And more interesting and odd mangas we found… like Yagi the Bookshop Goat, written and illustrated by Fumi Furukawa. “In this tranquil world where all animals live in peace, carnivores and herbivores have an agreement to live amicably. Yagi is a goat who loves reading (and eating!) books; his dream is to become a bookstore clerk, but goats who eat paper aren’t exactly welcomed at places that sell books! But maybe he can charm Ookami, the scary wolf store manager into giving him a job…” That rather cute description doesn’t point out there are some (gentle) mature themes at play here, so be aware! This black & white graphic novel is available now from Tokyo Pop.

image c. 2024 Tokyo Pop

You shall have to forgive me; this is not a very furry movie. It may not be a furry movie at all, but to truly come down one way or another, I'd have to spoil things. However, one does not often have the opportunity to review a movie endorsed by the Satanic Temple; in fact, this is the first opportunity any reviewer ever has had. If you're the kind of person who likes to take movie recommendations from the Satanic Temple, well, there you go. Stephen King liked it too.

So, why am I reviewing this movie for Flayrah (I mean, other than I want to, and I can)? Well, this is one of those horror movies where you can't know for sure if what you're seeing is real, or a vision, a dream, or a hallucination. Two small children assure us they talk to a goat; this goat is named Black Phillip. When not playing imaginary friend to all children (or is it the witch in the wood's familiar pretending to be playing imaginary friend to all children?), he enjoys Tweeting cute goat videos, vintage furry art, vague threats at the Pope and, of course, humblebrags. Not in the movie, though (that would be quite a twist), but as part of the bizarre viral marketing employed by cult distributor A24 (see also, Satanic Temple endorsement). Don't laugh, the goat has more followers than we do.

Oh, also there's a bunny. I should probably mention that.

This anthropomorphic graphic novel requires going back and forth several times to understand the complex and incomplete story. In a bleak landscape of perpetual winter, a civil war has ended but the losing revolutionaries are continuing a guerrilla warfare. James Hardin (rabbit), a secret agent of the Resistance, has stolen a top-secret document to distract the N.P.O. (National People’s Organization; roughly the militaristic government) from a planned sabotage of a train over a strategic bridge. General Hanslowe (lion) assigns Officer Pavel (crow) and Captain Engel (tiger) to track him down and get the document back. Engel berates Pavel as a coward for allowing Hardin to escape in the first place. During the search, the N.P.O. team does not realize that Pavel accidentally kills Hardin.

The surviving rebels (Giles, a goat; Timothy, a frog, and Charlotte, a fox) plan to carry through Hardin’s real plan. Hardin’s orphaned children, James Jr. and Patricia, trying to help, sneak away and board the train. James triggers the detonator prematurely, destroying the train but not the bridge.

The rabbit children are taken to a military orphanage for rebel children; Engel plans to use them to find their father, who he believes is still alive. Subsequent events show which of the children, and of the adults, is the stronger.

Los Angeles, Archaia Entertainment, January 2013, hardcover $24.95 (152 [+ 8] pages).

Cuticle Detective Inaba, a new anime series, is scheduled to air in Japan on January 4, and a short promotional video is available for viewing.

The series, adapted from a manga of the same name, revolves around Hiroshi Inaba, a genetically altered part-human, part-wolf hybrid who works as a private detective. Hiroshi gains information by examining and tasting people's hair (and, as a result, he has a major hair fetish). Hiroshi can also transform into a more wolf-like form and can use special powers and attacks from whatever type or colour of hair he eats.

Does Sean Connery have a death wish?

That is the only reason that I can think of for his investing money, executive-producing, and voice-acting in the forthcoming first Scottish CGI animated feature, Sir Billi.

The Cartoon Brew website has the latest trailer, which is unbelievable. The humans and talking animals are the ugliest that I have ever seen. (Well, except for Hoodwinked, but that at least had a clever plot.)

Sir Billi is about, to quote CB’s Amid Amidi, a retired skateboarding bald senior-citizen veterinarian (Connery) with Gordon, his anthropomorphic homosexual pet goat with bladder problems, who wears a Bruce Lee-style yellow jumpsuit and thinks that he is a dog. Together they set out to rescue Bessie Boo, Scotland’s last beaver, and Wee Dave, a cute rabbit who helped raise her.

Two new(ish) and currently airing furry anime are being fansubbed into English: Polar Bear's Cafe, and One Stormy Night: Secret Friends.

The Cartoon Brew website posts this 2:53 minute TV pilot for “PigGoatBananaMantis!”, by Dave Cooper, Johnny Ryan (artists), and Nick Cross (animator).

Cartoon Brewmeister Amid Amidi describes it as “wacky”. It is also very anthropomorphic. Watch out for those gravity pickles!

Ursula Vernon's mythological representation of Capricorn as a sea-goat was commissioned as the poster-beast of the New Jersey Summer Reading Program, and featured in libraries and promotional material across the state.

Her work was packed with symbolism, but turned out to be controversial in a way she had not anticipated. [snow pigeon]

Videogame developer Sotalus has decided to give their new release Ramses' Quest some backbone by bringing Rob Zombie on to do the soundtrack.
By this account the game is mediocre in all other regards, but it does give us this interesting plot synopsis:

"The title, a mind-numbing example of everything wrong with video games, stars Ramses, an anthropomorphic goat who ventures through 16 3D-rendered levels and attempts to save Princess Baa-bera from the evil Shearman."

In the language of the pacific northwest Sauk-Suiattle Tribe, the name for mountain goat translates as "our-brother-the-color-of-snow." Now the 200-member tribe is fighting to save its brother from the brink of extinction.

Click "Read more..." for more details and the link.

The language is pretty inflammatory, but it's worth going to Friends of the Tahr to read about the plight of the mountain goats at the Cape Peninsula National Park.