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The Mike Toole Show - Sanrio Grande

Aggretsuko was non-existent in Japan when I was there last month. I went to a very large, dedicated Sanrio store in Kyoto and could barely find anything. Everything was Kitty, Kuromi and Melody.

Only mentioned briefly in the article, but Ringing Bell (Chirin no Suzu) is one of the more curious Sanrio anime works. At it’s core, it’s a pretty sad and dark story with rather absurd plot twists. It’s about a sheep, Chirin, whose mother is killed by a wolf, and in turn the sheep seeks revenge – by trying to become as strong as a wolf. spoiler[But as time progresses and Chirin gets stronger (and more and more like a wolf), its fellow sheep start to avoid and fear Chirin – and for valid reasons.

The story ends with Chirin being alone in the world, leading the life of a lone wolf (almost literally), if I remember it correctly. There’s not much hope in this story, and it’s more reminiscent of a Greek fable than a Sanrio merchandise anime.]

There’s another anime movie that has tackled a very similar story much better, Stormy Night (Arashi no Yoru ni), but as clumsy as it is, Ringing Bell is still worth a watch, both as a conceptually hopeless and tragic story and as a curious chapter in Sanrio’s history.