Justy Ueki Tylor, age 20, is living on a planet which is part of the United Planets. The United Planets are protected by the United Planets Space Force (or UPSF) from the Raalgon Empire. Tylor walks past a giant billboard with a pretty woman advertising to try and get more recruits into the UPSF, making it seem like an easy life. Tylor decides that he will go apply because life in the military will be a piece of cake. He’ll get all his meals, a place to live, and still get paid too. Tylor seems not to worry about anything at all. Over in the Raalgon Empire, there is a new empress, Goza the 16th, who is also known as Azalyn. Azalyn is only 16 years old but she has to take over because both of her parents were killed. This leaves her in a position where the more devious members of her staff are going to want to take over for themselves. These politicians convince Azalyn that the time is right to attack the United Planets before the United Planets have time to attack them. There is at least a few people that don’t want the war. Ru Baraba Dom is a commander who supports the empress and wants to make sure she stays safe and in power. The United Planets are debating war as well. Some members say that they should attack now before she has time to even get a hold of her empire, but others don’t think that the Raalgon Empire will fall so easily.
From the beginning, it is obvious that Tylor is very good at talking his way into and out of things. He convinces the UPSF to recruit him. On his psych eval, Tylor charms the virtual computer, making her fall in love with him (yes, the computer!). The whole experience breaks the computer system, shutting down the A.I. for the entire United Planets Space Force command ship. At this exact moment, the Raaglon Empire ship shows up throwing the two forces into war, which means that anyone who wants to join the United Planets Space Force is more than welcome, giving Tylor a new job. Tylor’s first job is in the Pension Department. Since Tylor is completely oblivious to things, he walks right into a hostage situation just to deliver a pension check to a retired Admiral. Yuriko Star is in the hostage situation as she has been friends of the Admiral’s family for years. Of course, Tylor stays as a hostage just to get to talk to her. Somehow he manages to get them all out of the situation in the most absurd way possible! This earns him the attention of not only the United Planets Space Forces, but the Raalgon Empire as well.
Because he saved the former Admiral’s life, as well as the Admiral’s daughters, Emi and Yumi plus Yuriko’s lives as well, he is promoted to Captain, even though he has no experience at all! The Soyokaze is Tylor’s new ship and Makato Yamamoto is his first officer. Yamamoto is quite upset at this new development as he expected to serve under a great leader, not a young kid! Emi and Yumi have decided to accompany Tylor since he saved their dad’s life, plus they want to be fighter pilots, even though they scored horrible on the tests. Yuriko is also stationed on the Soyokaze, as the Intelligence Officer. She is also upset about working under Tylor. True to his most unorthodox ways, the first thing Tylor does is depart the port without orders to do so! No one on the crew knows quite what to make of Tylor. The marines decide to haze him, just as they do all the new Captains. Apparently, the Soyokaze is really the "dumping ground" of the UPSF. They just put people there that they want rid of. Somehow Tylor is the luckiest man alive. He manages to get out of every situation and get more and more of the crew to like him.
Not everyone likes Tylor though! The Raalgon Empire sends in an assassin to hide among the crew until she can kill Tylor. There are also two Admirals in the UPSF that really want him gone. Tylor will have a lot of adventures trying to get out of these bad situations that he ends up in and still continues making even more friends along the way. There really isn’t one overall story arc that ties the entire series together. Instead, there are several episodes that go together and that will then flow to the next set. The Irresponsible Captain Tylor ends in a pretty good place, but personally I would really like to see where they went with future seasons as there are still so many things that could be explored. The DVD set does have a few nice extras. Personally, I liked the ship data on both empires and the character bios. The ship data made it so much easier to keep up with who commanded what. If you’re looking for a very humorous anime, check out The Irresponsible Captain Tylor. The animation is pretty well done and the storylines are interesting.
