Topic: Flower Symbolism in Kojima's Art

[Pentagram-cracker]

I've noticed that Ayami Kojima draws a lot of beautiful flora in her artwork. I've also noticed that when drawing full body sketches of female characters she tends to draw them with a flower or plant in their hand. At first I thought she did it just to be pretty, but I figured out that each flower is actually symbolic of the female character holding it. Here are some examples and my theories for each flower's meaning:



Adult Maria from Symphony of the Night holds an olive branch in her hand. Olives are a universal symbol of peace, and I think it symbolizes Maria's role as the peacemaker. She was the one who tried to convince Alucard not to kill Richter because he was being possessed by evil, and aided him in saving Richter's life.



Child Maria from The Dracula X Chronicles holds four different color flowers in her hand, which obviously symbolize the four animal guardians she has control over. Judging by the colors I'd say the white flower represents the tiger, the red flower represents the cardinals, the blue flower represents the turtle, and the black flower represents the dragon.



Mina from Aria of Sorrow holds a tree branch wrapped in Shinto Ropes. Now I don't really know much about the character, but judging by the outfit she's either a shinto priestess or a shrine maiden. The branch was from one of those trees that grow around Shinto Shrines in Japan that priests tie with sacred ropes. This plant she's holding obviously symbolizes her connection to the Shinto Religion.



Sara from Lament of Innocence holds a ring of flowers. She was the bride-to-be of Leon Belmont who was kidnapped on their wedding day by a vampire, so I think the ring of flowers is supposed to be like a wedding ring and symbolizes their union and eternal love.



The Succubus from Lament of Innocence holds a purple flower with thorny leaves. The beautiful pedals represent her seductive nature as she lures victims with her beauty, while the sharp thorns represent her sadistic nature as she enjoys tormenting mortals and feeding off their life energy through sex.

[K.G. Morder]

None of the Creative uncut images showed, bro.

Interesting idea though.

Lets not forget that Succubi in the games tend to die in a burst of rose petals.

And the LoI succubus actually uses plant based attacks.

[Gunlord]

Now this is an interesting topic, Greysun! In reference to Mina in-game I think she was the daughter of the priest who presided over the Hakuba family shrine. So yeah, it makes sense she'd be dressed in Shinto garb and holding what you describe.

[Pentagram-cracker]

OK, I fixed the first post and instead of the Creative Uncut images I decided to use the ones from the Castlevania wiki.

Yeah I've noticed both the succubi in Symphony of the Night and Lament of Innocence use a lot of flower-based attacks, and the Symphony succubus has thorny roses wrapped in her hair.

[Hanniballistic]

I think you hit everything on the head, nothing I can really contribute.  Never thought about it before!  Interesting.

[Chernabogue]

Interesting study. Good job, dude!

[Ahasverus]

Kojima has a lot of flowers in her artwork, look at the HoD art!

[X]

Maybe the reason why Ayami Kojima inputs flowers or other assorted greenery into her art is because she a deep fondness or love such plants and this is one of her ways to express it.

-X

[Chernabogue]

Castlevania is also very related to love, and flowers symbolize love. It may be why Kojima puts all these flowers. It may also define a character's personality, as GreySun did it. Just an idea.

[narkolepsi]

Brilliant analysis GreySun! Everything is spot-on. I'd like to add some of my findings as well. Hopefully I'm not reading into it too much.



In his left hand (our right), Alucard holds out a rose. One half is white and the other is bloodstained with a bat emerging from its petals. It is symbolic of Alucard's dual nature, the white representing the beauty and purity of his human mother, and the red representing the sins of his father. Though he feels drawn towards his mother's kindly human nature, part of him will always be vampiric and will try to tempt him into obeying his father. The bat makes up a smaller part of the flower than the white, pure petals do, and the bat is positioned closest to Dracula, and is flying away from Alucard. This means that Alucard has learned to control his nature and knows what is good despite growing up under two influences.

Additional observations on the succubus: I see the thorned flowers on her head as being a mockery of the sacrifices of both Christ and Lisa. Both figures were fixed to a cross (however differently), were killed though they did nothing wrong, and willingly gave themselves up. Since the succubus imitates Lisa, the thorny flowers mock Lisa's death; the flowers and thorns combine sexuality with torture as in the analysis of the Lament of Innocence succubus. You could also take the Christian symbolism of the crown of thorns and combine it with the sexual appeal of the flowers to create an image of "irresistible torment," if you will. Also, given the crown of thorns' symbolism of a torture instrument, it could refer to her mentally torturing Alucard in his nightmare. The fact that the flowers and thorns are gray and cold, almost steely in their appearance, refer to her coldness and apathy towards her victims as she tortures them mentally and physically.

I didn't want to read into it too much, but I think I already have! I am just so fascinated with hidden symbols that it's easy for me to go overboard. I did the same thing for a school project, with Order of Ecclesia as a diatribe against papal hierarchy, which I think I definitely DID read into a little too much, but was still pretty fun.

[Pentagram-cracker]

That's a very good observation with the Symphony of the Night Succubus! They do look kind of like the crown of thorns that Jesus wore when he was crucified, and the way Lisa was executed in a similar manner and the Succubus took her form in Alucard's nightmare shows her mockery of not only God but of Alucard's mother.

There's other artworks with flowers as well. Here's one I have an anaylsis of:



This picture from Lament of Innocence shows some white 5-pedal roses being stained with red blood. White is the color of innocence like you said, and I think the roses being stained with blood symbolizes a loss of innocence. Like Sara who was the purest and most innocent character in the game lost her life when she was bitten and became a vampire and had to be killed. It could also be symbolic of the blood that was shed during the Crusade Wars which was around the time LoI took place, and I believe Leon had fought in that war. So the sinful blood staining the innocent white flowers could also be symbolic of Leon loosing his own innocence in war.

[X]

I always find these analogies really interesting to read. It's true what they say... A picture is worth a thousand words. Are you guys reading too much into these images? I don't think so. In fact I think you've barely even scratched the surface. To analyse something also allws you access to other hidden parts of yourselves as well. Spill your secrets guys!! 

-X

[VGuyver]

Well she's going for a tragic gothic Romance look in her art. Nothing fits that better then a flower, rather it be in full bloom or wilted. No matter wahat you do with it, it's going to add that element of elegance in the artwork. Without it, the characters don't seem to have as much personality either.

[narkolepsi]

I was just thinking about doing an analysis of the Lament of Innocence piece! Very well said, it sums up my thoughts exactly. Notice also how the flowers in front of Leon are pure, but the flowers sprouting to the side of Mathias and Elisabetha are bloodied, and the flowers leading up to Castlevania are bloodier still. The bloodiest and most wilted flower is above Walter. I also like how the flowers in front of Leon kind of look like a trail. It represents him leaving his war-torn past behind, abandoning his title of knight, and moving on to a more righteous future.


In this art for Aria of Sorrow, Mina Hakuba holds a lily. The lily is the flower of rebirth and renewal, associated with Easter. It is also, like almost all white flowers, a symbol of youth and innocence. This is notable in that Mina is the only truly blameless character in this picture. There are no flowers near Arikado or Soma, who are both connected to Dracula. And standing behind Mina is none other than Graham. Just as Graham's ministry eventually spins out of control, there are lilies in front of him, but bloodied, representing how Graham is able to prey upon others' innocence and distort holy things. It also alludes to Graham's perversion of religion, with the lily being an Easter flower, significant in any Christian faith, and the blood on the lilies perverting the holiness of the white flower.

[Pentagram-cracker]

That's really good! Now here's one I want to try, though it may be harder to decipher:



This is from Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles. The picture shows Richter, Maria, and Dracula who are the three main characters along with the poor virgin who was sacrifaced to resurrect Dracula in the opening cutscene. She has white roses growing on a vine from her chest, and as it's been said many times white is a color that symbolizes purity and innocence. The flowers are growing upward from her body which I think represents her soul reaching for Heaven, but the angels beside her body have sad expressions and instead the vines stop at a picture of several monsters including a female vampire with wings. I think the virgin is a mixed symbolism of the four girls Richter must rescue, and is especially symbolic of Annette who looses her soul to Dracula and becomes a vampire if you fail to rescue her.

Also another notable symbolism is the doves and bats flying from her body. Doves are a symbol of Good, and Bats are a symbol of Evil. The bats are keeping the doves from flying away and Dracula is luring them into his castle at the top of the picture. This is symbolic of the souls Dracula has stolen and led to become the undead monsters that roam his castle.