Irresponsible Captain Tylor Review

Irresponsible Captain Tylor

    Anime in the 90’s is an odd time. Animation was still mostly hand drawn. Voice acting  in American was a laughable career choice. It was impossible for American anime fans to get the newest stuff without having to wait for the badly done, incredibly expensive, poorly fan subbed, VHS tapes. But it was also the time were incredible anime were released. Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, Slayers, and tons of other classics came out during this time. You could see the heart in every show, the time and effort put into its creation. It was a time when classics were being invented with every turn. And today’s fair is no exception. With its classic art style, great voice acting, and its uncanny ability to draw you in, bur I might be getting a bit ahead of myself. This is Irresponsible Captain Tylor.

   
       Irresponsible Captain Tylor follows the titular character, Justy Ueki Tylor (age 20), or just Tylor for short. Tylor has a plan, a grand plan, a plan to live an easy life the way he wants to live. He joins the military to get a job, any job, serve his time, and then retire on a nice fat military pension. Instead, he becomes captain of an old star cruiser called the Soyokaze. The Soyokaze is a dumping ground of the worse members of the military, filled with trigger happy marines, antisocial pilots, and a doctor who can only operate when drunk, among others. But Tylor takes it all in stride, living his life the way he wants to, being relaxed, flying through space, and treating his crew like actual people.
  

      Irresponsible Captain Tylor visually is very reminiscent of older space opera anime, like Space Battleship Yamato and Captain Harlock. But that is only to create a wider disperse between the traditional seriousness of a space opera anime like this one is thematically, and the comedy that this show really is. And it really works. If you have seen any of those old, classic space opera anime, you expect the characters to act a certain way, and instead of fighting to the death like in every other show, Tylor will just look up, and recommend complete and unceremonious surrender. And it is great every time.
    What makes the show interesting is partly the space opera comedy mishmash that works perfectly. But the other half of the equation is the characters. Every character, from the smart and sassy Yuiko Star, to the stoic and cool pilot Harold Katori, to the random minor character marine Jason(reminiscent of the ax murderer variety), are all more then just characters. Sometimes when watching something, even if it is something that is incredibly well done, you can tell that the characters are fake, they are just actors playing parts. Irresponsible Captain Tylor is different. Every character just has so much personality and hear that I can really see them just being real people. That added edge completely changes the immersion factor. I remember that I had to stop watching this show for a couple of weeks because of finals and school and other stuff. I finally had a chance to sat down and I started the show up again, and in less then an episode I was completely immersed again. This is just one of those shows that can just draw you in and completely hold you.

    The music to this show is another plus. The music is perfect for every scene, but that is only part of it. It is best when it goes classical. Irresponsible Captain Tylor uses classical music perfectly, enhancing every scene it takes part in. There is this one hugely climatic scene towards the end of the series which I don’t want to spoil for you, where if any other music was playing it would completely detract form the scene, and make it just so much less.  A bit of a negative though is the editing. There just seems to be scenes missing once in a while. It usually doesn’t cause too many problems, but at times it can be jarring. It is like it needed a better transitional vehicle. But this is a small detraction from a great anime on the whole.

Holiday Party Time!

    This show is fantastic, and I highly recommend it to anyone. If you just can’t stand older anime, anime from the 90’s, and anything sci-fi, then this is not the show for you, and that is really too bad because this is just such a fun anime. It is a fun show, a smart show, and you can really sink your teeth into it. Also, Captain Tylor wore Gurren Lagann glasses before it was cool. So, until next time, happy holidays, and have fun watching. 

My space battleship is the space battleship that pierces the heavens!