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alt title(s): Cherry Blossom 
It's love, all right.
A common symbolic element in anime and other Japanese media, falling sakura petals have several interconnected meanings, depending on who they are falling on and the context thereof. Cherry trees bloom en masse in early spring, usually in the month of April, but the white-to-coral petals shed and rot very quickly and the peak bloom is only a week or two. There is a celebration called hanami associated with the peak bloom, which often entails picnics and drinking with old friends under the cherry trees.
Sakura season is thus a highly visible sign of spring, the beauty of nature, renewal of life, and first love...but can also represent the transiency and fragility of beauty, life, and love. Since the meanings are highly romantic, the sakura motif is especially common in media aimed to the shoujo audience.
Japanese mythology often also connects cherry blossoms with death; a legend goes that originally, the flowers of the tree were white; after a body was buried beneath it, the petals turned pink. Anime will sometimes take this further, putting a body beneath a cherry blossom and turning the petals a deep red. (The fact that they last, at most, two weeks is a more mundane contribution to the symbolism.)
As the Japanese academic year begins in April and ends in March, scenes of graduation from high school or the coming of a new transfer student are often given atmosphere with a liberal sprinkling of cherry blossoms in the air. In this context, sakura evokes both the "new beginning" of spring and the transiency of passing from one stage of life to another.
Sakura also happens to be a somewhat common girls' name in Japan, and as such, characters in anime and video games will often show up bearing the name, such as in Naruto, Street Fighter, Cardcaptor Sakura (natch), and even Command And Conquer. See Sakura Girl for the full list. See also Petal Power for attacks that actually use Cherry Blossoms.
Examples
Anime/ Manga
- Early episodes of Ranma 1/2 highlight the birth of Ranma and Akane's relationship with a near-constant flutter of falling blossoms.
- Harumaki and Gyouko promised to meet each other and elope when the cherry trees bloomed. When the spirit of Harumaki goes on a date with female Ranma (who reminds him of his old love) he tries to find those same cherry trees, but is devastated to discover a construction site in their place. In the manga, this causes him to finally let go of the past, and peacefully return to his deathbed (he gets better) but in the anime, female Ranma convinces him that the trees are still there, he's just not looking hard enough. Sure thing, they all see the cherry trees and Harumaki is at peace.
- The gag is, Harumaki and Gyouko have been married for decades, and Harumaki's just incredibly senile (even when he's ethereal), at least in the anime version (I forget about in the manga version).
- In the Inuyasha anime, Sesshomaru smells Kagura's blood on a bloody sakura petal before breaking his sword and rushing to her side.
- The opening credits of Love Hina—a show centered around romance—show the Hinata Inn amidst a grand flurry of cherry blossoms.
- And the opening theme is "Sakura Saku" ("the cherry blossoms will bloom"), no less. Subtle, it ain't.
- Karen's wedding dream in the first episode of Sister Princess Repure is liberally sprinked with sakura, as are the opening episodes of Sister Princess itself.
- Cherry blossoms are more or less ubiquitous in Ai Yori Aoshi. The theme is echoed in the name of the lead character Sakuraba Aoi and in the sakura blossom motif on the obi she almost always wears.
- CLAMP are addicted to cherry blossoms (among other shoujo tropes), using both sides of the symbolic coin (petal?). The most prominent uses of sakura appear in Cardcaptor Sakura (where they represent the hope and youth of the main character), in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle (where they are once again connected to Sakura as a symbol of hope, but also represent her vulnerability), and Tokyo Babylon/X1999 (where they represent betrayal and death lurking behind beauty).
- Interestingly CLAMP doesn't use cherry blossoms as Sakura's (Cardcaptor Sakura) motif. They use wings.
- Tokyo Babylon is actually the source of the story where cherry blossoms are dyed pink from the blood of corpses resting beneath them. It can be argued that they're citing a story written in 1927 by a Japanese man named Kajii Motojirou who died from tuberculosis. His story is called 'Under the Cherry Trees', and begins with the phrase 'dead bodies are buried under the cherry trees.' He claimed that his original intention in saying that was that since the cherries were so beautiful, they had to have some special type of nourishment, and he couldn't think of anything that would be as special as a human corpse...
- Honey And Clover uses the annual cherry blossom viewing party as a way to tie the storylines together once a year. Even though the original cast all move apart and have their own plot lines after a point, most of them still attend.
- Subverted twice in Bleach: Captain Kyouraku Shunsui likes the aesthetic of falling sakura, so he has his subordinates drop them on him as he enters battle. And Kuchiki Byakuya's special move is a thousand tiny but deadly blades (or a nigh-infinite number of them, in Bankai), which reflect light to look like sakura floating on the wind.
- However, in Byakuya's first appearance in the anime, sakura petals appear blowing on the wind. As if from nowhere.
- Mocchi's first attack in Monster Rancher is the Cherry Blossom Blizzard.
- Early in the first episode of Full Metal Panic, Kaname enters the story showered in Cherry Blossoms, depicting the very essence of love—until she starts shouting at her best friend for setting her up on a disastrous blind date.
- Likewise when Kaname suggests that Sousuke, weird as he is, might yet find a nice girl someday, a sudden gust of wind showers her with cherry blossoms (and gives us a gratuitous Panty Shot) lampshading their future romance.
- RahXephon'' takes the "body beneath the cherry tree" theme even further by associating an aberrant blue-leaved tree with a member of a blue-blooded (literally) race of humans.
- Tony Tony Chopper of One Piece has a lot of cherry-blossom themes (in his attacks and his character), which he got from his father figure, Dr. Hiruluk. Hiruluk was a quack doctor who believed in the power of miracles after one cured him of a fatal disease, and whose dream was to cause cherry-blossom bloom in the eternal winter of the Drum Kingdom.
- CLANNAD has enough to cover a whole town, being Key Visual Arts' spring game (summer being AIR, winter Kanon).
- Being the mothers of all Aloof Allies, Uranus and Neptune from Sailor Moon are immediately surrounded by pink petals in their introduction. However, they're actually pink roses. Sailor Saturn, after being reverted to child form, actually is associated with cherry blossoms, thanks to her power sphere of death and rebirth.
- In the anime, Zoisite is always surrounded by swirling cherry blossom petals when he teleports (and later when he dies, thanks to Kunzite.)
- Kaitou Saint Tail once had to steal a painting called "Cherry Blossoms"; the episode was filled with the actual flower.
- During the Kyoto Arc in Rurouni Kenshin, Kenshin daydreams of blood red cherry blossoms falling in front of him into a stream.
- Falling cherry blossoms (along with dramatic music and lighting) highlight San's proclamations of mermaid chivalry in Seto No Hanayome.
- Subverted in Hayate The Combat Butler, where one butler, who uses roses as a weapon, makes dramatic appearances amid falling blossoms, only for the scene to reveal a moment later his master following behind him with a basket of petals, showering him by the handful. Also used straight elsewhere, particularly with Isumi.
- Also held straight when Hinagiku and Ayumu are walking home from work. It's not entirely clear which meaning it's supposed to carry, since Ayumu did express sexual intrest in Hinagiku earlier, but also Hinagiku is trying to get up the nerve to confess to Ayumu, that she's fallen in love with Hayate
- Whenever the two sisters in Binbou Shimai Monogatari share an intimate moment—which is several times per episode—the screen gets filled with a flurry of cherry blossoms.
- Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei begins with Fuura Kafuka skipping happily through the cherry blossoms, just before she encounters the main character
trying to hang himself "trying to make himself taller".
- Mizuki in Mokke at one time gets haunted by ghosts who attack her with cherry blossoms. No, really.
- Played with in Suzumiya Haruhi when Haruhi makes cherry blossoms bloom in the wrong season for a dramatic effect for their student movie.
- Da Capo is set in a town where the cherry trees are literally always blossoming.
- In an episode of Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, Dr. Shamal infects Hibari with the 'Sakura-kura' disease at a cherry blossom picnic, rendering him weak whenever he so much as looks at them. The disease comes to bite him in the ass later when Mukuro conjures up an illusion of cherry blossoms during a crucial battle to weaken him, but Gokudera gives Hibari an antidote afterwards.
- One of the more memorable moments in the Gintama series involves the Yorozuya vs. the Shinsengumi in a rock-paper-scissors match to determine who will get the best spot at their own cherry blossom picnic. Fisticuffs and tequila are involved. (And in the animated adaptation, a Humongous Mecha as well!)
- Five Centimeters Per Second, a nostalgic High School Tear Jerker love story hits all the major points, and the title is even a reference to the speed at which cherry blossoms fall.
- During Cosmo's death in the finale of Sonic X, she matures to her adult form and turns into a blossoming tree, in a sequence which is no doubt meant to be symbolic of her maturation of mind and heart as well as body. Therfore she actually is her own cherry blossoms. They aren't necessarily cherry blossoms, but they certainly look like it. Unfortunately Tails then has to shoot her with the power cannon resulting in her death - the blossoms fly everywhere, surrounding a Superformed Shadow and Sonic as he says goodbye. It's quite a Tear Jerker.
- In Yami No Matsuei, the bureaucratic headquarters of the afterlife are surrounded by sakura in eternal bloom, representing how time has stopped for the dead and they remain forever as they were in life.
- Hisoka was also killed (and raped) by Muraki under a cherry tree in full bloom, and when they meet again in the manga, Muraki reminds him of their meeting "beneath the cherry trees where corpses sleep."
- Are you sure you don't mean raped and killed, in that order?
- In the ending of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha's third season, the Forwards are brought to a place filled with cherry blossoms from Earth for their graduation party, and Fate explains that the flowers symbolize a farewell and the beginning of a new season.
- In .hack//Legend of the Twilight, an early episode sees the characters trying to clear an event by making a (virtual) sakura tree bloom. The trick to it is to figure out that an undead monster ("body") is buried underneath it and defeat it. Of course, things don't go as planned by the event organizers...
- Cherry blossoms are shown falling in the first episode of Elfen Lied.
- At the first episode of Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GoGo!, Syrup is introduced leaning against a wall as cherry blossoms fall, all in shadow. This troper was just blushing like mad when she saw it for the first time.
- One of the most poignant episodes of Azumanga Daioh involves "flower watching," and showing how three sets of friends (Yukari and Nyamo, Tomo and Yomi, and Kagura and Chiyo) enjoy the spectacle of the cherry trees in bloom in their own ways.
- In the first episode of Excel Saga, we see a brief flashback to Excel's high school graduation. The cherry trees are in bloom, and Excel is singing the word "ACROSS" to a tune that sounds suspiciously like the traditional song "Sakura Sakura
 ". (Note that she's using the closest Japanese pronunciation, "akurasu". Say it a few times fast...)
- Mew Mint's Transformation Sequence in Tokyo Mew Mew has cherry blossom petals floating by as she's dancing in the wind.
- In The Prince Of Tennis anime, Tezuka and Fuji's Ho Yay-tastic duel included cherry blossoms surrounding the courts, aside of other imaginery. Also featured at the beginning of the series, when Ryoma arrives to Seigaku grounds, and in the Where Are They Now Epilogue
- In Kanon, where the city seems to be perpetually shrouded in winter, Yuuichi's one wish for Makoto after she dies is that she can find peace in a serene, sunny meadow, sleeping happily with sakura petals floating down all around her.
- Mahou Sensei Negima has these on occasion. Several special attacks of Setsuna Sakurazaki also produce these.
- In Amanchu!, Hikari and Futaba share a romantic moment while they walk through a lane flanked by blooming sakura trees.
- In Saki, the titular Saki sees Nodoka for the first time as the latter is surrounded by cherry blossoms. Cue the les yay.
- Sakura Taisen has the full quota you'd expect from a series with the title.
- Westernized slightly in the first chapter of Please, Jeeves, the manga adaptation of PG Wodehouse's Jeeves stories. Is it a coincidence that the rose petals in Jeeves's basket start floating on the wind while Bertie is watching him? And that the top half of the next page is devoted to even more of those petals? No, this troper thinks not. Inverted slightly by the fact that Jeeves is insulting Bertie's intelligence in that same panel.
- Yasako from Dennou Coil has cherry blossoms rain down on her while she has her (probably) last phone conversation with Isako.
- Dialed Up To Eleven to underscore the creepiness in School Days.
- Fushigi Yuugi has the sakura trees in bloom (quite literally) at the end of Volume 1 when Miaka and Tamahome (or Taka, depending on whether you follow the anime or the manga) meet again. As it's the beginning of the Japanese school year, this is justifiable.
- In Umineko No Naku Koro Ni, Bern and Lambda get a sprinkling of these when they show up in the opening.
- Harukanaru Toki no Naka de - Hachiyoushou has falling sakura petals in the beginning the opening, in the eyecatch (if these things deserve to be called eyecatches, anyway), and a few instances within the series itself.
Film
- Spotted in Grave Of The Fireflies.
- An important element in the climactic scene of The Last Samurai, having been alluded to earlier.
Literature
- In The Thief of Time, the monastery of the History Monks is in a temporal pocket whereby it is always spring, and therefore the cherry blossoms are always falling. This is by design, as the History Monks believe this to be the most beautiful time of year.
- Though, in the end, Lobsang makes the cherries actually ripen as a gift to Lu-Tze.
- The Tale of Genji uses cherry blossoms as a visual motif, making this Older Than Print.
- Considering Genji's prominence in medieval Japanese culture, this could even be the source of the trope.
- A.E. Housman's "Loveliest of trees" is a rare Western example.
Live Action TV
- In a rare Western example, season 2 of Heroes.
- Said scene is set in MEDIEVAL JAPAN.
Video Games
- Perfect Cherry Blossom (of the Touhou series) bases its story almost entirely on the "body beneath the cherry tree" myth, and its scoring system is cherry-themed too.
- Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater doesn't use cherry blossoms, but the white petals in Rokovoj Bereg turn a deep shade of pink after The Boss is killed. It's clearly symbolic, as one petal Snake took with him becomes white again once he lets go of it.
- In the 2006 Sonic The Hedgehog game, this is shown during a relatively early cutscene between Sonic and Elise, foreshadowing the much-debated death and resurrection of Sonic at the end of the game.
- In Kingdom Hearts, Organization XIII member Marluxia has an affinity with 'flowers'. In addition, he is perpetually surrounded with an aura of petals (not to mention that his hair is brown-pink and that he wields a huge scythe with a pink blade). In RE: Chain of Memories, however, the petals appear to be rose petals rather than sakura.
- From the second game, whenever the 'Duel Stance' reaction command is triggered with the Samurai Nobodies, pink petals fall from the sky.
- Setsuka's stage in Soul Calibur III made heavy use of the cherry blossom theme.
- Cherry blossoms are part of Kasumi's motif in Dead Or Alive. Her Vs. win icon is that of a cherry blossom head, and she uses the petals as a smokescreen when she teleports in or out of a stage.
- Baiken from Guilty Gear generates spontaneous cherry blossom petal showers with almost every move she does.
- In the gym teacher scenario in the first Ouendan game, cherry blossom petals are falling at the end when his students graduate.
- zOMG features Sakura trees heavily in the Zen Gardens area. The intro shows the area's NPC surrounded by falling petals. The area is filled with Sakura trees, and there are even Cherry Fluffs made from the petals. Keeping in theme with the Sakura Tree's connection with death, it is highly advised that lower leveled players avoid attacking them... The after effect is devastating.
- One of Citan's Deathblow combos in Xenogears has a spray of sakura blossoms blow across the screen after he hits the enemy, which can be very disorienting when fighting in snowfields or deserts
- In the first Fatal Frame, Kirie and the man she loves meet for the first time under a cherry tree with petals falling around them, although technically it should be winter. Both of them die soon afterwards.
- When things look especially bleak for Sakura (hmm) in Fate Stay Night's third route, Shirou cheers her up by promising to go watch the cherry blossoms with her when it's all over. This route has a painful Downer Ending in which Shirou dies, and Sakura watches the cherry blossoms every year for the rest of her life, never quite giving up hope that he'll return to keep his promise.
- On a slightly better note, in the True Ending he's fine, and everyone still alive at the end (sans Tiger) goes out to watch the cherry blossoms.
- In the first Boktai game, the Solar Tree recovers gradually as you absorb more sunlight. When you hit the maximum, it becomes a sakura tree in full bloom. Love interest Lita is deeply moved.
- Freya Crescent, the dragoon PC from Final Fantasy IX, has an attack called "Cherry Blossom." It hits all opponents for damage and scatters petals all over the place. This troper has no idea what it's supposed to symbolize.
- It's pretty much hitting all of the above-cited meanings - Freya's deadliness, her search for her first love, and her maturation.
- Cherry blossoms are strongly associated with Kanzaki Nami of Triangle Heart 3 Sweet Songs Forever. There's also a haremette in Triangle Heart (who reappears in 3) named Sakura.
- Since Heart Aino of Arcana Heart is both the resident Love Freak and canonically possesses the Arcana of Love, it's no surprise that cherry blossoms are associated with her. If you use Arcana Force in her stage, the background graphics will be replaced with one that's absolutely filled with cherry blossoms.
- The ending of Mega Man II shows Mega Man walking amongst falling cherry blossoms (while equipped with the Quick Boomerang, perhaps to give a reason for the odd pink color scheme of the weapon). He similarly walks among other symbols of death/destruction associated with the other three seasons (driving rain, dead leaves, and snow) during said ending. Anyone's guess as to what it means, though.
- In Ace Combat 5 there is an ace named Zipang. Shooting him down gets you an unlockable paint scheme for the F-14D Super Tomcat, it is noted for having cherry bloissoms on it. It was also seen in subsequent titles.
- In Pokemon, most of the grass attacks involve either leaves or vines, but the Oddish line (and a rare few others later) uses an attack called Petal Dance. In the Anime and the Stadium games, this filled the air with what are quite clearly cherry blossoms, despite the line being based on the mandrake and rafflesia plants. It isn't until the fourth generation of games that a Pokemon based on the cherry is created, at which point almost all of the flowering grass-types can learn the move...and it still uses pink cherry petals.
- Not even Command And Conquer is free from this trope. Of course. Of course, it's way backwards. It's the final Soviet mission against the Japanese Empire. The Cherry blossoms are blooming, love's in the air, and the Red Army is on the march.
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