Franky

Franky (フランキー) is a fictional character from the anime and manga One Piece.

About Franky
Franky is a 34 year old cyborg from Water 7, and the leader of the Franky Family, a group of ship dismantlers.

In a recent Japanese fan poll, he came out as the thirteenth most popular character.

Personality and Relationships
Franky usually acts tough and is quickly angered, but he is also very emotional when it comes to sad tales and often sings a song or plays a guitar to express his feelings. He looks after the other members of the Franky Family as though they are indeed his own family, so he plays the role of big brother to everyone. He even goes so far as to carry out revenge for them when they are beaten up. He tends to say the word 'Super' while doing his signature pose. Another of his habits is to refer to the 'current week' for exclamation as in "Of course I'm strong, and I've been especially strong this week." or "I've been like this all week." He is well liked amongst the general population of Water 7 despite being a criminal, however as a criminal he is feared by many of them.

His relationship with Iceburg is often strange at times as the other man has never really understood Franky's often weird antics. His original goal to build a ship strong enough to kill a Sea King was always shunned by Iceburg who didn't understand why he kept building his weird ships. Tom however praised Franky for the often ingenious designs he would come up with. When the Battle Franky's were used to hurt the innocent, Franky denounced them as his creations, which led Tom to teach him the most important lesson about being a shipwright- that you must be proud of what you've created no matter what. Furthermore, he announced that he was proud he had built Gold Roger's ship. Iceburg has never forgiven Franky for the part his Battle Frankys play in the framing of Tom, yet despite the differences between Iceburg and Franky, two former apprentices of Tom care deeply about the others well being. Iceburg was relieved to find out Franky was alive after he was hit by the Sea Train and equally Franky was angry with CP9 deeply after they told him Iceburg was dead.

Luffy appears to dislike Franky at first, largely due to Franky's role in the robbery of Usopp during the Water 7 arc. However, during the Enies Lobby arc he comes to accept Franky as an ally. Franky seems to have developed respect for Luffy as well. He also has come to some understanding with Usopp after he makes him comes to terms about the state of the Going Merry, something Usopp knew but didn't want to admit until then. During Franky's fight against Fukurou, Chopper discovers that different drinks give Franky different abilities, a trait that the young reindeer doctor finds fascinating. Franky also builds an alliance with Nico Robin, becoming friendly with her while they were captive and defending her throughout the arc.

Franky's dream is to build a ship that would travel the world and reach the end of the Grand Line.

Tom's Workers
Franky's real name is Cutty Flam (カティ・フラム, Kati Furamu). When he was young his parents (who are thought to have been pirates) threw him off their ship into the ocean. He was then rescued by a legendary shipwright named Tom. Tom took Cutty Flam in as his apprentice. Tom's other apprentice Iceburg then gave Cutty Flam the nickname "Franky" because "Cutty Flam is a weird name". Franky learned shipbuilding from Tom, but spent most of his time constructing warships designed to hunt and defeat Sea Kings, each one named "Battle Franky" with a number corresponding to the order of construction.

When Franky was 12, Tom was put on trial for having built the ship that Gol D. Roger sailed the Grand Line on. Tom was let off for ten years so he could finish building the Puffing Tom, a train that could sail the ocean. After fourteen years had passed (ten to build the train and the first line, four more to build the other three lines the train uses), the Navy were going to let Tom off as thanks for creating the train. However, he was framed by CP9's current leader, Spandam, who was after the blueprints for the ancient weapon Pluton, which had been handed down to Tom through the shipwrights of Water 7. Spandam used the warships that Franky had built to fight the Sea Kings to attack Water 7, and although Tom and his apprentices stopped the attack, it appeared to everyone that they had been the ones attacking. As a result, Tom was sentenced to death. Franky then tried to protect Tom, and stood in front of the Puffing Tom, which was taking Tom away. When he was run down by the train, his body was badly injured; he was presumed dead.

He managed to fix himself with spare parts from an abandoned ship (and has on his shoulders tattooed BF 36 (making himself the 36th "Battle Franky"). Four years after his disappearance, he went to see Iceburg and was outraged to find that he had allied himself with the World Government. Undaunted, Iceburg gave him the blueprints, which he had received from Tom.

Four years later
Four years later when Luffy and his crew come to Water 7, Franky is head of the ship dismantling crew "The Franky Family," - the group also hunts bounties as a side job. A little before Franky actually encountered the Straw Hats, his crew mugged Usopp and got away with 200 million beri. That led to an uproar from Luffy, Sanji, Zoro and Chopper, who came back for revenge - and they destroyed the "Franky House" completely. After Franky discovered what happened to his 'family', he sought revenge and challenged Luffy. In the middle of the battle they were interrupted by the foremen of the Galley-La Company, accusing the Straw Hat Pirates as the ones who attempted to assassinate Iceburg.

Because of that, Franky went and kidnapped Usopp and Merry, thinking he is still one of the Straw Hats, in order to lure Luffy to come to the rescue. Franky took them to his secret base, the old "Tom's Workers" workplace. In there, the CP9's Kalifa, Kaku, Blueno and Lucci kidnapped him and Usopp and took him with them on the Puffing Tom heading towards Enies Lobby. Franky was being held captive by CP9 along with Nico Robin but managed to escape and eventually burned the blueprints for Pluton that CP9 had worked for the last five years in Water 7 to recover. He teamed up with the Strawhats for the oppostion against Enies Lobby.

Recent chapters
Having defeated Fukurou and rescued Chopper, he managed to finally catch up with Spandam and Robin before he was able to take her to the Marine Headquarters. He removed Robin's shackles and helped her secure an escape ship because the Buster Call was beginning. Using his immense strength, he took Spandam's Elephant Sword Funkfreed and slammed it on top on Spandam, knocking him out. He then cleared out all the marines on the ship, allowing the Straw Hats (sans Luffy) to commandeer and land on it. However, they were attacked by Buster Call ships that send in 200 captains and lieutentants to take care of them and capture Robin. As he was fighting off a rush attack of 200 Captains employed in the Buster Call, the Strawhats heard a voice below them, and thus he followed them and jumped onto the Going Merry. He then later help the Strawhats escape by using a Coup de Vent, blowing the blockade of buster call ships apart and sent the Going Merry flying through it. When the Going Merry fell apart and the Strawhats gave it a Viking funeral, he was actually seen crying and on all fours. In Chapter 431 of the manga, Franky said that his dream was to have a ship sail around the world built from the legendary Adam Wood. He also revealed that he used 200 million berries that he stole from the Straw Hat's to buy the Adam Wood and said that he wanted them to sail on the ship he would build with this Adam Wood.

Manga/Anime influences
Although Oda has never stated where the influences for Franky came from, many fans have theorized on the influences for Franky's appearance. Franky's hairstyle and Hawaiian shirt closely resemble those of Ace Ventura, a fictional movie character portrayed by Jim Carrey. With his extra beefy arms with a corresponding symbol on each it can be speculated that Franky's appearance is a parody of Popeye (who also had extra large forearms) and he gets his source of power from a food item (cola, instead of spinach).

Franky may also be based to some extent on a character of the same name from the SNES game EarthBound (known as Mother 2 in Japan). The characters are similar in appearance, attitude, and their interest in building killer machines then naming them after themselves. An additional influence to Franky's appearance, not as an adult, but when he was a child is a possible Akira Toriyama tribute. As a child, Franky was barechested, had tall spikey hair, and wore googles, making him look very much like Toriyama's Beelzebub from Sand Land.

Trivia

 * In the game Jump Ultimate Stars Franky is playable, this may be proof that he will be joining the Straw Hats soon.
 * The first ship he built that managed to achieve his original goal of beating a Sea King was the BF-35 (the 35th 'Battle Franky').
 * Before the Straw Hats arrived at Water Seven, Luffy drew a childish picture of what he wanted the future shipwright to look like. This bad drawing is similar in appearance to Franky.
 * In the Japanese only game, Fighting for One Piece, Franky's name was mispelled and written as 'Flanky' in the introduction to the game.
 * According to Volume 43's SBS, his birthday is March 9, which comes from the term サイボーグ (cyborg): サ can be intepret as "san", or the number 3, while グ can be intepret as "kyu", or number 9. This gives 3-9, or March 9.