‘Alien: Romulus’ is right around the corner, so it’s the perfect time to check out ‘Lily C.A.T.,’ an anime body horror classic that’s a gory tribute to ‘Alien’ and ‘The Thing’.
“Confine them? We’re on a ship. We’re practically confined ourselves.”
Ridley Scott’s Alien is an iconic horror/science fiction hybrid that’s had its ups and downs as a film franchise, but remains an essential genre film 45 years later. Alien is such a tried and true property with limitless potential that it’s kind of remarkable that there hasn’t been an Alien animated series or in-universe anime that’s in the vein of The Animatrix that translates this iconic sci-fi horror property into animated madness where it can really let loose and not be confined by live-action’s limitations. An unreleased Alien vs. Predator anime is the closest thing that audiences have gotten to this, which is actually fully mixed and completed as of 2016.
Disney is currently just sitting on the finished product as of its acquisition of 20th Century Fox and it’s unclear if they’re ever going to do anything with it at this point. There are so many horror films that try to make waves by being “Alien, but on a ….,” or “It’s like The Thing, only it’s set in a …” These copycat horror films understandably have mixed results. For every Life, Event Horizon, Contamination, and Galaxy of Terror, there’s an Inseminoid, Xtro II: The Second Encounter, and Critters 4. Somehow, one of the smartest Alien rip-offs is an ‘80s anime that mashes the Ridley Scott film together with another revered science fiction creature feature classic.
Lily C.A.T. an anime OVA – original video animation that’s akin to a direct-to-video movie – from 1987 that’s basically Alien meets The Thing. A bunch of astronauts awake from cryo-sleep and learn that a shapeshifting monster is taking them out, one-by-one, with little means of recourse. Over time, the crew learns that The Syncam Corporation, the company who is behind their mission, has betrayed them and set them up for failure, just like Ripley and her team in Alien. Lily C.A.T. is a rewarding sci-fi/horror anime that’s heavily inspired by Alien, but proves to be so much more. Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus is set to revolutionize the flailing film franchise, along with Noah Hawley’s upcoming Alien: Earth FX series.
That being said, Lily C.A.T. is the Alien reimagining that you didn’t know you needed.
Lily C.A.T. is a unique property who was directed by Hisayuki Toriumi, who previously did extensive directing on Gatchaman, 1979’s Ultraman, and Battle of the Planets. Lily C.A.T.’s writer, Hiroyuki Hoshiyama, also cut his teeth writing for many mecha and giant robot series, such as Blue Comet SPT Layzner, Transformers: Super-God Masterforce, Patlabor, Future GPX Cyber Formula, and Turn A Gundam, not to mention all ten episodes of the Dirty Pair OVA. Toriumi and Hoshiyama’s mecha experience feels evident in Lily C.A.T., even if there are no giant robots present in the OVA. Their past experience is expressed through Lily C.A.T.’s grungy cyberpunk aesthetic and 23rd century setting. There are several shots and examples of technology on the central ship, Saldes, that feel like direct homages to Carpenter and Scott’s early film oeuvre. Additionally, the OVA’s monster designs come from Yosh*taka Amano, who may be no H.R. Giger, Stan Winston, or Rob Bottin, but he’s someone who’s established an impressive reputation and is best known for his artwork in Vampire Hunter D and the Final Fantasy games.
Lily C.A.T. has become more obscure in recent years, but it did have an English dub that was produced by Carl Macek and distributed by Streamline Pictures, who were a major player in the dubbing industry during the late ’80s and ’90s, handling Robotech, Macross, and some of the decade’s biggest dub releases like My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Akira, and Fist of the North Star. Lily C.A.T. was a notorious VHS release during the ’90s and became a bigger cult classic through its prominent airing on the Sci-Fi Channel Saturday Anime block. It was finally released on DVD in 2014, where an official Japanese with English subtitles version was available for the first time. Unfortunately, the DVD is now out of print and it’s since become a rare, expensive collector’s item (the VHS alone sells for anywhere between $40 and $90 on eBay), which is a testament to the ’80s OVA’s reputation and staying power.
Lily C.A.T. quickly stands out through its inspired editing that keeps its central mystery alive, the tension taught, and the audience on the edge of their seats. There’s such a tight story that immediately gets moving and essentially has zero filler because of the OVA’s relatively short runtime. This tight, well-paced narrative is complemented by graphic kills and ridiculous transformation sequences. The first transformation scene is a gory, bloody spectacle that genuinely catches the audience by surprise. Biological viscera mingles with extraterrestrial acids so that the whole display feels truly otherworldly in nature. A cat’s ribs separate and explode as it’s turned into some surreal, monstrous hand puppet that’s immediately evocative of the dog’s transformation sequence in The Thing. Lily C.A.T. only gets more outrageous as it moves forward. Organs splatter and paint the ship’s interior like biological fireworks. The subsequent transformation sequences are even more disturbing and gruesome. There’s a truly gonzo moment when one of the crew members flamethrowers a cat until it’s willed into submission, only for the feline’s face to peel off and reveal its robotic insides. It’s such a gloriously anime visual that in many ways is even more extreme and over the top than anything that’s in the original Alien.
The threat of a biological virus that spreads through the Saldes ship intensifies its terror through evocative shots of tight, sterile corridors that are dense in steam, shadow, and danger. Lily C.A.T. is careful to not overextend itself and it understands the value in how less can be more. This makes it all the more unfortunate that this effective title has slipped through the cracks and remains relatively obscure and unknown, despite it absolutely nailing what it’s going for. It’s one of the most genuinely unnerving anime movies and OVAs to come out of the ‘80s, which was a decade that was absolutely rampant with ultra-violent body horror content, like Wicked City and Demon City Shinjuku.
Lily C.A.T. is so much better for saying what it has to in a concise 67 minutes, instead of being drawn out into a longer movie with an unnecessary extra act. It’s easy to picture a modern adaptation of Lily C.A.T. that’s told as a limited series. A longer, serialized venture of this nature could potentially work, especially if it were to put an even greater focus on its characters, but a Lily C.A.T. series runs the risk of ruining the OVA’s magic and wrecking the tension that’s effectively created in this tight production. It’s for the best that Lily C.A.T. is what it is – and that it’s not even adapted from manga source material – rather than being one piece of a greater whole.
In fact, director Toriumi, had been vocal about his desire to create an anime version of the popular “bakeneko” subgenre of horror films that focus on yokai/demon cats – who often have shapeshifting abilities – and the terrors that surround them. A cat, Jonesy, is of course central to Alien and another way in which Alien and Lily C.A.T. are alike (and The Thing builds a major centerpiece out of its shapeshifting dog). It’s curious to note that Lily C.A.T.’s whole concept came out of a desire to riff on the bakeneko subgenre, rather than an attempt to reverse-engineer Alien elements.
Productions like Lily C.A.T., Alien, and The Thing often live or die based on their cast of characters and how successfully they connect with viewers. Lily C.A.T. introduces a varied group of archetypal figures on the Saldes who almost feel like they’re ripped out of Street Fighter. They’re appropriate types of cannon fodder for a story of this nature. One of Lily C.A.T.’s greatest joys is how this cast quickly grows on the viewer and how easy it is to actively root for them by the film’s final act. Lily C.A.T. makes you genuinely care for these characters, even if they may initially come across as one-dimensional, and this helps the film really stick the landing with its ending. It’s all-too easy for Alien and Thing copycats to have disposable characters who are of little consequence when they finally bite the dust. Every death in Lily C.A.T. hits hard and the film’s ending is reminiscent of Ripley and Newt’s triumphant escape during Aliens’ finale.
In addition to the shapeshifting terror that threatens Saldes’ crew, Lily C.A.T. also explores the idea that two people on the ship may be imposters, specifically “time escapees.” These are individuals who commit crimes, sneak on a ship, use its cryosleep to get away for 40-60 years, only to return to Earth where they’re now able to operate freely because no one remembers what they did half-a-century ago. It’s actually a really creative concept and the type of idea that you’d find in the best works of Philip K. Dick or Isaac Asimov. This beautifully illustrates how criminals can take advantage of technological advancements for their own selfish gains.
Lily C.A.T. could simply coast on ghoulish visuals and grisly murders alone, but there’s some deeper material in play as Saldes’ crew ruminate on the inherent loneliness of their work. Their mission rips them from their lives and turns them into missing pieces of a puzzle that they no longer fit into anymore. It’s appreciated that Lily C.A.T. explores these heavier questions and the mental toll that all this puts on its characters, even before they’re exposed to this shapeshifting, murderous bacteria. Lily C.A.T. isn’t nearly as deep as Alien and is limited by its length, but it does attempt to get in its cast’s head in a slightly more invasive manner than Ridley Scott’s film.
Lily C.A.T. concludes with an epic finale that’s on par with Alien, yet it’s even more daring and graceful in some respects. The characters are prepared to sacrifice themselves for the greater good so that the Saldes doesn’t return to Earth with this deadly bacteria in tow and liable to contaminate the entire planet. There are some brutal moments where the crew contemplate their ends and taking the easy way out instead of confronting the horrors of this monster. Ultimately, they rise to the occasion and consider a more noble end. During the film’s final moments of success, a melancholy Jiro prompts a question to Nancy: “Do you think the beautiful butterfly finds it repulsive that it was once a caterpillar?” It’s a poetic query that encapsulates the philosophical tug of war that’s in play in Lily C.A.T. and it casts the heroes’ victory in a darker, uncomfortable light. It’s a powerful, thought-provoking conclusion that beats out many modern science fiction and horror stories – anime or otherwise.
More than 35 years later, Lily C.A.T. is still an extremely satisfying companion piece to Alien: Romulus that should be added to everyone’s Alien binge list before they check out the new film.
‘Lily C.A.T.’ is currently available to stream for free on The Roku Channel.
