Clearly fall is upon us, and Halloween is soon enough. It’s time to start cultivating your favorite horrifying media and enjoying it en masse. And what better geeky entertainment to take in for Halloween than some decadently creepy manga? Here are three newer series you can jump on board with now, just in time for Halloween!
Franken Fran
Image Credit: Seven Seas Entertainment
Franken Fran follows a bizarre young woman named Fran. She doesn’t mean to make things worse for everyone, really. She’s just sewn that way. Originally created by one Dr. Naomitsu Madaraki, originally meant to act as his assistant, she’s since taken over for the biologist while he’s out of the picture. That means taking on cases meant for a professional, not a stitched-up little girl. While she’s no doubt a skilled surgeon, her methods of “fixing” people with physical and mental dilemmas aren’t exactly pretty. On top of that, she thinks a life should be preserved no matter the cost. No matter what.
Fran’s often too enthusiastic to fix someone’s problem, resulting in horrific accidents that often include some sort of graphic mutilation or body horror. One of Fran’s “resolutions” includes removing a girl’s head, filling up the vacant space with other organs instead of the brain, and then keeping the dismembered head as a pet. It’s a cruel world, but one that Fran fits into quite well. Still, there are plenty of moments for black humor to surface if you look for it. And that’s what makes it absolutely perfect for a Halloween read.
Magical Girl Apocalypse
Image Credit: Seven Seas Entertainment
Magical girl series are a dime a dozen, but Magical Girl Apocalypse flips the script entirely. When the young boy Kii Kogami wishes for something interesting to happen in his mundane life, his desires are more than granted when he sees a little girl make his teacher’s head explode. When he goes to the bathroom and comes back, his classmates have been all but eradicated by that same little girl, a veritable psychopath and “magical girl.”
But she’s not the only one out there. There are various murderous girls out to take victims in many repulsive ways, and it’s got some decadently gory scenes that horror fans will thrill to see splashed on the pages in perfect detail. If you’re tired of cutesy magical girls and want the genre to take a darker turn, this is absolutely where you should start.
Tomodachi x Monster
Image Credit: Seven Seas Entertainment
If you love Pokémon, you’ll probably find a lot to love about this weird little series. Tomodachi x Monster is a dark parody of the “pocket monster” stories that seem to permeate popular manga series these days like Digimon and Monster Rancher. When a young student named Wataru wanders away from his school into the wilderness, he comes upon a grotesque creature that appears to have its mouth sewn shut.
It leads him into a dangerous and horrifying world of “tomodachi” monsters, where similar creatures befriend children and expect them to partake in fights to the death utilizing each monster’s specialized abilities. But don’t expect the fights to be over when someone gets “knocked out.” It’s not a Tomodachi x Monster party until someone’s head gets lopped off. Or worse.
What are some of your favorite horror manga series? Let us know in the comment section below.
Featured image credit: Seven Seas Entertainment