ANI-MOVIES, *They Were Eleven

Whodunits are extremely rare in anime, even in the mystery titles, but the sci-fi genre is even rarer as there are usually alien princesses or giant robots involved. They Were Eleven was originally a one-shot manga from 1975 by Moto Hagio whose influences include Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov. The short manga got a sequel, a live-action TV special, several stage adaptations, and then finally in 1986 as a full-length anime movie directed by Mighty Orbots animator Satoshi Dezaki through longtime studio Magic Bus. The original manga was one of the few early titles to be labeled as both shonen and shojo despite the cast, and the anime film takes this in stride by having it be more of an outer space drama.

Set in an idealistic future, humanity is part of a galactic community fortified by a military organization of which several planets strive to be a part of through the Cosmo Academy. After their initial test, the candidates are separated into teams of ten and left on their own in the selected abandoned spaceship Esperanza. The newbies are surprised to find out that there in fact eleven candidates in their assigned group which most of them believe was part of the test. Their task is to survive living together for a few months while keeping their malfunctioning ship active, otherwise they could use a big red button to call for help from the Academy which would instantly disqualify them all. Most of the crew are normal humans, including the telepathic Tadatos, and the hermaphrodite Frol who comes from a race that have their gender chosen later in life, and the two begin a strange romance, making it one of the first near same-sex relationships in an anime. The bulk of the movie shows the diverse crew putting their different backgrounds aside in order to survive the test and uncover their extra number.

They Were Eleven was an experimental entry among 80's space anime despite its strong pedigree. It might seem like an extended episode of Star Trek with its infamous Kobayashi Maru test, but as more of a team-building exercise that runs for several weeks. The story is mostly character driven about how they come together to confront each life-threatening plot complication including falling onto a planet and an epidemic slowly spreading throughout the crew. There is an amusing food fight which brings some needed levity to the serious situation the cast is in. The anime was made available in America through Central Park Media on VHS and DVD featuring a dub outside their normal roster with voice actors like Stever Blum and Wendee Lee. It is not a space opera on the level of titles like Macross or Yamato even though it maintains a fantastic grasp of speculative fiction set across several character archetypes.