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The first Japanese citizen in space was Toyohiro Akiyama, a journalist who visited the Mir space station in December 1990. He's best known for the acute case of space-sickness he developed during the flight. Supposedly the Mir crew called down to Moscow at one point and said, "We've never seen anyone throw up so much before!"

But if you compared the way space is depicted in Japanese and American popular media, especially in media aimed at kids, you'd think the Japanese were the ones with the long history of space exploration, and we Americans were the ones whose first astronaut spent the entire flight barfing. The Japanese have a long track record of producing stories about space flight that are far more realistic than what you typically find in the US.

The latest example is Rocket Girls, a 12-episode anime series based on a set of children's novels. The premise starts with a private Japanese company that is trying to get into space, but is struggling with a booster that can't lift a fully grown adult. Their solution? Recruit a bunch of small, lightweight teenage girls to be their astronauts!

The show has its share of silly and cheesy moments, but it's got a lot of reality in it, too. It should - the Japanese space agency JAXA had a consulting role in the production, and a JAXA astronaut even makes a cameo appearance in one episode. It's a shame no one in the US is interested in asking NASA for that kind of help.

Ken Murphy over at OutOfTheCradle.net has a full review, complete with a link to the DVD listing at Amazon.com. You can find it here:

http://www.outofthecradle.net/archives/2008/11/young-women-on-the-threshold-of-tomorrow/

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