Anime Meta-Review
Irresponsible Captain Tylor OAV
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Title Info
- seen: 1-6 of 6
- type: OAV
- grade: watchable
- genre: maverick
- source: fansub
- form: sub
- made: unknown
- Review created: Mon Aug 20 15:02:48 EST 2001
- mod: none
The OAV episodes take place after the events portrayed in the TV series of the same name. As such they really need a good knowledge of that show in order to be enjoyed. It also helps if you liked them, as many found the TV series hard to like and won't find this any easier.
Synopsis
The Soyokaze is the worst ship in the united federation space navy, full of the odd-ball's, slackers and discipline problems from the more respectable ships in the force. It's just the place to put an irritating captain, a seemingly lazy idiot who either has the most impressive luck or is just a little bit more perceptive than he seems. After all, it can be disguised as a reward and then he can be drummed out when things go sour. Thus it comes as a surprise to all that this ship, and it's captain and crew, end up being instrumental in concluding the war that Earth was involved in. Leaving command horrified to find that the idiot captain, the irresponsible Tylor, is now a bona-fide hero even if he's as annoying as ever.
And these tapes tell a sequence of stories after this event. A short opening informing you that, although the war is not formally over, there was a period of peace during which the crew of the Soyokaze received leave...and time to have some adventures of their own. The first story concerns Azalyn, the empress of the enemy fleet, being forced to deal with the complexity of being both human and an immortal empress. The second story concerns the ships ace pilot finding, and defeating, danger as a test pilot. There's the marines facing the challenge of technology, Yuriko facing danger, Yamamoto-kun getting to taste the truth of command and a single story showing Tylor being himself.
Review
The first thing you might notice is that the last paragraph didn't make a lot of sense if you don't know the series. This is both because I wanted to keep it short and because it accurately reflects the truth of the series. It is clearly designed to give us a little more of the characters we (or at least some of us) grew to love during the series. If you don't know or don't care about them then these episodes are likely to be confusing and unsatisfying.
Sadly even if you do care about the series these tapes are likely to be confusing and unsatisfying. The idea of giving us some more events, and insights, into the individual lives of the characters is a good one. There is certainly lots of development potential left in the great cast from the show. However this series doesn't seem to have the same flair and complexity in the writing. A lot of the stories are overly simplistic, have serious plot holes and seem to be out of character as often as they advance the character. As such the serious Tylor fan could easily feel a bit disappointed with the final result. It does have some good moments, especially the Yamamoto story, but so much more could have been achieved.
It is certainly true that they lack the cohesion of the series. Most of the stories are episodic, and quite limited in scope. As such they can seem quite slow moving, and even uneventful. The last two stories are somewhat linked, although they don't really come to much of a conclusion. I think it would be safe to say that only a Tylor fan will get much out of this collection. The stories simply aren't exciting enough without the hook of getting to see the crew one more time. It's really the old sequel paradox all over again. It's not good enough to attract those who don't like Tylor, nor is it really good enough to keep the serious fans happy.
The animation is quite similar in feel to the Tylor series. As such it's not particularly impressive for an OAV series. The characters have as much personality as they had in the series, even if many will want a lot more Tylor. The animation is also capable of doing action and high tech when it needs to, but there's generally rather little of this. Apart from the pilots story, and one section during the marines story, the shows are almost completely character focused. As I mentioned the pace is relaxed, perhaps too much so. The voices are good, sounding like the actors from the TV series, and the opening and background music is acceptable.
Other Reviews
None of my regular sources have a review for the OAV series.
Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:20 WST 2009