I enjoyed reading this manga, but it does paint a rather brutal depiction of life, despite the pleasant countryside. This accurately shows what rural people must endure, caricatured as a close, ragtag, and hardy bunch.

- You can't think about what your dream is, it comes naturally. Even when you have a dream and the means to achieve it, you also need the resolve to go through with it. Those without a dream, who do not have the resolve to pursue any ambition, will live like the runt of the litter: no longer fighting, acquiescing to small, lowly positions.
- A meaningful life isn't defined by how much energy you put into it, but by the number of contributions you've made. Hachiken, a city boy, invested too much energy into is studies and was burnt out from having a dream; Komaba has a dream of going to college and being a baseball player, but his family can't afford such ambitions and he needs to tend his family's farm as her single-mother solely supports it. They also use this reasoning to support the efficiency of factory farming as, even when a chicken can no longer lay eggs, they are still used for their meat.
- We are thrown into the world by chance, to either be useful or killed. Still though, there are some that leave many great contributions and are loved by all. ( )

teen manga (josei with male hetero lead)
Hachiken signs on for an ag-focused high school to be away from his family (for reasons not yet revealed), though he has no specific dreams about farming (or in general). His classmates are fairly diverse in terms of personality and the reader learns quite a bit about modern farming operations. ( )

One of the things I love about manga is that they can cover almost any subject. Here's one set at an agricultural high school that introduces us to farming concepts and concerns. I was raised on a Wisconsin dairy farm, so I found lots to like here as the book milks a fish-out-of-water set-up by having a directionless city kid with a purely academic focus transfer to this hands-on technical school. The humor, drama and romance are pretty gentle, but this title could go in some interesting directions in future volumes. ( )