The cockroaches replace humans while the humans replace gods? That's one way to interpret it no?A commune of cockroaches live and play in a dude's apartment in modern day (well late 80's) Japan. Nobody bothers them. They bother nobody. Until said dude's girlfriend moves in. Stereotypically, the female decides this place needs cleaning and what we get is Armageddon seen from the floor. Of course there's your rivalries between the peace-nicks and the aggressors. And Naomi is our female eye of the storm. Do they fight, run, or die? Find this to find out. It isn't easy. Not even in Japan. There are a few old VHS copies floating around the used shops however.This combination of live and anime reminds one of "Heavy Traffic" at times. I caught this in an art theater in Philly during a run on rare anime showings. Didn't stand out like "Robot Carnival" but still kept my attention.And anyone with knowledge of Japanese life might like it too.

TWILIGHT OF THE COCKROACHES (3 outta 5 stars) Even if you hate the sight of cockroaches this movie shouldn't bother you too much. The film's roaches are actually cute little animated characters in the Japanese style. The humans in the film are live action... never speak... and are terribly unkind to the poor little creatures who just want to be left alone to live in peace. When we are first introduced to them the roaches are living in peace in the apartment of Mr. Saito. His wife and children have left him and he seems to have a bit of a drinking problem so he doesn't have any motivation to clean his filthy apartment and get rid of his tiny guests. This all changes when he gets a new girlfriend from across the way... a woman fanatical in her hatred of the creepy critters. Massive doses of bug spray send the roaches for cover, alluding perhaps to the horror of Hiroshima. It's a pretty good movie... maybe the roach characters could have used a little more depth. The main sub-plot, a love triangle between the cute Naomi and her two boyfriends (one a heroic military man and the other a sensitive artist-type) is well-handled. Even though the movie is mostly animated it might be too adult for the younger kids.

This is another one of those cult classics that everyone in "the know" claims is so great. Well, the backdrops (a sort of mixed bag of pop art collage and live action) are terrificly bizarre, the highlights (along with the story itself) of this equally mixed movie. Unfortunately, neither the animated cockroaches or the live action humans are anything special (Bing Crosby dancing with Jerry the mouse looks more realistic, so I won't bother comparing it to Roger Rabbit). I was constantly thrust out of "the dream." However, that was probably due to the awful English dubbing.

How much you will enjoy this film depends greatly on whether you can set aside the usual reactions to verminous insects. Do that and Naomi, this movie's star, is actually kind of cute, in the way that naive 17-year-old girls often seem. With a human face and torso beneath her antennae and black carapace, she enjoys pool parties in the toilet bowl, smooches with her childhood sweetheart and is attracted to Kurt, the handsome soldier cockroach from the neighboring tribe. Her tribe's human host is a live-and-let-live sort of fellow, unlike the girl next door, sexy but merciless toward roaches. Disaster comes when the two people fall in love.Everything is seen from the bugs' viewpoint, full of large and potentially dangerous objects. Trash, on the other hand, is full of wonders. The photography and animation are extremely well-handled. The biggest flaw is that the characters are pretty much one-dimensional, with the differences you'd expect between roach and human society too-little explored. But this is far more adult and more thought-provoking than the usual movie cartoon. And unlike other animated animals, these roaches don't sing.