Lily-CAT

An unapologetically derivative anime from Studio Pierrot that cross-contaminates the winding, industrial corridors of the Nostromo with the precocious critters that stalked Outpost 31. The OVA's most original aspect then is the dress sense of the doomed passengers - instead of overalls spotted with personal effects, the crew of this deep-space cruiser are bright and preppy. Voluminous sweaters are tied over the shoulders of corporate princesses and a pump-action Pinkerton noses about his hulk dressed in a Varsity jacket. Hisayuki Toriumi's Lily-CAT (viewed here lumbered with an English language dub courtesy of Carl Macek and Streamline Pictures) often seems to be presenting scenes either out of order or without the kind of connective tissue that, usually, knits a narrative together. So, cats die horribly then reappear as snooping cyborgs and bodies bulge, fit to bursting, clearly intended to be located inside an explosive decompression event before we're quickly reassured that these figures are actually rattling around while an untethered escape vessel tumbles away from its mooring. Confrontations between the expendable, unlikable crew and the pulsing alien infection are blocked strangely too, often without any real sense that the static, gawping figures and the writhing tentacles that menace them are occupying the same space. It's as if Lily-CAT has been constructed by two different teams - one flicking through issues of an Olive fashion magazine; the other trying to top the slimy special effects of Rob Bottin - who have then had their work rudely spliced together.