Yagi the Bookshop Goat - Fumi Furukawa

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Author: Fumi Furukawa

Genre: Manga, Erotic Romance, LGBTQ+
Rating: 4 stars.

In a Nutshell: An unusual story in manga format with anthropomorphic animals and forbidden feelings. Mind you, the story is cute but part of the content is R-rated.

Story:
The setting is a peaceful world divided in two camps, carnivores and herbivores. Each category sticks to their side of the city unless there’s a genuine need to go to the other.
Yagi is a goat who loves books and dreams of working in a bookstore. Unfortunately, as a goat, he also loves to eat books, which is why no herbivore bookshop is willing to give him a job. In desperation, he tries his hand at the bookshop in the carnivore section. To his surprise, Ookami, the scary wolf bookstore manager, gives him a job willingly. Will Yagi be able to do justice to his new employment? Will he still eat books? Will he be in danger from the carnivores that surround him? Why did Ookami offer a job to a book-eating herbivore? Read and find out.


The story was MOSTLY very cute. I loved the initial chapters where the characters of Yagi and Ookami are established clearly. Their relationship develops nicely as the story proceeds and I was MOSTLY happy with the entire content. Yagi’s funny relationship with books is the best part of the story. He loves books by reading them as well as by eating them.

What I didn’t know while requesting the book is that this is what is called a ‘Yaoi’ manga, a genre that depicts homoerotic relationships between male characters. I am okay with books about romantic relationships between two males but boy, I was not prepared for the erotica! I try to stay away from anything remotely steamy, so to see… errr…. you know… male dangly bits, and the characters indulging in… ahem… activities I wasn’t mentally prepared for, I was, to put it mildly, scandalised. This was even worse because the erotic scenes came out of nowhere. Part one, squeaky clean and adorably cute. Part two, begins squeaky clean and then Bammm! You are hit with the shocker, accompanied with tiny textual add-ons saying “DRIP” and “JERK” and “SQUEEZE”. Yikes!
(In fact, I was planning to read this comic with my manga-loving daughter. As she was away on a school trip, I decided to begin it without her. Thank God for that!)

Other than the erotic content, I have no complaints with the book. This was true manga in its style, with its black and white illustrations, right-to-left koma, over-the-top facial expressions at times, and typical depictions of one male as masculine and the other male with more dainty and feminine features. The anthropomorphism works wonderfully for the story.

All in all, I didn't like the few scenes that are overly sexual but that's because of my personal preference. For those who don’t mind such content, this is definitely a book I would recommend, especially to mm romance lovers.

4 stars from me. (Which would have been at least 4.5 if those scenes weren’t there. I really loved the rest of the story and I still feel those scenes weren’t necessary to the plot.)

My thanks to Tokyopop and NetGalley for the DRC of “Yagi the Bookshop Goat”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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