Who knew the phrase “where shojo meets Star Trek” could generate so much controversy? This catchy tagline inspired a minor brouhaha over the proper way to classify Keiko Takemiya’s To Terra: is it shonen or shojo? I’ve read numerous posts on the subject, and was disappointed that almost no one mentioned the undisputed queen of shojo sci-fi, Moto Hagio. That’s a pity, because Hagio’s works might actually sell if marketed as “shojo Star Trek.”

I recently finished one of Hagio’s best-known stories, “They Were 11,” and I’m convinced that the scriptwriters for Star Trek: The Next Generation owned dog-eared copies. The set-up is pure Star Trek. Ten cadets at an interstellar space academy are dispatched to an unmanned ship. Their task: remain on board for 53 days without pressing the panic button. If they persevere, all ten will pass their final exam at the academy. Once aboard the ghost ship, however, the cadets realize something is amiss. You guessed it—the crew comprises eleven members. The cadets must then decide what to do: identify the impostor? Press the panic button? Or cope with a series of mechanical failures and explosions that threaten to send the ship directly into the surface of a neighboring star?

Like most Star Trek episodes, Hagio emphasizes character development and social commentary over gunplay, robots, or totally icky alien life forms. (You know the kind—they embed themselves in your chest cavity, hunt you down like a rabbit, or just spray toxic venom in your face.) And, like the good astronauts of the starship Enterprise, the characters are all humanoids of various shapes and sizes. A few seem empathic; one has remarkable healing powers; another is tall and scaly; yet another looks like a distant relative of The Thing; and one pretty character (with 70s rock star tresses, no less—was Robert Plant exceptionally popular in Japan?) has yet to decide whether it will develop into a man or woman. The dilemmas the cadets face—technical, social, and medical—also place us firmly in Star Trek territory, inspiring the characters to ruminate on issues as varied as gender roles and the ethics of sacrificing an individual for the good of the collective.

Much as I would like to recommend “They Were 11,” the story is out of print in English. In the mid-1990s, Viz issued it in two forms: as a four-issue comic, and in an anthology called Four Shojo Stories. (Used book dealers have gotten wise to the scarcity of this title; copies of Four Shojo Stories generally retail for $60 and up.) Though I didn’t have too much difficulty scaring up the old Viz Flower floppies on eBay (and I rather enjoyed the American-style presentation), it would be great to see this chestnut re-issued for a generation of readers who think that Beauty Is the Beast and Honey Mustard are the first and last word in girls’ comics.

Until Viz realizes that there are many folks who would be interested in “shojo Star Trek,” however, I encourage the eBay-phobic to make do with Hagio’s thought-provoking A, A’ (also published by Viz, and readily available in paperback); Si-Young Lee’s sci-fi anthology Real Lies (one of the best manwha titles you’re not reading); and Takemiya’s To Terra (release date 2/20/07) and Andromeda Stories (release date 9/11/07), both of which will be published by Vertical. For a generous preview of To Terra, visit Comics212.net, where Christopher Butcher has posted 16 gorgeous pages.

POSTSCRIPT: If you’re wondering how to classify To Terra, commenter JennyN. offered these words of wisdom in a recent discussion thread at MangaBlog:

Re the whole TO TERRA controversy: IIRC (since I don’t have the book itself to hand), the whole thing could have been settled in a few minutes by referring to Frederick Schodt’s pioneering MANGA! MANGA! At the end of the chapter he devotes to shoujo manga, he mentions that quite a few shoujo mangaka are “now” – i.e. the early 1980s, when the book was first published – crossing over to publication in shonen magazines, and he specifically cites TO TERRA as an example. Go Fred!

Can’t argue with the man, though the artwork may strike some folks as old school shojo. Any way you look at it, however, To Terra is a title worth adding your collection, both for its historical importance and for its compelling story. Don’t take my word for it, though: check out David Welsh’s glowing review at Flipped.