Franken Fran

Franken Fran (フランケン・ふらん) is a manga from Katsuhisa Kigitsu. It started appearing in Akita Shoten's Champion Red magazine in September 2006 and it is ongoing. It is a comedy horror starring Fran–a patched up synthetic beauty with an expertise in anatomical remodeling technologies, which she employs in the service of various people.

Plot
Fran is a girl created by the world's top biologist. She takes care of her creator's mansion while he is away on research. Her life is pretty uneventful, until many different medical cases begin falling in her lap. This manga is very graphic and frequently features scenes of extreme gore, as Fran begins to do more and more intense surgical procedures.

Chapters
1. Brains - A desperate father comes to the mansion in hopes of saving his murdered son. Fran fixes it by combining the brains of father and son in the father's body, resulting in the father's torment.

2. Chrysalis - After a boy confesses his love to a girl with no interest in him, she gets hit by a car. Fran sees this and the boys asks her help to save her. She gives the girl a caterpillar body in order to help. As she rehabilitates, the boy visits her every day. She begins to grow feelings for him as she enters a cocoon state. When she emerges, she has her original body and leaves with the boy. Later, she eats him out of love much like an adult, female insect.

3. Take to Pieces - The police seeks Fran's help as body parts begin to pop up all over town. She puts together the ones they gave her, only to find it to be a blob. She tracks down the source of the parts to a teen girl with a very rare type of tumor where she grows body parts in excess. Fran saves the girl with an important surgery and the police arrest the tumor.

4. Cosmetic Surgery - Fran goes to school to take a break, only to be asked by teachers and students to perform cosmetic procedures to make them happy. Everyone in school ends up becoming some sort of creature due to the strange parts they asked Fran to add.

5. God and Dog - One of her creator's old friends arrives to discuss the topic of God. Fran attempts to solve his dilemma by saying it is true due to man's association with the Dog.

6. Unhappy Birthday - Fran attends a party in her creator's place. The happy celebration of a young girl's birthday is ruined when Fran reveals that all the food that the guests have been eating were the body of the birthday girl. She shows everyone that it was somehow a suicide.

7. Hold Me Tight - A love-struck boy attempts the double suicide of himself and his love. After killing her, he is about to kill himself when Fran stumbles upon him. She fixes it so that the girls he killed can survive by just a head, while using a hand for movement. She appears happy, but when Fran "completely fixes" her, she holds a grudge and kills the boy.

Extra. Movie Star- Fran is asked to be made into the subject of a movie, which she believes will give credit to her field of work. But it turns out to just be an adult-horror film in which her ability to remove her own body parts is used as a sexual idea. She is greatly angered by this, and decides to help a girl who was tricked into participating in the film and is now seeking vengeance. Sometime later a report states that the production staff was murdered by a monster.

8. Beautiful World- An artist suffering from a worsening eye condition is on the verge of going blind. Fran operates on the young painter and gives him new, superhuman eyes which can see 12 different kinds of light reception. He flees into the forest and meets a creature similar to Saya in the visual novel Saya no Uta seeing her as a beautiful girl, and chooses to live with her slowly regains his talent. The girl is most likely a version of a Yuki-onna.

9. Fake- Two mafia lords fight to inherit the wealth of their late grandfather, sending assassins to kill each other. The leader of the Royal Molton company asks Fran to create duplicates of himself for protection,but his duplicate leads his business to bankruption, while his rival, Dunbar asks Fran to make a duplicate of the grandfather's son, who would normally inherit the wealth.

10. Cockroaches- A germophobic client of Fran asks her to create something that will repel cockroaches on the genetic level. The cockroaches break loose of their containment area while she visits the estate. After a strategically planned out fire, the client is left with severe burns, Fran replaces her burned skin with a artificial one made out of the cellulose in the cockroaches.

11. Snow Light- Fran comes upon a little girl while taking a walk in the snow, Fran finds out that the little girl's brother needs a new heart to be transplanted into him, Fran goes to the hospital, wanting to help, but the staff there thinks she is nothing but a monster and shun her from helping. The operation was going to take place in America and to be performed by one of the greatest surgeons in the world, but while he is leaving from the hospital one night, he gets shot by a car jacker. They decided to go with a backup doctor, but presumably a few hours before the surgery, Fran fixes up the original doctor, who performs the surgery with exceptional speed and skill.

12. Multiples- Two boys are fighting over a girl they both like, but the girl is very indecisive of which she likes better, so Fran steps in proposing a new option, of which she gives very little detail at first, it is later explained and shown that she made the girl go through mitosis, the splitting of a cell into two new cells. Unfortunately after the split, one girl is very aggressive and one very passive, and both are just as indecisive, the boys decide they don't like either and leave.

13. Multiples: Take 2- The chapter opens with the girl from the previous chapter running away from something, only to be stopped by a strange caterpillar like creature with four eyes, and the next page shows that she had been brutally ripped apart. As it turns out, Fran's experiment on her gave her the ability to passively perform mitosis, creating many, many clones of her. Fran decides to kill them all except one and remove the ability from that one. Officer Kuhou gets involved and is used to help exterminate all the clones, at the end of the chapter it is presumed that Kuhou's memory was erased.

14. My Little Sister- This chapter is little more than a chapter to introduce Veronica, but it also reveals Fran's ideals.

15. Eternal Beauty- This chapter involves an elderly lady that is a huge figure head in the financial world, she is very well known. She wants to live forever, so she uses doctors who specialize in cloning to make many clones of herself, as well to help to make her live longer, after she thinks she has used the doctor for everything they are worth, she has them killed and steal their information. She, one day, recruits Fran, who successfully reverses the aging process: after the lady knows this, she attempts to kill Fran, by using the assassin, as usual slitting her throat. This does not work on Fran of course, and she stitches her neck back into place. Fran returns to the lady to inform of man cell processes and that the age reversing process was just an experiment, the lady begins developing cancerous tumors as at a ridiculous rate, only to become a large, cancerous blob of tumor. The chapter ends with Fran and Veronica walking away from the lady's mansion discussing what might happen when people find out.

16. Adorer- While on the way back to the mansion with a fresh shipment of parts, Fran is stopped in the tunnel by the nature conservationist army, "Judgment Day". Judgment day stopped them by blowing each side of the tunnel apart and caving them in, but they used to much and caved themselves in as well, fortunately for all of them, a small hole somewhere was later fresh air in. Many people get hurt as they try to tunnel, and Fran helps them, making a bet with them, if they are rescued, all the surgery is free, if they die, Adorea gets to "eat" them and store all their organs for later use, and while she does save them all, they all die from hunger before Fran's group does, Veronica and Okita finally come to rescue them, and Adorea emerges from the tunnel very fat. During the chapter, one of the men falls in love with Adorea, and before he dies, he requests to see Adorea's face, which after removing the bandages, her face is just thousands of tentacles that she uses to harvest organs.

17. Sea Monster- A giant monster appears, and the military wants to destroy it. It turns out the monster is really a woman who wanted to live with the whales that met the Professor. He granted her wish, and she was just returning home to tell her mom that she was pregnant.

18. Trivial love- The Assassin, whose name is revealed to be Agito, has been leading attacks against the Madaraki research lab. Veronica stops his team, and comes face-to-face with Agito several times, only to find out that he has been modified by Fran. Following him, she finds that he is living with a woman, who is now pregnant with his child. By the time she leaves, Agito's men start to attack him and the woman, only for the woman to reveal her true identity as one of the Professor's old experiments. The chapter ends with Fran commenting on their love, but also with her teasing Veronica of making a man like Agito, because she believes he is Veronica's type.

19. Lust- At school, the girls are harassed and ask Fran for a solution. When one of the girls is broken up with, she asks Fran to reveal what she has done. Fran then reveals that she created a monstrous plant which sexually pleases the boys, only for it to be destroyed by the girl who requested for it.

20. The Final Movie- A client of Fran's wishes to finish her movie, but she is dying. When she does die, Fran takes matters into her own hands by posing as the woman by using her skin. Although the movie is finished, it is never released due to all of the cast and crew members dying of the same disease Fran's client died of, due to having sex with the still-diseased skin.

21. Attempted Suicide- Fran accidentally takes the brain out of a boy who was resting, believing he committed suicide. To cope with the loss of his body, Fran gives him a mascot body. On his way out, a girl asks him to take her away due to the mascot being the only thing that kept her happy. She tells of how her stepfather sexually abuses her, leading to the boy to take the girl away, with police men in pursuit. Seeing the father, he attacks and is nearly killed. The chapter ends with the boy in the father's body, with him now being able to make the little girl happy. Unfortunately, Fran put the brain of the Step-Father in the mascot body, and sent the pedophile to the same amusement park the girl wanted to go to. This chapter is unique in that it is one of the only times that Fran was genuinely unaware of the potential problems of her actions, whereas in other chapters she simply does not care about the consequences, even knowing them ahead of time.

22. Protozoan- A model shows signs of Medusa's head. Fran is called to help, only to discover the girl's past and who the face resembles. To help the model live peacefully, Fran removes it by using the DNA of the friend to impregnate the woman, allowing her to give birth to the friend she loved.

23. Justice- An athlete who needed artificial muscles to compete in the championship decides to be the city's protector and asks Fran to make him stronger and stronger. Despite his good intentions, he is seen by the city as a criminal who must be stopped, so a group of people eventually take him down. In desperation, he goes to Fran and asks her to make him as strong as possible even if it means looking like a monster. With a monster haunting the city, some relatives of the murdered people go to Fran and go under the same muscle enhancement process as the athlete before. As a result, the athlete is killed, but the massacre goes on between the super strong people.

24. Immortality- A corpse is found in the city, and the police contact Fran. It is revealed that the corpse isn't human, and thus it was believed to be one of the beings that Fran created, hence why they contacted her as opposed to having a normal autopsy done. The corpse turns out to be an immortal being who, though his flesh and organs rotted away, was forced to live on, having his body supplemented by a vast amount of insects. His immortality turns out to be a punishment for having mocked Christ in his final moments, 2000 years ago. So, Fran helps him completely rebuilding his body. But shortly after completion and rehabilitation, he sees the image of Christ, believes that he has been forgiven, and his body breaks down. Fran realizes that through her intervention, Nos, as she had come to call him, was able to die, and get rest. They bury Nos on the Madaraki property..

25. Girl's School- Fran determines that Veronica is too anti-social and violent, so she sends Veronica, along with Adorea, to attend an all girl's school for one month. There, Veronica is subjected to unrelenting bullying from almost all of the girls in the class, under the lead of a girl by the name of Kuya, Miki. In fact, the only one whom Veronica befriends is a seemingly kind, quiet girl, Enshou Yura. The bullying continues throughout the month. Veronica also learns rumors of girls whom Miki targets simply disappearing into the forest. On the last day of Veronica's stay in the school, she makes good on a promise to have tea with Yura. But there, it is revealed that Miki actually works under Yura, whom brings girls to her home where they can be abducted by men who intend to sell them off as pleasure slaves to pedophiles. Yura drugged the tea, but is surprised when a man is killed while in the course of trying to rape a supposedly drugged Veronica. In the end Veronica kills all the men, and reveals that Adorea took care of Miki. She takes mercy on Yura for having been the only friend Veronica made, and doesn't kill her, but leaves her with all the bodies to explain to the authorities.

26. Piety- This chapter starts with a man and a female reporter searching for the base of operations for a cult. The man's wife took his daughter away five years ago, to join the cult, and now he seeks to bring her back, and shame the cult, via the reporter doing an expose on the cult for the media. They find the base, but can't figure out how to get in. The Fran shows up, having exited the base from a back exit. The two take Fran captive, and it is revealed that she is the physician for his daughter. She agrees to help them find her. So they go through a tour of the base, only for the man to discover at the end that his daughter fell to sickness and was immortalized as the base itself, with each room acting as one of her vital organs. He also learns that his daughter pregnant despite never having had a menstrual cycle. He demands to see the fetus, and when he tries to take it away it is born into a strange monster, resembling the Flying Spaghetti Monster of the parody religion Pastafarianism.

27. Her Pet Dog- Fran and Veronica pass a girl who's dog was just ran over by a truck. Veronica asks Fran to revive the dog, but after Fran finds the dogs body to be to badly damaged she tells the girl to get a new dog. Swayed by the girls words Fran puts the dogs brain in a cadavers body. The girl first rejects the dogman, but soon finds it is her old dog in a new body. The girl then dies of a terminal illness and the dog waits outside the train station until he ultimately freezes to death. It is implied that the body is then reused by Fran for another girls dead dog. This chapter parodies a famous Japanese movie with a loyal dog, Hachiko.

28. A Very Lucky Man- A condemned prisoner and killer of thirty-two people (possibly three times more) survived both hanging and lethal injection. Fran, along with other specialists, is called in to find out how to kill him. She deduces that the "God of Probability" loves him. He is just a lucky man fit to be king. She along with the other scientist wish to study him, but are rejected. He is then killed by dismemberment with a chainsaw. Fran saves his life through microsurgery. He then escapes Fran's custody, and then gets struck by lightning and dies.

29. Egg Parturition- Fran discovers a new way for females to give birth to lighten the burden of carrying a child for 9 months. She reveals the method of giving birth to a cocoon to a doctor who soon takes on the idea as her own. People begin widely using this method and they find out that many bugs and animals prey on these. The doctor is blamed for this and returns home to find her own child eaten away by bugs.

30. People of Unusual Taste - Fran is reunited by some of her former patients at a ski lodge in Hokkaidō. When her patients seem to fall victim to a murderer one by one in a Locked room mystery scenario, Fran ultimately faces the truth that her former patients have Münchausen syndrome and are only using Fran's surgical abilities to satisfy an endorphin rush.

Extra Purin - Fran and Veronica go to a showing of a film based on the events in Chapter 27 "Her Pet Dog." While Fran accepts the filmmakers artistic liberties in the film (from the fanciful depictions of the people involved to implied Bestiality), Veronica quickly goes from questioning to becoming outright disgusted at the films artistic license.

Characters
Fran Madaraki - The protagonist of the manga, Fran lives at the Madaraki estate. Though she is often mistaken as Naomitsu Madaraki's daughter, she is actually his greatest masterpiece. Fran has obviously undergone several inhuman surgeries: she is fitted with two giant Frankenstein-like electrodes at each side of her head and she has stitches all over her body as if she had been patched up, thus the title of the manga being a play on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Still, at first glance she looks like a regular girl, and sometimes she will even attend a normal school. Her unsteady step and a habit of drawing out the end of her sentences still stand out, though.

Somewhat absent-minded and easy-going, Fran appears removed from humanity - she is often genuinely uncaring of any potential consequences of her actions, and seems to have absolutely no regard for human morality. While she appears to have a distinct lack of empathy, and will serve any client from superheroes to mobsters and worse, she does sometimes show compassion for her clients... or at least, their reasons for wanting business with her.

Fran is able to make her clients' dreams come true and very often their nightmares as well - the consequences of her actions are extraordinary. Even so, Fran carries on without a concern. During surgery, she is able to increase the number of her arms and operate at great speeds. Her one creed is that she cannot ever take life; often, her victims wish she would kill them out of mercy.

Veronica Madaraki - A bioweapon assassin created by Dr. Madaraki for his own protection. In addition to her naturally high combat ability, she is trained in the handling of explosives and the setting of traps in the field. A large, X-shaped stitch marks her face. Because she was created after Fran, Veronica calls her "onee-sama" ("elder sister", in a highly respectful manner).

Wielding a huge guillotine blade in her right arm and a sharp sword in her left, she also appears to have needles on the end of her fingertips allow her to inject viruses into her victims. She follows her own battle etiquette: "To murder while causing as little suffering as possible", in opposition to Fran, who believes that "regardless of the shape or form, if it can function as a living organism it is good". As Veronica supports the notion of "rather a painless death than a painful life", she is the antithetical existence to Fran.

Although her first appearance was somewhat of an antagonist, she quickly joined Fran at her home, and appears to be very protective of Fran. She will not hesitate to eliminate anything that threatens her, although Fran stops her most of the time because of her beliefs.

Okita - The face of a fearless young man with the body of a cat. He often works along with Fran, supporting her or making fun of her. When attending parties he attaches a human body to his head, thus taking the form of a perfectly normal adult man. During operations when Fran goes too far, Okita is sometimes bewildered, but in general he supervises them in silence. Very rarely does he fall in love with female cats.

Howl - A butler with the face of a dog and the body of an adult human male. He calls Fran "Mademoiselle". Howl receives phone calls and makes tea. He behaves in a relaxed, sophisticated manner.

Fragon - One of Fran’s servants, he wears a black cloak and a hat. His true form is unknown due to his clothing. Judging from his superior sense of smell and the partially exposed snout, the likelihood that he is a pig-like man is high.

Raglush - Appearing only in chapter 13, Raglush's appearance is unknown, presumably humanoid, with his hands and/or fingers replaced by serrated claws. He also shows incredible speed. His clothes are similar to that of Fragon's.

Dr. Naomitsu Madaraki - During the world war this scientist worked for the Biochemistry Division, earning fame and the moniker of “Devil of Biology”. He was and is considered a top-class thinker in the field of biotechnology. He has also been called the “Spider’s Thread” due to some of his surgical operations involving human resurrection. After the war he moved from country to country for the sake of his research, although apparently he has returned home in recent years. At the moment his whereabouts are unknown. If he is still alive then it is estimated that he must be quite old. Dr. Madaraki defined World War II to be “a war to kill the gods” because of its promotion of scientific development and the erosion of religion accompanied by it.

Dr. Amatsuka - A friend of Madaraki’s since the days of the old Japanese Empire. His various achievements have earned him the title of Viscount in England. He has an open bet with Madaraki on the existence of God.

Officer Kuhou - A glasses-wearing, female investigator who has the occasional interaction with Fran. She is sort of air-head at times but is usually very serious when working in the field. She first meets Fran in order to get help in tracking down a possible murderer. The second time they meet up, she ends up taken on a surgery from Fran in order to heighten her senses so she can track down and kill the clones of one of Fran's previous experiments. After her encounters she begins to be haunted by violent dreams in which she is taken apart by Fran. It is implied at the end of chapter 13 that her surgery and hunting down of clones was just another one of her nightmares, but it is still unsure.

Adorea - She is another one of Fran's companions who is always seen wrapped entirely in bandages. Her job is to collect and store the many organs Fran may need to take on the go. The organs are collected through her "face", which is nothing more than hundreds of tentacles used to tear and collect the organs from the "patient." The organs are stored through out her body and accessed by Fran through many zippers found all over her body. In one chapter, she becomes very important as Fran and her assassins get trapped and injured in a tunnel, where one of the assassins appears to admire and almost love Adorea, only to be "collected."

Her origin was revealed in an extra chapter. Originally a beautiful, but terminally ill, girl, she had a lover who was handsome, but also in a terminal condition, Due to their love for each other, they agreed to give each other their organs upon death, so that the other could live, but the man went back on his word, and took all of Adorea's organs for himself. Dr. Naomitsu Madaraki, the surgeon in charge at the time, modifed Adorea into her present condition so she could take back her organs (with interest!).

Agito - Agito is a mysterious man with a large jaw, shark-like teeth, and rough hands, his finger nails have also been sharpened to a fine point. In chapter 15 he is the lady's bodyguard and personal assassin, in chapter 18, he seems to only be going after Fran, in attempt to destroy the mansion and gather all of Dr. Madaraki's information. His background is mostly unknown, but it is revealed in chapter 18 he works for some mafia/yakuza style organization bent on destroying Fran and gathering all of Dr. Madaraki's information.

Kaneda - Kaneda is introduced in chapter two as a very superficial girl. She is run over by a truck and is saved by Fran at the persistence of a boy in her class that had a crush on her. Fran gave her the body of a caterpillar and started developing feelings for the boy she rejected at the beginning of the chapter. When she gets her old body back, she is shown eating the boy alive during sex. She comes back in chapter 29 and is shown to be completely insect. Fran tests a new way of giving birth on her.