A Cherry Blossom Girl is a common character type in Japanese media, due to Cherry Blossoms being their unofficial national flower and having a special place in their hearts. Most of these characters are named Sakura,note but not every character with that name is of this character type (e.g., Sakura Kusakabe from Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan or Sakura Ogami from Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc).
She should have at least three of these characteristics, but it may be okay with two if the flower motifs are heavily emphasized:
- Named Sakura, Ouka,note or another name that invokes cherry blossoms.
- Pink Hair, often coupled with being an all-around sweetie.
- Associated with cherry blossoms as a Flower Motif
- A pink Color Motif
- Themes of death, spring and rebirth
- Themes of luck or fate
- Healing powers
- Being a Love Interest / Associated with love
- Being born in early spring-time
- Being a Yamato Nadeshiko and/or associated with traditional Japanese elements such as Japanese tea ceremonies, Ninja and Samurai.
See also Cherry Blossoms, Pink Means Feminine, Flowers of Femininity.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Aikatsu! has Sakura Kitaoji, a pink-haired girl who dons a flower hair clip, was born on April 6th, and comes from a family of kabuki performers (kabuki being a traditional form of Japanese theater).
- BanG Dream! has Rimi Ushigome, has pink Color Motif, born in early spring, and in the original series, she likes pretending to be a ninja.
- Bleach: Byakuya Kuchiki is a rare male example. The cherry blossom motif is connected to aristocracy and samurai. Byakuya is both a very high ranking aristocrat and is also a military captain. His zanpakutou's powers are cherry-blossomed themed, making it look like there's a cloud of petals flying through the air when he's in attack mode. His zanpakutou is also named "Senbonzakura" (千本桜). The cherry blossoms are actually tiny blades that appear to be cherry blossoms to everyone. In the anime, symbolising the deep themes of aristocratic/samurai honour in connection to the cherry blossom, Senbonzakura's spirit manifests as a traditional samurai in a lord/samurai relationship with Byakuya. Further more, Byakuya is also heavily connected to the themes of the transience of life and love. He's a widower who adopted his wife's sister as his own upon her dying request. His every action in the manga to date has been motived by love: either love and respect for his clan and his parents or, more noticeably, by love for the memory of his dead wife and for his sister, Rukia. By the way, he's a Shinigami.
- The Sakuranomiya sisters in Blend-S. They come from a traditional Japanese family, have Yamato Nadeshiko elements to their appearances and personalities, and their family name literally means "cherry blossom palace". Maika, the younger of the two, has a pink waitress outfit and is introduced standing close to a cherry tree.
- Pictured above is Sakura Kinomoto from Cardcaptor Sakura. Pink is one of her favorite colors (and she wears it often), she has a prominent cherry blossom motif, her birthday is April 1st, and she's strongly associated with youth, hope and love. This also holds true for her alternate-dimension equivalent and said alternate dimension equivalent's same named clone from Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-, though her real name is later revealed to be Tsubasa, not Sakura.
- Sakura Chiyoda, Tama's former Magical Girl in The Demon Girl Next Door, is clearly cherry-blossom themed: she has "Sakura" as her first name, she has pink as her Color Motif, and even her Finishing Move Sacrament Cannon leaves holes of that shape on walls.
- Sakura Sango from Gaist Crusher. Her main colour is pink. Is implied to have a Love Interest on the main protagonist and she has a white cherry blossom hairclip on the left side of her hair.
- Milfeulle Sakuraba from the Galaxy Angel television and game series is a definitive Rose-Haired Sweetie who wears cherry blossoms in her hair and has appallingly good luck (also sometimes appallingly bad). Her younger sister Apricot in their respective sequel series also plays the trope straight, although she lacks the pink hair.
- Gantz has Hiroto Sakurai, who uses Cherry/Sakura as an online handle. Played with once when Gantz says he's "no longer a Cherry".
- HeartCatch Pretty Cure!'s Tsubomi Hanasaki's Cure name is Cure Blossom and it's rumored that her Heart Flower (the only one not seen in-series) is a sakura. Her inner world has a cherry blossom tree and lots of flying cherry blossom petals. Also, Cure Blossom has pink hair.
- Akari Sakura, the protagonist of Jewelpet Twinkle☆. She's a very kind but shy girl with amazing magical power. She has a Love Interest in brooding boy Yuuma. She also has a magical rabbit who's strongly associated with cherry blossoms and luck as a partner.
- In the Mobile Suit Gundam SEED MSV, character Rena Imelia is given the nickname "Sakura Burst" due to her fighting style and a major burn scar on her back that resembles a cherry blossom and its petals scattering across her back and onto her face.
- Monster Rancher has two male examples in Genki and Mocchi. Genki's last name, Sakura(佐倉) is a homophone with the word Sakura(桜) which means cherry blossoms, which are a symbol of death and rebirth. Mocchi uses cherry blossoms to attack and is associated with them, and the death-rebirth aspects come into play in the second and third seasons.
- Yozakura Kenshirou (四桜犬士郎) from Nanbaka is a gender-inverted example. He has pink and white hair, his eyes are sakura-pink, dons a cape with cherry blossom motifs, and is tasked with maintaining the peace in the prison. The actual kanji for "cherry blossom" is in his name, and together, his last name is homophonous with the concept of viewing cherry blossoms at night.
- Sakura Haruno from Naruto has pink hair, is the girl the main character has feelings for, and obtains healing powers halfway through the series. Furthermore, one of the primary motivations that drive her actions is love, romantic or otherwise. The kanji used for her name translates to 'spring field of cherry blossoms' to further illustrate the themes behind her character.
- Negima! Magister Negi Magi has several characters with the name Sakura, one way or another:
- Setsuna Sakurazaki, a Kyoto swordswoman. Some of her attacks are named after cherry blossoms and leave trails of cherry blossom petals in their wake.
- Sakurako Shiina, the Born Lucky Genki Girl.
- Gender-flipped by Chopper from One Piece. As the ship's doctor he's got the closest thing to healing powers in the series, his backstory has a fairly prominent death theme, he wears a huge pink hat for several years (and still wears it under his new hat), and he carries on his mentor's dream of bringing cherry blossoms back to his snow-covered island as a symbol of things getting better. It helps that his hooves are shaped like cherry blossom petals.
- Chloe Cerise/Koharu Sakuragi from Pokémon Journeys: The Series is heavily associated with cherry blossoms. Aside from having a cherry blossom-themed name (Cerise is French for "cherry", while Sakuragi means "cherry blossom tree"), she wears a cherry blossom-shaped decoration in her hair, and when she's not in her uniform she frequently wears pink. Her swimsuit also has cherry blossoms on it. Starting with JN050, she wears a pink blouse with cherry blossoms on it.
- Kaoru "Cherry Blossom" Sakurayashiki from Sk8 the Infinity is a gender-inverted example. Both his real name and his S alias reference cherry blossoms (his family name contains the kanji for "cherry blossom" while his S alias is just "Cherry Blossom" in English), he has pink hair, his birthday (March 27) is Cherry Blossom Day in Japan, and he's heavily associated with traditional Japanese motifs; he almost always wears traditional clothing and outside of S, he's known as a master calligrapher.
- Although her name is implied to mean "full circle" rather than "flower", Madoka Kaname of Puella Magi Madoka Magica is definitely this. She has pink hair and healing powers, her magical girl form has a sakura blossom motif, and themes of death, fate, and rebirth surround her.
- Sakura Wars has the titular character of Sakura Shinguji, she's a samurai girl named "Sakura" who wears pink, is continually associated with the actual flower, and is a main Love Interest? Yup.
- Amu Hinamori from Shugo Chara! counts. She has pink hair, is a love interest for almost every named male character in series at some point or another, and, considering her most powerful Character Transformation, Amulet Fortune, she pretty much has luck as part of her motif.
- Sakura Minamoto of Zombie Land Saga hits most of the requirements: pink hair and color association, floral print shirt during her first performance, born and died in springtime, an interesting relationship with fate, serves as The Heart of her group (and therefore as a sort of mental healer), and has an association with death and rebirth by virtue of being a zombie.
Fanfiction
- Sakura is the most common fan name for Japan's Gender Flipped self in the Japanese Hetalia: Axis Powers fandom, and Himaruya actually listed it as a suggested/potential name for her. The Western fandom also uses it to an extent, albeit not as often as they use Kiku instead.
- Sakura Tsuitei from Pretty Cure Full Color is called Cure Spring, so naturally, she's associated with the flower as it's a symbol of spring.
- While Chloe Cerise is one of these in her home anime, Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail expands on this. She is associated with rebirth (for how she's becoming a new person) along with fate and destiny — both in that she's tasked by One-One to topple the Apex and that Walter and Henry in the Fog Car task her to be the embodiment of Destiny in their ritual — and is shown to be a kind and compassionate person (for those on the Train, not back home). However unlike the anime that plays up the color pink, Chloe is associated with the color red and is actually born in Autumn (as a Libra).
Literature
- Hundred has Sakura Kirishima, a pink-haired idol singer who's a love interest and has flowers in her hair.
- Harumi Sakuraba from INVADERS of the ROKUJYOUMA!? being a Delicate and Sickly Yamato Nadeshiko, is the girl main character Kotarou is most obviously attracted to and also being connected to the theme of rebirth, being the reincarnation of the Legendary romantic heroine of the Holy Forthorthe Empire.
Live-Action TV
- Kamen Rider:
- Yuuto Sakurai from Kamen Rider Den-O is heavily associated with the themes of love, luck and fate, and ultimately death, since at the end of the series his future self is wiped from existence, and has the "sakura" kanji in his family name.
- Kamen Rider Gaim's Kouta Kazuraba has a bike designed around the sakura theme, and a suit designed to look like samurai armor. "Fate" and "rebirth" are central themes of his character and the main female character's love for him is an important plot point. It's also mentioned that his birthday is in springtime.
- Takeru Tenkuji in Kamen Rider Ghost. He's the heir to a traditional temple, his primary costume is a coat with a sakura blossom pattern, and in keeping with symbolism he dies tragically young and in battle. The theme of death and rebirth is important to his character, as he is revived as a ghost and must then fight to restore himself to life.
- In the Japanese drama series Sakura Shinjuu, the heroine is named Sakurako and was found abandoned by a sakura tree as a baby.
- Cheryl Blossom from Riverdale has not only the Punny Name, the red hair or that she wears mainly red outfits. She's also got the connection to death with her brother Jason's murder and her attempted suicide at the end of season one, and she comes from an Old Money WASP family that serves as the rough American equivalent to aristocracy. The only reason why they haven't shown actual cherry blossoms yet is likely because season one took place in the fall and winter. Given that Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is also a comic book writer, and probably knew this trope from anime and manga, this is probably deliberate. In the season 2 trailer, Cheryl is eating a cherry pie. Another important aspects around this trope, is Cheryl's on and off romance with Tony Topaz, and her gaining pyrokinesis powers in season 6, and being associated with the cycle of death and rebirth.
- Super Sentai:
- Ninja Sentai Kakuranger has Sakura, the pink member of a flower ninja team. But also less obviously is Tsuruhime who has a cherry blossom attack, is a ninja and descendant of a feudal lord, and death and rebirth are repeating elements in her family's story.
- Sakura Nishihori from GoGo Sentai Boukenger; a Meaningful Name because she's the Pink Ranger. She is a Love Interest to the hero Akashi and the lyrics to her Image Song use the traditional sakura blossom symbolism.
- Samurai Sentai Shinkenger has Mako Shiraishi, the Pink Ranger, who is both a samurai and Yamato Nadeshiko, and her character song has cherry blossom imagery.
- Avataro Sentai Donbrothers has a male example in Tarou Momoi, who is associated with pink peaches, constantly talks about fated meetings, is based on the folktale of Momotarō and rides into battle on a traditional Japanese shrine, which comes with women throwing sakura petals in the air.
Music
- Sakura Miyawaki from the Girl Groups HKT48, AKB48, and IZ*ONE, despite her name written with the characters "blossom" and "good" (咲良), was depicted in pink with a backdrop of cherry blossoms in the music video for "Kimi wa Melody,"
where she was the lead singer and center dance position for the song. When she competed on Produce48, her hair was dyed dark red. Most of her outfits were pink, and her concept evaluation had her dressed in pink dancing with cherry blossoms in the background.
- Tsukiuta's April representatives, Chisa and Arata, have a sakura flower as their symbol, and their fan club name is "cerasus" ("cherry" in Latin). While the women's side representative Chisa embodies most of these tropes, the men's side representative, Arata, embodies the Mono no Aware element, that the sakura are lovely when they blossom, but will soon die. His songs are usually about wanting to hold onto a love that will soon fade away, or remembering one that already has. An early stage play in the series, Yumemigusa, had him as The Shinsengumi's Okita Souji, and ends with his dying in the arms of his partner Aoi under a sakura tree as the petals rain down around them.
- Vocaloid character Hatsune Miku was given a cherry blossom variation called "Sakura Miku", where her clothes and hair are toned pink and she is depicted with cherry blossoms.
- Air has a song titled "Cherry Blossom Girl", addressed to one.
Mythology and Religion
- The Ur-Example: Konohanasakuya-hime from Japanese Mythology. Technically, she is the goddess of flowers, but more specifically represents the beauty and fragility of cherry blossoms. When Ninigi, the grandson of Amaterasu, chose her over her sister, the ugly stone goddess Iwanagahime, their father cursed him and all humans thereafter to live a short life like cherry blossoms, rather than an everlasting one like stones.
Toys
- Kiyomi Haunterly from the Monster High movie Haunted is a noppera-bō (thus, a ghost) with pink hair and cherry blossoms featuring heavily in her outfit and accessories.
Video Games
- Sakuya Sakuma from A3 is another Cherry Blossom Boy; he has pink hair and cherry blossoms as his respective Flower Motif, and as he is the very first member you recruit and the leader of the Spring troupe, he's heavily associated with new beginnings.
- Rihoko Sakurai from Amagami is one of Junichi's possible love interests (and the only one with a Cherry Blossom Motif) who's story is heavily based on Yamato Nadeshiko elements and Tea Ceremony, her final scenes show this well with having a Tea Ceremony in the spring with blossoms flying around◊ while she was thinking she is going to confess some day.
- 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.
- Shōyō Tsubouchi in Bungo to Alchemist despite being a man. He has pink hair in a Hime Cut, wears a kimono with a spring-themed color scheme, especially a pink sakura-pattern haori, a generally pleasant if not slightly bashful personality, and talks about "bringing springtime to literature".
- Princess Mana of the iOS game Chaos Rings. She wears a cherry blossom in hair as well as her waist wrap, wears very traditional and very Japanese inspired clothing, is a Yamato Nadeshiko, is implied to be from a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of Japan, is loved by and eventually falls in love with Ayuta, and dies in every character's path except Ayuta's.
- Cherry Blossom Cookie from Cookie Run. she has long pink hair and frilly pink clothes, and she loves tea (although her teacup is more western) and refers to hanami. Her ability even surrounds her with falling cherry petals.
- Kasumi of Dead or Alive, the Kunoichi of Destiny whose movements are usually trailed by sakura petals. As a bonus, her original voice actress was Sakura Tange.
- Fire Emblem Fates has Sakura; youngest of the Hoshido royal family. She appropriately represents all of the cherry blossom motifs from her pink hair to her sweet (if shy) attitude. As a bonus, Hana, her friend and personal retainer, is a sucker for all things cherry blossoms.
- Flower Knight Girl features several of its girls being this, courtesy of their thematic connections as a Flower Knight. There's Sakura, a predominantly pink Mage Marksman who fires Cherry Blossom-themed blasts out of her guns; Japanese Apricot, a close friend of Sakura whose namesake was once the blossom-viewing plant in prior sakura festivals; Formosan Cherry, a young girl in a pink kimono who aspires to be a future Yamato Nadeshiko; and Bloss, a rather literal depiction of this archetype In-Universe due to being the Anthropomorphic Personification of Blossom Hill's World Flower, a large Cherry Blossom tree which resides in the nation representing spring.
- Sakuramochi from Food Fantasy, since she's the personification of a cake eaten during Spring and associated with cherry blossoms. She has long pink hair, wears a pink combination of a kimono and a maid uniform, loves defending and caring for others, and struggles with being The Ageless as the humans she cares about die.
- Kingdom Hearts has a Rare Male Example in Marluxia, who was actually intended to be a woman in early drafts but had his gender switched in order to avoid some Unfortunate Implications. Marluxia has pink hair, his stage has a prominent floral theme and he also scatters petals around himself whenever he moves. He combines Fate and Death themes from both the west and east by way of dressing in a Hooded Black Cloak and wielding a Sinister Scythe, which makes him look very much like The Grim Reaper, while his "element" is identified as "Flower", though in contrast to the floral-themed healing spells in Kingdom Hearts, Marluxia's are deadly instead, the petals he scatters whenever he moves and attacks are either Cherry Blossoms or Rose Petals and his stage is eerily white.
- The Cherry Ghosts and White Cherry Ghosts in the Korean MMORPG La Tale. Being ghosts, they are of course associated with death. They are also dressed in very traditional (and very pink) Japanese kimonos, have hair decorations made from blooming cherry branches, and only appear at Cherry Lake, which is covered in cherry trees in perpetual bloom. The special weapon made from their soul jar is a spear based on a blooming cherry branch. In the Japanese version of the game, they are called "Sakura Ghosts".
- The Sakura skin for Karma in League of Legends. Karma herself looks Indian instead of Japanese, but it's sort of in the same direction.
- Mika Himeya from Mica: Apoptosis is one, being a Yamato Nadeshiko dressed in pink, a girl with healing powers,in love with a young man, and with a name that means "truthful flower". Once she realizes that it is easier to kill than to heal, she crosses the Moral Event Horizon and becomes a murderer.
- In Ninja Jajamaru-kun, Princess Sakura will drop Cherry Blossoms from the top of the screen. Later sequels, starting with Jajamaru Ninpō Chō, usually depict Sakura with a pink kimono and headband.
- Sakuya in Ōkami qualifies for this trope despite being the spirit of a golden peach tree — she protects and preserves Nippon through her network of enchanted trees, has pink blossoms, hides the people of Kamiki Village in her fruit when the darkness is about to overwhelm it, and at one point in the early game withdraws into her tree until revived by the protagonist Amaterasu.
- Sakura-no-sei in Onmyōji (2016), an actual cherry blossom yōkai. Apart from that, she's generally soft-spoken, is geared towards healing in gameplay, and her story centers on the death of her lover.
- In Persona 4, Yukiko Amagi's initial Persona, Konohana Sakuya, is a woman dressed in bright pink with distinctive blossom-like wings and an affinity for healing skills. Yukiko herself is named after snow and associated with red instead of pink, but she does have the Yamato Nadeshiko personality.
- Sakura Shinguji in Sakura Wars, a young Samurai whose distinctive pink kimono has a repeated semi-abstract cherry blossom motif. She's also sort of the poster girl Love Interest of the series, and even her pilot uniform and personal mecha are pink. The Soft Reboot Sakura Wars (2019) continues the tradition with Sakura Amamiya, a swordswoman-in-training who dresses in a kimono with several pink elements, has a cherry blossom motif (represented as either an emblem worn on her kimono or a hair accessory worn with her combat uniform), and is the poster girl love interest for her game. And yes, her own combat uniform and personal mecha are pink too. In fact, this Sakura idolizes the original Sakura Shinguji.
- Sakura Kasugano from Street Fighter has a cherry blossom motif in some of her official artworks, she's born in March, and she's more or less a Love Interest for Ryu (though, it's largely one-sided). Regarding the latter, she's definitely a Morality Pet to him, whenever he's falling into the Satsui no Hado.
- Cherry Bìluó from The Tale of Food, despite having no Japanese background or ancestry –- a Chinese dish imported from the Western Regions (Central Asia or India) who spent most of his past in Persia –- and being a cute boy. He's a Princely Young Man with youthful Bishōnen features, a flirty and romantic side and a design that stars loads of pink and cherry motifs.
- Subverted with Peach Blossom Congee –- the flower he represents is a close relative to the cherry blossom, he's a festive spring dish, he's a Long-Haired Pretty Boy wearing loads of pink and appropriate flower motifs who also pays attention to beauty care, but most of the time he's an arrogant, gung-ho warrior who openly looks down on and sneers at romance.
- Cheria Barnes from Tales of Graces is the pink-haired love interest of main character Asbel Lhant. During the game, Cheria is described as motherful and dutiful, even spending seven years waiting for Asbel to come home. She possesses a healing power, which she uses to work in a relief organisation during the war. Her second Blast Caliber, "Garden of Innocence" consists of a distinctive sakura tree appearing behind her, healing all party members and reviving incapacitated ones.
- She's not named "Sakura", but Kaori Yae of Tokimeki Memorial 2 fits the trope otherwise:
- Her given name, Kaori (花桜梨) has "Sakura" for its second Kanji, just with its Chinese alternate reading "Ô", instead of the Japanese reading "Sakura"; and her first name, Yae (八重), is the first part of the Japanese word "Yaezakura" (八重桜), a double-flowering cherry tree.
- Her hair color is similar to a cherry blossom; her mandatory event revolves around her comparing herself to a late-blooming cherry tree; her seiyuu, Kazusa Murai, even states in the game's freetalk (unlocked after you complete Kaori's storyline) how she thinks Kaori is similar to cherry trees; her main Image Song is called "Ouju no Sasayaki" ("Whisper of the Cherry Tree"), and the official Music Clip made around this song shows her in a forest of cherry trees that progressively bloom; and her symbolic flower is listed as the "Yaezakura" in the official Illustrations Artbook.
- Yuyuko Saigyouji in Touhou Youyoumu ~ Perfect Cherry Blossom fits this trope well despite not having "sakura" as part of her name. Being a pink-haired ghost, she's naturally associated with death, including the power to kill with a thought. Her goal is to revive the dead body that's buried beneath the youkai cherry blossom tree Saigyou Ayakashi which is revealed to actually be her own dead body, and to achieve this she collects the essence of spring, which comes in the form of cherry blossoms. Her Leitmotif is called "Bloom Nobly, Ink-black Cherry Blossom", and she often wears kimono with cherry blossom patterns on them.
- Sakura Mizrahi from Xenosaga, who is strongly associated with Death (since she is a terminally ill girl and Posthumous Character) and who is Jr.'s first love interest. MOMO, an artificial girl who was created in her image, is given pink hair and is an White Magician Girl in the first game, perhaps in reference to this trope.
Visual Novels
- Sakura in Da Capo is more aptly named than what's apparent from the beginning.
- Yoshiyuki Sakurai in Da Capo II, where it's a Meaningful Name that he got from Sakura based on her own full name, Sakura Yoshino when she wished for family.
- Sakura Matou from Fate/stay night has a flower themed ending, is the final love interest and is working hard at being a Yamato Nadeshiko. However, things aren't as pleasant as they seem: Her route is the darkest of the three routes in the Visual Novel, filled with death, squick and mental trauma.
- Unlike most examples, Kashima Sakura of Rewrite is neither good nor young. She has Healing Hands with the side effect of transcribing part of her own mind onto the people she's healed, ensuring their loyalty to her, and her objective is to cause human extinction (death) so that the Earth can try again with a new dominant life form (rebirth), though Sakura herself just wants to end all possibility of life. She also doesn't believe in love, thanks to seeing Things Man Was Not Meant to Know, but used to; when, in the last route, the person she once loved is killed, Sakura moves her apocalypse plot up to enact it ten years early. Fate and her relationship to it are also central to her motivation.
- Mayu Sakurai , and her little sister Mami, from Yarudora series vol. 2: Kisetsu o Dakishimete. Also a Meaningful Name for both, what's with Mayu having reincarnated as the Spirit of the Cherry Trees after her death, and Mami having her soul fused with Mayu's to fend off the curse of the "Hirenzakura" cherry tree long enough for the protagonist to save her, after she had a traffic accident and fell into coma.
Western Animation
- Blossom from The Powerpuff Girls is the superhero/regular little child variant. Pink dress, pink eyes, redheaded, huge red bow, heart barrette. She was named because like a blossoming flower, she was the first of the Powerpuffs to open up to the Professor.
Other
- The mascot of the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo was a Cartoon Creature named Someity. In reference to the place of cherry blossoms in Japanese culture, she was given a pink and white design themed after them and was named after the someiyoshino cherry blossom (while also punning that she's "so mighty").
