Petal Power

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue, Petals are pretty, and deadly too.

When a character has super powers (especially the glowy variety), artists will want to personalize them. After all, seeing twenty lime green Battle Auras would make viewers think they're watching a rave, not a Martial Arts and Crafts Cooking Duel. And so it goes that most Ki Attacks, Deflector Shields, Glowing Eyes of Doom, and sundry visual effects are Color Coded to the character.

Well, some are a tad more original when they personalize their offensive repertoire. They use...flower petals! That's right, this character attacks enemies by spontaneously creating a swarm of lovely flower petals. Petal Power isn't harmless though, the petals are usually either razor sharp or explosive, accompanied by a gale force wind, deadly poison, or a powerful barrier. Or all of the above, in order to annihilate a foe with a deadly display of beauty.

The petals can be from any flower, but commonly, it's rose petals, peach blossoms, or Cherry Blossoms (these are a big favorite in Anime). Leaves aren't out of the question either, using vine whips is a different trope though. The attack itself may or may not actually be made of petals; it could just be a fancy visual aid that disintegrates post attack.[1] That said, most instances of this trope come with flower based names and they actually do evoke power over plants in some form.

Not to be confused with Flower Power.

Examples of Petal Power include:

Anime and Manga

  • Pictured above: Zoisite from Sailor Moon. His (her in the US dub) dark energy attacks take the appearance of cherry-blossom petals.
    • In the manga, some of Jupiter's attacks also involved petals.
    • Additionally, Cercere from the Amazoness quartet specializes in plant-summoning and once blew hypnotic petals at Chibiusa's friend, Momoko. Tuxedo Mask gets an honorable mention, because his multiple-rose attacks involve whole flowers, not just the petals.
  • Byakuya's Shikai in Bleach function by shattering his blade into thousands of microscopic blades. When the light reflects on a blade, it creates the illusion that there's a floating Cherry Blossom petal.
    • His bankai summons a few dozen giant blades which promptly shatter into millions of these blades.
  • White Crow of the Three-Color Gang at the beginning of Samurai Deeper Kyo, whose Limit Break relies on trapping the opponent in an illusion-generating storm of cherry blossoms.
  • Several of the attacks of the Shinmeiryuu school of swordfighting from Love Hina and Mahou Sensei Negima incorporate cherry blossoms in their name and special effect. Presumably, the sword does all the work. Just to drive the point home, the name of the Negima swordswoman is Sakurazaki, written with the kanji for "cherry blossom".
  • One episode of Uta Kata had Ichika transform into someone with this power.
  • One of Mocchi's attacks in Monster Rancher.
  • In Mokke, Mizuki gets attacked by spirits using Cherry Blossoms.
  • Kodachi Kuno in Ranma ½ often has black rose petals around her. Usually incorporated into her exits or entrance, but occasionally involved in an attack.
  • Felli Loss in Chrome Shelled Regios has this justified as her weapon actually are "flakes" (shaped like pink petals) of metal that she controls as a psychokinetic.
  • Piscis Aphrodite from Saint Seiya was infamous for this.
  • Kurama from Yu Yu Hakusho has his Fuuka Enbujin attack, which is basically Razor Leaf with rose petals. The dub had two different translations for it, one of which was "Petals and Thorns".
  • The "Flower" card from Cardcaptor Sakura. While it is not malevolent, the sheer mass of uncontrolled petals created quite a mess at that school festival.
  • Lillymon, Sunflowmon, and Rosemon from Digimon have attacks that fit this.
    • And even Crusadermon, who is not flower-themed. Turns out, the rose that's typically a prop (see James from Pokémon) can be used to create a storm of petals to blind/distract the enemy. (It actually seems to hurt them just once.)
  • Shinku of Rozen Maiden.
  • Kagero does this in Ninja Scroll in order to stave off a swarm of wasps. The petals are stated to have a calming effect.
  • Puni Puni Poemi parodies this trope with Nanase Aasu, who can summon a whirlwind of flower petals...to absolutely no effect.
  • Guiche of The Familiar of Zero has a rose for a magic wand. Among other tricks, he can make the petals turn into animated suits of armor when they hit the ground.
  • The kunoichi Karenbana from the 3rd Naruto film uses a jutsu that makes her body seem to dissolve into pink petals, which hide her position and prevent her enemy from seeing her attacks.
  • The twins, Houzuki and Bonbori in Otome Youkai Zakuro. They can put their souls into flower petals and use them as attack, defense, and tracking devices. However, they can only use them while singing.
  • In One Piece, Nico Robin, who ate the Hana Hana no Mi (Flower Flower Fruit), has the ability to replicate her limbs on any solid surface. When she does this, white-purple petals will fly from wherever she sprouts the replicated limbs.
  • In the Ah! My Goddess anime, Peorth has her Storm of Roses attack, which is a storm of rose petals, though she uses whole roses in the manga version.
  • Lady Kayura of Yoroiden Samurai Troopers (Ronin Warriors).

Comic Books

  • Subverted in Batman and the Outsiders Annual Vol 1. Geo-Force was pitted against Mayflower, a girl who controlled plants. After a lengthy fight with her, Geo-Force notices that Mayflower was almost a spitting image of his sister. Mayflower then commands a dandelion to grow and disperse its seeds in a cloud, covering the hero's face in a layer of thick fluff that suffocates him enough to knock him out.

Live-Action TV

Tabletop Games

  • The Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition sourcebook Book Of Exalted Deeds includes at least one spell that manifests a rain of magical flower petals.
    • To be more specific, the lower-level spell creates a rain of red roses whose smell makes evil creatures violently sick. The more powerful one creates a rain of black tulips that explode on contact with evil creatures.
    • Back in first-edition AD&D, 17th-level monks (the highest that class could go) were called "Grand Masters of Flowers". Which didn't sound very badass, but they were.
  • The odic, a powerful tree-possessing evil spirit from the Basic/Expert/etc version of D&D, can send its drifting leaves to attack victims.
  • In Exalted, the Wood-aspected Terrestrial anima can produce this effect. There are also several Wood-aspected combat Charms that can do this.

Video Games

  • Flora is a summon in Golden Sun: The Lost Age, who apparently attacks with flower petals.
    • Justified, since Flora is the Goddess of Flowers in Roman mythology.
  • Chain of Memories has Marluxia, who wields a massive pink scythe which has flower petal attacks. The PlayStation 2 remake runs with this, adding petal effects to almost everything he does, even the standard Villain Teleportation.
  • Grass-Type Pokémon gives us a few attacks like this.
    • Razor Leaf in Pokémon, which also shows up in Super Smash Bros..
    • Petal Dance.
    • The absurdly powerful Leaf Storm.
    • Magical Leaf fits the trope even better than Razor Leaf, since it's actually more like a storm of rainbow petals attacking the opponent.
  • Peach's Final Smash in Super Smash Bros Brawl features plenty of peach blossoms.
  • A decent number of enemies in Super Mario RPG use a petal attack that turns the players into mushrooms (unless prevent by a Transform Pin).
  • The Final Fantasy franchise loves this trope so much, it has several hundred acres of cherry trees to provide the necessary petals to their characters.
  • In Legend of Dragoon, Lavitz and Albert both have protective spells that envelop the party in a storm of flowers or cherry blossoms.
  • In Xenogears, Citan's Rumble Earth attack summons rose petals (though the actual damage comes from the katana he jams through his opponent's gut).
  • Plant Man from Mega Man 6. Mega Man 2's Wood Man's Leaf Shield might count too.
    • Considering that you can throw that Leaf Shield at enemies - yeah, it counts.
  • The Great Fairies in The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker.
  • In Touhou 7: Perfect Cherry Blossom (of course), the final boss Yuyuko Saigyouji has the Danmaku pattern "Perfect Cherry Blossom of Sumizome" (of course), which clutters the screen with falling petals. In the fighting games, it's her underling Youmu that makes cherry petals appear all around her when she slashes her sword real quick. In both cases, they're deadly or damaging to your health bar. However, if you collect the harmless sort of cherry petals (or the larger-value cherry blocks), you earn your way towards a Supernatural Border, which makes you invincible for a short time and allows you to clear the entire screen of bullets with the touch of a button.
    • Yuuka Kazami uses various flowers and petals as her bullets. She's also one of the more powerful characters in the series.
  • In BlazBlue, Rachel's Astral Finish causes her opponent to explode in a shower of rose petals.
  • Dead or Alive's Kasumi has a Cherry Blossom motif, which she can use to teleport; her half-sister Ayame does the same with iris petals (appropriate to her name). Ryu and Hayate (Kasumi's brother) does it with leaves.
  • In Flower, it's pretty much the main thing, allowing you to open flowers and bring color back to the landscape. It is also useful for destroying some of the man-made structures or making them useful.
  • When Team Rose of Sonic Heroes uses its Team Blast, it involves a balancing act that generates an explosion of flower petals. It's surprisingly effective.
  • In Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, several of the Mandragora based spells involve attacking with flower petals.
  • Yoshitora's special moves all produce flower graphics when they connect. He also yells the flower names.
  • Both Secret of Mana and its sequel Seiken Densetsu 3 feature "Sleep Flower" spells that use flower petals to put your opponents to sleep.
    • Suikoden also does this with one of it's Wind-element spells, "Wind of Sleep".
  • Digital Devil Saga has a physical attack skill called "Sakura Rage" which creates this effect. It can also cause the "Charm" status effect.
  • Raven from Tales of Vesperia has a spell called Arrivederci, which is a whirlwhind of flower petals.
  • Keiji Maeda from Sengoku Basara who, unlike other characters associated with the wind-element, invokes these during some of his special attacks.
  • Diao Chan in Dynasty Warriors 7 invokes this power in most of her special attacks.
  • In Street Fighter IV, Vega's Bloody High Claw Ultra sends the opponent skyward, then lets them come back to the ground amidst a shower of dainty red rose petals. Except with Vega being Vega, those aren't rose petals.
  • The Team Rose group attack in Sonic Heroes.

Web Original

Western Animation

  • Winx Club: Flora, the shy and sweet fairy of nature, prefers the use of vine whips to wrap around her opponents and immobilize them. Even so, she has been shown using beams and attacks made of petals (or whole flowers), particularly in the later seasons and The Movie.


  1. ↑ which makes you wonder at all the spare energy and work that must have gone into making a generic energy attack look like the picture to the right.
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