[[quoteright:220:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/capttylor.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:220:[-A [[BornLucky lucky bastard]] or a ''[[MagnificentBastard Magnificent]]'' [[MagnificentBastard Bastard]]?-] ]]

->''"Either he's a fool or an out-and-out genius."''
--> -- '''Dr. Kitaguchi''' on Justy Ueki Tylor

In the distant future, Earth is poised on the brink of war with a race of aliens known as the Raalgon. As the tensions start to boil over, along comes Justy Ueki Tylor, a young man who joins the military hoping to find a cushy office job somewhere and take it easy.

Fate has other things in mind for our hero, however: Tylor soon goes to deliver a pension check to the highly respected Admiral Hanner, and ends up accidentally saving him (along with {{Tsundere}} love-interest Yuriko Star, and Hanner's cute twin daughters Emi and Yumi) from Raalgon agents posing as anti-war terrorists. His "heroism" gains him a rapid promotion to lieutenant commander and an assignment to captain the destroyer ''Soyokaze'' (which translates to "Gentle Breeze").

Unbeknownst to Tylor, the ''Soyokaze'' is considered a dumping ground for the space fleet, and his frustrated superiors are trying to get rid of him before he causes any more chaos. Unfortunately, this backfires, and Tylor ends up leading his rag-tag crew into a series of victories (much to the chagrin of both his superiors and his subordinates, especially Yuriko and Tylor's straight-man second-in-command Lieutenant Yamamoto), with the fate of the whole war soon ending up in their hands.

He also manages to gain attention among the enemy, including the beautiful teenage Empress Azalyn. All the while, both the other characters and the audience are left wondering if Tylor is a lucky nimrod, or a brilliant strategist.

Interesting Fact: Captain Tylor's first and second name ([[PunnyName Justy Ueki]]) is a pun on the words 'Just wake', as in "Just Wake Tylor." "Just Lucky" can be derived as well; seems appropriate.

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!!Tropes:

* AbandonedByTheCavalry: Yamamoto in Episode 22.
* AcePilot: Kojiro Sasaki
** And Lt. Katori
* AdaptationDistillation: According to the box set liner notes, the producers weren't keen on the light novels' original depiction of the romance between Tylor and Azalyn -- not when Tylor was close to 30 and Azalyn was 10. One of the demands by the producers was that Tylor's age was to be reduced to 20, and Azalyn's to be increased to 16.
* AdjectiveNounFred
* TheAlcoholic / DrunkenMaster: Dr. Kitaguchi. If what he says is true, he's at his best for work when drunk.
* AliensSpeakingEnglish
* ArmorPiercingSlap: Subverted. The female characters in this show slap pretty hard, but the reaction is portrayed realistically. It's still painful though.
* BaitAndSwitch: Inverted in the final episode -- it looks like a relatively serious ending [[spoiler:with the captain leaving,and most of his crew assigned to a brand-new,state-of-the-art cruiser]], until they pull... '''it'''... off. You will ''not'' see it coming.
* BecomingTheMask: [[spoiler:Harumi]]
* BizarreAlienBiology: When Azalyn claims [[spoiler: to be pregnant with Tylor's child after sneaking into bed with him]] in episode 21 "Paco-Paco Junior", she counters the crew's incredulity by invoking this trope. She's ''lying'', of course, but they don't know that...
* BoisterousBruiser: All the Marines.
* BookEnds: Tylor's command to the crew to "Do what they want."
* BornLucky: About the only aspect of Tylor that both [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation theories on his intelligence]] agree on. It really comes down to how much does Tylor make his own luck.
* BrattyHalfPint: Azalyn only starts acting this way [[spoiler:when she's taken prisoner on the ''Soyokaze.'']], and usually when it involves Tylor.
* BrickJoke: The [[spoiler:bomb]] that Tylor receives early in Episode Three bails them out late in Episode Four--long enough to be forgotten by everyone present, except for Tylor.
* BridgeBunnies: Kim and Katori. Okay, so Katori isn't female, but he's [[{{bishonen}} pretty enough]] to count anyways.
** Oddly enough, Katori is [[spoiler: bald.]]
* BrilliantButLazy: Tylor -- maybe.
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Pretty much ''everyone''.
* CaptainErsatz Several characters and organizations are based on those found in Star Trek if skewed a little... sideways.
* CasanovaWannabe: Subverted; While this tends to be the impression Tylor gives, hitting on every girl he encounters and usually coming off as something of a bumbling idiot. He not only eventually wins over all the girls he encounters [including non-humans], he actually turns away most of them.
* CatchPhrase: "Just leave everything to me!" and "Don't worry!"
* TheCharmer: Tylor, who manages to gain the attention of ''every woman on his ship'' and similarly let them down gently (albeit, unintentionally) and also makes an android and a computer AI fall in love with him, despite the fact that neither of them were built with that ability!
** It's not just the women. He convinces the chief petty officer to support him for enlisting with the 'I'll pay you back when I hit it big!' line and at the beginning of the next episode flatters someone into holding back against him in a game.
** It's not even just human. He somehow charms a computer program into [[TheImmodestOrgasm self-destruction]] by talking to it and blind luck. [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation Maybe]].
* TheChessmaster: Tylor -- maybe.
* CliffHanger: The OVA, The OVA, The OVA! [[spoiler: The Soyokaze is destroyed, the Raalgon Empire is under attack by an unknown third party and Yamamoto of all people is placed in charge of the entire human fleet.]]) Wanna know what happens next? Too bad! They never made a sequel! If you can find the light novels maybe, maybe you can find out what happens next.
** Except the light novels are an entirely different continuity. On the bright side, apparently there's a live action movie being worked on in Japan...and there's a summation in the special features of the deluxe box sets which explains what was meant to happen afterward...
* TheComicallySerious: Lieutenant Yamamoto.
* CoolShip: Subverted, the Soyokaze's a piece of junk.
** Played somewhat straight in that the Soyokaze has, among other things, a bar, a spa, [[TheBattlestar both a fighter quadron and a marine detachment]] and it's supposed to just be a [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale lowly]] [[InsistentTerminology destroyer]].
*** A squadron of maybe three fighters, and a marine detachment of five or six guys plus the dropship pilot.
*** TruthInTelevision: Larger ships often do have similar recreational areas for personnel to relax and blow off steam due to the relative isolation. Soyokaze's fighters and marines are analogous to the seaplanes and marines carried by WW2 cruisers.
* DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife: Lt. Kim joined the UPSF because she felt putting her life on the line would put it into focus.
* DrunkenMontage: Tylor has a couple.
* {{Expy}}: Captain Tylor is a [[LighterAndSofter much less serious]] version/interpretation of [[LegendOfGalacticHeroes Yang Wen-li.]]
** He wears Sunglasses at the end!
* TheFatalist: Tylor -- "When it's time to lose you lose no matter what you do."
* TheFool: Tylor -- maybe.
* GeneralRipper: Admiral Fuji, the most [[KickTheDog dog-kickingly]] gung-ho of the UPSF military leadership -- he thought firing missiles at a hostage situation involving a war hero was a good idea because he didn't want the UPSF to look weak. His rival Admiral Mifune has moments of this, but is more of a ReasonableAuthorityFigure.
* GeniusDitz: Tylor -- maybe.
* GuileHero: Whether or not you believe him to be a MagnificentBastard, you have to admit he's got a bit of a silver tongue.
* HelloNurse: Harumi. Pretty much the entire crew fakes sick just to be treated by her.
* HeManWomanHater: Kojiro Sasaki never quite grew out of the GirlsHaveCooties stage of childhood. Naturally, this means that the ridiculously cute twins just ''have'' to latch on to him from day one onward...
* HeroicBSOD: Tylor, surprisingly enough; you'd think he'd be immune to such a thing, but after [[spoiler: Admiral Hanner's death]], he goes on autopilot for a little while, utterly disinterested in (and walking out on) a ceremony in his honor. It takes him a while to snap out of it, at which point [[spoiler: he decides to leave the UPSF. [[TenMinuteRetirement It doesn't stick.]]]]
** Notably, no one is ever able to figure out ''why'' he has this reaction [[spoiler: to the death of a man he met exactly twice.]] Some fans speculate that [[spoiler: Tylor is upset by the shabby treatment of Admiral Hanner by the UPSF despite his years of dedicated service and doesn't want to see himself end up the same way.]]
* HockeyMaskAndChainsaw: One of the marines, named Jason.
* HumanAliens: The Raalgon. Different biochemistry is alluded to, but humans and raalgon can eat the same things and the idea of [[spoiler:Azalyn being pregnant via Tylor]] is not ruled out immediately.
* HumanOutsideAlienInside: Invoked. Azalyn claims that she was [[spoiler: able to get pregnant merely by sleeping beside Tylor]].
* HyperspeedEscape: Subverted. The Soyokaze's engine's barely work well enough to hyperjump normally, much less in a pinch.
* IdiotHoudini: Tylor. Maybe.
* IdiotsCannotCatchColds: But Justy Ueki Tylor can...
* ImprobableAge: Not quite obvious until you realize that the oldest crew member of the Soyokaze is only 33. The average age of the crew seems to be 19.
** Does that factor in Harumi? Frame-step through the eyecatch. It reveals her age to be THREE.
** Not really [[spoiler: considering she IS an android.]]
* InstantAIJustAddWater: [[spoiler:Exposure to Tylor leads to android Harumi developing emotions. Not the first time his personality has affected a computer, either.]]
** [[spoiler:To be precise, the first time was in the first episode, where he ''only got into the army/space navy'' because the testing AI ''fell in love'' with him!]]
** And he did ''both'' without trying or meaning to. Maybe.
* InvincibleIncompetent: Nobody can decide if Tylor is an example of this trope, or if he's just that good but prefers to ''[[ObfuscatingStupidity look]]'' like it.
* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: Episode 19 - The [[VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}} Meat Circus]] has nothing on Tylor's subconscious.
* KissMeImVirtual: The recruitment computer in the first episode ends up confessing her love for Tylor. She's not even supposed to have the ability to even do that!
* LawyerFriendlyCameo
* {{Leitmotif}}: Every major character or group has one.
* LetsGetDangerous: "''As steady as a mountain. We stay... a mountain neither runs nor hides.''"
* LightNovels
* LogicBomb: Tylor accidentally seduces the psychological exam AI. This, [[ExplosiveInstrumentation naturally]], causes the mainframe running it to explode.
* LoveFreak: Yuriko wanders into this trope occasionally.
* ManekiNeko: It's on the bridge.
* MeaningfulName: Transliterated into Japanese, Tylor becomes "Taira", which means "calm" or "plain", and is the same Chinese Character as "Grunt/Peon".
** Also his first two names, Justy Ueki, is a homophone for the english phrase "Just Lucky."
** Inverted with Dom, who isn't. (Though he made a good effort with the whip.)
*** Any good Dom knows who's in charge at any time. When among his subordinates, he is the very image of control, but with the Empress, he knows exactly where his place is.
** The ship name "Soyokaze" literally means "gentle breeze", and seems very out of place in the military. [[hottip:note:though the Japanese have traditionally given their destroyers weather-related names, which is why so many of them end in ''kaze''(wind)m though "Soyokaze" is pushing it.]] What better place to put all of the Space Force's misfits than a ship with a misfit name?
*** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamikaze_class_destroyer_(1922)#Naming_History Who would name a destroyer "Gentle Breeze?" Glad you asked!]]
* TheMessiah: Tylor. He views Raalgons as people, admires their strength, is understanding of his crew and figures out Harumi is a spy quite early on, yet never does anything about it even when admitting he knew. Treats her better than her own side does, too. Whether he's competent or not, there's no arguing that he's an extremely good person.
* MilitaryBrat: Yamamoto remarks that he was raised in a strict military household.
* TheMole: Harumi. Though, this is known by the viewers -- and likely Tylor -- by the midpoint of her introductory episode.
* NegativeSpaceWedgie
* NumberTwo: Yamamoto
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Tylor -- [[RunningGag maybe.]]
* OneSidedArmWrestling: Yuriko vs Andressen
* OrganicTechnology: The Raalgons are based around this.
* PeekABangs: Dom, for the entire series except for a couple of moments of surprise.
* PeekabooCorpse: In a haunted house episode... IN SPACE!
* PlanetSpaceship: There's a ship in the Raalgon fleet that causes Tylor himself to comment that it's "more like a planet than a ship".
* PlayedForLaughs: So many SpaceOpera tropes.
* PointyHairedMilitaryBoss: The two admirals, Mifune and Fuji. Mifune has a tendency of trying to commit seppuku after every setback, and their arguments always end with them trying to kill each other. ([[VitriolicBestBuds But they really are friends]])
* ThePoorMansSubstitute: J. David Brimmer does his best Ron Perlman impression in voicing Yamamoto in the English dub.
* ThePornomancer: Tylor not only manages to get every female on the ship to confess their sexual desires for him, and an alien princess to fall for him, but even gets the recruitment computer when he wanted to join the military in the first place to confess her love for him against all logical functions it was built with! See UnwantedHarem below.
* PowerTrio: Tylor is Id, Yamamoto is Superego, and Yuriko is the ego.
* PuppyDogEyes: Emi and Yumi, of course.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: And how!
* RammingAlwaysWorks: In one episode, the Soyokaze rams clean through a much smaller enemy vessel.
* RealMenWearPink: Andressen is a BadAss who likes nude modeling. Crybornes's mecha is bright pink.
* ReassignedToAntarctica: It's strongly suggested that the entire crew of the Soyokaze was put there for that purpose. It happens a couple of times through the series as well.
* ReassignmentBackfire: Averted, as nothing relevant to the war with the Raalgon occurs until they're on their way ''back'' from the demotion sector.
** Also played straight with Tyler's assignment to the Soyokaze in the first place: The admirals were hoping her notoriously unruly crew would kill him.
* RidiculouslyHumanRobots
* RobotGirl: [[spoiler: Harumi]]
* RunningGag: Combined with ShoutOut: A guy in the marines has a familiar white hockey mask, and a very familiar name. Every time something gets destroyed unexpectedly, he's immediately blamed. Doesn't help that his WeaponOfChoice is a ''chainsaw''.
** He's also something of a [[TheWoobie Woobie]] too, as it's rarely his fault and seems a bit less... psychotic than the other marines.
** In episode 3 of the OVA, an excuse is made that Jason gets sick on Fridays. REALLY sick.
* ShoutOut: The Soyokaze's shuttle is named Galileo, a name that sticks out in a space force that's in many respects the IJN in space. The Galileo is actually a reference to the shuttle of the same name that appeared several times in Franchise/StarTrek.
** The new power armor in the OVA is named "Newtype", and the jeeps are similar to those in the UC Gundam series.
* ShowSomeLeg: Used in Episode 2.
* SilentConversation: At various points later in the series [[spoiler:such as Harumi to Tylor as he is being kidnapped, or Tylor to Yuriko after he resigns.]]
* SingleMindedTwins: Emi and Yumi.
* SoldiersAtTheRear: Tylor joined the military to get a cushy day job in the Pension Office. It doesn't go as planned.
* SomebodySetUpUsTheBomb: Tylor does this to an enemy captain, [[IdiotHoudini Completely By ACCIDENT!]] Or was it?
* SpannerInTheWorks: Tylor -- though this [[EpilepticTree may be deliberate]].
* StrategySchmategy: The less charitable interpretation of Tylor's antics is that he honestly ''doesn't'' know what he's doing, and therefore people can't predict his next action because he doesn't know "The Rules" that everyone else follows implicitly.
* {{Stripperiffic}}: Azalyn and Shia Has, of which the latter's outfit doesn't seem to actually cover, so much as support, her... assets.
* TakeAThirdOption: Tylor always finds a 3rd option out of a situation, whether it's intentional or not.
* TechnologyMarchesOn: The setting's mostly futuristic, but there are some blips of older technology showing here and there, namely a VHS tape of [[spoiler:a pornographic movie]] in episode 20.
* TenMinuteRetirement: [[spoiler: Tylor, after Admiral Hanner's death]]. Goes hand-in-hand with the BaitAndSwitch ending, when we're led to believe [[spoiler: Yamamoto's reunited the rest of the crew aboard the ''Aso'', until he steps out of the way]]....
* TheThingThatGoesDoink: In the second episode in a rooftop garden where Yamamoto is practicing kendo shirtless for his vacation.
* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: This one deserves a bit more explanation. In one episode, the crew encounters the ghosts of the ''previous'' crew of the ''Soyokaze'', who were likewise demoted. They try to do their level best to drive Tylor and Yamamoto to despair and suicide. While they end up driving Yamamoto more-or-less insane, they finally decide Hell would be preferable to spending any more time with Tylor!
* {{Tsundere}}: Yuriko and arguably [[spoiler: Harumi once she starts to figure out what all those emotion things are]].
** Yuriko is a rare example of a Tsundere whose behavior is due to environment rather than nature or issues; being as much the {{Straight Man}} (well, [[GenderFlip Straight Woman]]) as Yamamoto, yet lacking his reluctance to physically assault a superior officer, it's only natural she acts the way she does around an irritating, flirtatious goofball like Tylor. She's debatably the ''healthier'' one of the two - Yamamoto essentially ends up an addict to tranquilizers and something called a "neuro-cleanser".
*** He gets over it pretty quick and becomes much more just another of the guys, albeit one of the more high-strung ones.
* TreacherousAdvisor: Wang.
* TwinThreesomeFantasy: Tylor gets ''so damn close'' to achieving this, but...well, see UnwantedHarem below.
** Considering how they've latched onto him, [[AcePilot Kojiro Sasaki]] could have this to look forward to if he ever gets over his [[GirlsHaveCooties issues.]]
* {{Ugly Guys Hot Daughter}}s: Emi and Yumi.
** Admiral Hanner's only ugly because he's really old, though. When he was younger, he was reasonably good looking.
* TheUnintelligible: Admiral Hanner became this after being admitted to a nursing home where his health started to decline, but Tylor can understand him perfectly.
* UnresolvedSexualTension: See UnwantedHarem below. [[spoiler:Tylor gets close to Azalyn, but while she loves him, he sees her as a [[AllLoveIsUnrequited friend.]] However, in the final episode, he and Yuriko share a drink and practically cuddle, and both are clearly smitten. Nothing goes further between them, as far as the anime is concerned but...]]
** [[spoiler: Tylor and Yuriko do eventually start a relationship, with Tylor asking Yuriko to marry him. By the time of the manga which is set a few years after the OVA, she is still his fiance.]]
* UnwantedHarem: After being rescued, Tyler manages to AVERT this trope with [[spoiler:Emi and Yumi]] by despairing that telling them "I'm sorry" won't be enough. Of course he appeared to actually ignore their confession completely and was instead voicing his thoughts on another matter entirely. He then manages to reject [[spoiler:BridgeBunny Kim]] in a similarly obtuse manner entirely. Whether this is him being thick or his sly ingenuity at work is, as with much of the rest of the story, a matter of viewer perspective.
** Then played straight with Harumi.
** Then subverted for laughs with the arrival of Yuriko. As soon as she arrives, Tylor comments "What, you too!?" and then tells her to ignore it as a private joke.
** Meanwhile, Azalyn is wondering the entire time how she can [[InterspeciesRomance succeed in capturing Tylor's heart.]]
*** All of the above come from one fabulous episode. [[CrowningMomentOfFunny It has to be seen to be believed.]]
* WhatAPieceOfJunk: The ''Soyokaze''
* WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove: [[spoiler: Harumi tries to come to understand what this emotion means, and Azalyn finds herself innocently curious towards Humans.]]
* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: Part of the final episode, which shows [[spoiler:all of the crew following Tylor's advice before Yamamoto recruits them for the Aso.]] Of course, it becomes subverted aBaitAndSwitch ending.
* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: A lot of colonies, countries, and members of the United Planet Space Force have a mostly Japanese aesthetic - most of the characters on that side have some sort of Japanese name, there are a lot of Japanese-titled drinks and signs everywhere, and the UPSF's emblem is basically the real-life Japanese flag with a green star on the upper-right part of it.
** Either that, or the emblem is [[EpilepticTrees a tomato.]]
* WorthyOpponent: Ru Baraba Dom
* WrongGenreSavvy: Yamamoto, like most of the UPSF staff, has the right mindset for a WoodenShipsAndIronMen tale of Japanese-style militarism -- and then Tylor makes them look like idiots.
* XMeetsY: Imagine the cast of a HotBlooded sci-fi anime thrust into a wacky {{Sitcom}}...
** Alternately, imagine the complete inverse.
* YoungerThanTheyLook: [[spoiler: Harumi]] is only three years old. Which sort of makes sense, considering she's also [[spoiler: a robot.]]
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