Title: Yagi the Bookshop Goat
Author/Illustrator: Fumi Furukawa
Publisher, Copyright/Release Date: TokyoPop, 2022
Price: $12.99
ISBN: 978-1427868893
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Summary and Thoughts: In the world of Yagi the Bookshop Goat, personified animals have found a way to live together: Herbivores on one side, carnivores on other and the two will rarely meet for obvious reasons. Enter Yagi, a goat who is determined to be a bookseller, but has to live and work on the carnivore side because he was fired or turned down from every book shop on the herbivore side. You see, goats eat books and no one wants a goat book seller who eats books. Sure, it can be a little stressful being around carnivores, but nothing has happened…yet…and Yagi gets to fulfill his dream (and eat a book or two). His boss, a domineering, emo wolf named Ookami, threatens him every time he eats a book, but overall, finds Yagi’s talent to actually better understand a book by eating it, a useful tool. Plus, children’s book sales are up so what’s the loss of a book or two a week if the sales make up for it?
Thus starts this one-shot manga where Yagi is introduced by eating yet another book. The rest of the manga covers a slight history of the world, why Yagi dreamed of being a book seller (astute readers will see this a mile away), and a close call between Yagi and a carnivore author (who is thankful to him but somewhat wants to eat him). It is this close call plus coworkers testing out Yagi’s ability to taste test things that sets off a chain of events that this reader did NOT expect because I missed that this is Yaoi (boys-love manga) and the publisher’s description does NOT let you know this. (“Charm his way into a job?” TokyoPop, he has the job from the start so that’s misleading.)
So, yes, Yagi’s coworkers wonder what happens when he eats adult magazines and the result are disastrous. Yagi is overwhelmed, drunk-feeling, and useless. Ookagmi takes him to his home, writes something down, Yagi eats it (habit), and ends up horny (because at this point, he has a crush on Ookagmi and anything he writes on tastes oh so very good). Thus begins the sexual and eventual full relationship with Ookagmi and Yagi.
As far as yaoi go, this is one of the better ones I’ve read. There’s the typical sub/dom relationship going that lines up as you expect (wolf=dom/goat=sub), but it’s refreshing to see the dom partner checking in and that there is a healthy sexual relationship portrayed. Sure there’s tension in “will the wolf eat him” (oh no, just thought of the Twilight line about the lion and lamb thing), but it’s a part of their relationship they have to work out.
A comment on art because I did have an eArc: I don’t know if the final version will go into full uncensored art (seeing dicks would be nice), or if that’s how it’ll publish (it was censored in ways I’ve seen it censored on print manga before where it’s partially erased, partially pixelated), but you should know there is nudity and sex, but it’s also pretty wholesome and cute content and bonus points for a pretty healthy relationship.
I have not read Beastars, but I suspect that readers of it might gravitate toward this. Fans of yaoi who would prefer less bullying and more romance will enjoy this one (yaoi readers, you know the kinds I’m talking about). Best suited for your adult collections.*
*I’ve been in libraries long enough to know that some librarian is going to look at that cover and go “oh! Cute” and then not read it and put it in their teen/high school collection or read it and be “oh, wait a minute” when they read it (I did but I didn’t really look up anything about this book so shame on me). Also, the typical yaoi that was available to me when I was checking into it (omg, I’m such an elder millennial) was mostly schoolboys where one was just a straight-up bully, the sex was very close to, if not rape, and I just kind of stayed away from it. This was a cute manga and I really love the idea of eating a book and getting the vibe of the book from it. Also, yeah, TokyoPop is back from the dead and it looks like they are going all-in on Disney content, yaoi and (after a quick perusal of their page) LGBTQI+ content (nice).
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Recommended Audience: Adult collections. Mature teen readers will enjoy this.
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Source: Netgalley
The Graphic Novel Shelf 
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