Two minutes of animation in service of a song that refuses to look away from what was lost. The music carries you, but it's the quiet specificity of the imagery, not grand gestures, just the slow work of rebuilding a life, that stays with you after it ends. This is what art made for a real purpose looks like.
Flowers Will Bloom is an animated music video set to Hana wa Saku, a song by Shunji Iwai and Yoko Kanno written to back NHK's reconstruction efforts in the areas worst hit by the 2011 Great Eastern Japan Earthquake. The video marks the second anniversary of the disaster and aired on NHK G. Its premise centers on Petal, flower fairies who live among people and have watched over them kindly through the ages, bringing them joy as life goes on. The piece was made to support the recovery of the Tohoku region.
