Franken Fran

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Franken Furan, Phase 20

Japanese: フランケン・ふらん

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 8

Chapters: 71

Status: Finished

Published: Jul 19, 2006 to Jan 19, 2012

Genres: Comedy, Horror, Supernatural

Themes: Gore, Psychological

Demographic: Seinen

Serialization: Champion RED

Authors: Kigitsu, Katsuhisa (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 7.78¹ (scored by 14,028 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #1421²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #517

Members: 36,846

Favorites: 1,422

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Wikipedia

7.78

Ranked #1421Popularity #517Members 36,846

MangaChampion REDKigitsu, Katsuhisa (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /8

Chapters: /71

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Synopsis

Deep within Japan's remote regions is the mansion of Dr. Naomitsu Madaraki, a surgeon notorious for his gruesome work. While he is away from home, his artificial daughter Fran takes over the mansion and his grisly surgical practice. With the aid of her violent younger sister Veronica, the human-cat hybrid Okita, and Dr. Madaraki's other macabre creations, Fran deals with the unusual requests of her clients. From tumor removal to reviving the dead, no two jobs are alike, but no job is too difficult—or too dangerous—for the successor to Dr. Madaraki. This eccentric medical prodigy is willing to do anything to save a life, even if her results are seldom pretty.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Included one-shot:
Volume 7: Phase 20

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Background

Franken Fran was published in English by Seven Seas Entertainment in 2-in-1 omnibuses from February 16, 2016 to January 17, 2017.

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Characters

Madaraki, Fran

Main

Madaraki, Veronica

Main

Madaraki, Gavrill

Supporting

Adorea

Supporting

Okita

Supporting

Kuhou, Rumiko

Supporting

Nezura-san

Supporting

Moriya, Misaki

Supporting

Tadashi, Matsumae

Supporting

Tsuji, Misae

Supporting

Reviews

Nov 5, 2023

Ciaran_Zagami

Recommended

I can only recommend this to readers with a strong stomach and a darker sense of humor.
The shortest way I could describe Franken Fran is like an old European Fairytale (like Princess Donkey Skin type stuff) but with much more body horror. Halfway between a Fairy Godparent and Herbert West Reanimator.

Fran is a really good character, her ideal of scientific progress at nearly any cost clashes with her unwillingness to let anyone under her care die. (even if it means crafting a fate far worse than death for them)
Sure its not exactly realistic, but if you stick with my fairytale comparison it makes ...

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Mar 4, 2021

deli_

Recommended

Franken Fran is a dark-comedy manga with lots of gore. If you don’t like gore, then this manga is going to disturb you extremely. However, if you’re like me who absolutely loves looking at dismembered limbs and eye-catching grotesqueries, then you’re going to have a fun time with this. In a way, this manga is sort of like a toned-down version of the world of eroguro. It’s much more “polished” and less “raw” than guro works but still contains the organs, the dismemberment, and the bloody circus of acts that is present in eroguro. It's more creative in its approach through its diverse collection of ... individual stories, and there are certain chapters where the style of comedy and art feel reminiscent of Shintaro Kago’s (another eroguro artist known for his surreal illustrations) own motifs.

The thing about Franken Fran is its lack of consistency. Franken Fran is structured in an episodic way, with the titular main character Fran Madaraki going through different scenarios throughout the course of the manga. Thus, there are chapters that are brilliant, from the insect chapters to the stories with human multiplication. And then, there are chapters that are not as interesting and even some that pale in comparison to the rest. Not all of the stories retain the same level of quality. There’s an experimental edge to this manga that lies in the concepts of its individual stories. The author uses the premise of Franken Fran to delve into the components of society and human behavior, and while they’re not the most profound or probing portrayals, the playful nature of the manga contributes an amusing perspective into those things. And if there’s one thing that the manga does extremely well at, it’s in its playful and snarky way of commenting on society.

Franken Fran explores how we perceive physical appearance and attractiveness, delves into the darker side of the entertainment industry, and touches on the everyday life, all to twist these ideas to fit within the comically apathetic attitude of the manga. It’s a kind of dark humor that’s very tongue-in-cheek and makes the manga feel more fresh and fun as a result. The stories can get wild and almost always lead to an undesirable outcome for the characters. That’s what makes it brilliant though as it’s always played off in a darkly comedic manner. It’s playful and snarky in all the right ways.

Franken Fran's stories are able to flourish so well due to its peculiar cast of characters. Fran's unethical ways of "saving" her patients lead to a mixture of disturbing and sometimes even outright terrifying abominations. She’s like the crazy mad scientist except that she actually has good intentions, though it’s not always clear from the way she conjures up solutions. The characters in Franken Fran play off of each rather well, and the people that Fran meets and interacts with with each new story offer a new concept to be explored, whether that be reviving humans, wanting to look more physically attractive, or desiring to attain a new body. Fran’s own eccentricities make for countless humorous moments as she works her doctor role which, more often than not, leads to the opposite of what she envisioned. Fran is the perfect character for a manga like this, and her naivety when it comes to human behavior and her lack of concern for the ethical make for some interesting developments in the realm of science.

And then there’s the artwork.

Franken Fran’s artstyle, especially with certain illustrations, share the same kind of up-in-your-face presentation as Kago’s stuff but with a little more sheen to it. Franken Fran’s art is gross, overblown, and creative. Through the course of the manga, the author manages to impress and maintain the same level of quality of the grotesque depictions of the operations, mutilations, and chaotic bloodbaths. For anyone who loves looking at gore done in cool ways, this is definitely one of those manga where it's fresh all-around, and there’s always something neat with each chapter. Even though there are certainly chapters that are not so interesting, they’re still worth reading for the bloody bits. There are even some surreal illustrations that accompany the more bizarre stories, and they work to add a little more flavor to the manga as a whole.

Franken Fran is the kind of manga for big fans of gore, and it definitely offers more than just that. It may not be the most profound manga or the most consistent, but it’s definitely a worthwhile read for anyone who wants to sit back, relax, and envision themselves as a mad scientist (who also happens to have good intentions).

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Apr 14, 2025

Final_Verdict

Mixed Feelings

Do you like weird shit? Sometimes gross, sometimes creepy, sometimes… uh… horny? If you answered yes to any of those, then you may have just found your next read. But if you didn’t, then you may have just found your next thing to avoid for the rest of your life. Shock factor is the name of the game with Katsuhisa Kigitsu’s horror comedy “Franken Fran,” which follows a stitched-together teenage doctor aptly named Fran, the living creation of a mad scientist named Doctor Madaraki.

That’s all it is. An episodic exercise in the macabre, with the entire story being a series of scenarios engineered around ... creating strange scenes of botched surgery, gore, and body horror, underpinned by a tone that flips between playful and, at times, rather ominous, with a lesson at the end that can be rather grim. Think The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror—‘parable’ is what this is called. And in Franken Fran’s case, add bits of ecchi.

In fact, I very much would call it an “ecchi guro” manga, and at first, it would seem that the only real reason to read would be to see the grotesque display of each setup → shock-factor scenario. That, and sometimes naked girls in an… eh, mostly alright art style. Not so long ago I would have derided a manga like this, thinking it rather trite. But age has actually given me perspective on the sheer variety of storytelling types there are, and the value in Japan's insistence in leaving no stone unturned. Not everything necessarily has to be Berserk, you know? Not everything has to be some kind of complex, meaningful narrative. Sometimes, just being an episodic little story with a smattering of strange or unique ideas is all it NEEDS to be, especially in a visual medium like manga.

But in adopting this perspective even a manga like Franken Fran can surprise you, because the stories dip into more complex themes as it continues, and it loses some of that darkly playful ecchi quality. Each story also has very fascinating science that, when actually looked up, is actually true to some degree; only it’s been perverted and stretched to the limits of science fiction, to the very doldrums of suffering and horror, so that you can’t help but want to keep reading. Can’t help but want to see the damage and death of the car crash.

I can’t lie, Fran herself is actually pretty charming too, and the stories can have a weird staying power. At first you might crack the book open and read wearily, feeling a kind of “what the fuck am I looking at,” at the strange and sometimes erotic content, but after settling in, you feel more comfortable and entertained with Franken Fran’s grotesque nature and adopt more a sense of “Hmm, what messed up scenario is waiting beyond this chapter?” This was my experience, at least.

But as it stands, while there are standout chapters, most of them are honestly very weak and leave of a lot to be desired regarding pacing and payoff. As for the parables in this story that actually stayed with me, I can probably count them on one hand. Like I said earlier, the manga really shines when it’s just gross and fucked up. Cute girls getting turned into a hideous bug monsters, men being pulled apart and re-stitched into dogs, bodily organs getting shoved into someone’s severed head, a baby growing in someone’s brain—Kigitsu spares no expense, and doesn’t try to hide the sometimes fetishistic nature of these strange happenings, either.

But when you get to the end, there is just never enough breathing room for these stories at all, which really sucks because on paper it’s all very unique and original. I truly think every single one of these stories would be better if they were two-parters. Like seriously, if the worst ideas were removed and what was left was given more time, this would be a super solid 8/10 horror comedy. But that’s not the case, sadly. When all is said and done, most of the value here is just in that it's bizarre.

Still, I think Franken Fran was worth the read, and other people may feel like more stories here stuck the landing, which is why I still think it’s worth recommending if everything stated here appeals to you. You sick freak.

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Poll: Franken Fran Chapter 51 Discussion notsureifsrs - Jun 26, 2011	13 replies	by GakutoDeathGlare »» Mar 5, 1:23 PM
Poll: Franken Fran Chapter 45 Discussion Nayah - Nov 30, 2010	10 replies	by GakutoDeathGlare »» Mar 4, 7:50 PM
Poll: Franken Fran Chapter 61 Discussion 13man18 - Feb 5, 2012	37 replies	by INoLuv »» Mar 2, 5:51 AM
Poll: FrankenFran Chapter 1 Discussion Faust721 - Mar 25, 2008	19 replies	by Karva1 »» Aug 27, 2024 5:29 PM
Poll: FrankenFran Chapter 10 Discussion Faust721 - May 2, 2008	20 replies	by Restless_Soul »» Jul 30, 2024 3:04 PM

Franken Fran
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