I was in two minds about reviewing this book. Like a lot of the other graphic novels that I stumble upon, this one is also the first in a series that I have no chances of actually following up. Since this is incomplete work, which does not actually make sense, I should probably not be talking about it. That said, I did find something that I wanted to mention and therefore review. If someone actually has the possibility of reading it all, they might find something to take away from it.
It has an intriguing premise that the blurb just gives away! I refuse to because I went in blind, and with every next person talking about our central character, I just kept wondering what the discussion was about. When the reveal happens, it is done in a straightforward manner that had me intrigued. It is a good concept, the graphics are suitable, and I would have rated it higher if I had actual closure or even an inkling of what happens next.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

Animal certainly has an interesting premise, one that sets it out as a graphic novel of ideas and philosophical consideration of a fundamental question about what it means to be human. As something also of a character study, that might not immediately suggest a suitable subject for a graphic novel, and indeed there are more pages of talking heads than there are of any real action, not that there is much in the way of conventional 'action' as such, but the artwork and character detail provided make this a surprisingly more visual story than you might imagine.

Since it's trailed for a most of Part 1 before it gives you any real indication of the extraordinary action that one man takes, it might be considered a spoiler, but since it's given up front in the synopsis for the book provided on the back cover, what is at the centre of Animal is a man's determination to renounce his status as a human being. Since that revelation eventually comes close to the end of what is only the first part of the story, and since his neighbours and friends all express shock at where this desire leads, we clearly haven't had the whole story yet, so it's definitely intriguing to wonder just what is ahead in Part 2. You could probably assume that it's not called Animal for nothing.

In fact, the hints may already be there in the 48 page Part 1, in some of the exchanges that the man has with with those around him, exchanges mostly wordless or of few words - particularly one where he observes how a neighbour in his apartment block looks after her pet dog much better than some people and perhaps society as a whole look after human beings. For some people, would they not be treated better as an animal than a human?

That's the simplistic observation about one of the exchanges here, but there are other more complex motivations and behaviours noted about the man (he isn't given a name) by his friends, family, neighbours and associates who testify to the change in mood and personality, to the strange comments he makes as he starts to consider his extreme course of action. These are, as I've mentioned earlier, each made interview-style in a couple of pages of talking heads interspersed along the way.

Despite the artwork and even the talking head panels having a sketchy feel to them, with uneven and sometimes thick washes of colour applied, Spanish writer and artist Colo's artwork is surprisingly expressive and nuanced. The appearance, gestures and expressions of the characters are just as revealing as the words they speak. These are brilliantly observed in how they look and act, what they say enhanced by how they say it, very much justifying the graphic novel format. And ironically, in a book about someone wanting to no longer be seen as human, these talking heads inserts show - for better or worse in the context of the book - a very human side.

That aspect and the contrast it provides perhaps even go some way to show everything the man doesn't want to be, something that is undoubtedly essential to the purpose of Animal. The man himself gives very little away. He doesn't appear very sympathetic, he's sullen and bitter, permanently wearing a scowl, not really telling us anything about why he is so fed up with the world that he no longer wants to be part of it. Is he anti-establishment or just anti-social? Those are the kind of reductionist views that might otherwise be made about the man's actions, but the truth is probably a little more involved than that, and it's not insignificant that he is an artist. Where that ultimately takes him in his quest to no longer be human remains to be seen, but it's going to be very interesting and no doubt shocking to find out.

'Animal book 1 (of 1)' with story and art by Colo is an unusual graphic novel about a man with an odd request.

Told in a series of interviews after the event, we meet people who knew the man. H frequented bull fights. He was an artist, but critical of his own work. He attended and drew in art galleries. But his final request is the oddest one of all. In sympathy with the animals he sees, he decides to renounce his humanity. Will the court agree to such a strange request?

It's an odd little mystery. At first, it feels like the main character is gone, and perhaps in a way he is. The art is ok. I just really didn't know what to make of this story.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Europe Comics and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

Animal is a book about man, a man we never get to meet during the story, one who has struggled to find his place in the world, one who doesn't know what he's supposed to do in life and who makes an extreme decision. He wants to renounce his status as a human being, and become an animal.

Whilst this concept is pretty interesting, and raises some big questions about what it means to be human, and what it means to exist in a world you don't feel that you belong in, it never really felt like it reached the point where it was really able to address any of these issues. This is largely because it felt like Colo, the writer and artist on the book, was trying to keep the central plot a mystery.

The book is written in a way that reminds me of a documentary film, with much of it given over to talking heads, as some unseen person is talking to people that have interacted with the central character at some point. These range from family, lovers, friends, to people who only have a passing familiarity with the man. They talk about how he seemed like a quiet man, one who kept to himself a lot, but one they never saw doing what he did.

This is how much of the book talks about this man, 'what he did', 'what he chose', 'what he wanted'. It's not until the final pages that the book even spells out that this man is trying to legally denounce his humanity, to be stripped of his human rights. The book either expects you to know this coming into it, or is revealing it in the final pages in an attempt at a shock revelation, but sadly, by then this 'mystery' had become so dull that I really didn't care too much.

The book seemed so intent on talking about the mans mission without saying what it was that it quickly became quite old, and any sense of mystery was quickly replaced with annoyance. I wanted the book to really go into this subject, to look at things from a bigger scope, to question what it means to be human, but it never really did. The fact that the book ends as a cliffhanger, without revealing if this man gets his wish or not, and what the effect of his case was on the rest of the world, resulted in me feeling like I'd wasted my time somewhat.

Okay, we do get a small sense of what this man was like, and his life, but by the end it felt like much of what this book covered could have been done in a fraction of the pages, and that the real bulk of the story, the part that piqued my interest has been relegated to a second volume. Whilst this might encourage some people to go and buy the second book, make them eager to read more, it did the opposite to me, and I found myself bored with the story. I'd love to pick up the next volume of Animal and get into the rest of the story, but I honestly don't know if it'll only cover another fraction of the narrative before stretching things out for another volume.

Whilst the central story of Animal is an interesting one, I felt like it never quite met the heights it could have, that it never lived up to its promise. Sadly, this means that I'm not sure I want to carry on with the book or not. I think a larger volume, one that encompasses more of the story, would serve the authors vision better than what we have here.

If you like philosophy and questions about the meaning of life you might enjoy this. A quiet, introspective artist decides that he wants to renounce his humanity. In this book we dont have an opportunity to explore why he wishes to do this or what happens. This appears to be the first book in the series. The artwork was good but it was just too wordy for me.

The premise of this graphic novel is very philosophical - an introspective man decides to renounce his status as a human being and the whole plot is less based on any action but more on the musings of the people around him. Each little section has a different person who knew/knew of him and they give their view of what he wanted to do.

The colours are dark with a brownish palette and the sketches are quite harsh in style - not my preference but very detailed and good if that's a style you enjoy.

A decent enough idea but this is also only a portion of it so I felt I was just getting into it when it stopped. However, I am not sure if I would bother with the next one. I'd have happily read it in one sitting though.

Annoyingly, some people never accept advice – and the number of times people must have complained about graphic novels being split needlessly into smaller sections (I say needlessly, it's rampant commercialism, is all) is more numerous than I care to think about. This is the first section of a completely intriguing Spanish graphic novel, that came out in 2018 and covered 200pp, and is now so brief we might be actually only getting a quarter. We get a singular structure here, too – every short chapter is two pages portraying an encounter someone has with our lead character, a humdrum street portrait artist with what appears to be very little engagement with the real world, and then two pages presented as sort of TV documentary talking heads, where they monologue about the man, and what utterly bizarre thing he has been wanting to do. All we get from these pages is the sense it's quite a nihilistic act, and the fact it seems to involve a bullfight only makes us worry. So we have a wonderful set-up here, and nothing else. The fact the rough and ready inking and colouring shows the mundane life, and still gives us a good solid variety of poses and frames in the vox pops, is really quite impressive. It's all going to be a wonderful book – so it's bloody annoying a chunk of it is all that's been produced, with nothing else featuring on the publisher's website. Four and a half stars for the real deal, then, on this evidence, is brought right down to one and a half stars, for the splitting up of this unique book really has pissed me off. Ai no corrida indeed.