My Heavenly Hockey Club

Synopsis

Hana Suzuki loves only two things in life: eating and sleeping. So when handsome classmate Izumi Oda asks Hana–his major crush–to join the school hockey club, persuading her proves to be a difficult task. True, the Grand Hockey Club is full of boys–and all the boys are super-cute–but given a choice, Hana prefers a sizzling steak to a hot date. Then Izumi mentions the field trips to fancy resorts. Now Hana can’t wait for the first away game, with its promise of delicious food and luxurious linens. Of course there’s also the getting up early, working hard, and playing well with others. How will Hana survive? (Source: Del Rey)

I grew up reading Ai Morinaga's work. Her artwork was always memorable, and gorgeous. When I finally got around to re-read 'My Heavenly Hockey Club', this ended up not as good as I remembered it to be. I will give this manga the amount of credit it deserves for it's humor. The humor makes up for the poor story. I definitely bursted out laughing while reading this series. Besides that though, I dreaded finishing the rest of the manga. Even though each chapter really focuses on a different humorous plot and it works, I felt bored after a while. I can understand there are somemanga out there that don't really have a plot and its justified, but for this series, I wish it actually had a plot. The lack of plot was not justified here; especially when there's a 'synopsis' on what the story is about. The synopsis is misleading since there are no sports involved. So do not expect any action. 'My Heavenly Hockey Club' is trying to be 'Ouran High School Host Club', to put it frankly. The characters were copied and pasted; very evidently. There is a parallel that you just can’t deny when all of them act like their counterparts from Ouran. However, if you ever thought the characters from Ouran were obnoxious, this manga made Ouran’s counterparts so much worse. I couldn't stand these characters half the time. Hana (FMC) was the only person I enjoyed the most, and she was the most well rounded character. Otherwise, all of the characters were terribly obnoxious. I actually liked the fact the story had no pressure to develop a romantic plot throughout the majority of the series. Maybe up until volume 8 there was 'something' brewing. Without spoiling anything, one of the male protagonists that wasn't Izumi began to get 'romantically' involved with Hana, but it never fell through. And honestly? It's better off that way. Hana is a perfect example of a female who doesn't want to focus on (romantic) relationships; she has little to no interest. Moving forward, expect this manga as a comedy, not a sports or romance manga. If you like slapstick humor with no story behind it, I can absolutely recommend this. Regarding an actual story, I would give this a pass. Even the ending was beyond disappointing and abrupt. I did end up giving away my volumes of MHHC. I will have to say though, this manga is much better than “Your and My Secret”, another series by Ai Morinaga. In fact, MHHC is probably Ai Morinaga’s best work. Despite how beautiful her artwork is, most of her manga are very problematic. You will not find problematic issues here.