What’s It About
In the future, suspended animation capsules are used for space voyages, which can take years. The crew and passengers of the space cruiser Saldes are suspended on a 20-year voyage to a new world to investigate it for potential minerals and development. During their journey, however, the ship detects and takes in something which registers as a life form. When the crew and passengers awaken, nothing initially seems amiss until they notice a report sent to them, not long after they went to sleep, that someone among the passengers joined the expedition under fake credentials and thus might actually be a criminal trying to escape punishment. While starting to suspect each other, they also soon discover that something did, indeed, join them on board: a form of alien bacteria that can infect people with symptoms similar to Legionnaire’s Disease, kill them, and then absorb their bodies, too, as it grows into a much greater and more terrifying organism. Few will survive both the rampage of the alien and an additional mysterious element on board, which seems to be operating on the sponsoring Company’s interest beyond the purview of even the crew.
WHY IT’S GONE
I’m not sure why such a great anime’ is gone. Yeah, it rips off Alien (1979) and The Thing (1982), but this is not the average mockbuster. Most mockbusters try to profit solely from the main film they copy, but Lily C.A.T. tries to be a bit more. Besides, it’s animated. That means they had to draw this and hope for a profit. That’s not what most anime companies do, at least not on this level. Lily C.A.T. had its only DVD release on February 25, 2014. Sadly, producing a 1987 DVD twenty-eight years later sucks. In other words, they waited too long. The film doesn’t hold up that well, and its cult following is nearly non-existent. As of now, it’s out of print and has never been on Blu-Ray. All streaming services have dropped it except for the Roku Channel. Discotek Media placed it with their out-of-print stuff, but I think there’s a copy for sale on Amazon for $121.00