Ranked #1178

Franken Fran (Manga)

This is just another of those mangas that you either love or hate, as for me, im still on the fence. The story resolves around a girl named Fran, who is something of a reanimated corpse that lives in a mansion with a doctor(that is never seen) and performs bizzare surgeries and experiments on other people. Often she does this against that person's will. Most stories end badly for those who came to her seeking help. The artwork is alright, but nothin special. The story changes pretty much from chapter to chapter, and is often extremely gory and horrid, so if u hav a weak stomach, do not read it. You can get some satisfaction out of it, but sometimes your hopes just leaves you at the end. Like i said earlier, you either hate it or love it. And don't expect many happy endings! read more

This is simply the most eff'ed up manga I have ever come across (yes, that even includes all the hentai I've ever read, which given the depravity and gratuitous breast shots Franken Fran may even qualify as. And yes, I've seen Bible Black). It's going to be hard to write this review simply because it was too much for me - I dropped it like a hot rock after chapter 7, and in all honesty I have to say I really wish I could un-read this.

Story - 6 (Fair)

It's an extremely twisted manga with just about every chapter having the most twisted, sick, and flat-out depraved outcome imaginable (I'll give the manga-ka some credit, he at least avoids violent rape for the most part although it's certainly filled to the brim with extremely dark, perverse sexual undertones). It also doesn't shy away from gore either, in fact it makes any of the Saw movies look like Barney and Friends. The chapters are for the most part pretty stand alone, and I think it would be fair to describe this as akin to Blackjack - if Dr. Blackjack were one sick sonnava****.

Art - 6 (Fair)

The art is decent at best - the character designs come off as generic as they come. Franken Fran's ugliness may paradoxically be one of the best points of the manga's art for at least it conveys just how much of a literal monster she is, being a reanimated corpse and all. The graphic details of Franken Fran's "medical practice" are certainly well detailed at least - perhaps too well detailed.

Character - 6 (Fair)

Once again, the characters are at best decent. Franken Fran is perhaps the most well-developed character, somewhere in between acting with the best of intentions and acting out with all the depravity and lack of any moral grounding whatsoever of the monster she appears to be. All the other characters, mainly the one she performs her gruesome surgeries on, are a mixed bag - some are surprisingly developed, others are as shallow as you'd expect from an exploitation flick, and some pretty much just exist for fodder for perversion.

Enjoyment - 2 (Dreadful, and that's putting it lightly)

I simply did not enjoy this. It's way too over the top, too depraved, and just too much. Quentin Tarantino's Hostel can only wish to live up to the amount of depravity this has. The depravity goes beyond the gruesome mutilation of flesh and straight into what could only be really described as rape in some cases. That said....

Overall - 7 (Good)

So with all that said, why do I give this the final score I give? For the simple reason that I recognize that this is the type of manga that simply isn't for me (I only read it on a dare, for those of you interested). Viewing the message boards for Franken Fran right here on MAL, this manga seems to have quite a cult following who manages to enjoy the over-the-top presentation of Franken Fran, and with that in view I feel it unfair to rate the manga low just because I'm unable to see what they see in it.

In conclusion:

The art style is decent, the characters are admittedly rather flat but fair enough, and everything else will just vary by the reader's tastes. I know there's quite a following for this type of stuff, so I don't believe it's fair to judge it by my own bias, though I simply cannot recommend this manga. read more