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Manga News/Discussion |OT~| How can I Ignore Such a Magnificent...THREAD!

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mdubs

Banned
Ballroom e Youkoso 36

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Lord take the wheel
 

Marche90

Member
Nisekoi 200

Holy shit, the plot's now moving at a breakneck speed! It only took him 200 chapters to piece together everything about him and Chitoge.

ONTO THE OT3 ENDING!... or the Haru one, due to that last page?
 

Shengar

Member
Frankenstein is perhaps one of the most misunderstood horror classic by the masses. When we heard the name "Frankenstein", what come up on our mind is the grotesque monster made by stitched limbs of human originating from different individual, made to life by the power of science. As such people feared the monster, its appearance, and its sinister motive to bring ruin to its own creator.

But Frankenstein is not the name of the monster, as the creature left unnamed by its own creator. Frankenstein is none other than the creator of the himself. Driven by thirst of science and grief, he created an abomination that he himself even refused to acknowledged, while deep down he still feel responsible and unable to destroy it.

The horror evoked by Frankenstein novel is shouldn't be the monster, but Victor Frankenstein himself. On how such creation could born in this world in the first. Or perhaps, even the conceiving such idea, an idea of science so advanced it break the taboo and natural order of our world, shouldn't be thought in the fist place.

How all of that related to Franken Fran? Well, it because Franken Fran is a work that try to create the true horror of Frankenstein. An attempt that for me is exceptionally done well. So exceptional that it could surpass the original classic, until Katsuhisa Kigitsu turned it into his own modern Frankenstein's monster.

In classic Frankenstein tale, the emphasis of the horror is on the creator, or the idea of how the come up with their creation of monster. Meanwhile in modern Frankenstein tale, much of them used the grotesqueness of the monster itself as horror, either by appearance, behavior, or even both. With Franken Fran, or to be exact Madaraki Fran, Katsuhisa Kigitsu do not only one but both the essence of Frankenstein tale.

Madaraki Fran herself is a creation akin to Frankenstein's Monster, made by the genius and/or mad Dr. Madaraki. She had stitch marks run across her face, and there are two big bolts nailed to the sides of her head, creating a bizarre contrast with the rest of her beautiful facial feature. But unlike the classic monster, Fran inherited many skills of her own creation. She's capable of performing surgeries and other medical science with relative ease, and this perhaps the main reason why Dr. Madaraki regard her as his perfect creation.

This is where the greatest part of Franken Fran come from; she's both Victor Frankenstein and his Monster. Fran with her skill is able to create her own grotesque monster(s). Not by sinister or malicious intent, but instead by her naive understanding of human relation, the world, and science. We see many of her "patients" turned into a tragic end, resulting in gory mess or abominable, otherworldly appearance because what she believe best by science in order to keep her belief of "all live is sacred" will bring happiness as long as her patient live. Her naivety and endless chase of science is what made the part of Victor Frankenstein in her, evoking the horror of idea as science with the wrong motive can result in tragedies. Meanwhile Madaraki Fran herself is creation of Dr. Madaraki, capable of creating grotesque (human) monster, making her the Frankenstein's Monster of the manga. As such Her status as both Victor Frankenstein and the monster have created a double layer of horror that evoked by the original.

All of the horror and dark comedy in the manga of course wouldn't work if its not for Katsuhisa Kigitsu writing skills. For me, there are many stories in Franken Fran where the "punch line" and climax executed just at the right time. This make Franken Fran enjoyable (no, not that kind of enjoyment) to read as you somehow got hooked with it, unable to stop even though the structure of story mostly self contain with only several cameo and little continuity that brought on some "mini series" within the manga. Even when the quality dropped significantly during the later part of the manga, only this part of Franken Fran that hadn't suffered too much, making me still hooked to the end.

Ah, now we talk about the most tragic part of Franken Fran. It is not a story that make Franken Fran a tragic tale for me but how it over welcome itself, degrading in quality to the point that I would said it tried to self-parody. One of the tragic part is how Fran's role degrading as the manga goes on. In early volume she had quite active role in many stories, where her misunderstanding or misguided goodwill turned her patients into a twisted fulfillment of their own wish. In later volume she only become a horror-making machine that'll central to the story. She does not have any active willingness to the horror she created, turning what supposedly "Fran turned other people wishes to horror" into "patients turned their wish into horror that bite themselves while Fran taking care of the mess". This undermine double layered Frankenstein tale because it no longer focused on Fran, but the twisted wish of her patient and the dark comedy that played out of it while Fran herself do absolutely nothing.

While earlier I said Katsuhisa Kigitsu still able to deliver good climaxes even on the later volumes where the quality fall apart, the couldn't be said to how story the ends. In early volumes, stories are resolved with satisfying (depends on how you see it) end, leaving nothing unchecked that could makes feel unsure what happened after the epilogue. But in later chapter this not happening when there are many stories ends with many things unresolved. Is it as if Katshuhisa Kigitsu try to make a continuation chapter of those stories for a later time, while earlier story that turned into mini-series and character that make cameo ends up like that because they still able to do so.

Many part of Franken Fran later volumes feel pointless, or even should I said the later volumes themselves shouldn't exist. It pointless best shown by Fran's sisters. Veronica Madaraki despite her moe demeanor even after her debut chapter, serves a crucial role in delivering the most horror evoking in the manga. Her debut chapter had shown how her sister belief "all life is sacred" hresulted in tragic being that barely living anymore, had make Fran more of a monster that Veronica's own "quick and painless death". The same couldn't be said with Fran's older sister, Gavrill. Her chapter appearance does not add anything to the central theme of Franken Fran. Even her physical appearance (more emphasis on appearance, shown by Gavrill's bolt looking like pair of headphones as opposed to Fran's oversized one) and her reason for existing (Veronica was made after Fran to become a bodyguard for Dr. Madaraki himself, while Gavrill more like a living weapon, something that completely out of Dr. Madaraki's character" told us quite clear that she was being added just because Fran somehow had an older sister.

That's why Franken Fran ends up as a flawed work for me. Not even a flawed gem because it dragged itself way too much. If only it ends at volume 3, maybe even 4, Franken Fran would be a horror work that remembered for its double layered Frankenstein tale. But that's not the case and the fact that I remembered more of its shortcoming than its highest point, makes me sad.

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Tokyo Ghoul Re 59

My friends and people online keep wondering whats going on with Ken, saying that he's become a douche and this isn't the Ken that they wanted back. Honestly I don't think he'll ever come back, that was the whole point of the original ending. He realized that his super kind routine was the wrong way of living(lead to the torture) and his ghoul side was just as wrong (Tokyo Ghoul spoilers)
(lead to arima beating him to an inch away from death)
, what I personally believe we saw in the ending was Ken realizing that both his personas were wrong and weak, at the end they mended together and now we have a combination of both the black and white hair ken.
 
Black Clover 01-44: Not bad. It's pretety standard Shonen fair, takes a lot of nods from Fairy Tail (Black Sheep == Fairy Tail Guild), though it does a lot better than that with regards to the fights (not that that's saying much). There's a few interesting subversions to it, but when you boil it down it's still hotheaded slightly stupid protagonist with weird, mysterious powers that everybody comments on fights to achieve [INSERT THING HERE] w/ backing from bunch of ridiculous misfits who everybody looks down on but are actually crazy powerful.

Things it subverts to effect: dude's unconventional powers are... actually unconventional, at least for the setting, he's lost a fight (Marth ultimately wrecked him), and his rival is consistently on par or better but is never an asshole about it.

All in all, it's pretty solid, but I just got done reading Hunter x Hunter and a Full Metal Alchemist reread, so it kind of pales in comparison. I'm sure it'll be an enjoyable read going forward, though.
 
Prison School 201

I hate that a dude who draws an entire manga around making fun of fan service draws some fucking ridiculously good fanservice. Like seriously, look at the body line and ass on honey in that tall nude shot. Just fucking...the fact that doujin of this exists is beyond my understanding. I'd never try to draw his characters, I'd just give up going "My shit's never going to look that good"

I'm so lewd.

Ballroom Cuties 33-34


...this is about ballroom dancing, right?

I really wanna see this manga continue just to see the two main cuties be forced to dance a sexy latin dance.
 
Mob Psycho 100 ch 60-67

That arc was good and Mob is an interesting main character. After all that psychological shit inside his head I'm looking forward to seeing how this progresses.
 

Saya

Member
I just finished Nijigahara Holograph last night and loved it. I'm in the mood for more.

Does anyone have recommendations for horror Manga or similar like Nijigahara? I've read most of Junji Ito's stuff, but that's about it. I've also read most of Berserk.
 
I just finished Nijigahara Holograph last night and loved it. I'm in the mood for more.

Does anyone have recommendations for horror Manga or similar like Nijigahara? I've read most of Junji Ito's stuff, but that's about it. I've also read most of Berserk.

Try Oyasumi Punpun, by the same author.
 
Not Equal 1 - 11 [END]
Okay this definitely gets to be Ike Reibun best written and best manga of her time as an author. It took the time slip idea to the next level and made it go to the highest echelon of good writing in BL that Ive encountered. There is only one other author who has managed to do this time of thing so well and both target different types of relationships. I loved how Ryou was able to go into the past to try to finally get to know and see just who his father was, however in a much younger and surprising form to him. Through the events of his time stuck there he was able to finally learn about him, get close to him and even take things to a different level. They became such great and close friends and it was so sweet with how their daily lives was. Seeing Konomi change over time was lovely and then just laugh and everything. it all came together naturally. They were perfect. Even teared up a lot once we manged to finally get everyone to break out their shells only to be torn apart forcefully. The present day was very interesting as we went through several points in their lives and seeing if they could stay away from each other and try to just stay father and son. Loved the ending and how this whole thing concluded. It was great. The story will always be memorable and one of the best in the field.
 
Attack on Titan 77

Marco should've never talked to them.... Bertolt is also a punk since he just openly commits these acts without saying a word... Also Annie and peer pressure to the extreme but Reinner is the biggest cold hearted dude out of the three forcing this "warrior" mentality on other people when he himself can't handle it by creating a split personality

I mean they are trying to put sympathy for those two (Marco and Reinner) but in all honesty I am disgusted by them (compared to Annie that was more believable)

the sooner they booth hit the bucket the better
 

striferser

Huge Nickleback Fan
Takemitsu Zamurai vol.2
This volume focus on the struggle within Souchirou. He became a teacher, contributing to the society in a positive way. but the circumstances around him force him to unleash the beast within him, especially during serial killer arc and the fact a hired killer is targeting him. Great stuff.

The story between Souichiro and the girl from archery range was great. The ending when it was revealed that she can only write her name and Souichiro name is heart thugging.
 
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