guidelines, this is definitely an anime, lol

I agree about Madoka Magica Part Three's animation being really nice even if, yeah, I did hate the ending (and basically everything else about the movie). Sorry, Madoka fans

vincentko said:
One thing that stood out to me is the usage of flowers symbolism in Bloom into You opening. I still remember there is a whole explanation of its meaning in a blog.

Karinta said:
Bloom Into You is filled to the brim with flower imagery and theming. The OP is basically like if someone took the entire contents of a florist’s shop and dumped it all on a high school classroom, and the title itself refers to how the main character feels being a late-bloomer, so to speak.

Touniouk said:
@Mirabem Pathetic score manipulation? What? Who's bullying Chihayafuru?

Touniouk said:
Oh wait who's that? It's best poster Fario-P, posting about flowers, again.

Casshern Sins is also top of the flower game, 10/10 flowers, a show about life and death, about purpose and meaning, of course you're going to use flowers as imagery because flowers grow, bloom and die and their ephemeral quality almost makes the more beautiful, like seeing a flower bloom is a privilege and you should cherish it. Cause that's the show's take on life, you're born, you bloom and you die and there's beauty in that, am I sounding super pretentious right now, good cause that's Casshern Sins, slow, pretentious, beautiful and full of flowers.

. . .

Seriously, open up your search engine of choice and look up "Casshern Sins Flowers".

Nalusa_Falaya said:
Btw, @Fario-P How much time does it take you to make a thread ? Like write everything with all the embedded links and pics and stuff, You and Rob7's threads are probably the most effortful threads I see on this site so I was just curious

Fario-P said:
Yeah, I'm surprised that no one else even mentioned YuYuYu either.
Wasn't even aware that you liked that show to begin with (unless I just forgot again.....) tbh.

KMSpico said:
Also i think everyone almost forget Violet Evergarden. Literary every characters name was taken from flower name.