Shounen Shoujo?     Jun 19, 2007     reviewed by TheRoyalFamily    

A poor-ish girl breaks some rich kid's thing, and has to join their high school club to pay it off. Where have I heard that before?

My Heavenly Hockey Club is like...I guess it would be like if Ouran was in Shonen Jump instead of Shojo Beat. It is probably unfair to compare MHHC to Ouran, since Ouran is so awesome, but that is the closest comparison plot-wise I can think of. Not to say it isn't good; it just isn't Ouran good.

This manga is actually a good way to bring the Shonen Jump crowd into some other genres of manga. The art is not too terribly different from many shounens, so those that would normally avoid shoujos for the art (like myself) have nothing to fear. Also, while this manga does not have the level of action of your typical shounen, it does have a similar sense of humor - Our Hero is the typical shounen slacker-loser type...except she's a girl. And there is still the required peeping-in-the-bath...except Our Hero is the one being peeped on. There is some rather zany stuff that goes on, too, but I won't mention what because of spoilers.

If you want a typical shounen or shoujo, don't look here. However, if you are curious as to what a mixture of the two might look like, this series is a decent attempt.

TheRoyalFamily also recommended: Ouran High School Host Club,
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Definitely not cliche     Apr 01, 2008     reviewed by Ambsu    

First of all, it's not fair to compare this with Ouran High School Host Club. There are wayyy too many base plot-line differences, oh and this might be hard to believe but My Heavenly Hockey Club was released BEFORE Ouran Host Club. So if we're going to complain about similarities, please note this manga was out first, and isn't at fault for any copying.

Back to the manga, Ai Morinaga is a god at creating perfect comedic situations that appeal to girls. This series may not focus straight forward on romance, however it's clearly building very strong interlocking character relationships. You can't resist bonding to these characters either. The story is pretty clearly veering the heroine into a deeper romantic relationship with one of the male leads, however there's two on the side that have a possible chance in my opinion. I am up to volume 4 and am excited to see what happens next.

Also, this is hardly a sports manga. They may have hockey in the title, but there is no hockey playing to speak of. In fact, the author pokes fun at the club for never actually playing games. The story is fast paced, as in the characters always have something to do and somewhere to go. Which shouldn't be confused with being labeled as shounen. I think it's great that the author let's them lead exciting lives, many times the middle of a series get's slow paced/boring but not in this one!

Ambsu also recommended: Girl Got Game,
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