Franken Fran

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Review in Haiku: Franken Fran

Horror-Comedy
about artificial girl
who is a surgeon.

STORY:

Episodic tale
with occasional reference
... to prior chapters.

Overarching "plot"
about "Franken Fran"'s father
sometimes, it shows up.

Individual
stories are usually OK
Seven out of ten.

ART:

It's horror manga
So prepare for lots of gore
And gross visuals.

Art quality's good
Slightly better than average
But nothing too stellar.

Still, this manga's gorn
Is super engrossing, so
Eight points out of ten.

CHARACTER:

Fran Madaraki
Is adorable and weird
Doesn't quite get things.

She MUST save a life
Regardless of end results
Fates are worse than death.

Her sisters show up
I won't spoil them for you
Eight points out of ten.

ENJOYMENT:

I lack any doubts
On the enjoyment of this
Crazy horror tale.

Like watching train wreck;
What's going to go wrong next?
Cannot look away.

Left with some nightmares.
One of the best ones around.
Ten points out of ten.

OVERALL:

If you like gore
Karmic deaths and surgery
You'll love Franken Fran.

10/10 Would Fap Again
Huh, this porn manga looks pretty good, I love something new, or so you might have thought, when seeing the cover of the first volume of the manga in any of the book stores in your country. If you, just like me, had the same guessing, I cannot blame you. This piece is considered a science fiction manga. Though, it is not the usual science fiction you will expect to see. What I mean is the fact that it has nothing to do with space battles, giant mechas and technical wonders. However, Kigitsu Katsuhisa has his own understanding of what science fiction ... is. His characters, as it has been mentioned before, do not fly in space and do not jump in time. Nevertheless, the main "technical miracle" is one of the main themes of this manga. And I cannot say I do not like it.

Cute Little Girls Doing Cute Experiments (Or Not?)
World War II, a talented biologist, named Madaraki Naomitsu, uses his skills in medical practice. During the war time, the professor does whatever he wants and no one cares about how horrific his experiments might be, even the government turns a blind eye on the work of the caring professor Naomitsu. But, it turns out, he is not a happy professor, trying to help people, he is actually a psychopath with a scalpel. But no war lasts forever and The Second World War is finally over, too. However, the problem is that the crimes of the professor Naomitsu are now noticed and to escape the punishment, the professor vanishes. The end.

Not quite. The madman leaves his daughter, as well as his best creation behind and this “daughter” is actually the professor’s best masterpiece: she looks like a female Frankenstein. Madaraki Fran does not look like her father, but she is very similar to him, because she adores experiments and has incredible skills in all possible areas of medicine. She is an underground doctor, pursuing a single goal. She is able to fix any problem, cure any sickness, and can even give people eternal youth! Unfortunately, not many people can afford her help, since any cute little girl needs money for her cute little experiments. However, these moneybags are just unfortunate souls, because if you do not mention how you see your recovery, you will regret it.

That Is Unjust
Truth be told, the plot is impressive. Already the first volume is already very enjoyable to read, it is violent, it is funny and disgusting. Another thing to mention is that every two-three chapters there is a separate story of Fran helping her poor patients. Later on, however, this formula is broken. But, I must admit, it is even better. The readers do not feel burdened, since a new story starts quite soon and you do not have to wait that much. In addition to this, you will appreciate the originality of every chapter and enjoy the black humor. But I am not quite sure, if you will find any of her ‘creations’ funny. But give it a try, nevertheless.

Who Needs Two Hands When You Can Have Six Hands (Duh)
So, let us discuss the main pieces of this manga. Madaraki Fran, as it has already been mentioned, is one of the best creations of Madaraki Naomitsu. She does not have any features making her look like her father, but she has all the skills the professor has, she might even be more talented than her father. A cute creature, striving to help people. She is always ready to help, even for free, if you have a tearful story. She is a smart girl, she understands that having six hands is better than having two for any surgeon. The father should be proud! By the way, oh yes, she also has a credo: if humans’ life can be saved, this must be done! Simply put, no matter how terrible a person’s life might be, the main thing is that they will live. What a good doctor, you might think! Anyways, onto Fran’s assistant. He is called Okita. He is a handsome guy, his face looks like he is a popular idol of a jpop boys band and he also is a half human, half cat. He likes criticizing his mistress. And he also enjoys becoming human again, who would not, and Fran gladly helps her cute assistant with that.

There is also a police officer, Kuhou Rumiko. She is fascinated yet terrified of Fran. Fran sometimes pops up near her, sometimes to help her, sometimes to get some bodies for her lovely experiments. There are also other "creations" of Professor Madaraki, but telling you about them is something I will not do. Anyways, as mentioned before, Fran's patients change very often, so I am not going to list them all. However, I want to assure you that all the patients, as well as all other characters are unique and very interesting to follow. Almost forgot, Fran also created many other servants of her lovely self

Too Many Difficult Things I Know Nothing About
Of course, there will be many things, you will not understand anything about. As it has been already mentioned many times, the manga contains many medical terms, biological terms, etc. - the average reader will not understand many things. And even despite the efforts of the translators, who inserted explanations, it is not always possible to figure out how and why exactly what happens is happening. Perhaps this is one of the main disadvantages of the manga. As for the drawing - the details of all the small elements is simply amazing.

This Is Not Something Kids Should Read
It might sound as if it is a very dark comedy and that that is the only thing about it, wrong. You already know from my review that this manga has many 18+ scenes, I would even say you might feel bad even if you are older than 20+, when reading this manga. You need to have good mental health to read it. Otherwise, I would not recommend you reading it, it is very disturbing.

Masterpiece Many Will Not Understand
You might have an impression that this manga is a sick abomination and you will be right and wrong at the same time. There is one clear message the writer tried to show the readers. AND HE IS RIGHT ABOUT IT! Of course, I am not going to do all the work for you, silly, I will never tell you the message Kigitsu Katsuhisa wanted you to understand. Go read the manga, now. If you can, of course.

Franken Fran is an episodic body horror manga with a soft hint of comedy put into the mix.

The story revolves around a frankenstein-like girl named Fran and her encounters with various people who often seek her advanced medical knowledge in order to solve a particular problem they face. Almost all chapters are self-contained individual stories with new casts of characters, with Fran and company being the only thing that ties it all together. However, I do recommend reading Fran in chronological order because a lot of stories get referenced in later chapters. The stories by themselves arent that scary in a graphic sense but ... they are pretty scary and very interesting in terms of ideas of what sorts of things could be done to the human body. The only big problem I had with this one was that the pace of every chapter sped up like crazy on the last third or fourth pages of a lot of chapters which kind of messed with my immersion in the story. However, most of them end on a unique bitter-sweet note that felt unpredictable and left me craving for more.



As for the main cast, I definitely felt like they weren't fully fleshed out.
Fran Madaraki(the MC) was, in my opinion, the vocal point of this manga. She is a master surgeon with a very nuanced philosophy and charm that captivates the reader. She is like a clever subversion of the mad-scientist archetype that's believable and works exceptionally well.

The only thing she lacked was character development and progression. You could argue that this was because she was from the start an accomplished individual and that's fair. But still, much of her character and her relationships with other charecters were unexplored. The same could be said for the rest of the cast excluding Frans little sister Veronica who developed quite a bit.

The art was pretty decent, with great detail put into the body horror big page layouts. The character designs were very unique and the monsters that were introduced always felt fresh.
The one thing I found very misleading about Franken Fran( and I think most fans will agree with me on this one) were the volume covers of the manga. All of the eight volumes feature a very sexualized depiction of one or more of the main characters. Which would be fine if this was an ecchi series, but its definitely not. None of the characters are depicted in a sexual way in the manga and nudity is only shown when it is accompanied by body horror. Although, I must say that the cover art definitely differs from the style of the manga so it's possible the covers were done by another guy who just happens to have a thing for Frankenstein girls, who knows.

Overall I think this is a nice read, and I am giving it a 6 out of 10.
I would've given it a 7 or maybe even an 8 if the story actually concluded. But after 70 chapters the story just kind of stops without ending. Hopefully the sequel Franken Fran frantic won't meet the same fate.


Thanks for reading, peace out :)