I’ve only been interested in the world of Anime (Japanese animation for the uninitiated) for about three years. Admittedly a lot of what I’d seen in the past didn’t really impress me. Of course, I had watched “Speed Racer” when I was a kid, and enjoyed it only because it was a colorful cartoon, fast and easy to understand. As an adult I had only been exposed to “Pokemon”, “Digimon” and all the other little ‘mons” floating around out there. Seems I just couldn’t ever get myself interested enough in Anime to watch any of the supposed ‘good stuff.’ Early in 2002, I caught part of an episode of a series called “Cowboy Bebop.” And when I say ‘part’, I mean I only saw the last five minutes of an episode. Oddly enough, in that five minutes I saw some of the best and most remarkable animation I had seen in years. I immediately started looking into getting some of the shows on DVD to see what I had been missing.

I found a full set of the series, watched the entire thing in two days and was hooked. Since then, I have been offered the opportunity by friends and studios to watch other Anime titles. Some are downright horrible… while others are surprisingly good.

About a week or so ago I got ahold of episodes of one called “The Irresponsible Captain Tylor.” At first I was mildly interested, because it was referred to as an Anime comedy. Most of the more comic Anime titles have been the ones I really didn’t like, not sure why, but I just couldn’t get into them. That said, I was a little hesitant to watch this new series, but since I was going to review it for the site, I popped it into the DVD player and let it ride.

“The Irresponsible Captain Tylor” follows the adventures, or rather misadventures of Justy Tylor. He is a lazy, no-good lay about with an eye for the ladies and that’s about it. His attention span seems shorter than your average kid with ADD. He is the last guy you would ever expect to join the military. But when he sees and ad for joining the UPSF (United Planets Space Force) that features a hot chick and promises free room and board, he immediately sign up. What he expects to be a cushy job with no responsibilities ends up being anything but when he lucks into saving a kidnapped Admiral. And when I say ‘lucks’… I mean lucks. It’s almost unbelievable how it all works out for him.

Because of his ‘bravery’, Tylor is awarded a Captaincy and is given his own ship, but at the worst possible time. Earth and the Raalgon Empire have just declared war on each other, and one would have to wonder just how much trouble Tylor is going to get his crew into. Of course, his crew is not really made up of winners either. They are amongst the worst the USPF has to offer.

As I mentioned, I went into the series rater hesitantly, not really expecting to like it much. However, within the first few episodes I found myself not necessarily hooked, but thoroughly enjoying it. The ‘comedy’ for the most part, was rather silly, mostly due to the fact that Tylor’s character was so incredibly naïve. In spite of this he somehow manages to save the day again and again, through nothing but dumb luck. There is also a lot of humor that comes closer to parody of other Anime titles. Some of these jokes were lost on me, but as I had become more familiar with the genre, I caught most of them.

What really sold me on the series though was the fact that after a few episodes I noticed the characters starting to develop into more than they were when they started. There were also some fairly serious moments that were rather jarring considering the overall style of the show. But they were very welcome, and elevated the series into much more than just another comedy Anime series.

Right Stuf had previously released the series on 4 discs, but is now re-releasing it in an incredible 7-disc boxed set. 4 of the discs contain the series, 1 disc has the Soundtrack and the other 2 contain tons of bonus materials. They are also including 2 books, one with artwork from the series, the other a continuation of the story. Unfortunately, I don’t have one of these sets on hand to tell you about the overall quality of all these extras, but I have no reason to believe they aren’t well worth the price of the set.

If you’re just a casual fan of “The Irresponsible Captain Tylor”, you would probably be better off with the 4 separate discs. But hardcore fans of Anime, or just this show in particular would do well to add this set to their collection.

Be on the lookout, if I happen across one of these sets for myself, I’ll re-post this review with more details about the extra features.

Episodes:
Disc 1 –
The Mysterious Irresponsible Man
Hey, Ho! The Happy Pensioned Life
The Ship Sets Sail, but Misgivings Remain
Enemy! Crisis! We Surrender!
“Angel in White” Begins with an H
The Tail of the Lizard’s Tail
A Gentleman’s Word is His Bond

Disc 2 –
Life is Short, So Girls Should Kill
When You Wish Upon a Flower
Mind’s Eye, Half Blind, Headed for a Rough Ride
In Demotion Does a Woman Bloom
The Day the Soyakaze Vanished
Be Prepared, Be Smart or Be Lucky
Equation of Kindness

Disc 3 –
Shiny! Happy! (Deadly) Germs!
Strange Love
The Unjust Dessert
A Place for Confessions
Sleeping Beauty
Well Handled Solutions

Disc 4 –
Paco-Paco Junior
Force of One
The Longest Day in Space
Snap! Snap! Crackle! Snap!
My Way is the Hard Way
For His Was a Genius No One Could Rule

Directed by: Koichi Mshimo
Extras: CD Soundtrack, Five Hours Worth of Interviews and Extra Features, 32-Page Hard Cover Novella Follow-up to the Series, 64-Page Hard Cover Booklet Filled with Artwork, Interviews and Trivia.
Specifications: Full Screen
Studio: Right Stuf
Release Date: 7/5/2005
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website

We'll give The Irresponsible Captain Tylor an A.