Lily C.A.T.

Dir: Hisayuki Toriumi

1987

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If you like old-school 80s anime and are a fan of sci-fi/horror films such as Alien, The Thing and 2001: A Space Odyssey, then Yoshitaka Amano’s Lily C.A.T. is the film for you. The film is set in the 23rd century, when companies are now surveying distant planets for mining rights. The Sincam corporation is investigating a relatively new planet and has hired the Saldes (a deep-space cruiser), to shuttle company surveyors to check it out. The employees consist of Jiro Takagi of the Japanese division, Dick Berry of the Australian division, the president's daughter Nancy, Farrah Van Dorothy, Morgan W. Scott, Jimmy, and Dr. Harris Mead, while the crew consists of Captain Mike Hamilton, his subordinates Dular, Walt, and Carolyn, as well as the mechanics Guy and Watts. In addition, Nancy has brought her cat, Lily, on board. The ship allows its passengers to go into hypersleep for 20 years and only biologically age one year. We meet the crew as they prepare for hypersleep – it is very similar to Alien and Aliens at this point and the animators use it as an excuse to include scantily-clad anime women. On the way, the ship's computer detects debris flying through space and collects a sample, but the extraterrestrial matter gets loose in the ship while the crew and the surveyors are in cryogenic sleep. The ship crew learns that two of the surveyors are imposters, but the real trouble starts when Morgan is found dead from a mysterious infection. Dr. Mead, Lily the cat, Guy, and Watts soon follow from what appears to be a bacterial infection, which dissolves the body, but leaves the clothes intact. During this, Berry attempts to discover who the imposters are by checking their backgrounds. The bacteria quickly evolves into a hostile life-form capable of mimicking the form of its human victims, just like John Carpenter’s 1982 classic The Thing. The now visible bacteria attacks and kills Dorothy while checking to see if she is infected. She is of course naked while this is happening. To make matters worse, the computer controls have been overrun by an unknown being, which results in the rather spectacular deaths of Dular and Walt. While searching for Dorothy, Jiro suggests to look in sickbay where they find her dissolved like the rest of the victims. Jiro then gives a detailed explanation for the bacteria. With this however, both Jiro and Berry are revealed to be the imposters; Jiro was a medical student who murdered three drug dealers after his sister died from an overdose, and Berry was the detective determined to bring him in. Berry quickly handcuffs him, though Hamilton warns Berry "there will be nobody to welcome you except a computer keeping records of a crime that happened 40 years ago". The survivors soon confront the bacteria, which results in Berry getting injured from the recoil of his shotgun. Hamilton and Jimmy create flamethrowers to deal with the bacteria (another idea borrowed from The Thing), though Jimmy and Carolyn are quickly killed. Hamilton manages to survive and discovers that a robotic replica of Nancy's cat is responsible for taking over the ship. Hamilton quickly realizes that Sincam wanted to study the bacteria and didn't care about the human crew. Back in sickbay, Jiro states that he killed the three men because they were responsible for the death of his sister after putting her through drug abuse and prostitution; his selfish actions prevented the police from stopping the criminal operation for good and Berry from being promoted. Hamilton, Jiro, Berry, and Nancy flee to the main bridge, where Berry dies from the infection. In a fit of defeatism, Jiro attempts suicide, until Hamilton reveals a shuttle he stored. Hamilton then proceeds to destroy the ship by letting out the hydrogen and setting off a lighter, while Jiro and Nancy make their escape onto the planet below them; the remaining bacteria burns up in the atmosphere, while the robot cat cries out in anger. It’s basically what would have happened if Ellen Ripley’s cat Jonsey had been the hidden android in Alien instead of Ian Holm and the alien itself had been The Thing from The Thing. It is very easy to watch and out of the many Alien rip-off movies out there it is one of the more entertaining. The horror scenes are actually pretty good, although there could have been a few more of them. Famous Japanese artist and illustrator Yoshitaka Amano designed the gruesome forms of the alien, while the main character designs were created by character designer Yasuomi Umetsu. The English dubbed version features the voices of some giants of the genre including Mike Reynolds (Akira, Appleseed, Barefoot Gen, Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, as well as a few Ghibli movies), Bob Bergen (Looney Tunes, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and many Disney and Pixar movies), Steve Kramer (Digimon, Power Rangers, various Ghibi..) and Steve Bulen (Batman: The Animated Series, DuckTales, Street Fighter, many Disney films and video game work). It’s dumb anime with stolen ideas but entertaining throughout.