Pluskylang Great Film overall

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

m_bryce74 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.

chribren "Lily C.A.T." is a Science Fiction/Horror anime OVA from 1987, directed by Hisayuki Toriumi.Basic plot: The year is 2264, and captain Mike Hamilton and his crew (including a cat) are sent on a mission to explore a newfound planet, 20 years away from home. And so they find out something is wrong, two of the members are impostors in the spaceship. And suddenly members of the crew begin to die, one by one, by a deadly virus.This anime has to be one of the classic Science Fiction anime I've seen. The animation itself is pretty typical, but great for an Sci-Fi-Anime being made in the late 80s. The character development was a little bit unoriginal but passable. Like some of the users here on IMDb said before me, several of the elements put into this anime somehow reminded me about "Alien", and even "The Thing" (1982). Also, several of the killings taken place throughout this OVA are bloody as well. By the way, I have to admit that the blonde Nancy Stroustrup is the most attractive character in this anime, just my opinion.However, the scene in which Nancy's cat is getting killed might disturb any animal lovers. For this, as well as the bloody violence in general, this anime is not to be watched by children, just to have that said.Also just to have it said, the cat scream which appears after the end credits was kinda creepy.Do you like any mature oriented anime being set in outer space, I suggest you to try to look for this one at least once. My overall rating: 8/10.Several other notable anime set in space include: "Cosmo Police Justy" (1985), "They Were Eleven" (1986) and "Hell Target" (1987).

bard-32 I, too, loved this movie. Like the other reviewers, I first saw it on the Sci-Fi Channel's Anime Week's ROBOT CARNIVAL. Lily C.A.T., whose plot is directly lifted from James Cameron's Alien, is about the crew of an STL, (Slower-than-light,) starship, who age one year for every 20 years they're in space. The crew is told that there's a prisoner on board by Detective Dick Berry, who's come aboard to return an escaped criminal to Earth to face justice. Then there's a mysterious virus that's killing the crew. The ships captain asks Dick Berry if he's sure he wants to return the criminal to Earth for trial since it will be 20 years before they return to Earth, and all the witnesses will be either old or dead. H E R E B E S P O I L E R S The captain tells Dick Berry that they're all over a hundred years old though they look like they're much younger. Finally, Berry agrees with the captain that it's not worth it. Lily, one of the crewmembers' pet cat, is actually the source of the virus. It's Lily C.A.T., the ultimate biological weapon. Lily C.A.T. starts killing the rest of the crew. Finally, Captain Hamilton, tells Berry to save himself and his prisoner and says that there's a planet nearby and that they should leave before Lily C.A.T. finds them. He provides them with a means of escape, (an obsolete space shuttle that he'd kept as a souvenir.) and orders them off the ship. Lily C.A.T. senses that they're trying to escape, and goes after them. They finally and escape, and presumably land on the planet. That's where it ended.

bajbij Okay, not an original film (plot easily taken from ALIEN.) But for anime, it's much better than most of the 90's garbage, without being too silly. Animation is good (think TRANSFORMERS THE MOVIE.) And the dubbed version would probably better to see than the Japanese version as the dubbed version uses different ethnic type voices to represent the different characters. Not perfect, but I would give it a 7 out of 10.