Pretty good comming to age tale, mixed with romance and sports. Like some other people have said, this one shares many traits with Suzuka. In a good way that is, it's not nearly as drawn out, the pacing is a lot better and so on. The characters are well done as well, and quite likable too.
There are imo 3 distinct plots in this one. First one is about 4 childhood friends and their comming to age, second part is a romance, and the third part focuses on sport. With some mixing of all theese 3 genres of course.
Plot is strong, characterisation is strong, the story is nice, the romance is nicely done too, the coming of age elements and drama elements is sweet poignant and touching at times. The pacing is great as I mentioned, if you're looking for some romance that is endlessly drawn out over 25 volumes, look elsewhere. This one is short and to the point, and still manages to capture feelings. Good stuff! 🙂
Whats not so great is the crappy, awful, rushed ending though. Even though I have no problems with this ending in 5 volumes, and I really feel the story should come to and end around the time where it did. They could easily have done it in another, and above all, better way.
However, the ending sucked, big time. What a fu#king cop out! Really, it seems they rushed the last 2-3 chapters just to get it over and done with. They were just plain weak and bad. And it really really pisses me off, to see such an ending to an othervise great manga. 🙁
Whit all that said, it's still a great read, it will keep you hooked from the start to the end.