Lily C.A.T.

Lily C.A.T. Was released in 1987 and directed by Hisayuki Toriumi, who also directed Orâ Guzura dado, Kashi no ki Mokku, Hurricane Polimar, Tekkaman, the Space Knight, Pôru no mirakuru daisakusen, Gowappa 5 Godam, Gatchaman series plus the movie, The Ultraman, Battle of the Planets, and mostly just kids properties like I mentioned and random anime. Lily C.A.T. is one of those anime remembered for specific scenes like the cat scene and face split scene, along with it being on the sci-fi channel. Other than that I think it’s one of those anime that’s forgotten to time, so right now I’m going to remind you of it and review it! To start the animation has aged well. It has the 80’s charm and is pretty fluent for the time it came out. It came out a year after the first Violence Jack film and oh boy, did that movie look rough, while this one looks pretty good! The voice acting is also pretty solid. Both the sub and dub cats do a good job. The dub is pretty campy I’ll admit but I like how they give other characters their own accents and I like it. Campy yes but fun. The sound design and soundtrack is also well done. You can listen to the soundtrack on YouTube too which I was shocked to learn! It must have been released somehow. The soundtrack design is also solid, and I noticed the dub and sub change it up a bit. Like during death scene music is put in the dub while the sub has it silent until the death begins to actually happen, which I found pretty interesting. |Now the best part of this movie is the horror! Oh now it’s pretty fun! It has pretty good body horror, like with the cat mutilation scene, the scene where Dorothy has her body ripped apart, and Dick’s rather gruesome demise. A real fun time when it happens! I just really like the monsters nightmarish design. Now the cons, starting with the story. The movie has a bit of story sprinkled in the film but there really isn’t one. It’s mostly the cast of characters discovering bodies and trying to escape the ship, then some story beats sprinkled in. It isn’t that remarkable and I found the story beats themselves a little meh. Like the side plot with two ‘traitors’ on the ship wasn’t that important and didn’t lead to anything. There was the moment where Mike explained how isolated he felt after going back to earth twenty years in the future which was nice. The pacing is also a bit odd. Not bad but it kinda feels the movie goes pretty slow for the first thirty to fourty minutes while at the same time going pretty fast with killing off the large cast of characters. Speaking of characters, I think they all aren’t fleshed out well. Mike, Takagi, and Dick are the only ones I feel get any ounce of character development or things to do. Jimmy and Nancy get some things to do but they aren’t focused on anything. Nancy is mostly the poster girl while Jimmy got more as the movie went on and then died pretty anti climatically. Caroline I was the most dissapointed by since she seemed cool but they seemed more focused on Mike instead of her. The rest of the characters are honestly just after thoughts and bodies for the kill count. Guy, Dülar, Gott, Wat, Morgan, and Harris get one or two scenes and then they die. They all seem interesting but they die way too quick and don’t get much screen time to have us care for them that much. Dorothy is the worst since she has little to no personality. She gets some time but it’s more of other characters suspecting she is a traitor and serves as a red herring, but even then we don’t actually get to hear much from her. The most memorable moment from her is not even when she is alive but instead dead and fused with a monster. Overall I think this movie is a pretty fun movie that’s heavily inspired by Alien and The Thing, but I don’t think it’s perfect. The story and character struggle while the horror campy vibe of the movie brings it up a lot. I recommend it as it’s a fun watch just not more than a B horror movie classic. {Pros} - Rather good animation - Good voice acting - Sound design is well done - I like the soundtrack - Well done horror elements {Cons} - A lackluster story - Pacing is a lot to be desired - A lot of the characters are handled weirdly Personal Rating - 6.6/10 IMDB Rating - 6.2/10 MAL Rating - 6.0/10