Ok I'm seeing a lot of comments theorising what the film's moral could be and whether it even intended to have one. After seeing a couple of comments below and doing some research online, it appears that in the original book Chirin ends up ambushing the wolf, and admits that he had always intended to kill him someday in order to seek revenge. But after killing the wolf, Chirin realises that getting his revenge did not bring him happiness, and admits that he actually loved the wolf as a teacher and a father figure. THIS would actually fit the moral that it is wrong to become consumed with revenge, but I guess the film thought that would have been too dark for Chirin's character, and so made out that he only killed the wolf to protect the other sheep. Which unfortunately ends up clouding the message of the story. So yeah, mystery solved team!

0:02 Was the moment the only thing that mattered to me was lambs

I swear every time I see that horrified Thomas face I keep dying from laughter.

Basically revenge of the sith

Boy, that escalated quickly

is there anything to say about the symbolism of the lamb? lambs are very noble creatures that even in the moment of their death, they don't fight or resist, and in christianity is the simbol of the son of god as a suffering being and triumphant, forgiving by nature. So, i just saw the exact opposite, wouldn't be fitting for chirin to be a black lamb? or maybe i just had too much internet for one day

Delicious lambs

that for aesop's fables

The moral of the film is when you're mentor tells you to kill you kill.

Honestly when i see what Chirin became, i always think of some kind of Behemoth like creature

i'm pretty sure the wolf didn't eat him because he wasn't hungry enough to bother. lots of animals don't bother eating babies unless they have to, since it's a waste of energy

Ringing Bell Videotape

Triceratops

I’m reading everyone’s comments and I think there’s a side moral of the story. You’re damned if u do and damned if u don’t. The herd treated Chirin as an outcast even when he was a lamb (he was the only one with a bell, he wasn’t consoled for his mother’s death) He was also treated like an outcast when he turned into the demon sheep, he was still outcasted even after he saved them. I also see that he was an outcast when he portrayed pure innocence (a pure baby lamb) and an evil lookin wolf sheep. Either way he was doomed. I think Chirin should’ve just lived how he wanted to. I mean normal isn’t always good the rest do the sheep are background extras Chirin has his own movie 👹👹👹👹👹🥰 Don’t let society’s standards dictate who u are because either way without Chirin that herd would have died without him whether they like him or not. And I think another message would be “following the herd” is not always the right answer aka following society’s misconceptions and rules. If u do u just end up a bi stander or u end up being killed. Chirin wanted to be a wolf even though he’s a sheep and he did just that. So f society.

Fun Fact: Adult Chirin was voiced by Akira Kamiya (who also voiced Kenshiro from Fist of The North Star) which makes why he sounded familiar when Chirin's an adult.

You know this whole plot about Chirn wanting to avenge his mother and fed up being scared and defenceless wanting to become stronger but ends up being trained by the wolf and becoming like the wolf thereby losing sight of what he originally set out to do seriously sounds like the basic of what probably happened with Drago Bludvist in How To Train Your Dragon 2 if they didn't obviously rush Drago into the plot as he wasn't even supposed to be in the 2nd film in the first place. Let's see......lived in fear of dragons who then murdered his entire village and ripped off his arm so he vowed to rise above the fear of dragons and liberate the world but of course starts using dragons for conquest including ones that have probably never harmed people and became as bad as the ones who destroyed his village meaning he lost sight of what he set out to do. Oh and of course the conclusion is that neither of them get happy endings and are left with an uncertain ambiguous fate (since Drago isn't confirmed to have drowned)

After having read way too much family drama; pretty sure there wasn't a great morale here (unlike the book), it was probably meant as an allegory/fable. There wasn't a great reason for the wolf to want to kill the entire herd, except to sever the last ties Chirin had to his old life. The wolf didn't seem to have any plans for this until after Chirin told hi he was effectively his parent. Considering we live in a world where step parents and parental alienation isn't unusual, I can see why the filmmakers might want to shift the focus a bit and look at how divided a child can end up in such a situation. Maybe a bit of a leap, but that is often the case with interpretation of the artist intent. I definitely find the one from the book easier to follow.

I'm most impressed by how the artists somehow made a sheep look intimidating. How do you make a stupid animal with fluffy clouds for its body look intimidating? Oh also, sheep are assholes. Can confirm this. One nearly tore off my arm when i was feeding it

Very adorable and tasty

please review one stormy night movie xxx

i think the horns mostly resemble black wildebeest horns, but even then those curve upward far more than chirin's (think the beast but larger horns like a gnu)

11:35 why aren’t there any animals with front facing horns? If they don’t, that’s just an opportunity missed on their part. Like really, What animal would have their horn go “backwards” or pointing in a curve. Makes no sense.

No moral just a tragedy.

Chirin has Triceratops horns

Shirin. Weant from pussy to samurai

A Narwhal has a front facing horn and it's a mammal. Lol. That's all I can think of!!

What the flock is this sheep!?

I am getting major Sith vibes from this.

I don’t think I’ll ever get over the death of the farmer in Plague Dogs.

Elephants have front facing horns

Well Stevie at least they haven't made the same thing as chirin's bell but with a yaoi smut twist

Revenge arcs then: you took everything away from me, now prepare to die!!!!!! Revenge arcs now: you killed my mother teach me how to do that so I can eventually use it against you senpai~~~~~~~~UWU

Also this sheep be like gohan Wolf(picalo) kills a parent then they train under the wolf and sees the wolf as a father figure

Btw this sheep be like goku Always wanting to get stronger

Those Japanese have no chill

I think the moral is that even an innocent lamb will turn into a murderer if they experience enough trauma. Basically it’s saying the world sucks and turns good people bad

I remember this film & i didn't find it as dark when I was little But I was wrong

The story didn't make sense to me.

Maybe there is no moral, maybe it's just a story?

chirin is pretty much the chara of sheep (never mind)

Gee, thanks for the spoiler warning for Grave of the Fireflies.

its funny that you actually bully yourself whenever you make a joke. but to be honest, it gives me a smile

It speaks about nature of course and relates to the symbolization of sheep and wolves. Chirin witnesses the great life of peace and harmony until Woe arrives. When he does she witnesses his own dark reality of what his life will be. So he decides otherwise to change his life and become a sharper animal. Although he can only do this by adapting with Woe because he knows woe is wiser about the dark side of life, now you ask, why doesn’t woe just kill Chirin? Because there’s no point. After the birds are killed and chirin cries realizing he had done this Woe speaks to him about his life. Chirin dictates that he wants to get away from being a sheep but he doesn’t have the ability to. Woe understanding Chirins situation begins to train chirin, later adapting him into a fierce creature. As you know they go to the farm to kill some sheep. But chirin has the moment that relates to his past bringing his reality back that he is inherently is a sheep. So he kills woe and then is unaccepted by the sheep because he strayed to far from them. It has a lot of mixed themes and relatively when you think about them they make sense although it’s hard for me to explain them here

The comments: “can you-“ Him: you already know it’s gonna be *m* *e* *s* *s* *e* *d* u p

*sheeps turn blue in night time One of the sheep:IM BLUE DA BE DI DA

The reason horn are like that because he headbutted

1:30 this is an abomination, SHE HAS A MOUTH (and quite the mouth to be honest)

The unwieldy shadow concretely regret because message strikingly vanish till a wooden peen. deranged, fascinated stinger

Black wildebeest. That’s the horns

Watch The Tiger an Old Hunter’s Tale it’s a Korean film

Bad review. The guy often says "I don't understand this...don't see the message...don't understand...don't know..." Review should be better

09:37 - yeah because Shrek just us mean-spirited and mocks traditional values, especially Disney propagated ones. I also see this goes by the cheap anime rules of not animating the wolf's mouth when he speaks...

This Woe guy is an asshole. Why did he kill the sheep then just leave their bodies? Doesn't he, y'know, kill them to eat? And it seems the snowy land Chirin ends up in is basically the "heaven level" like when he respawns each time after dying?

01:45 - I am not surprised. Japanese animation is fucked up, they often show stuff to kids that no european studio would ever do. Hello Kitty wasn't as innocent and cutesy either as you think. Check out their Snow White adaptation... it has the added ending (that most adaptations forget) that the evil queen is forced to wear HOT IRON SHOES and dance until she dies. For reals. For kids... irmys.info/more/qKOeaaKYppOFooI/fy-lm-h-y.html

What’s wrong with this crap is wolves don’t kill their prey for fun they eat it all up, and that’s not what it did to chirin’s mom it just left her there🐑

The most badass movie about a sheep I have ever watched in my life.

I feel like the closest sheep type to Chrin is a Jacob Sheep. Though they ha two sets of horn. The top set curves back and the bottom set curves forward. On occasion though the top most horns can grow in a forward-ish fashion, but I don't know much about the breed personally. Just what I found doing minor research.

Sheep used to have horns that Point forward but do to inbreeding

*Wait...? People LAUGH after seeing a kungfu princess kill an innocent mother bird then instead of feeling bad or guilty she just EATS her eggs!? In my book, that's the worst scene in Shrek HISTORY!*

so let me get this straight... His mother gets killed, he goes and teams up with the bad guy to learn new powers, returns home to kill everyone at the bad guy's command, then ends up realizing what he did wrong and kills the bad guy at the end... all because he didnt wait in the council cha- I mean meadow... edit: I'm seriously contemplating the idea that maybe george lucas saw this film before making the prequels and used the story as the basis for anakin's fall to the dark side

Bambo got me lol

I have the distant memory of this movie. I don't know where. I dont know when. It's just there. Haunting me.

Moral of the story: Sheep are assholes

How about Fantastic Planet?

The worst thing is I remember watching this

BASS BOOSTED WOLF ATTACK!!!

Review Milo and Otis, please.

Plot went from Bambi to Beserk in a matter of moments

I find the wolf's provocation very intentional. Considering Chirin says he will always follow the wolf. And Woe being happy Chirin is the one to kill him. I think Woe knew his fate before making it to the farm. One last lesson for his student.

I laughed my ass off when fiona fried the eggs. Thanks for make me remember that funny scene

11:39 My ex girlfriends.

And OH MY GOD IT'S SCARFACE- I mean *wolf*

This shit is scary man I piss my self

"My name is Chirin Montoya. You killed my mother. Prepare to... become my mentor and surrogate father".

The laminator

omg i havent watched the movie, but chirin just annoys me to no end

I heard the moral is about what happens when you live home to get revenge and come back years later

My review: Story 7/10 Animation 8/10 Characters 8/10 8/10

Devil horns

Do you like Thomas don’t you because that is my request it’s family friendly in a lot of episodes :D

16:48 remember, this is an old Japanese anime movie, and what happened here as he described is just an anime cliche that holds even to this day.

7:27 or if Babar asked the hunter who killed his mother to become another hunter...

Chirin: what am I fighting for

11:42 Ozen. Ozen has forwards faced... Horns? Hair... thingies?

Do review bon voyage Charlie brown

how did it go from astro boy to devilman ?

Not gonna lie, grown up Chirin looks like a really cool Pokémon.

I think the message is about how an obsession can turn you into the very thing you hate as well as that revenge doesn’t always lead to a happy ending

"Hello. My name is Chirin Montoya. You killed my mother. Prepare to teach me."

What made me cry is when he at first didn’t realize she was dead

This might have already been mentioned here, but I'd like to point something out about the bell. It's an old animal husbandry (ranching) custom in some areas of the world to designate a young male from the herd or flock as the "bellwether." The bellwether is castrated and specially conditioned to be the most responsive to the rancher's calls, while simultaneously being the one member of the herd/flock to which other members tend to follow or gather around, for the purposes of easier herding and field rotation. Hence, the poignant, if subtle, cosmic irony: Chirin was meant to lead his flock, but instead lost himself to the monstrosity which stole his mother's life and his innocence. It's poetic when you think about how he was supposed to live a life of contentment and companionship...only to be left abandoned to a cruel fate of solitude, all because he could not accept his grief and make peace with himself.

Am I the only one that thinks some Japanese anime have disturbing bloody violence

Chirin has horns like a wildebeest, kinda

If lambs are a Dora Ball ... this might ruin your childhood

Some highland cows have front facing horns

I had to pause the video at the Littlefoot-Sharptooth hybrid until I stopped laughing so I wouldn't miss anything. I knew when it said 777k views that I hit the jackpot.

Sheep are assholes. Im totally convinced 😭👏

At the end, chiron looks a lot like griffith. I think it's the combination of the atmosphere and the eyes.

You know I do like to kill my dog if he kill my little cat

I think when the wolf told Chirin that one thing must die for another to live that some of that got lost in translation. I think the real translation goes along more like some things are meant to die while others live, and the hard truth of that. So when the wolf saw that Chirin didn't die from the fall, whirlpool, etc. , he knew that he was meant to live, and later tried to force him to kill the sheep because he believed they were meant to die. So maybe just more about having a predisposition on nature and the duality of how it can be both cruel and beautiful.