“Chirin no Suzu” (or “Ringing Bell” in its English-localized translation), a seemingly whimsical 1978 anime film that begins with a lamb playing with his mother, hardly seems at first like a candidate for Gothic analysis. Typically, when people first attempt to define “the Gothic,” images are conjured of crumbling castles, shadowed cathedrals, and desolate moors—settings where oppressive architecture mirrors some kind of “war within”, in other words, a character’s own psychological torment. Yet, there is more to Gothic structure than human-made Gothic architecture and moody, depressive lighting. In addition to a dark atmosphere, the film’s plot and story elements tout an exploration of isolation, monstrosity, and the corrupting nature of vengeance, proving that the Gothic can thrive far beyond the confines of haunted castles and cemeteries.
After the innocent scenes showing Chirin (the titular lamb character) frolicking in the grass, his mother warns him of the existence of wolves out in the wild mountains, which are visible from the field and barn where the sheep live, but from which they are far separated by a wooden fence line. After this warning, that night while all the sheep are sleeping in the barn, a wolf breaks in and begins to attack the helpless inhabitants. Chirin’s mother herself becomes a victim and is killed. After sating his appetite, the wolf leaves the barn and returns to the mountains, but Chirin is determined to seek out revenge. Despite the urging of the other sheep towards the contrary, Chirin abandons the only home he ever knew and pursues the trail of the wolf into the mountains; Chirin attempts to attack the wolf (whom is identified as Woe or Ūo) but in his lamb body, is too weak to do anything but fluff his tail. When Woe observes Chirin’s despair at crushing some baby bird eggs that he was trying to protect, Woe offers to teach Chirin how to become a predator, rather than prey. Driven by a desperate need for strength, Chirin abandons his lamb innocence to learn the ways of his mother’s killer.
It is this internal change within Chirin that I argue, makes the movie a Gothic one. First of all, the initial fence line that Chirin’s mother warns him to not cross—the same one that the other sheep also warn him away from—acts as a physical manifestation of a Gothic “barrier,” some kind of liminal space where the threshold between what is “normal” and what is “monstrous” dissolve. Although it is the death of his mother that is the inciting incident, it is only once Chirin crosses that physical border that the change within his being is marked; he consciously makes the decision to pursue vengeance, and so begins his grim odyssey into self-transformation.
His internal transformation is mirrored by his physical one as well. As Chirin ages and grows alongside Woe, he begins to grow sharp, malformed horns, his hooves become “tougher than rocks.” Chirin spends three years learning to become as strong as a wolf, and although it is not stated outright, a viewer could infer that Chirin has become a meat-eater as well. Though the movie chooses to depict him as a threatening ram-like creature, the narrator describes the adult Chirin as a “ferocious beast.” We are meant to see him as monstrous, and the musical montage that accompanies his evolution into this creature is accompanied by a choir singing lines such as “get out of my way.”
It is the climax of this short movie that also establishes Chirin’s inability to return to his former self. Once Chirin becomes an adult, he remarks that Woe has become like a father to him and he has decided “to go to hell together with him”. The two of them then plan to hunt at the sheep barn; the very place where Chirin grew up. Despite his initial willingness, Chirin finds himself unable to kill another mother sheep, as he watches her protect her child, as his mother once did for him. Woe attempts to kill the other sheep instead, but Chirin fights Woe to stop him and declares “I am a sheep!” In the ensuing scuffle, Chirin impales Woe on his horns, and as he is taking his dying breath, Woe tells Chirin that he is proud of him, and glad that Chirin was the one to kill Woe in the end. To the other sheep, Chirin is unrecognizable as one of them, and they regard him as a horrible monster, “neither sheep nor wolf . . . that froze their blood.” Despite Chirin possessing a bell around his neck—the same one he had since he was a lamb—none of the sheep identify him as Chirin and shut him out. It is only once Chirin retreats alone into the mountains that he realizes that he is alone, and that he can no longer identify who he is, as he was unable to become a wolf like Woe, and is no longer a helpless sheep; so the movie ends with Chirin wandering the snowy wilderness, alone with his ringing bell.
Initially created as a storybook, “Chirin no Suzu” appears to offer a moralistic tale of avoiding sinking too deep into vengeance, lest one lose their ‘humanity.’ The idea that the self can be corrupted and made into something unrecognizable, some “unspeakable horror” of which the evolution into it is brought about by some forbidden knowledge given to a once-innocent character—all these elements are what makes “Chirin no Suzu” extremely Gothic. The juxtaposition of the pastoral-like artstyle and soft color palette (which is very reminiscent of “Bambi”) initially forestalls too much obvious foreboding feelings; yet the hard shift into abandoning all those elements for a dark, gray-ish aesthetic (along with a shift in music tone and atmosphere) moves the genre into the “Gothic horror.”
“Chirin no Suzu” winds up becoming a short dive into Gothic anime, without relying on too many of the aesthetic hallmarks recognizable in the genre such as British architecture or vampiric elements. It’s a quick movie, only around fifty minutes long, so I recommend taking a look for anyone interested in classic styles of children’s horror.
126
Portland State's Student Run Monthly Magazine
“Chirin no Suzu”, Gothic Children’s Media: Leaving the Pasture of Innocence
“Chirin no Suzu” (or “Ringing Bell” in its English-localized translation), a seemingly whimsical 1978 anime film that begins with a lamb playing with his mother, hardly seems at first like a candidate for Gothic analysis. Typically, when people first attempt to define “the Gothic,” images are conjured of crumbling castles, shadowed cathedrals, and desolate moors—settings where oppressive architecture mirrors some kind of “war within”, in other words, a character’s own psychological torment. Yet, there is more to Gothic structure than human-made Gothic architecture and moody, depressive lighting. In addition to a dark atmosphere, the film’s plot and story elements tout an exploration of isolation, monstrosity, and the corrupting nature of vengeance, proving that the Gothic can thrive far beyond the confines of haunted castles and cemeteries.
After the innocent scenes showing Chirin (the titular lamb character) frolicking in the grass, his mother warns him of the existence of wolves out in the wild mountains, which are visible from the field and barn where the sheep live, but from which they are far separated by a wooden fence line. After this warning, that night while all the sheep are sleeping in the barn, a wolf breaks in and begins to attack the helpless inhabitants. Chirin’s mother herself becomes a victim and is killed. After sating his appetite, the wolf leaves the barn and returns to the mountains, but Chirin is determined to seek out revenge. Despite the urging of the other sheep towards the contrary, Chirin abandons the only home he ever knew and pursues the trail of the wolf into the mountains; Chirin attempts to attack the wolf (whom is identified as Woe or Ūo) but in his lamb body, is too weak to do anything but fluff his tail. When Woe observes Chirin’s despair at crushing some baby bird eggs that he was trying to protect, Woe offers to teach Chirin how to become a predator, rather than prey. Driven by a desperate need for strength, Chirin abandons his lamb innocence to learn the ways of his mother’s killer.
It is this internal change within Chirin that I argue, makes the movie a Gothic one. First of all, the initial fence line that Chirin’s mother warns him to not cross—the same one that the other sheep also warn him away from—acts as a physical manifestation of a Gothic “barrier,” some kind of liminal space where the threshold between what is “normal” and what is “monstrous” dissolve. Although it is the death of his mother that is the inciting incident, it is only once Chirin crosses that physical border that the change within his being is marked; he consciously makes the decision to pursue vengeance, and so begins his grim odyssey into self-transformation.
His internal transformation is mirrored by his physical one as well. As Chirin ages and grows alongside Woe, he begins to grow sharp, malformed horns, his hooves become “tougher than rocks.” Chirin spends three years learning to become as strong as a wolf, and although it is not stated outright, a viewer could infer that Chirin has become a meat-eater as well. Though the movie chooses to depict him as a threatening ram-like creature, the narrator describes the adult Chirin as a “ferocious beast.” We are meant to see him as monstrous, and the musical montage that accompanies his evolution into this creature is accompanied by a choir singing lines such as “get out of my way.”
It is the climax of this short movie that also establishes Chirin’s inability to return to his former self. Once Chirin becomes an adult, he remarks that Woe has become like a father to him and he has decided “to go to hell together with him”. The two of them then plan to hunt at the sheep barn; the very place where Chirin grew up. Despite his initial willingness, Chirin finds himself unable to kill another mother sheep, as he watches her protect her child, as his mother once did for him. Woe attempts to kill the other sheep instead, but Chirin fights Woe to stop him and declares “I am a sheep!” In the ensuing scuffle, Chirin impales Woe on his horns, and as he is taking his dying breath, Woe tells Chirin that he is proud of him, and glad that Chirin was the one to kill Woe in the end. To the other sheep, Chirin is unrecognizable as one of them, and they regard him as a horrible monster, “neither sheep nor wolf . . . that froze their blood.” Despite Chirin possessing a bell around his neck—the same one he had since he was a lamb—none of the sheep identify him as Chirin and shut him out. It is only once Chirin retreats alone into the mountains that he realizes that he is alone, and that he can no longer identify who he is, as he was unable to become a wolf like Woe, and is no longer a helpless sheep; so the movie ends with Chirin wandering the snowy wilderness, alone with his ringing bell.
Initially created as a storybook, “Chirin no Suzu” appears to offer a moralistic tale of avoiding sinking too deep into vengeance, lest one lose their ‘humanity.’ The idea that the self can be corrupted and made into something unrecognizable, some “unspeakable horror” of which the evolution into it is brought about by some forbidden knowledge given to a once-innocent character—all these elements are what makes “Chirin no Suzu” extremely Gothic. The juxtaposition of the pastoral-like artstyle and soft color palette (which is very reminiscent of “Bambi”) initially forestalls too much obvious foreboding feelings; yet the hard shift into abandoning all those elements for a dark, gray-ish aesthetic (along with a shift in music tone and atmosphere) moves the genre into the “Gothic horror.”
“Chirin no Suzu” winds up becoming a short dive into Gothic anime, without relying on too many of the aesthetic hallmarks recognizable in the genre such as British architecture or vampiric elements. It’s a quick movie, only around fifty minutes long, so I recommend taking a look for anyone interested in classic styles of children’s horror.
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