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Frankenstein Family is an extremely rare Chinese manga adaptation that focuses on family bonds and maintains that every episode. The short 20 minute episodes successfully trim out harems, convoluted love triangles, confusing plots, and fanservice. The plot itself is slice of life level mediocre, with the monster family's focus frequently shifting in different directions and the child genius main character Tanisu causing those deviations by always being 100% child and 0% genius. I still watched it every week on release day because it reliably showed them facing challenges. The art scrapes the barrel pretty low where instead of making full use of the fact that the characters are monsters living on a Chinese island, it feels like a barely interesting waterside town you can find anywhere. I suppose this is the most they could afford for a strictly promotional anime released simultaneously with the Japanese manga serialization. I'm personally very fond of woodwind, and they use it effectively in the show, however it does not work effectively in more dramatic scenes.
The main cast are innocent in the truest sense of the word as they are the results of scientist parents who viewed them only as test subjects but love them unconditionally. Which is ironic considering that they spend the entire show being suspicious of all the intensely generous people around them, creating a fulfilling sense of tension. You'll notice that the family hangs out together all the time despite them frequently getting into spats, and I think it defines their love much more vividly than other family focused anime. My favourite character is the plant-girl Ashise-neesan, and her character is summed up in what she's introduced as the siblings are fighting: "Ahh! The sunlight today tastes like strawberries!" The show is isn't changing anyone's lives with it being a cashgrab, but it presents a fresh approach to characters that I definitely want to see more of in the future. Is it worth your time? Sure.
