Once again I take a look back at an old anime film I missed out on, this time we delve into science fiction with Lily C.A.T. The movie follows a group of people going into cryogenic sleep for about twenty years. This is so that they will be able to explore the far reaches of space. Once they awaken, things begin to immediately go wrong for the crew.
There are going to be a few things I have to spoil to explain what's going on in any detail, but I will do my best to keep spoilers to a minimum. If you want an entire spoiler fee review, here it is. There are a lot of interesting aspects to this movie, but it is filled with some awkward dialogue and a b-plot that doesn't really matter. I want to like this movie, but there are too many problems like that which drag the experience down.
For my partially spoiler-free review, the plot really begins when you learn that, somehow, a bacteria has gotten on board the ship. Getting infected is a death sentence. The thing is though, there is a secondary plot going on about how there are two people on board the ship that wasn't actually employees of the company, and were likely 'Time Hoppers', they sneak aboard these ships with fake ID's and what not in order to basically skip out on forty years, and come back to a world that has largely forgotten about what they did. And this has absolutely no bearing on the shows main plot. Were it pulled out entirely, you'd have the exact same movie.
Despite that though, the characters are really interesting and engaging. You have the captain who has been on about four voyages so far, meaning he lived in the world about two hundred years ago, and realizes more than anyone the cost taking a voyage like this really has. The two guys who snuck aboard the ship, which I won't spoil, also have some pretty fascinating traits and back stories. Though the problem comes in that they have no bearing on the events of the movie.
This show is dealing with some fantastic themes and characters, even if it takes pretty heavily from 'The Thing', only taking place in a space ship rather than an isolated location in the frozen tundra. The show's visuals do a wonderful job of helping with the atmosphere as well. It's a great example of being able to make a dark atmosphere while still using a wide array of colors, and seeing this bacteria kind of... metamorphose into the things it does as the movie goes on is pretty unnerving.
But as that goes on you get some really weird bits of lore about the company they work for, and their involvement with everything going on, the AI that is on the ship, and this just brings up all kinds of questions about how dumb the company they all work for really is. And it has a tendency to pull me out of the narrative.
Lily C.A.T. Is a movie that just misses the mark for me, and the problems it has just pull it away from truly being a classic. If you are a bit more forgiving of the multiple plot threads feeling unrelated and can just focus on the aspects of isolation, it's likely you'll enjoy the film more then I did. Regardless I do think it's at least worth a watch since it got me thinking and caring about the characters all the same.