MJ Review: My Heavenly Hockey Club Vol 1

[Jason]

Title: My Heavenly Hockey Club Volume 1
Mangaka: Ai Morinaga
Serialized in: Betsufure (Kodansha)
Genre: Shoujo, Romance, Comedy
Publisher: Del Rey

Hana Suzuki's favorite hobbies are eating and sleeping. In fact, she enjoys sleeping so much that she forced herself to study hard, in order to get into her dream high school -- the prestigious Meirinkan High -- only because it is 200 meters from her home and that she can get an extra twenty minutes of sleep each morning. Her dream is shattered when she sleepily runs into Izumi Oda's limousine one morning and leaves a huge dent in it. Lying about the car being uninsured, Izumi successfully guilts Hana into joining the Boys' Field Hockey Club: this means morning practices and an end to Hana's dream of sleeping in.

When I first saw the title, My Heavenly Hockey Club, I was repulsed at the idea of giving it a try, simply because every sports manga that I have read so far has not interested me. However, upon a more careful inspection, I realized that the mangaka is Ai Morinaga. Being a fan of Morinaga-sensei's work and curious to see the combination of a sports and shoujo series, I decided to give this a try. To my surprise, My Heavenly Hockey Club has almost no hockey elements in it. In fact, the plot surrounds five bishounen taking advantage of a disbanded hockey club and going to "away games", which come down to hot spring trips throughout the country.

The translation reads smoothly, and concludes with thorough end notes that explain various translation choices, as well as cultural elements. The lettering is decent, but the same font is used throughout the entire series, whether it be in a bubble, a square, on an image or as a sound effect. I would definitely appreciate it more if they put some extra effort in the lettering. Aside from my minor complaint about the lettering, I find the adaptation quite pleasing.

I am very glad that I picked up My Heavenly Hockey Club, since many moments in the book had me giggling. The surprising and random hilarity throughout the volume continued to amuse me until the very end. If you are looking for some intense athletic hockey manga, then I have to say, My Heavenly Hockey Club is not for you, since volume one ended with the team unsuccessful at learning field-hockey (by means of an illustrated book) and their games have been canceled one after another (with one due to their bear-goalie getting locked away). If, however, you are looking for a cute, shoujo, romantic comedy, then I can guarantee that My Heavenly Hockey Club will not disappoint you.

Reviewed by: Floating_Sakura
Proofed by: RainyFrog
Edited by: Firedog