AKA: N/A

Genre: Outer-space horror science fiction

Length: Movie, 70 minutes

Distributor: Currently licensed by Discotek Media.

Content Rating: PG-13 (violence)

Related Series: N/A

Also Recommended:

Notes: Directed and written by Hisayuki Toriumi (Dallos, Gatchaman).

Rating:

Lily CAT

Synopsis

A crew of about fourteen go into space to a distant planet to do some research into the possible profit margins it could yield for their corporation. To travel the long distance (it takes twenty years to get there), the crew goes through hibernation. While everyone's sleeping, though, an alien bacteria clump (yeah, I said clump) gets into the ventilation system through an admirable display of incompetence on the part of the ship's computer.

The bacteria does two things of interest: 1) infect, kill, and assimilate victims into a giant tentacled-thing, and 2) irreparably corrode the ship itself. People and ship parts start dropping like flies as the survivors try to deal with their strange situation. There are (too many) other sub-plots, of course, but they'e not really as important.

Review

Ugh. What could have been a promising flick quickly turns into a lame "let's kill off almost the entire cast" movie. No joke; the main character body count (well, maybe body count doesn't really describe it since the bacteria doesn't really leave any bodies) in this one is even higher than Gall Force: Eternal Story. An interesting thing to do beforehand is to place bets on which crew members you think will survive through the movie.

Animation and art are sub-par, except for a few spectacularly grotesque scenes of the tentacled beastie sporting the mangled faces of its victims. The soundtrack is surprisingly good, which is kind of a darn shame since the movie was so bad.

What really got to me, though, was the plot. Basically, the movie goes on for a while, claiming victims every few minutes or so, with the entire solution and resolution taking place in the last five minutes of the anime. Geez. If you didn't really care, why did you make the movie? The sub-plots are laughable, and are basically there to add time to a movie that could have been done in thirty minutes.

Overall, this is one to avoid. The premise is interesting, but the truly wretched ending and unengaging characters spoil the entire film.

— Raphael See

Recommended Audience: Probably too scary and violent for young audiences. This would make a great MST3K anime to do, though.