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.

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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.

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Ok so this is my first review, so bear with improper format or an un-standard review i guess. This is one of the most unique things I have ever read; Franken Fran in short is a twisted, deranged, genius, conceptual, moral questioning work of art.

This manga is currently my favourite manga, but first off before I say the good and why you should read it, here is why you might not want to read it:
It is filled to the brim with an extreme level of gore and horror, and is not for the weak of stomach or mind, and If you are one of these don't bother reading it.
_____________________________________________________________

If you are still reading this, your probably are not weak of mind or stomach or at least want to test your luck. So now I will say why I liked this manga so much:

The Characters: All the characters were very creative, but most importantly was the main character, who I thought was very well designed in both appearance and in their personality and actions. They mean well and only do what other people want and believe will help them, but the twist is, that those people clearly didn't think through well enough and so most of the conflict results not from Fran's failures, but from her patients.

Art: Pretty decent in general, characters are very well drawn, but the best drawn stuff is the gore, and detail and level of accuracy on peoples limbs, organs and internal anatomy.

Story: I put this last because it doesn't really have a plot in particular that goes throughout the entire thing, I'm not sure If this is the correct term seeing as this is a manga, but it has an episodic plot, that is different every chapter.

Overall the reasons behind my liking this manga so much are this; It was really interesting conceptually and it questions science and morality, in many different lights and offers tons of legitimate solutions and shows the reason why they fail or succeed. The most interesting thing about this manga is how all the problems that are fixed amazingly are all unethical or immoral, but leave people happy in general, and all the failed experiments are from negligence in the patient not thinking things through, or In the patient and then Fran, taking on an experiment on something not quantitative, but qualitative. (You will know what I'm talking about if you read it)

All in all; 10 out of 10. And It was very interesting.

Sorry for the massive review lol, I kinda started ranting...

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Manga : Franken Fran

Author : Katsuhisa Kigitsu

After dealing with the war between the 2 goddesses of Nisekoi i.e Onodera and Chitoge,I was tired of the whole thing and decided to go read a manga that I heard of,which firs my liking for gore and insanity and philosophy of life,which was Franken Fran.If this introduction wasn’t good,I’ll get to the point.

The manga deals with the adventures and misadventures of Madaraki Fran,a half-dead girl,who is a doctor that can turn mere mascots into living breathing mascots,human beings into animals and also do surgeries without any concern,whatsoever and the end result might be a dream or a nightmare for the treated patients.

One thing that makes this manga unique is the gore factor and the cases that Fran has to deal with.The gore factor is huge in the first 7 chapters,but then it decreases so as to increase philosophical insanity and character development,although there are some chapters,where the gore increases.This really increases the shock factor and makes you want to read it or be creeped out by the gore itself.The individual chapters have good philosophical meanings,from something like beauty and justice,to the matters of life and death and how precious human life is,and they are done in the weirdest and most insane way possible.I like the biological knowledge and terms added to give as to how these operations are all done,even though they wont work in real life (or will they ?).Pacing is episodic,but even some of the chapters made me laugh and some gave me the feels.Also,it contains nudity but not too much,so be careful.

Madaraki Fran is someone that can make Dr.Heiter and Moreau look like shit.What makes her interesting is her personality,sense of morality and judgement.Her views on human life,biology makes you think whether she’s doing the right thing or she’s just wrong and insane and her views on justice are really great,for me i.e. She and her sisters are wonderful and inspirational characters imo.Some of the patients and characters are good or are just ok.There are also recurring characters in some chapters.The art is fantastic in terms of gore as well as characters (There was one character that looked like Haruhi and one that looked like Tenma).It makes you feel the gruesome mentality and horror and comedy of the suffering patients,though there were few instances of lack of blood around some body parts.

TL;DR : It has a philosophical meaning to it,that makes you think and like as well as the fascinating mentality and horror that surrounds it.It’s a must read and it has comedy.


Recommendations :
Fourteen - Umezu Kazuo
Every manga done by Junji Ito.
Inugami - Masaya Hokazono
Gantz - Hiroya Oku
Dragon Head,The Drifting Classroom - Minetaro Mochizuki

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