The Spring 2024 Manga Guide

Her Frankenstein

What's It About? 

Little Tetsuo is a wimpy mess. His parents don't love him. He meets the beautiful Kimiko, an ailing teenage girl obsessed with movies and mayhem in equal amounts. She doesn't love Tetsuo either, or anyone other than herself. But she needs him. So Tetsuo becomes the man she wants―the monster she wants. He becomes HER FRANKENSTEIN!

Her Frankenstein is a manga by Norikazu Kawashima with an English translation by Ryan Holmberg. Published by Living the Line (May 28, 2024).

Content warning: Child abuse

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Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

Welcome to the 1980s horror manga you probably have never heard of but need to know. Her Frankenstein was part of a brief boom in direct-to-book manga publishing, written and illustrated by a creator who has largely been forgotten. But after reading this, I hope that Living the Line's Smudge imprint brings more of Norikazu Kawashima's works to English-language readers because this is the kind of schlocky, psychologically twisted horror that's easy to get behind.

Based on the 1930s monster movie creation rather than Mary Shelley's novel, Her Frankenstein details the unraveling of Tetsuo, from his childhood friendship with a disabled local rich girl to his final moments working in Tokyo as an adult. When Tetsuo was young, his perceived rejection by his parents (who admittedly had a toxic idea of how boys should behave) led him to befriend Kiriko, the spoiled little rich girl who lived in a mansion high above the town. Kiriko was obsessed with the old Frankenstein movie, and she convinced Tetsuo, who was desperate for positive attention, to “play Frankenstein” with her. After donning a mask, he'd lurch about at her command, terrorizing local children who had been mean to both of them. Ultimately, this created in Tetsuo a need to be dominated by a strong woman, bound forever to her whims.

The troubles for him as an adult begin when his domineering boss dies, and he begins to be haunted by the ghost of a teenage girl. He begins a descent back into the madness of his youth with Kiriko that turns into a full-on break from reality, and while the story deals in a lot of pseudo-psychological material and things of that ilk, it's hard to put it down. Watching Tetsuo deteriorate becomes imperative: we need to know what made him that way and why he's now returning to his childhood “games.” He recognizes some of his issues as stemming from his parents' treatment of him and the relief he felt at Kiriko's friendship, but he's never lucid for long enough to put the pieces together. Reading this is like watching someone march towards a doom you know they could probably avoid if they wanted to and coming to understand that they simply don't have the desire to get better. It's easier to be Frankenstein than it is to be Tetsuo. After all, Frankenstein at least looks like the monster he is.

If horror is your genre, don't pass this one up. It's grim and fascinating, and the extensive essay about the creator adds some excellent context and history to the book. It does involve child abuse and the use of the c-word, which is not acceptable in American English, but if that's not a deal-breaker, give this a chance.

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Lauren Orsini
Rating:

Her Frankenstein is a stark, spare account that mirrors Mary Shelley's gothic tale in 20th-century Japan. Published in 1986, this horror manga has an equally chilling origin story. According to the publisher's description, a few years after this creepy tale was printed, author Norikazu Kawashima destroyed his drawings and vanished into obscurity—a plotline that would be right at home in this bizarre, unsettling work.

Visually, this manga looks its age: its characters have big, sparkling eyes and long faces typical of the era, and the grim black-and-white illustrations look very much hand-drawn. At the same time, a thread of humanity is running through the piece that feels timeless. Beneath Frankenstein's scowling mask, the real horrors of this manga are fears we all face: loneliness, a struggle for acceptance, and the concern that our loved ones don't love us back.

While struggling with these genuine demons, Tetsuo meets Kiriko, a proud, selfish girl who isn't any kinder to him than anyone else but who is vulnerable enough to reveal her need for Tetsuo's company. She becomes his only friend, but under one condition: Tetsuo must be willing to transform into the monster that Kiriko wants him to be, in both body and soul. Tetsuo recounts his story from years in the future, when he's all but forgotten the gruesome events of that one childhood summer—but he soon learns that the past is not so easily discarded. What results is a story that blurs the lines between past and present, reality and fiction, until we're not quite sure whether we're seeing the events on the inside or outside of Tetsuo's brain.

My biggest complaint about this manga is its brevity. At 105 pages, it feels like a part of a whole, like the first spooky tale to whet your appetite for the next in a larger compilation. As the first selection in a new imprint of horror and pulp called Smudge, that is basically what's happening here, though you'll need to buy each creepy tale separately. After the manga, there's a 12-page coda that describes Norikazu Kawashima's life and career, giving a talented horror artist his moment in the sun. Fans of Junji Ito will want to check this one out.