Its story revolves on Yugo Hachiken, a kid who following the failling of his high-school entrance exam decides to run away from his family to an agricultural high school at the very edge of Hokkaido, in Tokachi. There he meets a lot of new friends and learns to look towards the future with a smile on his face, unlike in the past. Comical and emotional scenes abound, being the former the most recurrent of all, and in my opinion, Arakawa's humour never fails to make me laugh in the oddest of ways. The passing of time in the manga was a little confusing to me, although that's a problem of mine. It's refreshing to see all the characters mature and evolve through their high-school days, so in the end it has been to my liking.
The art is simply Arakawa's. I can't think of any way to rate it, really. It's unique in its own way, and I just simply like it.
I've grown fond of virtually all the characters (except those who appeared as freshmen, they are pretty forgettable), since they could easily be distinguished for their personalities. I also have to say that I saw quite a lot of characters whose design was more or less the same as some Fullmetal Alchemist's characters. My favourite character is, without a doubt, the cheese girl, I can relate with her love for cheese.
Overall, I've really enjoyed the manga, despite the parts where the author gets technical about agricultural tecniques and concepts. It's interesting, but forgettable and sometimes tedious, owing to the amount of text per strip. I'd really reccomend it if you liked Fullmetal Alchemist and/or enjoy this kind of coming-of-age type stories.
