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 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 or bodies bulge, fit to bursting, clearly intended to be located inside an explosive decompression event before we're reassured that these figures are simply 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 Olive magazine; the other trying to top the slimy special effects of Rob Bottin - then rudely spliced together.