Review Ringing Bell (Chiren no Suzu)

Aren't they adorable

Chiren is a little lamb who is innocent to the world and like any lamb lived in the meadow with his mother. One important thing she told him was to be wary of the king of the wolves and not to wander far from the flock. However one night tragedy strikes Chiren and that gives him the drive to become strong like the king of the wolves.

There is a lot of attention paid to the backgrounds of this movie.

Ringing Bell is the story of an adorable little lamb and his descent into darkness via revenge and violence. This movie has the makings of a family animated film despite how unexpectedly dark the movie is for a family film. In all honesty I was planning on watching this movie on a lark but was honestly surprised by how good this movie was.

I don't think those are good horns.

This movie is a short one but I found it long enough to tell a story that was short but very compelling. In terms of plot it is rather simple but in this case I believe it's simplicity is an asset as opposed to a detriment. Although the story is dark it never felt pointlessly exploitative. The animation style is very different from what one would expect from anime and it is not only unusual it is very pretty as well.

Overall if you are interested in anime as an art form I recommend Ringing Bell as something that can expand your horizons.

Rating the silver little unicorn (Unico) for being an old anime that still holds up all of these decades.