Of all classic shōjo manga creators, Moto Hagio has had the most success in English. Part of the Year 24 Group, which includes Keiko Takemiya (To Terra), Riyoko Ikeda (The Rose of Versailles), and Yasuko Aoike (From Eroica with Love), Hagio has seen the most series translated into English, although many more are available in Italian translation, which also holds true for Ikeda and Glass Mask creator Suzue Miuchi. Hagio’s work first began appearing in English in the 1990s, when Viz initially released They Were Eleven in their Four Shojo Stories anthology, as well as her work A, A’; both are now long out of print, and Viz’s release of They Were Eleven only included the first half of the series. But now Denpa, after some delay, has re-released Hagio’s seminal sci-fi classic, including its second half Horizon of the East, Eternity of the West, and it is a must-have for fans of formative shōjo manga.
Originally published in 1976 and 1977, respectively, They Were Eleven and Horizon of the East, Eternity of the West follow the same group of teens in a distant future. When we first meet them, they are all applicants to the prestigious Cosmos Academy, an independent international school. All of them have recently passed the first two stages of the difficult application process and are thrown together to complete the third: survive on a derelict spacecraft for fifty-three days. But once they arrive on the ship, they realize something is wrong: there are eleven of them, not ten. Unsure what this means or how it will affect the outcome of the exam, the group must now also not succumb to panic. This is easier said than done since everyone’s already under tremendous pressure, whether it’s because they’re the young king of a nation, an orphan trying to find his past, or someone whose entire future rests on successfully completing the test. Later, in the book’s second half, the students have gone their separate ways, either at school or elsewhere, and must once again support each other in a fraught real-world situation where the outcome is anything but certain.
To break this series down to its most basic level, They Were Eleven is about how teenagers overcome fear and prejudice to secure a positive outcome, while Horizon of the East, Eternity of the West pits those same teens against adults with disastrous results. Left to their own devices, the children can solve problems and break down barriers, while the adults cannot do the same due to their longstanding prejudices and beliefs. The series as a whole can be read as Hagio pointing out that bias is learned, not something people are born with, and that Cosmos Academy’s method of fomenting understanding at a young age is the most viable path to world (or galactic) peace. Things like racism, gender, and the hunger for power are the province of those who never learned that people are just people.
Like many of Hagio’s works, gender and gender perception play significant roles in the story. In They Were Eleven, two characters are intersex (although Hagio uses the made-up word “gynandrite”). One of them, Frol, desperately wants to be male based on the way women are treated on their planet; all women are married off in their polygamist society and expected to bear children. Knume, on the other hand, will remain intersex for life and has no problem with that based on their planet’s culture. Frol’s gender issues become a major source of their character development as they struggle with falling for the ostensible main character Tada and the expectations of womanhood they’ve been raised with. This contrasts interestingly with Chuchu in Horizon of the East, Eternity of the West. Chuchu spends most of the story acting in proscribed feminine ways, often staying home and weeping. But when Chuchu’s brother and uncle die, she throws off her gowns and becomes more active, seeking revenge and showing some skill with more stereotypically masculine behaviors and activities. Although Chuchu ends the series engaged to be married (as does Frol), she doesn’t reach that point while behaving “like a girl.” It’s not until she becomes more active and takes her life into her own hands that she grows up, so to speak, making a statement about accepting what you’re told versus becoming your own person.
This new translation by Ajani Oloye does use some modern conventions (or what will feel like them), such as using they/them pronouns for Frol. While this may not please readers who prefer a more period-accurate translation – my favorite line from the To Terra manga, “activate the tectonic oscillators,” comes to mind – it feels in keeping with Hagio’s intent for Frol and frankly makes sense in context. There are two typos in the book, one being a spacing issue and another being “pirate” instead of “pilot,” but the quality is overall very impressive. Denpa’s release is an oversized paperback with color pages, a lengthy color art collection, and thick, sturdy pages and covers. The spine is nicely crease-resistant, and fingerprints don’t show up to mar the cover art. With an MSRP of US$19.95, this is more than worth the price, to say nothing of being a whole twenty dollars cheaper than the (gorgeous) hardcover Hagio editions.
They Were Eleven is, indisputably, a classic. Showcasing Hagio’s richly detailed art and using its science fiction genre to explore human themes, this is a beautiful example of how manga can transcend literary snobbery to be classified as literature in its own right. Whether you read the old Viz edition of the first half or are completely new to the story (or Moto Hagio in general), this is a must-read.
