Screenplay: Yoshiaki Kawajiri
Director: Yoshiaki Kawajiri
Producer: Makoto Hasegawa, Masamichi Fujiwara, Yutaka Takahashi
Character Design: Yutaka Minowa
Art Director: Hiromasa Ogura
©1993/1995 Yoshiaki Kawajiri/Mad House/JVC/Toho Co., Ltd./MOVIC
94 minutes
Genre: Samurai/Ninja Tales

The series ran on Japanese television in 1993-1994, and received strong enough ratings that a follow on direct-to-video, "OVA" (Original Video Animation), series was produced in 1996.

During the production of "An Exceptional Episode", Mr. Yoshiyoka passed away, and his daughter Taira Yoshiyoka completed the OVA series. The OVA series follows on to the TV series, providing additional backstory for the characters in a story arc format. Individual characters are focused upon between two "bookend" two-part movies. Format: Television series. 4 episodes on the first two tapes, 3 thereafter (8 tapes total)

On a little more than a whim - and even that's stretching it - slacker nobody Justy Ueki ("Just Awake") Tylor decided to enlist in the United Planets Space Force. Tylor's reason, because he wants an easy life. This is probably the most telling statement about Tylor's state of mind. Only at age 20, he has reached a level of Zen-like complacency that only the luckless of corporate bean counters could achieve in a lifetime...minus the deskjob. So, Tylor wants an easy life, A job in the military?

With his gift for gab and dopey charisma, Tylor convinces the enlistment brass at the UPSF that he is a "good risk". After all, all Tylor really wants is a cushy desk job in the pension department. Actually, he'd probably settle for just a job as a janitor... Well, after whizzing through the battery of tests (actually, he totally destroys the AI screening system by way of his overactive sweet-talking), Tylor gets his wish: a cushy job in the pension department He whiddles the days away playing "Battleship" and exchanging stupid anec-dotes with his co-workers. In Tylor's mind, this isn't a bad start. Until his world gets turned upside-down. On a seemingly standard errand to drop off a belated pension check, Tylor gets wound up in serious hostage negotiation. The victim is the venerable Admiral Robert Hanner, his two twin daughters, Emi and Yumi, and a family friend and equally respectible UPSF officer, Lt. Yuriko Star. The clueless Tylor performs his duties all right, and with the luck of the Devil, he manages to dissolve the incident with nary a scratch. Negotiation skills he has not, but as a reward for saving the prominent Admiral Hanner, Tylor is promoted...to captain! Captain of his very own spaceship!

It turns out that this pie in the sky is really no more than a plot for the UPSF elite to stick Tylor as far as hell as possible away from any real involvement in the activites of an inter-planetary war. Tylor's post is the Soyokaze (the "Gentle Breeze"), a Destroyer-class starship that is little more than a floating rusty bucket - a dumping ground for the UPSF's misfits. Well, not even this could squash Tylor's delight...

Despite its delapidated state, the Soyokaze has been armed with the best and most capable crew in the Galaxy or so he thinks. Lt. Makoto Yamamoto, always at odds with Tylor's easygoing nature. Tactician Yuriko Star has no love lost for her captain (even if he did save her life). There's the whimsical helmsman Lt. Katori, who'd rather spout poetry than steer a course that's true. And also communications officer, Lt. Kim, who'd rather be a runway model than keep tabs on UPSF mission orders. You'll know her, 'cause she often has her nose buried in the latest issue of Cosmo'.

Of course, every good battleship needs a good doctor. Instead, the Soyokaze has the lushy Naval Surgeon Dr. Kitaguchi, who is always quick with a joke, and a sure diagnosis. To aid the good doctor, Sgt. Harumi, the gorgeous nurse is there to salve the bruised wounds (and libidos) of the crew. But is that all she is? There's Ensign Kojiro Sakai, the Soyokaze's ace fighter pilot - actually, the Soyokaze's only fighter pilot. He is always quick-tempered. To add flavor to his tonic, the spunky Hanner twins, Emi and Yumi, are shoved under his wing as up-and-coming flying aces...much to Kojiro's chagrin. And what's a proper military outfit without some rough-and-tough marines for support? The Soyokaze manifest, that's what. Headed up by the cool-minded Lieutentant Andressen, and the red hot Sergeant Cryburn, there's nothing that this platoon won't do...to send Tylor to the sickbay. Thrown into the dead-center of an cosmic war, can Captain Tylor and the rest of the reluctant crew of the Soyokaze prove its mettle on the battlefield? Will the UPSF prevail against the interstellar tyranny of the Raalgon empire, either through wit or grit?...Or will Tylor and company skirt around the issues, locate loopholes and find a ridiculously lucky way to avoid such gruesome conflict? Will Captain Tylor's artless wit inevitably lead to a prolonged peace with the Raalgon? Will the clunky prowess of the Soyokaze's crew outwit their enemies? You would be shocked at where stupidity can get you.

[Back]