Hyakushou Kizoku

Long before gaining worldwide renown as the creator of Fullmetal Alchemist, manga artist Hiromu Arakawa spent seven arduous years working as an agricultural and dairy laborer in the northern wilderness of Hokkaido. Depicting herself as an expressive, glasses-wearing dairy cow, Arakawa educates her bewildered Tokyo manga editor on the unforgiving realities of farm life. From wrestling runaway heifers and dodging aggressive brown bears to surviving subzero blizzards and enduring endless potato harvests, Arakawa's witty autobiographical sketches celebrate the resilient nobility, backbreaking sweat, and eccentric humor of Japanese farmers.