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| THIS IS AN ANIME ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS THE MANGA BEYOND THIS EPISODE. ---------------------------------------- Oh man, I think I would have cried my eyes out when he lost his mother if I had watched this when I was a kid. It's a friggin' cold and cruel world out there. TT_TT For a children's movie, the meaning or the message behind it is quite deep for the intended audience as some of the reviews here say so and I tend to agree with most of them. Anyway it was an OK movie by itself. 7/10 |
| You see there's no need to wonder where your god is, Coz he's right here! ...and he's fresh out of mercy. |
| Personally i gave it an 8/10 the OST absolutly beautiful.. and for a 45 min movie, the story was very good.. |
| wow i didnt expect that at all. I thought it was gonna be about a cute sheep doing cute things. That was really dark and depressing :( I really enjoyed it tho.im gonna go with a 8/10 |
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| Misleading poster and a pretty cruel story indeed. |
RedgraveGilverDec 20, 2013 10:43 PM
| Wasn't as dark as I was expecting but that's still pretty gruesome for a kids movie. I could see myself rewatching this and showing it to others. |
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| "Not a dog. Not a wolf. All he knows is what he's not". Boris Oh, wait... Anyway, nice story.. Would have been better in a novel format, since the part where the sheep become that kind of monster kind of ruin the suspension of belief. Also, the art style feels like a Disney ripoff. Still good though. |
| I gave it 4 out of 5. There were expectations for gore and original twists, but in reality you can easily predict the final. However, it's still pleasant to see a dark children anime. The scene with dead bird and her unhatched offsprings made me feel extremely uneasy for some reasons, though. |
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| Some good old fashioned Japanese existentialism is always good, and I could definitely tell it was by the creator of Anpanman, the original story behind it is very dark. |
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AliceTheZombie said: The scene with dead bird and her unhatched offsprings made me feel extremely uneasy for some reasons, though. Same here, I don't do well with deaths of animals in general. Was better than I expected, a really short but strong story. Aged well for the fact that it's been almost 40 years since it's release. 8/10 |
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| This is not a movie I would play for children. It is way too scary. I'd happily watch it again though. |
| A great tale about trying to break away from its condition. I was able to appreciate the movie despite the fact I'm clearly not on the same page: "try to fight your fate/condition/origin and it will set you apart from the others", ouch. To stay in society, conformity is the key? Written like that, it makes sense this originated from Japan. Talking animals are never a problem in this story's presentation. Design is correct (except the human faces of the sheeps) while the animation is good. The music backgrounds support efficiently the events portrayed here. Time management is also pretty good. Enjoyment: 5/5 Score: 8/10 I don't share its view but the movie tells a good story and aims well to pass his commentary to the audience. Link to @FMMatron 's educational listing: https://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=641903&show=0#msg64025342 July 2, 2017 @Kangchenjunga You could consider it as a familial movie: marketed toward children with an "educational" message addressed to them (satisfying the parents by that way). June 15, 2020 @_MaeMae_ Not sure how much this is worth but here is something: TVtropes said: The whole story is based on Takashi Yanase's experiences as a WWII veteran who got sent to China. He was a teenager at the time it happened. Professor Yanase absolutely refused to talk about his experiences and was able to tell the story in animal form for the film. It was also his experiences during the lack of food in wartime that inspired him to create his most famous character, Anpanman. Villainous Breakdown: Chirin has this by the end of the film and the book. June 16, 2022 @St0rmblade Now, you have to find me the actual meaning or moral. I "need" to know ! St0rmblade said: Check out Yanase's other non-Anpanman films. Thanks ! It indeed makes sense this way too. (I'll check MAL to see what movies were made ut of his work.) |
Rei_IIIJun 16, 2022 2:37 PM
| Okay, that was surprising. I knew this was a revenge tale of sorts, but I wasn't expecting the moral to be "Life's a bitch, ain't it?" and the main character to have such a sad fate. Though I guess you could also argue that the moral was that revenge isn't always the best answer. Lots of cool animation. Watched this dubbed. The song that played while Chirin was training about growing stronger with the guitar solo was lit. 8/10 |
| "No, son, you may not have your body pillow at the dinner table!" |
| Was an interesting watch, would totally show this to to me children. For how old it is, it's still pretty good =p |
| This really is a hidden gem, wow, what a great short film. Surprisingly deep and tackling serious topics for something like a children's film. I love this kind of thing, really, this is easy to recommend. |
| Holy crap that was hardcore. The death of Chirin's mother wasn't the thing that got to me, it was when he killed Woe, his mentor and father figure, leaving Chirin to be the strongest creature in the mountains, yet completely alone in the world. Despite all of his strength, he has nothing to his name, and with his life's goal accomplished, he also has nothing for his future. It's not just the idea of death that's scary about this anime, it's the idea that Chirin now has to live on, incapable of dying outside of sickness, age or suicide. Now THAT'S depressing to think about. |
| Going against nature without calculation, ends up with unreasonable choices, and they have consequences. |
Contemporary0091Feb 21, 2018 3:09 PM
| And still, Bill will live on. He will befriend the next inhabitants of the earth, beings of light who revere him as a god. And Bill will outlive them all... for millions and millions of years...exploring, learning, living, until the earth is swallowed beneath his feet. Until the sun is long since gone. Until time loses all meaning and the moment comes that he knows only the positions of the stars and sees them whether his eyes are closed or open. Until he forgets his name and the place where he'd once come from. He lives and he lives until all of the lights go out. |
| I was frustrated when Chirin asked for Wor to train him, thinking how could you after he killed your mother. But then I was inspired when he trained and became something ferocious. It kinda made me want to be that sheep and become aggressive in life and business. Although things ended sadly for him, being an outcast to his own brethren and sistren. It kinda depicted the real world a lot and I loved it even if it was kiddies show. 8/10. |
How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb --- Dr Strangelove  |
Kangchenjunga said: It's always refreshing to go back to an older anime every now and then. There's something about the feel of the old stuff that can be really refreshing with the watercolor backgrounds and the charming animation style and the music was so good... The pacing was also very solid with a coherent story to go along with it, but I'm not sure what I really think of the message it is trying to give. Here it is you have a sheep who is tired of being a weak little sheep who lives unquestioningly behind a fence his whole life and goes out to try to be more than a sheep. He does so, training under the wolf, becoming cruel and feared, but also having much more freedom of what he's capable of and where he can go... but then in the ending, despite saving the flock he originally came from, he is feared and can never go back to them so he ends up living in misery. It is also ambiguous on whether or not he died at the end with it saying his ringing bell was never heard again. Is the message it is trying to give basically saying that if you stop going with the crowd, you'll become miserable and alone? I guess there is truth to that but it's hardly an encouraging message to send to people, almost like this is an anti-shounen where usually challenging the rules is what makes the main hero a hero. This movie makes it sound like it's better to be a sheep and to just live behind the fence your whole life without venturing away from the status quo. It's safer and you'll never be alone. ...An interesting message and commentary that is hard to argue but I have no idea who is supposed to be the target audience for this? o.O I don't think it was telling you not to question the status quo. I think it was more like those who try to fight the darkest aspects of our society often end up becoming corrupted themselves. Perhaps something about how focusing exclusively on a goal can isolate you. Though yeah, I agree that overall it's kind of hard to tell exactly what they were going for. Anyway I enjoyed this a lot. Going in I had heard it was like Bambi if Bambi ended up killing everyone after his mom died, and it did not disappoint. Kids movies could always use more existential dread and murder, that's what I always say. |
| This was a dark story, dark than the title and poster would have made me think. I enjoyed the movie, good visuals and sound and message. I don't agree that the message was to not disrupt the status quo. I mean, yeah, Chirin did, but I think the point was that he became obsessed with violence lost sight of the goal of being strong - to protect those you care about. That's how I personally think of strength anyway, sort of taken from a thing that Gato the Lion says in Bloody Roar 2. Chirin killed the dogs and scared everyone. He killed the wolf and saved them after, but he was so scary and grim looking that they didn't want to be around him. Thankfully he did save a future version of him, so to speak. Chirin and the wolf had a kind of occult feel to them, both being evil spirits in folktale. |
| Eh. People saying this was really good and really hardcore. Maybe? I definitely wasn't expecting Chirin to become the spawn of Satan mind you and the end was much colder than I was anticipating but it feels like a underdeveloped Bambi story (36 later) and I don't exactly like all the elements from that story either but it feels very flat. The only "interest" points are in the fact that there is gore and death upfront in a children story (especially the Snake / Bird scene yikes). It's fine. But there could be more thematic and polished elements including the art and animation to this type of venture see Arashi No Yoru Ni. |
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| wow, it's an amazing movie! I had low expectation from this one when I read the movie's duration (like two normal episodes, pretty similar to the first Yu-Gi-Oh! movie). I love the story, maybe you can say at first sight "It's not a kid's movie" but this is the kind of stories that a kid should know. Usually I don't like stories where the carnivore animal is the baddy in a xenofiction only because it eats meat, I believe that is not a good influence for the children those kind of stereotypes if there is not a justification for its acts and in this movie they did a pretty good job with the king Wolf. It's just the law of nature. Now if only there is a spanish dub version available... |
| Chiren's the unluckiest lamb around, having to deal with so much death including that of his own mother at a very young age. Wandering the mountains chasing the wolf that killed her and encountering the cruelty of the laws of nature didn't help at all too. The little lamb training to be a wolf under the very beast that killed his mother and eventually seeing him as a father figure was a very strange situation but I can understand how the apathy of the other sheep towards both him and his dead mother disgusted him so much that he'd end up that way. That was a really downer ending... He killed his master to save the other sheep but the sheep ostracized him as a monster, leaving him with no one. He turned himself into a living weapon without realizing the repercussions and he was left with a fate worse than death. His life SUCKED! |
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| Holy fucking shit. Where was this devilish lamb in the 2017 Kino no Tabi anime? Would have made that episode far more climactic as the final one. |
| Who are you and why do you show your hostility towards a complete stranger whom you've not once spoken with before. Are you seriously asking to get blocked? Well, if that's what your intent is; to tempt me into throwing hands with someone as lowly and insignificant as you, then i may grant your wish provided you articulate yourself a bit better when trying to spite a person of my wavelength. |
| That was badass! I loved the design of Woe and Adult Chirin and their over the top anime attacks! It was a simple story but effective and entertaining. As often is the case, chasing the path of vengeance left him with nothing... It's a shame he couldn't even be the protector of the flock. |
| Moral of this story: If you were born a wolf, kill. If you were born a lamb, be killed. Do not try to strengthen yourself, otherwise there will be no place in the world for you. |
| 8/10 I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It really makes you question whether or not it's really worth stepping out from behind the fence. Anyways, interesting message, solid pacing, and a great story. 👍 |
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| An interesting movie. Right from the start i felt that something is gonna be wrong. Especially during the scene where Chirin wanders in a white cloudy space like in a fog. His mind was twisted by a tragic events that he changed his attitude towards the wolf. Though i'm confused why the wolf was acting more like a travelling warrior than an actual wolf. Is this tale supposed to be an allegory? I absolutely loved the ending. My fav tragic anime for now. |
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| Yeah, a bad end for Chirin that couldn't lived well on that cruel world full of loneliness and sorrow. I actually related the story so much with my shitty life, a very unfortunate event for me. So, yeah, its kinda sad with the cruelty. However, the live must go on. Like Woe said, be grateful that can only one way to erase the sadness of your empty heart. So, just cheer up, Chirin! Your mom awaited you in another world that will gladly hand in your successful revenged over the dead of Woe! Judging time. I can't handle this kind of show. So i must consist my scoring by give the show to a pure perspective judge by me. It shall be enough for this kind of show that will long last forever. Since the internet always long lived in the earth, the legendary anime like these should be remain available. I am really grateful finding this show. As a nostalgic matter, and my pure soul objectivity, the scores must be done into one shot: 10/10 by me. Thats it. No other explanations, no doubt, no hesitations. |
 Hide and seek is the best offline games on this fatamorgana-called-world-thing. Please comment nicely. I am newbie here. I'm level  on mal-badges. View my badges  |
| I hate dark fairy tales wherein their reputation preceeds them, because it sets a particular expectation that skews my experience. Case in point: Chirin. Still, this was a somber and mystical watch. The final rungs where the narrator talks of Chirin never being seen again, but "on stormy nights the faint sound of his bell can still be heard" vibrantly reminded me of Mushishi's first episode and filled me with the same sort of longing and sadness. I like that this is written as a cautionary tale meant to ruminate on revenge and violence, but the message is equivocal. Where, exactly, did Chirin go wrong? In chasing the wolf? In becoming the wolf's apprentice? In attacking his home? In slaying the wolf? All of the above? There's a message about folly here, but it doesn't drive us to a particular conclusion. I love that sort of open-endedness in storytelling, especially in a story meant to talk on life lessons -- or, in this case, make us think on them. And these are themes important to children but maybe even more important to me now. Chirin's transformation can be divorced from its immediate subject matter about revenge and applied to the broader questions of how life and sorrow mold us -- forever. |
 ☩ Discord: the.path.to.pathos ☩ RateYourMusic ☩ last.fm |
| This really turned into a great movie. I won't lie, when I was sold on this as a very violent Disney movie, I was expecting Watership Down levels because I'm an idiot, so the violence was tamer than I was anticipating but there was no doubt this was a far darker than Disney flicks. I really liked that plot, it's nearly perfect. I do agree that the non-conformity themes don't really gel with me, but that's not really how I took the movie. I agree with what Chromephone was saying, that it was more about the self-corrupting nature of trying to destroy what you hate, especially by sharing their methods. I ultimately loved the circular nature of the plot, it's such a simple story but the ending sequence at the barn managed to weave all those plot beats into a beautifully haunting ending, complete with the ending narration mirroring the opening's speech about the bell. This was my favourite shot of the film, and encapsulates exactly what I'm talking about. The contrast between who Chirin started as and what he became is on full display here, in every way imaginable. The difference in detail in the drawing (the complete lack of shading on the young lamb), the difference in colour hue, how Chirin is a static image while the young lamb bounces towards him, just a great visual reflection to just how much changed. The ending scene at the puddle covers one of Chirin's eyes, which sort of reflects Woe's presence since his striking design constantly emphasized one of his eyes as well. Speaking of the visuals, it's surprising how well it holds up. You can definitely tell it's an older movie, though most of that comes from it's artwork and colour palette rather than the actual animation. There's some slideshow montages, and occasionally there was no lip flaps while speaking (when Chirin's mother is looking for him at the beginning of the movie, her mouth never opens, though everyone responding is in motion) but there's a lot of solid fluid motion here, and a lot of the joy in the first half of the movie is in seeing Chirin's interaction with other wildlife, which relies heavily on the animation. I do have other gripes, lamb Chirin often times looked like less a lamb and more like a toddler in a lamb outfit, it was definitely distracting for me. Where it did age for the worst was the soundtrack, and this is part of why I said, "turned into a great movie" because there was a lot of stuff I wasn't liking in the opening moments. A lot of is that overly bombastic, emotional punctuation type score that is often parodied for comedic effect. When was the last time you heard "DUN DUN DUN" used legitimate for dramatic effect? Maybe it's still out there, but I've only seen it used as a joke. Being an older film, the entire score is filled with musical "DUN DUN DUN", not literally that sting but the whole score is so overbearing in it's emotional punctuation that it just immediately kills the scene for me. Most prominently Chirin's mother's death. I had trouble getting emotionally invested there due to a few factors, Chirin's human face, how early it happens in the movie, and the score that tried to hammer in "this is sound" as dramatically as possible. Beyond that, I hated how the early scenes had song interludes between them. Not that any of the compositions were bad, just that I felt they served to only break immersion and were too constant. I'd be kinder towards them had they been completely absent in the latter half, like it was a way to highlight the change, but removing something from the actual narrative structure. But they return with a really cheesy song during Chirin's training montage, really upsetting. But those flaws aside, I really loved the movie this became. Chirin's decision to seemingly idolize Woe a day after he killed his mother did feel jarring, but that shift made the movie a lot more interesting and seeing Woe gradually become more open to Chirin was fascinating. I loved how they ended up becoming a father/son type relationship, with even Chirin outright stating he thinks of Woe as a father. That ended up making the ending sequence even more dramatically intense because I did care about those two, and I knew it had to end this way. At least Woe's was happy with how things ended for him, but unfortunately they're of little comfort to Chirin. 8/10 for me, really great underrated movie. |
| 10/10 That was beautiful... I can’t stop sobbing ╥﹏╥ |
| There's a lot that could be said. Never make permanent decisions on temporary feelings. Every action brings consequences. Everything that's gained comes at a price. Revenge isn't always sweet or worth it for that matter. You either die a victim or live long enough to become the predator. Even though Chirin was also a hero in a sense, albeit one that wasn't appreciated by his herd. That's part of the irony in life, but it more so highlights that desired radical change can lead you to a point of no return. The lone wolf accepted the life in solitude, but a lamb ain't a wolf and will never be one. That's probably also why the mother said to never go beyond the fence. In spite of how things turned out, I believe it's ok to fuel your life by negative feelings as well to a certain degree(or rather than negative feelings per se, don't let a natural reaction become a negative thing), just don't lose sight of what truly matters because you're surrounded by darkness. A pretty enjoyable movie. Loved the Disney feel it had to it. Didn't know the director was also responsible for the Ping Pong Club. That Chirin was voiced by Kamiya Akira is also a nice fun fact xD |
One Piece episode 914 & 915 & 1027 were a mistake and 957 brought the salvation - FMmatron |
| Awesome soundtrack and great film. As for the message, I'm not sure it's "stick with the crowd" though it can be read that way. I mean, Chirin almost started killing the sheep lol. Of course they didn't take him in. He could've tried becoming a protector of the weak, for example. Various possibilities. But he chose the path of a (lone) wolf. Instead of becoming strong and forming his own life philosophy, he followed Woe's life philosophy and ended up being lonely. But that shouldn't have been set in stone. Interestingly, I can't find a character design credit anywhere. The picture book looks quite different. Rei_III said: June 15, 2020 @_MaeMae_ Not sure how much this is worth but here is something: TVtropes said: The whole story is based on Takashi Yanase's experiences as a WWII veteran who got sent to China. He was a teenager at the time it happened. Professor Yanase absolutely refused to talk about his experiences and was able to tell the story in animal form for the film. June 16, 2022 @St0rmblade Now, you have to find me the actual meaning or moral. I "need" to know ! Maybe Chirin was a stand-in for young Yanase at war? Weak and vulnerable, he followed the example of a senior officer and became "strong" himself (wikipedia says he was a sergeant eventually), but couldn't take it to the end (=kill the innocent "sheep") and ended up "lonely"/ostracized (punished by military court?). Who knows. Just random speculations. If he really never spoke about the wartime experiences (unlike somebody like Shigeru Mizuki for example, both lived into their 90s), maybe there was something he would be very ashamed/guilty to talk about. P.S. Check out Yanase's other non-Anpanman films, they're good. Sort of family friendly but some unerlying themes are pretty serious/"dark". |
St0rmbladeJun 16, 2022 2:35 PM
| Can't believe I've had this one queued since November of last year. All I knew about it was it has a cute lamb as the MC, said lamb is somehow at some point voiced by Kamiya Akiria (Mokkori man), and it's a deceptively dark anime. The voice acting is pretty good (Sub only, no idea of the dub), and the animation quality is really good. Never could I have guessed that the studio that animated this was also the studio that animated City (Mokkori) Hunter. The art style is nothing like what I'm used to seeing. I'm not very good at judging whether writing is or isn't good, but I'd like to imagine that how it makes the viewer feel is part of such a judgement. If I had watched it when I was a kid, it probably would've stuck with me for a long time, but as I am now, it's interesting, but it's not a masterpiece. Still pretty powerful when it needs to be, though. Overall, it was worth the watch, as it's like a Disney movie, but also like a really fucked up fever dream you wish you never had. 8/10 |
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| OH MY GOD, HOW IS THIS A CHILDREN’S MOVIE? This was WILD, they need to make more movies like this!! 8/10 |
 Candy 2023:      Candy 2024:  |
Starts off incredibly cute and playful, ends up with some nightmare fuel visuals lol, quite the contrast. A fun assortment of songs in this short movie as well. I think this would have had the same impact on me as a child, as something like The Black Cauldron did.  |
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