Tear Jerker / Ringing Bell

"Cry, cry as much as you wish. Someday that resentment will become your fangs."

For a story geared towards children and families, Chirin No Suzu is filled with depressing and somber moments throughout the story. Sure, it starts out lighthearted and sweet, but it sadly doesn't last very long to show it's true colors. Compared to Takashi Yanase and Sanrio Animation's other films, this is considered to be one of their most heartbreaking works.

Warning: per wiki policy, Tear Jerker pages are Spoilers Off.

• The film's theme song "Chirin no Suzu" gives off a melancholy feel since it's hauntingly beautiful and somber at the same time, especially in the Japanese version. It gives a sense of sadness before we get introduced to Chirin. The song is played with different arrangements and lyrics throughout the film. Not helping is the song is mainly performed by two flutes and some 70s era synthesizers that sound like xylophones, and the lyrics used actual text from the original book (notably the first page showing the story's title◊).
  • A different arrangement of the song is performed later in the film where a flute is played in a much higher pitch to emphasize Chirin's feelings on not only the loss of his mother, but never being accepted by the other sheep to return home.
    Chirin's bell reminds me
    Of those eyelashes and that smile
    Chirin's bell reminds me
    Of this world's loneliness, as well as its sorrow
    Chirin's bell, where are you now?
    Many seasons have passed
    Chirin's bell, where are you now?
    No one visits you now
  • An extended version of the song is played during the film's end credits while showing the descendants of Chirin's family, friends, siblings and cousins playing and having a cute and peaceful life. The credits plays off like the first 10 minutes showing Young Chirin having a carefree and fun life with his mother and siblings but viewed in a heartbreaking light.
  • The 2003 flash adaptation by Storygate Picturesbooks uses the film's theme song performed by the story's female narrator. Storygate's rendition of the theme sounds more like a lullaby sung by a mother to her babies which is fitting once it's revealed to been told by a mother sheep to her child. Unlike the film version, the story ends with the theme played as Young Chirin is happily walking across the screen before vanishing as the song's lyrics appear.
• In a scene exclusive to the Sanrio adaptation, as the sunsets and the rest of the flock are heading back to the stable, Chirin's mother is searching for her son, who has gone missing for the evening. She tries asking the other animals (notably bats, an owl, and possums) if they have seen Chirin with no luck. When she finds him later that night, she quickly scolds him and tries to keep her composure. After Chirin apologizes, tears start falling down her face as a sign of relief.
  Chirin's mother: Look at how late it is! What in the world have you been doing, Chirin?!
  Chirin: (quietly walks back to his mother)
  Chirin's mother: You had me so worried.... What a bad boy you are!
  Chirin: I'm sorry.
  Chirin's mother: (tears start streaming down her face) It's okay, Chirin. My precious little boy...
  • As Chirin's Mother continues to search for her son as it gets very late. She briefly stops her search and looks over the giant mountain where Woe lives at. Her expression is heartbreaking◊, since she fears that Chirin disobeyed her advice from early that afternoon.
• The sequence showing Chirin and his mother relaxing in the middle of spring, followed by lambs eating and playing on a haystack in autumn. Considering what happens next, this is the very last time we ever see Chirin having a peaceful and carefree life.
  • The music playing during this scene is relaxing and peaceful.

Today is a day like any other day
And tomorrow will be no different than today
The breeze is gentle and smoothing, its yawning sigh
Only blows the flowers in the pasture to and fro

• The death of Chirin’s mother who covers him from Woe. Even sadder is her last words as she's running to protect her child.
  Chirin's mother: (as she's running to protect Chirin) Chirin!
  • Then Chirin tries to wake her up before finally realizing and cries while the other sheep and lambs are somberly watching on.◊ One of the adult sheep watching Chirin crying◊ is actually fighting back tears.
  • It's worse in the original book, when not only does Woe kill his mother, but eats the entire flock (off-screen). Not only does this make Chirin an orphan, but the only surviving sheep from the flock. This, in effect, makes the book's ending extra heartbreaking since it implied that Chirin died as an adult and all characters (Chirin, Chirin's Mother, and Woe/Wor) are dead.
  • The Twelve Pearls version is extra heartbreaking, since it graphically described Chirin being soaked in his own mother's blood! The same applies to the Lyrica, Kamishibai and Storygate Picturebooks adaptations.
• Chirin's entire reaction to his mother's death in the Sanrio adaptation. After his mother protects him from getting killed by Woe, Chirin emerges from under his mother's body. Chirin cheerfully tells her that he's lucky both of them didn't get eaten, when Chirin notices that his mother isn't responding. He tries waking her up by shaking her body. Once it hits him that his mother is dead, Chirin's body starts trembling and begins crying hysterically. Chirin is then seen crying on top of his mother's body. The way Chirin cries in this movie is surprisingly realistic (especially in the Japanese version). Anyone who has lost a parent will know his sorrow.
  Chirin: Huh? What happened with Woe? (yawns) Is he gone? We're lucky he didn't eat us, right? Right, mom? (expects a response) Mom?
  Chirin's mother: (no response)
  Chirin: (notices his mother isn't responding) What's wrong, mom? (begins shaking her hoof) Wake up! Mom! Wake up, I said!
  The rest of the surviving sheep: (sadly watches on in silence)
  Chirin: Did the wolf hurt you? (starts shaking her hoof even faster) Wake up!
  Chirin: (starts trembling) No! You can't die mom! (starts crying hysterically) Don't die, mom! Don't die! (starts running around her body and shaking her) No! Wake up!
  The other sheep: (still watching on in silence and start bowing their heads behind Chirin)
  Chirin: Wake up, I say! Don't die on me! Mom... (falls down her body) Don't die!
  • While many commentators tend to disparage the other sheep for not comforting Chirin, take a good look at their faces. They too are very sad and are showing their respects towards Chirin's mother in their own way. What's even worse is that because they spent more time mourning and less time consoling Chirin, they never get the chance to adopt him. On the other end of the spectrum, Truth in Television states that nearly all ewes reject lambs who are not their own.
  • The kamishibai version of the story, which features newer illustrations by Yanase, shows Chirin crying◊ (complete with a single tear) after realizing his mother is dead while parts of the sheep stable has been busted open by the wolf. This illustration plays out similar to the 1978 film adaptation, compared to the original story where we see Chirin emerging from his mother's dead body.◊
  • The 2003 flash adaptation by Storygate Picturebooks has Chirin shedding a Single Tear in front of a bright red background.
  • In the Japanese version, The Narrator (voiced by Hitoshi Takagi) starts choking up as he's describing Chirin's thoughts on why the wolf killed his mother.
• In the anime, Chirin decides to head straight to the mountain that Woe resides. He furiously marches out of the stable and takes a last look at the stable that he and his mother lived in. While Chirin is looking back, we get a shot of the sheep flock looking back at him with sad and worried expressions. As Chirin is marching out, we get a music box variation of the film's theme song complete with drums giving a military vibe.
• In the original book, Chirin is crying as he's angrily heading to the mountain that Woe lives◊.
• When Chirin finally encounters Woe, he is horrified but tries his hardest to be brave. After a couple attempts at attacking the wolf, Woe uses his tails to throw Chirin off a cliff and lands on two sharp rocks. As he struggles to climb up to a large rock, he loses his grip and falls down. In the English Dub, Chirin utters this line sounding like he's going to cry again.

  Chirin (English Dub): "Oh Wolf! You killed my mother! You killed (loses his grip) heeerrrr!!"

• Throughout the anime adaptation, Chirin goes to so many lengths to get Woe's attention. Woe just tells him to go home so he can eat him later, which he refuses to because Chirin keeps dangling the prospect of being a strong ram. It's doubly a tearjerker because Woe is really trying to help Chirin, going out of his way and taking time out of his busy schedule to make Chirin reconsider, who just. Doesn't. Get it. This is evident in the scene where he tackles a deer to be his lunch.
• After Chirin's failed attempts at convincing Woe to actually train him. One autumn morning, we see Chirin sadly taking a walk around the meadow and spots a mother squirrel and mother rabbit taking care of their offspring. Chirin can only give them a quick glance as a reminder that his mother is no longer with him and is now an orphan. The mother squirrel and rabbit both give Chirin a sad glance as he's walking by them.
  "And Chirin did not give up. He followed the wolf, though it meant day after day of constant travel. Sometimes he saw things that reminded him of his home. But he went on. Through the forest, through the meadows."
  • Judging by their glance at Chirin, the mother squirrel and rabbit instantly realize Chirin's mother is no longer alive after noticing Chirin walking completely alone and sad. As a result, they can only show sympathy to him without waking up the children of their own.
• After Chirin accidentally crushes all the eggs from a mother bird's nest. He starts panickingly crying and feeling guilty. Doesn't help that while Chirin is crying, a dead bird (the mother) is laying right next to him. Even worse is that Woe is watching Chirin sobbing and showing no sympathy. The animation when Chirin is crying in that scene is very heartbreaking to watch.
  Chirin (English Dub): (bawling) Oh why did it happen! Oh why! Oh why did the weak have to die!
  Woe/The Wolf King: (as he's watching Chirin crying) Cry, cry as much as you wish. Someday that resentment will become your fangs.
  • While the voice acting for that scene is sad in the English Dub where Chirin's voice is much gruffer and deeper provided by Barbara Goodson. It's even worse in the original Japanese version.
  • Even worse is that he failed to protect the babies, and Chirin just lost his own mother a few nights ago. Chirin is only a baby (and the youngest of the entire flock), so failing to protect a group of unborn birds and losing his mother caused Chirin to have another emotional breakdown. Not to mention this is last act of kindness Chirin does while still seeking revenge. After that, Woe corrupts his little head into the black beast we see later.
• Seeing Chirin turn from a friendly and carefree lamb, into a threatening and sinister little lamb. His wool is clearly in terrible shape◊ (Chirin's ears appear to be missing some skin and the fleece around his face resembles an angry eyebrow), and his voice sounds more aggressive. It gets worse once he starts growing black horns on his head.
• The illustrations of the Lyrica adaptation are hauntingly beautiful, including the final page which depicts a snow-fallen valley with Chirin’s footprints heading off into the distance.
• Adult Chirin's reaction to the mother sheep shielding her lamb, risking her own life to protect her baby. All he can do is stare as the memories start flooding back, reminding him of who he is. It's the exact same scene as when he was a lamb and his mother sacrificed herself to save him. Realising this, he can't go through with killing the sheep.
• Finally killing Woe, who mentored him for so long, brought no satisfaction to Chirin, only more sadness and guilt. Realizing the sheep could do nothing but fear him, he returns to his mountain lair alone and dejected.
  "Chirin tried to tell the frightened sheep that he had once lived with them in the meadow. But nobody believed him. The creature they saw before them was not one of their kind. Chirin was neither wolf nor sheep. He was an animal which caused only fear and terror. He wouldn't find a home again with the sheep of his childhood, and without the wolf, Chirin realized... he had no home at all."
  • As he drinks from a pool, he hears Woe voice and his reflection appears next to his own, but when he turns around, he sees no one. He ends up futilely calling out for the wolf.
    "Wolf... you accepted me... You taught me how to live like you did. Forgive me. I wasn't able to become a wolf. And because of that, I was the one to cause your death. But I'm still alive! Where do I go now?! WOLF!!! WOLF!!!"
• In the book, he says this line.
  Chirin: "I’ve gotten revenge for my mother. But my heart doesn’t feel any lighter. Please forgive me, Uo. I’ve first realized it when you died. That you were my teacher and my father. And somewhere along the way, I had come to love you. I can no longer return to being a sheep."
• The prototype version of the story, plus the Lyrica adaptation, briefly expands on Chirin's life after killing Woe. One scene shows Chirin, after unintentionally scaring off a field full of sheep, looking down at a pond in complete and utter self-loathing just like the anime version. Upon seeing Woe's reflection instead of his own he knows what he's become, but feels he has no hope for redemption.
• The final narration:
  "The snow fell for days without letting up, covering the ground with a smooth white blanket. Whatever happened on that mountain, whatever happened in the meadow, was covered up without a trace to remind those who had witnessed it. And later, some claimed to have remembered Chirin as a lamb. Others said he was a spirit from the mountain. But they were too wrapped up with their own lives to worry about it for long. And one night, during a terrible blizzard, the gentle sound of a bell was heard. But the sheep in the meadow never saw Chirin again."
• The book ends with Chirin crossing the mountains into nowhere which could imply that he might be still alive. However, the last two pages of the Lyrica adaptation have Chirin walking through the mountains on a dark and snowy night and one image shows him lying down in the snow, proving that he did indeed die from the cold. Even so, the final page shows Chirin's footprints heading off into a part of the mountain that only Yanase knows where.
• In an ending exclusive to the expanded versions of the story, a mother sheep tells her lambs that if they cry, Chirin will come in and kill them. What makes this heartbreaking is that Chirin is now condemned by sheep society as an evil creature, when in reality, he really isn’t. As if being shunned by his own family in the anime adaptation wasn’t sad enough, it appears that the true details of Chirin's story has been all but forgotten and mutated into a simple scary story used to make little lambs behave.
• A subtle detail in the Japanese version of the film that underpins the tragedy of Chirin's life is the use of specific Japanese Pronouns. For most of the story Chirin uses boku, which befits a young innocent lamb like himself. Only after undergoing his Face–Heel Turn and becoming a monster does he switch to the intimidating ore, signifying that he truly has become a different being altogether than the lamb he used to be. Except, right as he realizes what he's become when he almost murders his own flock, in his mental breakdown he switches back to using boku — it all goes to show that the original innocent Chirin, sad and missing his mother, is still in there, but unfortunately it's far too late by that point for him to truly go back to being the same sheep he was before.
• All versions of the story end with the same line or other similar translations:

  "However, no one has seen Chirin ever again."