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Returning guest Rachel is back to chat with me about all things related to the anime adaptation of Moto Hagio’s sci-fi shoujo, They Were Eleven! Listen as we discuss why this 80s anime (and the original 70s manga it’s based on) still resonates with us today, and how Hagio’s work was an early introduction to things like classism & gender roles to young anime fans back in the day. All this wrapped up in a cool sci-fi mystery! Since this title is a bit more obscure, we discuss the work relatively spoiler-free up until around the 41:05 mark...after that, plenty of spoiler-filled discussion for those who are already familiar with the work as we dive a bit deeper. Enjoy!
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Relevant Links:
- Buy the (sadly out of print) CPM DVD release of They Were Eleven!
- Buy the Japanese, Spanish or French Editions of the They Were Eleven collected manga!
- Check out Moto Hagio’s other manga on Fantagraphics, Amazon, and Rightstuf!
- Watch the first 5 minutes of the Japanese live-action TV movie from 1977 on Nico Video
- Clip of one of the recent productions of the Japanese live-action They Were Eleven stage musicals
- Hakutaku: The Magnificent, Revolutionary Year 24 Group
- Video of Moto Hagio herself briefly explaining who the Year 24 Group is!
- Women in Comics wiki entry on The Year 24 Group
- An interesting essay on Gender Identity through linguistic markers in relation to They Were Eleven (major spoilers!!)
- Follow Rachel on Twitter, Tumblr, and Twitch!
- Find more of Kerobit’s music on InazumaKick.com!
As always, feel free to leave me your thoughts on this episode or ideas for future episodes here—or email me directly at AnimeNostalgiaPodcast@gmail.com.
Thanks for listening!
I wish I'd thought to ask this before you recorded, but are you two familiar with Astra Lost in Space? It's a manga from 2016 with an anime that just finished airing, and it shares enough similar themes (school assignment turns into quest for survival, non-binary character) that at the time I read it I wondered if the author was inspired a bit by They Were Eleven. A bit of compare/contrast could be interesting.
ReplyDeleteOh, I haven't! I've heard pretty good things about it, though! I might have to add it to my queue now...
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