Lily C.A.T.

I first watched this anime back in the 90's when the scifi channel actually showed a bit more variety and such having anime weeks, Godzilla weeks and for a short span having Mystery Science Theater 3000 on their station. I enjoyed it then and I recently re-watched it as I was in the mood for a scifi horror hybrid that was not Alien. I originally wanted to watch the original 1987 Nightflyers as I had only seen it on the same channel I saw this on originally and I was hoping to see an uncut version, but I struck out on Amazon Prime and several other streaming networks only pulling up the recent television show. Just was not into watching a television series so I thought about this movie and tried to see if it was available and it was! I was so surprised and happy so I gave it a watch and I still enjoy it.

The story has a spaceship that goes on an expedition to a remote planet to gather samples and such. The kicker is that the trip will take 20 years, so the crew will be in a suspended animation for that time and will only age a year. The captain is a veteran as is his crew, but the ones on this expedition and not part of the crew are from a corporation. They all have their reasons for going on this mission; unfortunately, two of them are not who they say they are. The captain dismisses this at first, but it is not too long after they awaken from their suspended animation that one of them turns up dead! Seems a strange bacteria has gotten on board and it begins killing the crew, it also morphs and becomes an even bigger problem as it has the ability to kill! However, this is not the only problem as something seems to have control of the ship and seems to be trying to cover up its mistake of taking on this alien bacteria!

While good, the anime is not perfect...though the main problem I have with it is the English voice overs which is not really the fault of the original makers. Most of them do all right, but at times they do a horrible job of portraying emotions, most notably when the blond falls on her knees and begins sobbing. That being said, this film gets points for being only an hour and seven minutes long and still able to develop its characters and have lots of action. Kind of wish more American movies were capable of this.

So, not perfect, but still a fun and wild ride. It does take a lot of inspiration from Alien and The Thing, but it adds its on spice to the dish as well as it truly is not just about the creature on the loose. It adds a touch of mystery as there are the two members of the crew who are not who they say they are and the mystery of who is controlling the ship. Some of the characters are dubbed poorly and I would like to see this with the original voice actors; however, the one doing the captain did a pretty good job and he was my favorite character.

The first time i saw this in the early 90's I loved it and I recently re-watched it (2002) and still loved it, it lost a bit of it's surprise though. The characters start get knocked off pretty quick, but the animation is good for it's time. Like Aliens series...then watch this!

I went into this expecting nothing. Saw this movie on some youtube video about horror manga and anime iceberg.

Noticed that it's only an hour long and long forgotten so I thought "why not? Could use it to fall asleep fast tonight".

Eh I had some fun with this. It's clearly a rip off of Alien and The Thing and I went into it knowing that so I am not disappointed.

A few cool visuals here and there for something so old, I do miss the old style of anime to be completely honest. And one monologue that the captain has about how they are just relics of the past after a few space runs, having issues to catch up with things after all those cryosleeps was cool. Never really though about it that in these situations some people can, in theory, be 250 years old. Or at least that much time passed on Earth so everyone they knew is dead. Culture has completely changed. Information has changed. Everything is different and you can not keep up the pace.

All in all, a fun little watch. You can definitely do a lot worse than this.

To me, and presumably a number of others, there was something special about Robotech. For all it's many convolutions it was lightning in a bottle. The energy, the complex sci-fi packaged in a youth demo-graph, the richly drawn characters struggling against real darkness and danger, the music and everything else. There has been a lot of similar anime that has fallen far short, not least the turgid, corporate 'Shadow Chronicles'. So the fact that lily C.A.T. was brought to us by the same people that constructed Robotech potentially promised something special, or at least something in that familiar style. Pleasingly, the animation is pretty much the same, and several familiar voice actors crop up, but ultimately the question would be whether it stacks up on it's own.

The story is disappointingly derivative, in equal part to 'Alien' and 'The Thing'. There are a few interesting ideas, mainly concerning suspended animation over long periods in deep space travel, and time and effort has gone into the ship design and the future technology, but it is essentially nothing new. The story concerns a deep space expedition that travels to a distant planet to investigate the possibility of habitation but along the way is contaminated with some form of alien life which eventually starts picking the passengers and crew off one by one. Add to this an A.I. that has it's own agenda and two passengers that are not who they claim to be and we are ready to go down a pretty familiar path. Telling an old tale is always forgivable if it is done inventively and with energy and I would say, in this regard, that lily C.A.T. gets a pass mark. It is more problematic, I feel, in it's indecision over whether it is more for adults or for kids. There is some horror and some of the concepts are quite adult yet it fails at creating an adult internal reality. Mostly in regards to the characters reactions to some pretty horrific events. It might well work for more adventurous younger viewers but it is hard for me to say. The characters are mostly interesting and well realized but their interaction falls way short of the mark for adult sensibilities which is generally not the case with Macross, Mospeada and Southern Cross, or Robotech.

I refer to these other anime mainly because it would be hard to recommend Lily C.A.T. on it's own. A fan of the aforementioned franchises would have a much better chance with this than a random viewer. This, like Robotech is storytelling on the cusp between adolescence and the adult, and that would be a problem for some, who had no prior fondness for the work of Carl Macek and his ilk. Ultimately, for lovers of Robotech I would recommend Lily C.A.T. as worth the effort. It may not be a masterpiece but it definitely has that same mood and feel. It has that sense of energy and fun for the most part and it's flaws are there, but it can still be enjoyed if you are in the mood to be generous with it.

Inspired by Alien, The Thing and the novel Forever War.