Frankenstein is a
manga adaptation of
the original novel by
Junji Ito. It was originally serialized in
Junji Ito Kyoufu Manga Collection, but was released by
Viz Media in 2018 in hardcover with an official English translation. The new release also collects Ito's stories featuring Oshikiri, a high schooler living in a house connected to alternate worlds, and the stand-alone story "Face Firmly in Place".
Provides examples of:
Frankenstein
- Adaptation Deviation: Ito's take on Frankenstein is actually very faithful, with a small number of key deviations:
- The process by which Victor makes "Adam" is shown in detail; while the original text always implied that Victor built his creature using pieces of dead humans, it stops short of outright confirming it, with Victor describing the process as too gruesome to fully explain.
- Henry Clerval remains with Victor during the construction of the female creature, and learns first-hand why Victor has to make her. Rather than being caught off guard and killed by "Adam" while Victor was at sea, he instead makes the decision to pursue "Adam" himself, and is killed shortly afterwards.
- Instead of Victor destroying the female creature before she awakens, he goes through with creating her. However, "Adam" has Victor make the female creature have the head of Justine Moritz. When the female creature awakens, she remembers what happened before, attacking Victor and being horrified by her intended husband. "Adam" himself destroys his "Bride," making his vengeance against Victor substantially less sympathetic.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Both Frankenstein and his monster receive the same treatment as in the original novel, bringing sorrow to their characters at their end in spite of their mutual crimes.
- Composite Character: In "Frankenstein", the female creature Victor creates is made with Justine's decapitated head. Its portrayal also owes more to the eponymous Bride of Frankenstein rather than Shelley's novel, as the "Bride" is brought to life but rejects the Monster.
- Idiot Ball: Henry Clerval is involved in the chance to make a female wretch... and then runs off on his own to chase the Monster down. Just like in the novel, he is killed by the Monster and Frankenstein is blamed for it.
- Lean and Mean: The Monster, in contrast to Boris Karloff's famous broad-shouldered, lumbering portrayal, has a thinner frame with long arms, actually looking like a being that was stitched together from multiple different bodies.
- Nightmare Face: The Monster is truly horrific-looking, to the point that not even the female Monster would stomach it. The sight of him laughing through a window also scares a poor family in their house.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: Yes, Junji Ito created a manga adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, which, while streamlined, is surprisingly faithful before Ito starts to have more fun with the horror than Shelley did.
- Scary Stitches: Fittingly, both of the monsters have a great many places where their stitched-together forms are shown.
- Shear Menace: The female creature uses surgical scissors to attack both Victor and the creature upon its awakening.
- Tortured Monster: Frankenstein's Monster, as part of the faithful adaptation. All he wants to be accepted by someone, but his hideous countenance inspires horror for everyone who sees it (especially the reader). Even the female wretch, a creature made to love him, can't see him as anything more than a monster.
The Oshikiri stories
- Evil Me Scares Me: Oshikiri finds out that his house is a portal to an Alternate Universe, and the other Oshikiri has found a way to cross over. The problem is, the other him is a Serial Killer...
- Evil Twin:
- Encountered several times by Oshikiri, whose mansion home contains a portal to alternate dimensions. One twin in particular has been performing medical experiments on his classmates in an attempt to discover a formula for human growth to make himself taller. Oshikiri dispatches him by injecting him with his own drug, causing his bones to grown uncontrollably and burst through his skin, but the evil twin dies telling the original that there are even worse Oshikiris out there...
- Oshikiri also encounters evil twins of his own parents, who intend to kill him so they and their son can live in the main Oshikiri's world after an earthquake destroys their version of the mansion.
- The Napoleon: Oshikiri in "Neck Specter", as he kills his friend for growing too tall and has terrifying visions of everyone around him growing in freakish ways. Some of the other Oshikiris have a height complex as well, like the one who tries to create a growth serum that goes wrong in several ways.
- Portal Cut: The portals in Oshikiri's mansion tend to open through the walls and have the unfortunate tendency to sometimes cut off, leaving the poor victim to be absorbed into the stonework.
