Franken Fran

Franken Fran is honestly one of my all time favourite series, and I am not ashamed to admit tearing up a little when it ended. It's such a unique manga that sticks out from the crowd, partly due to it's absolutely insane premise, but also because of the sheer joy it gave me. The Story - Each chapter gives you a fresh new story line meaning that it never gets stagnant or feels repetitive. Obviously there will be some chapters that are weaker than others, but I never disliked one or felt bored reading it; I always wanted to keep going! The Art - The art isvery refreshing and fits with the story; gruesome in places, detailed and intricate through out, and not afraid to hold back. The gore was also very well illustrated, so if you don't like that kind if thing, I reccomend you to back away from this series. The Characters - I can genuinely say that I liked pretty much every character in this manga, even if they were the 'bad guy'. All are shown to have flaws, all are shown to have strengths, and Fran is just so perfect in every way - she holds everything together perfectly. Enjoyment - My personal enjoyment was 10/10. Every moment kept me reading on, I never once got bored, and I will definitely read again in the future. The dark humour kept me laughing, Fran kept my emotions running, and I was thoroughly gripped right to the very end. Overall, this is an almost perfect manga for me. I wish that some of the characters had got a little more 'screentime' (I won't name anyone, out of possible fears of spoilers) but apart from that, I loved it. I would recommend Franken Fran to anyone who enjoys dark humour, horror and gore elements, and to fans on Junji Ito's work (as I found myself thinking about some of his works whilst reading this). However, anyone who doesn't like gore, I suggest you stay away... far away

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 nightmarefor 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

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 butthey 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 :)