365 Days of Manga, Day 72: My Heavenly Hockey Club

MY HEAVENLY HOCKEY CLUB (Gokuraku Seishun Hockey-bu, “Heavenly Youth Hockey Club”) (極楽青春ホッケー部) • Ai Morinaga • Del Rey (2007-ongoing) • Kodansha (Bessatsu Friend, 2005-ongoing) • 9+ volumes (ongoing) • Shôjo Sports Comedy • 13+ (mild violence, comic nudity, sexual situations)
The most conventional of Morinaga’s several slapstick comedies (Duck Prince, Your and My Secret), My Heavenly Hockey Club is the story of Hana, a grouchy middle-class girl who ends up joining the school hockey club together with five rich, good-looking guys. The running jokes are that Hana’s only desires in life are sleep and food–the manga is loaded with food references–and that the team hardly ever plays any hockey, since handsome sophomore Izumi only founded the club so he’d have an excuse to travel to away games in exotic destinations and eat local delicacies. They go to the hot springs, get lost in the jungles of Okinawa, get harrassed by wild animals, force Hana to pretend to be Izumi’s fiancée to scare off another suitor, etc., etc. Strictly silly and episodic, and light on sex humor with a few exceptions (”I’m saved! I thought I’d touched her breast again, but it was her stomach! She’s gotten so fat there’s no difference anymore!”), Hana and Izumi’s cynical personalities seem to embody the attitude of the artist towards the material. Still, the art is cute and the better stories have an absurd sense of humor. Morinaga’s style is as much shonen as shojo, with very clear layouts, and a mixture of pretty faces (for the main characters) and gag-manga caricatures (for everybody else).

A very appropriately food-obsessed manga for Thanksgiving (for our American readers). And today’s winner is Jennifer H. of California! Congratulations, Jennifer! We also have a new photo from a previous week’s winner, Shana!

Shana, I hope “W Juliet” keeps you warm on the cold winter nights with its heartwarming crossdressing antics. As for the rest of you, see you tomorrow!