I first watched this anime back in the 90's when the scifi channel actually showed a bit more variety and such having anime weeks, Godzilla weeks and for a short span having Mystery Science Theater 3000 on their station. I enjoyed it then and I recently re-watched it as I was in the mood for a scifi horror hybrid that was not Alien. I originally wanted to watch the original 1987 Nightflyers as I had only seen it on the same channel I saw this on originally and I was hoping to see an uncut version, but I struck out on Amazon Prime and several other streaming networks only pulling up the recent television show. Just was not into watching a television series so I thought about this movie and tried to see if it was available and it was! I was so surprised and happy so I gave it a watch and I still enjoy it.
The story has a spaceship that goes on an expedition to a remote planet to gather samples and such. The kicker is that the trip will take 20 years, so the crew will be in a suspended animation for that time and will only age a year. The captain is a veteran as is his crew, but the ones on this expedition and not part of the crew are from a corporation. They all have their reasons for going on this mission; unfortunately, two of them are not who they say they are. The captain dismisses this at first, but it is not too long after they awaken from their suspended animation that one of them turns up dead! Seems a strange bacteria has gotten on board and it begins killing the crew, it also morphs and becomes an even bigger problem as it has the ability to kill! However, this is not the only problem as something seems to have control of the ship and seems to be trying to cover up its mistake of taking on this alien bacteria!
While good, the anime is not perfect...though the main problem I have with it is the English voice overs which is not really the fault of the original makers. Most of them do all right, but at times they do a horrible job of portraying emotions, most notably when the blond falls on her knees and begins sobbing. That being said, this film gets points for being only an hour and seven minutes long and still able to develop its characters and have lots of action. Kind of wish more American movies were capable of this.
So, not perfect, but still a fun and wild ride. It does take a lot of inspiration from Alien and The Thing, but it adds its on spice to the dish as well as it truly is not just about the creature on the loose. It adds a touch of mystery as there are the two members of the crew who are not who they say they are and the mystery of who is controlling the ship. Some of the characters are dubbed poorly and I would like to see this with the original voice actors; however, the one doing the captain did a pretty good job and he was my favorite character.
