About.com Rating

The Bottom Line

Eiji Uno is the hottest rookie on the Tokyo Elephants team, but he's also hot for his teammate Chiaki Ogata. Can he get to first base with this studly shortstop, or will his enthusiasm turn off his teammate before he even comes up to bat?

In theory, Baseball Heaven is about a professional baseball team, but Ellie Mamahara doesn't know or care much about sports other than how it gives her an excuse to draw muscular men in action on and off the field.


Trouble is, there isn't much sizzle in the locker room or between the sheets either. As yaoi titles go, Baseball Heaven is pretty but also pretty dull.



Pros

• Lots of hunky athletes with bedroom eyes, boxy builds and pouty lips.
• Mamahara has a distinctive clean, modern and streamlined art style.

Cons

• A whole lot of "does he love me / love me not" dithering that goes nowhere.
• Not much chemistry and sizzle to this pairing, on or off the field.
• Baseball is so inconsequential to the plot, they might as well be playing checkers.
• And then there's Mamahara's "shrunken head on flat, boxy bod" problem...

Description

• Original Title:Yakyuu Tengoku (Japan)
• Author & Artist: Ellie Mamahara
• Publishers:
  • >Blu Manga / TokyoPop (US)
  • Tokuma Shoten (Japan)
• ISBN: 978-1427810755
• Cover Price: $14.99 US / $18.99 CANADA
• Age Rating:M – Mature, Age 18+ for partial nudity, tepid sexual encounters
  More about content ratings.
• Manga Genres:
  • Yaoi (Boys Love) Manga
  • Adult Romance
  • Bishonen (Pretty Boys)
  • Gay / Lesbian
  • Slice of Life / Reality-Based
  • Sports

• US Publication Date: September 2010
  Japan Publication Date: October 2006
• Book Description: 210 pages, black and white illustrations
• More Manga by Ellie Mamahara:
  • Alley of First Love

Guide Review - Baseball Heaven

Rookie pitcher Eiji Uno has the skills to play in the big leagues. He's a friendly guy, so the players on his team love him. But why is he so stand-offish to his teammate Chiaki Ogata? Well, this is boys love manga, so of course the reason why is because Uno has a crush on Ogata. Uno doesn't dare get to close to Ogata, because he knows that mere eye contact with this studly shortstop will get him so excited, he'll try to seduce him at the drop of a hat, paparazzi be damned.

Ostensibly, Baseball Heaven is about professional baseball players, but these handsome hunks could almost be doing any sport and it wouldn't matter. The baseball element only exists so Ellie Mamahara can create a story with 1) lots of guys who live and work in close proximity, 2) are semi-famous, 3) muscular, 4) and look good in uniform.

Admittedly, this is yaoi not shonen manga, but what's sorely missing here is the one thing that makes sports manga so compelling — the drama and emotional highs and lows that come from depending on your teammates, pushing the limits of your body and digging deep to find your will to win. Instead, Mamahara offers tepid sports action that seem more like formalities than anything she or her characters actually care about. For example, when Uno pitches a shutout, his teammates congratulate him about as cordially as one would when a co-worker brings a box of doughnuts to the office.

I'm all for sensitive men, but do all the guys in Baseball Heaven have to act like such wusses? Come on! What happened to the tobacco-spitting, wall-of-muscle, steroid-popping stud-monkeys I see in the bullpens and on the mounds on ESPN? They've been shut out of the locker rooms and the pages of Baseball Heaven, that's for sure. It's great that the straight members of Tokyo Elephants clubhouse are so chill about having gay teammates, but do they have to act like emasculated milque-toasts?

All of this would be forgivable if there was some genuine chemistry between Uno and Ogata, which is the real reason why yaoi readers would pick up this book at all — but sorry to say, there isn't much of that either. For the most part, Baseball Heaven is 200 pages of Uno and Ogata dithering over "Does he like me or not?" with less than 10 pages of them actually making out. If you do the math, that's about a .050 batting average; a pretty mediocre stat for a yaoi title.

To her credit, Mamahara has a knack for drawing sexy males with bedroom eyes, pouty lips and muscular builds. Unfortunately, she also has a tendency to draw the male physique in a stiff, boxy style with tiny heads, which can be kind of distracting.

All in all, Baseball Heaven is pretty, but it's also pretty dull. With nothing for sports fans to cheer for, nor much sizzle in the locker room for yaoi readers to drool over, it's strictly for die-hard Mamahara manga fans.



Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.