Viewing Journal: Irresponsible Captain Tylor OVA (complete)

OAV Overview DVD Info Trailer Rating: Overall= C- Story = D+ Video = C Audio = C

Journal

The shooting war is over with both the Raalgon Empire and the United Planets Space Force able to declare victory. Both sides have withdrawn their massed fleets and everything should have settled down to normal. It should come as no real surprise that it hasn't. The Raalgon Empire have taken the opportunity to secretly deploy a new weapon. Learning of this the UPSF has no choice but to send the Soyokaze on a secret mission to find out what this new weapon is. The scariest part of all, though, is that Justy Ueki Tylor has a plan. (Source: ANN)

I enjoyed the Captain Tylor TV series, so I picked up the OVA series hoping that it would continue the in the wacky fun of the crew of the Soyokaze. But unfortunately this set of extra Tylor episodes failed to capture much of what I liked about he first series.

First of all, I was hoping that all 10 episodes would tell an extended story, but as it turns out the first two or so episodes are related, then most of the middle episodes focus on individual characters, then the final three or four episodes tell another complete story. Plus, most of the time the crew is not even aboard their ship, and they are seldom even together. So you don't get to see much in terms of space adventure, or the character's dynamic.

The other problem is that the story in the few related episodes never comes to satisfying resolutions. The first story arc has Captain Tylor and Azalyn meet up again and supposedly discuss a way to help the Raalgons and humans achieve peace, but we never learn what the details of those plans are. And the final episodes has the Raalgons and humans going up against a third enemy, but although we finally learn who the enemy is (sort of) we never see the enemy fought or defeated.

The middle five or so episodes are mainly about the individual characters. Some of them are better than others, but again, I enjoy watching the dynamic of the characters interacting as a group more than as individual characters, so these episodes didn't do much for me.

The animation and art are on par with the original TV series. I still enjoyed detail in the show's old-school animation which was one of main reasons that I started watching this show to begin with.

So in conclusion, I don't think this set of episodes adds anything special to the original experience of the TV series. If anything it detracts from it a little because while the TV series came to a satisfying conclusion, this OVA opens up plot threads that are never satisfactorily concluded.