Sunday, September 14, 2008

"Cyborg" Franky

About Franky

According to Eiichiro Oda, Franky is represented by the color light blue, and he smells of carpentry wood and gunpowder, much like Usopp. Franky was created by Oda with Kazuki Yao's voice in mind because of his portrayals as Jango and Mr. 2 Bon Clay.

Franky is a cyborg who makes his first appearance in the city of Water 7 as the founder and leader of the Franky Family, a group of ship dismantlers and delinquents. Even though he is not technically part of the crew during the Water 7 Arc he joins with the Straw Hat crew to fight the World Government and CP9. With Nico Robin they are both held by CP9 who holds him for Tom's work on the Gold Roger's ship. With the help of the Straw Hat pirates, Franky defeats Spandam and helps the pirates escape from the marines. With their escape he is reluctant to join the crew because he doesn't want to leave his friends and home behind. His dream is to build a ship capable of sailing to the end of the Grand Line. He partially accomplished this when he constructed the Straw Hat pirates' second ship, the Thousand Sunny. He is currently sailing with the crew to completely fulfill his dream.

Franky (known originally as Cutty Flam) was born the son of a pirate in South Blue and crossed into the Grand Line when he was four years old. After being abandoned at 10 years old, he became the apprentice of the master shipwright Tom, who built Gold Roger's ship, the Oro Jackson. He and Iceburg helped Tom construct the sea train after Spandam, leader of CP5 at that time, brought charges against Tom in order to pressure him into surrendering the blueprints to the superweapon, Pluton. After completing the sea train, Tom refused to give up the blueprints of the ancient warship Pluton, resulting in Spandam using Cutty Flam's fleet of warships to attack Water 7. In order to protect Cutty, Tom takes the blame for the attack and is sentenced to the Marine prison Impel Down. Cutty Flam tries to stop the sea train as it is taking Tom away, but is run over by the charging engine. Nearly dead, he awakens on a scrapped vessel and uses the nearby parts to create his cyborg body. Cutty Flam later returns to Water 7 under the name Franky, where he rounds up the lowlifes of the city to form the Franky Family. Franky has 'BF36' carved into his shoulders, indicating he is the thirty-sixth iteration of his Battle Franky line. Series creator Eiichiro Oda says Franky has a 'butt-butt-chin.

When asked why Franky is powered by cola, Oda simply replied "COLA IS GOOD".

Powers and abilities

As a cyborg, Franky's artificial parts grant him incredible strength, as well as making him practically invulnerable to most frontal attacks. He built his cyborg body himself, making his back his only weak point, as he couldn't reach it during construction. His fighting style focuses on projectile attacks, including an extendable right arm and cannons in his left arm. Franky's body is powered by cola, which he stores in a refrigerator built into his stomach. His supply of cola can be refilled by either drinking cola or manually inserting full bottles directly into his refrigerator. His physical strength was enough to easily break through Fukurou's tekkai technique (which gives the body the hardness of steel), while completely out of cola.

Franky is very talented in many forms of construction; aside from building the Straw Hat's Thousand Sunny, Franky is able to build a very stable bridge across a large gap in an instant, using only nearby debris (while also paying amazing attention to detail). He has even proven able to build a flight of stairs as quickly as he can climb them, though they will not remain standing for very long.

Franky's body is also equipped with countless weapons he has installed. These include and are not limited to machine guns, grenade launchers, shields, fire breath, projectile nails, boomerang sideburns, and an intensely strong air gun. His right arm seems to be primarily used for close combat, being revealed to be entirely steel beneath a fleshy glove (which is implied to hit harder when he removes it). His right hand is linked to his wrist by a long chain, allowing him to shoot it like a grappling hook or to punch at great lengths. His left is primarily armed with guns, such as a machine gun in his wrist and a pistol in his finger.

Franky's hair style and attitude are affected by the type of drink he uses for fuel, seen when Chopper accidentally hands him vegetable juice and tea.Franky's strength and weapons are much more powerful when he is fueled by cola, and some of his attacks can not be used without it.His hair acts as a kind of meter to the amount of cola in his stomach, being tall if he is full and sagging if empty. Franky's stomach compartment can hold up to three bottles of cola.

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