Franken Fran, Vols. 3-4

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By Katsuhisa Kigitsu. Released in Japan by Akita Shoten, serialized in the magazine Champion Red. Released in North America by Seven Seas.

Franken Fran has many grotesque, nasty images throughout. There’s blood, gore, other bodily fluids, and truly disgusting things being done to the human body. And yet the most terrifying thing in the entire series is easily Fran herself, who is quite simply impossible to understand or empathize with, and whose concept of what life is does not remotely cross over with the majority of humanity. Fran is simply a force of nature, and this omnibus shows us several times when your jaw drops at what she carries out. Oddly enough, it’s Veronica, her sister the assassin who was introduced at the end of the last book, who ends up being the voice of sanity in the series (as well as the straight man).

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This is not to say that Veronica is a good guy, of course. In one of the more touching chapters in this book, Veronica and walking organ bank Adorea go to a high school undercover to, theoretically, give Veronica “social skills”. (The fact that Fran is the one who says she doesn’t have these is one of the best jokes in the book.) Of course, veronica is a small, sullen, scarred girl, so naturally she proceeds to get bullies to hell and back, with only one other girl nice enough to be friends with her. And then, of course, everything goes even MORE horribly wrong, as we discover a slavery ring and Veronica has to clean house and chop up a few bad guys. If this were a normal, non-funny thriller series, Veronica might be the anti-hero.

And of course there are the plots of the chapters themselves. Franken Fran is to a large degree an anthology horror series, with Fran and her occasional cast dealing with tragic young love, evil matriarchs seeking immortality, and of course at least two chapters dealing with bugs, which are absolutely not for the squeamish. There’s even a cameo by a certain cult religious deity. The two best chapters in the book are two of the most touching (note that I’m defining touching in the venue of Franken Fran, not beyond it) – in one, a suicidal young man who changes his mind is given new life as a children’s mascot, and crosses paths with a young girl who’s being abused by her father. In the other, a young girl’s dog is killed by a truck, and it’s Fran to the rescue, though her new dog is, shall we say, not what you’d expect. The series even mocks itself by having a Hollywood movie made out of the latter chapter, with dire consequences. (“The bestiality was a nice touch.”)

In the end, Franken Fran is about the stories. They won’t make you feel good, they may gross you out, and one or two of them may give you nightmares. But they’re all stories that stay in your head. And Fran, being a protagonist (I refuse to call her a heroine) who is our guide through this twisted world, is just as memorable.

Umineko: When They Cry, Vol. 13

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Story by Ryukishi07; Art by Hinase Momoyama. Released in Japan in two separate volumes as “Umineko no Naku Koro ni: Dawn of the Golden Witch” by Square Enix, serialized in the magazine GFantasy. Released in North America by Yen Press.

“Beatrice was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of her burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Lambdadelta signed it. And Lambdadelta’s name was good upon ‘Change, for anything she chose to put her hand to. Old Beatrice was as dead as a door-nail.”

OK, sorry, that just had to be done. Welcome to the new arc of Umineko, folks, and here’s 500 more pages of Rokkenjima antics. And yes indeed, Old Beatrice is dead, and won’t be returning. Luckily for us, Battler is a bit upset about that, and so we have new, Fledgling Beatrice. Sadly, new Beatrice acts meek and mild, and seems to regard Battler as more of a father than anything else. Yes, sorry to say, if you thought creepy incest themes were only in the third arc, guess again.

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Battler understands how magic really works now, so recreating *a* Beatrice isn’t that hard. But this isn’t his Beatrice, as she has not experienced the thousand years of endless torture that turned her into the Endless Witch. As a result, Battler is a bit upset at her very presence, which is a shame as she really, really wants to be nice to him. Fledgling Beato (the translation does not use the term “Chick Beato” as the games did – I thank them for that) is, personality-wise, much the same as the Beatrice that Rosa found in the secret mansion back in 1967 or so. And Battler is, of course, very reminiscent of Kinzo lately. I don’t like where this is going.

Luckily there are many other aspects to this series, as always. Erika is back as well, and she’s naturally at her best when at her worst, destroying Maria’s concept of magic to such a degree that even Gertrude and Cornelia are calling it completely pointless. Erika is a villain you love to hate, and even though she is also part of the endless cycle of ‘bullied becomes the bully’ thanks to suffering at Bern’s hands, her total contempt for anything other than truth leads her to arrogance and scorn. Also returning, after an Arc’s absence, is Ange, somewhat surprised to not be dead. She’s here to investigate the supposed author of the 3rd-5th arcs, Tohya Hachijo – or rather to her true self, Featherine Augustus Aurora, who seems to be a Witch along the lines of Lambda or Bern, only infinitely more arrogant. (The connection to Higurashi’s Hanyuu, subtle in the VN, is made far more explicit here.)

And then there’s our romantic couples. It is rather sweet seeing Kanon finally work up the courage to confess to Jessica, and she does more happy blushing here than she has in the last five arcs combined. It is also somewhat interesting to see George confess to his past mindset and pettiness – honestly, the entire section makes teenage George sound a bit like an MRA, and I’m glad to see he has matured to a degree where he can confess to how stupid it is. The more interesting question here, though, is the need for magic in order to make them happy. Yes, the whole master/servant relatioship is a worry, but not a big enough worry to require a literal miracle. Why do Shannon and Kanon need magic for their love to be fulfilled? Why is Beatrice so determined to be with Battler even though she keeps calling him father? Why does Ryukishi07 feel the need to introduce a second Greek Chorus to expound just about love? And why does the manga always make Ange a giant brocon, something that isn’t in the VNs? Is it just for the lulz?

The art, by the way, is from the artist who did the Higurashi Massacre volumes, and it’s pretty good. Like several of the other artists, she knows when to emphasize the sauciness in ways readers will like – hence Fledgling Beato and Elder Beato crushing their chests together – but also to make fun of it in the 4komas later. If you enjoy Umineko, there’s nothing to worry about here, except more attention to incestual romances than I’d perhaps like.

Strike the Blood, Vol. 3

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By Gakuto Mikumo and Manyako. Released in Japan by ASCII Mediaworks. Released in North America by Yen Press.

You’ll pardon me if I find myself saying the same things I said in the first two reviews of this series. I have gotten to the point where I almost wish Strike the Blood was worse than it actually was, as that might actually make it slightly more surprising, even in a horrible way. But no, this is very much a series that fulfills its function. It has a lot of cool, well-written action scenes, the plot advances incrementally, the hero gets a couple of new girls who like him, and the heroine sees this and is cool and frosty to him for reasons he can’t quite figure out. It’s very well colored, but never goes outside the lines. Not once.

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Oddly, you would expect a series like this to have varied covers, usually with the hero and a different girl on each of them. that is one thing Strike the Blood does do differently – each cover is Yukina posing for the reader, reminding readers that she is the main heroine whether they like it or not. And as a main heroine, she’s pretty good. The main reason I’m interested in her is that she seems to get frosty when the hero does something that implies he’s not attracted to her, rather than the usual punchy. Her overly earnest personality balances nicely against the more normal childhood hacker friend, the classic tsundere not-lesbian, and (introduced here) the shy princess and her sister, the teasing princess. Of course, the fact that all those are classic harem series archetypes also says something about what we’re reading here.

As for non-harem plot antics, well, trying to turn your adopted daughter into an Angel in order to make her happy is certainly not something you’ll see every day. I did appreciate that Kensei’s motives were given a bit of depth, showing off the somewhat misplaced love he has for her, even if his solution is appalling. It made a nice contrast with Beatrice, who comes to us right out of sneering female villains 101, and is such a cliche that it begins to verge on parody. Same with the elder princess, La Folia, who is noble and very royal, but also introduced to the reader by being found bathing in a stream, and also becomes the latest girl Kojou has to bite in order to release a beast monster to save the day.

I would ideally like something in this series to horribly offend or appall me, so that I could simply drop it and that would be the end of it. But no, Strike the Blood continues to be quietly competent and eminently enjoyable, provided you hate surprises. The hero is a nice guy, but if it weren’t for the illustrations provided throughout, I’d likely imagine him as looking exactly the same as Touma from A Certain Magical Index, a series which this has some similarities with. Index’s prose can be a bear to read, though, and it does throw the occasional curveball. Strike the Blood is batting practice. Straight down the middle, book after book.