Even if the real Alien vs. Predator anime may never emerge from Disney’s vault, fans can still be satisfied with a ’80s horror anime that heavily references Ridley Scott’s original picture.
Everyone is in the mood for Xenomorphs after watching Alien: Romulus, and while rewatching every Alien film is always fun, there aren’t many of them to choose from. Even the greatest science fiction films don’t all have the same tone or style.
Then there’s Hisayuki Toriumi’s relatively unknown 1987 anime film Lily C.A.T, which effectively borrows from both John Carpenter’s The Thing and Alien. Fortunately, Amazon Prime Video has the entire thing available for viewing.
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Early on in the story, Lily C.A.T.’s impact is evident as it centers on a mining expedition team that is unconscious and in cryosleep when things go awry. Two of them have contracted the infection as something inhumane has infiltrated the ship.
As the crew tries to figure out what’s going on and escape the ship, the homicidal beast keeps picking out crew members. It’s a brief, elegant, and moody film that provides some enjoyable thrills without going overboard.
Before Discotek Media released it on DVD in 2014, Streamline Pictures published an English dub and subtitled version of the film on VHS in the 1990s. Using the iconic advertising from the era above, SyFy aired it on television in between. Because these versions are allegedly shorter than Lily C.A.T.’s original Japanese cut, there has been considerable uncertainty over them.
Our version, which is available for purchase, lasts for 67 minutes. It’s thought to be 24 minutes shorter than the Japanese original, which had a 91-minute length. This runtime is listed on both the DVD casing and the home media version’s Amazon listing.
It’s hard to tell where this information comes from. Lily C.A.T. is a true cult hit, but beyond that, not much is known about it other than the fact that it is available and that you can enjoy it. Unfortunately, given the circumstances of the importation of anime during the 1980s and 1990s, we might never find out.
