Noiseman Sound Insect is an anime by Koji Morimoto. There are numerous webpages documenting the production work and crew of this film which a user may find easily through searching. There are no pages currently known that actually describe or seem to understand the subject matter however. The other works of Morimoto have had wide reaching effect within the world of Anime, and his work on the cult film Akira makes an assessment of this far more personal visionary work important.
This is sort of a review, but really it's a viewers guide. I had to watch this film many times before it really clicked on what was happening. It's an addictive piece of film however, and the musical score is fantastic.
Beautiful, dense, lush, and filled with metaphorical content, its actual dialogue is cryptic and sparse. On first viewing it would almost seem to be a music video of a very strange Yoko Kanno song. Except that she mostly makes songs specifically for anime soundtracks, not the other way around.
The work is of course in Japanese, and no english dub has been made, most probably because the music and dialogue are intricately linked. Thankfully the subtitles of the work translate the words of not only the characters but the incidental voices of the soundtrack as well.
Because of the subtlety and complexity of the metaporical content, the language barrier to non-Japanese may make it difficult to see the concepts presented. That is why I have attempted to define 2 of the main concepts presented.
The Story and some of its Meanings
{spoiler alert} This anime is predominately about 2 main concepts, different drugs and the types of people who use them, and different styles of music and the people who associate with them.
Noiseman, the strange squeeky voiced alien antagonist, can be seen as the raver kid down your street. He comes home late with his little sporty car shaking and booming as he fills the peaceful neighborhood's space with his pounding dance music. Noiseman likes Crystals, such as crystal meth, ecstasy, cocaine. Music is almost a weapon to him and he has no regard to his neighbors, he is very selfish and only cares about his Crystals and his noise, he keeps the souls of people captive in his noise machine.
The people of the village mostly love juice, which is analogous to wine and other alchohols. Those who love juice are portrayed as relaxed and fun people, and their music is much more relaxed and human. In fact they actually love simple music that is based on the beauty of human singing. In their pure "soul" form after their escape from Noiseman they are like a choir.
The young people who race around chasing little noises and souls and trying to catch them are at first all about action and speed, but when one of them eats a fruit that flies into his speeder from the lake after a crash he is transported to a new state of mind. The water and the fruit are accompanied by very mellow psychedelic "chill" music. The fruit can be seen as psilocybic mushrooms, or perhaps marijuana, but the hallucinative effects of the fruit are clear and the effect on the young man's mind, making him stop his speeding around and focusing on the watery environment around him clearly represent psychedelic experiences.
When the Noiseman is defeated, the true voice of the people can be heard and they stand in the calm of a natural glade with the sounds of nature while a simple song "Trees make Seeds" about life, birth, death, and life feeding on life plays out.
