Franky’s Dub

Disclaimer: I hearby do not own or claim to own Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece. One Piece is copyrighted to Eiichiro Oda, Toei Animation and the Funimation Corporation.

At long last Funimation has saved One piece from the clutches of the 4kids corporation, but there is still that needs to be discussed. For example, why TV-Y7-FV? Can’t Funimation get a higher rating? What about blood and cursing all that good stuff?
However, there’s probably one element that can sell the dub to fans. His name is Franky.

*CAUTION* SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

Q: Who is Franky?
A: Franky is the Strawhat’s shipwright. He is a 34 year old cola powered cyborg. He has blue hair, a metal nose, wears nothing but a Hawaiian shirt, has huge stared forearms and likes to say super a lot. (Seriously, look it up on Youtube, I cannot make this stuff up.) He has a rich back story about making weapons and pride in one’s creations.

Q: Why is Franky so important?
A: Franky’s one of those deep characters that you can have fun with too. He has a lot of guilt and is deeply empathetic, but instead of just having angst about it, he plays a ukulele and sobs. And when he’s happy, he puts his forearms together and yells, “SUPA!” His attacks are also as ranged as his personality. One moment, he’s breathing fire, the next moment he uses his sideburns as throwing knives (which grow back.), and another time he fires weapons from his arm.

Q: Who are you looking for in his voice actor?
A: Well, Kazuki Yao does an excellent job with his voice. It’s scratchy, but not annoying. He talks with a gangster accent and he needs to show range. It has to be mostly funny but also a voice you can take seriously, lightly and is enjoyable to hear. However, it’s nearly impossible to pull off as seen with 4kids. Django sounded like a frog, and Bon Clay, though fitting for his character, was nowhere near his Japanese counterpart. Rather I would approach a VA that’s good for his character with a lot of range.

So the person who I think is most qualified for the job is……………………………………………………………………………………………Hulk Hogan.

PSYCHE! Yes, I know it was cheap but I couldn’t help myself.

But in all seriousness, I think the person best for the job is Skip Stellrecht. If you’re not familiar with him, he’s Maito Gai’s English VA. While the Elvis impersonation didn’t impress me, his acting did. He shows a lot of range and energy his Japanese counterpart did but he can also cry, cheer and dictate very well.

If Skip can’t do or doesn’t want to do the job, there’s always Richard Epcar. He does the voices to Bobobo, Zangetsu and Don Kanonji. The way he can sound like a complete idiot at one point and a serious mentor in another sells his voice to me. I think he would be a good Franky.

But this is solely my opinion. I have no knowledge of who’s available for Funimation or in Texas or whatnot. If you have a better ideal for a VA, tell me so we can think of a proper voice. Just be glad he won’t have a Hawaiian accent……………or will he?