Oh Japan, you never cease to amaze me.

“Lily C.A.T.” is a Science Fiction/Horror anime OVA from 1987, directed by Hisayuki Toriumi.

The Year is 2264. A crew of 13 set off into deep space in order to explore the potential of a newly found planet. After they awake from cryostasis, they receive a message which tells them that there are two imposters on board.

Unfortunately, that is the least of their problems. Their ship has picked up a piece of organic matter which had a deadly virus inside of it. So the members of the crew start dying off one by one as parts of the ship get destroyed and the remaining survivors get backed into a corner, giving the viewer a very claustrophobic feeling throughout.

That’s one way to describe the basic plot. Another would be: “Alien” meets “The thing” with some “2001 a space odyssey” sprinkled in it. But that actually is not a bad thing. The movie heavily gets “inspired” from those movies but it actually manages to mix those plot points well.

I would not call it an amazing movie but was it watchable? Definitely. Even though there weren’t really any characters that managed to stick out. The animation was pretty decent for the year and there were a few great gory scenes together with some decent twists which made the movie fun.

Final verdict: 7/10