Review: FRANKEN FRAN

Like Vinland Saga before it, today's review was a darling of the scanlation scene long believed to be unlicenseable due to its content.  Thankfully for us, Seven Seas took on the challenge and the result is nothing quite like we've seen previously in horror manga.

FRANKEN FRAN (Furanken Furan), by Katsuhisa Kigitsu.  First published in 2006 and first published in North America in 2016.

PLOT:

Fran Madaraki is a patient young woman.  She's spent years waiting for her father and creator, the notorious Dr. Madaraki, to return.  In the mean time, she spends her time helping others through surgery in the name of saving lives.  Unfortunately, Fran's got a rather peculiar notion of what saving life means, and she's more than willing to use all sorts of horrific methods to get results.

Review: SERVANT X SERVICE

Of course, I can't finish talking about comedy manga without talking about a 4-koma.  The problem is that there weren't many new ones to talk about and what was there wasn't all that good to begin with.

SERVANT X SERVICE (Sabanto X Sabisu), by Karino Takatsu.  First published in 2011 and first published in North America in 2016.

PLOT:

In an ordinary town, within an ordinary public service office lies a Health and Welfare Department that is anything but ordinary.  The staff not only have to deal with paperwork, chatty patrons, and slacking on the job, but also with ridiculously long names, angry teenagers, interoffice romance, and a supervisor who works from home via a stuffed rabbit. 

Review: NICHIJOU

This year didn't bring quite the onslaught of comedy manga as last year did, but it did bring the unexpected license of what was already becoming something of a cult classic in anime circles.  With its animated counterpart on the horizon, now's as good of a time as any to check out its source material.

NICHIJOU: MY ORDINARY LIFE (Nichijou), by Keiichi Arawi.  First published in 2006, and first published in North America in 2016.

PLOT:

Yuuko, Mio, Mai and Nino would be ordinary girls leading ordinary lives...were it not for the comic misunderstandings, forgotten assignments, random falling objects, life-or-death battles with stray deer, and a mad scientist who is also a little girl who like to keep hiding new features and spare food in her robot.

Review: HANDA-KUN

Folks will remember that two years ago I reviewed the first volume of Barakamon and really liked it.  Spoilers: the series is still charming as hell and it's still one of my ongoing favorites.  So naturally when I heard that Yen Press was releasing a prequel series, I had to check it out.

HANDA-KUN, by Satsuki Yoshino.  First published in 2013 and first published in North America in 2016. 

PLOT:

Long before Sei Handa went to Goto Island, he was a calligraphy-obsessed high school student.  His classmates think that Sei's aloof air makes him a cool guy.  What they don't know is that he's actually incredibly negative and insecure and perceives all the attention as mockery and gossip.  Sei is so oblivious to the truth that he manages to stumble his way through love confessions, school council elections, popular guys and class punks.

Review: CELLS AT WORK

Let's start this month off with a manga about a subject manner that will be all too familiar to many of us: dealing with infectious diseases!

What?  That's a perfectly normal subject for a comic, what are you talking about?  Read on, it'll make sense soon enough.

CELLS AT WORK! (Hataraku Saibo!), by Akane Shimizu.  First published in 2015 and first published in North America in 2016.

PLOT:

It's just another day inside the body for Red Blood Cell AE 3803.  She travels back and forth within the body delivering nutrients, trying her best to not get lost again, and forced to deal with everything from an invasion of pneumonia bacteria to hay fever to a scraped knee.  Luckily, she can rely on a particularly grim white blood cell for protection, along with all the other defensive cells within the body.