They Were Eleven (Japanese:11人いる！,Hepburn:Jūichinin Iru!) is a Japanesescience fictionmanga series written and illustrated byMoto Hagio. It was serialized in three issues ofShogakukan'sBessatsu Shōjo Comic magazine in 1975. The following year, it won the 21stShogakukan Manga Award in the combinedshōjo andshōnen category. The series has inspired alive-actiontelevision film, ananime film, multiplestage plays, and anaudio drama CD. It also inspired a sequel manga series,Zoku Jūichinin Iru! Higashi no Chihei, Nishi no Towa (続・11人いる！東の地平・西の永遠, "They Were Eleven, Continued: Horizon of the East, Eternity of the West"), serialized inBessatsu Shōjo Comic magazine from 1976 to 1977.They Were Eleven was originally licensed in English byViz Media in floppy comics format in 1995, and published in the manga anthologyFour Shōjo Stories in 1996. The series and its sequel have been licensed byDenpa for a new English-language release in 2022. The anime film was originally licensed in English byCentral Park Media, but it was discontinued in 2004.
Ten young space cadets are put onto a decommissioned spaceship as their final test. If they pass this test, their lifelong dreams of being valued people in their respective societies will come true. Their orders are to survive as long as they can with what they have. Once they arrive at the ship, they find that their crew has gained an eleventh member—and no one can remember the original lineup well enough to recognize which of them is the newcomer.
As the days pass, the eleven cadets must deal with their suspicions of each other as well as the sudden knowledge that the spaceship is in a decaying orbit around a star, which is causing the temperature on the ship to rise. With this rise in temperature, a sickness begins to spread among the crew as they work to stabilize their orbit and determine who among them is the spy.
They Were Eleven was serialized in the September, October, and November issues ofShogakukan'sBessatsu Shōjo Comic magazine in 1975.[2][3][4] Shogakukan collected the individual chapters, along with three unrelatedshort stories by Hagio, into a singlebunkoban volume published on July 20, 1976.[5][6] Shogakukan has since reissuedThey Were Eleven several times: in 1978,[7] 1986,[8] 1994,[9] 2007,[10] and 2019.[11]Viz Media originally licensed the series for an English-language release in North America, published in four floppy volumes in 1995, and then in the nowout-of-print anthologyFour Shōjo Stories in 1996.[12] In 2021,Denpa re-licensed the series for publication, set for thesecond quarter of 2025.[13][14][15]They Were Eleven is also licensed by Ediciones Tomodomo in Spain[16] and byJaponica Polonica Fantastica in Poland.[17]
A sequel manga series, titledZoku Jūichinin Iru! Higashi no Chihei, Nishi no Towa (続・11人いる！東の地平・西の永遠, "They Were Eleven, Continued: Horizon of the East, Eternity of the West"), was serialized in the December, January, and February issues ofBessatsu Shōjo Comic magazine in 1976 and 1977.[18][19][20] Shogakukan collected the individual chapters into a singlebunkoban volume published on August 20, 1977.[21][22] Shogakukan has since reissuedZoku Jūichinin Iru! several times: first in 1978,[23] and later in collected editions ofThey Were Eleven published in 1986,[8] 1994,[9] 2007,[10] and 2019.[11] In 2021, Denpa licensed the sequel series for an English-language release in North America, set to be published in the second quarter of 2025.[14][15]
A 45-minutelive-actiontelevision film adaptation of the manga was broadcast in Japan on January 2, 1977, as part of theNHK'sShōnen Drama Series.[2][24][25] The film's screenplay was written byMamoru Sasaki. It starred Taizō Sayama as Tada and theTakarazuka Revue's Haruka Yamashiro as Frol.[2]
A 91-minuteanime film adaptation of the manga was released in Japan on November 1, 1986.[26][27] It was licensed byCentral Park Media in North America and released on VHS with Englishsubtitles in the early 1990s.[28] It was re-released on VHS with a newly produced Englishdub in 1996 and on DVD with dual language audio tracks in 2004.[29] Central Park Media discontinued their home video release in 2004.[30] The New York company MYC & Associates liquidated the anime license in 2009.[31]
They Were Eleven has been adapted into severalstage plays in Japan. The first, performed by the all-male acting troupeAxel [ja], ran from June to July 2004;[32] the second, performed by Axel, ran from December 2008 to January 2009;[33] the third, performed by the all-male acting troupeStudio Life [ja], ran from February to March 2011;[34][35] the fourth, performed by Studio Life, ran throughout January 2013;[1][36] and the fifth, performed by Studio Life, ran from May to June 2019.[37][38]
The sequel manga series has also been adapted into two stage plays in Japan: one performed by Studio Life, which ran from February to April 2013,[1][36] and another performed by the femaleidol groupMorning Musume '16, which ran throughout June 2016.[19][39][40]
^Stuckmann, Chris (April 15, 2018). "1986: They Were Eleven".Anime Impact: The Movies and Shows that Changed the World of Japanese Animation. Miami, Florida: Mango Publishing. p. 87.ISBN978-1-63353-732-3.
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