We investigate just how many chapters Luffy spent not talking to one of his key Straw Hat shipmates.
The constant theme of One Piece is friendship. It’s such an important part of the story that nakama, the specific Japanese word the main characters use for “friend,” has even spread to the vocabulary of overseas fans of the anime/manga hit.
So it’s a shock to find out that One Piece protagonist Luffy went years without having a single scene where he’s talking to one of his fellow Straw Hat Pirates.
For the uninitiated, that’s Franky circled in red in the above picture. The cyborg with a burly body and regal pompadour is the Straw Hats’ shipwright, a pretty critical role for a band of seafaring adventurers. Recently, though, there’s been chatter among fans in Japan that there’s a multi-year span in the One Piece manga during which Luffy and Franky don’t talk to each other at all.
Supposedly the last time the two talk to each other before going incommunicado for quite some time is in Chapter 703, when Franky and Luffy have the following exchange regarding the Mera Mera Fruit.
Luffy: “It’s the Mera Mera Fruit! Let’s get it! How about if you eat it, Franky?”
Franky: “Naw, I want to still be able to swim.”
…and later in the same chapter there’s this.
Franky: “You can cut loose, but just make sure no one finds out who you are. That’s the one thing you gotta make sure of.”
Luffy: “I know!”
▼ Chapter 703 is included in Volume 72
The two don’t talk with each other again until Chapter 729 when Franky reports in about some soldiers he encountered at the colosseum, but the conversation takes place via Transponder Snail.
▼ Chapter 729 is part of Volume 73
And after that? Well…
▼ Volume 74: Luffy and Franky don’t talk to each other
▼ Volume 75: Luffy and Franky don’t talk to each other
▼ Volume 76: Luffy and Franky don’t talk to each other
▼ Volume 77: Luffy and Franky don’t talk to each other
▼ Volume 78: Luffy and Franky don’t talk to each other
▼ Volume 79: Luffy and Franky don’t talk to each other
▼ Volume 80: Luffy and Franky don’t talk to each other
▼ Volume 81-90: Luffy and Franky don’t talk to each other
Making the whole thing even weirder is the fact that One Piece is not a lackadaisical narrative where preserving the status quo is a priority. Volumes 72 through 90 cover two and a half story arcs, which means that Luffy and Franky spend more than half of the Dressrosa arc, plus the entirety of Zou and Whole Cake Island, without anything they feel they need to say to each other, and the silent period isn’t over yet either.
▼ Volume 91: Luffy and Franky don’t talk to each other
▼ Volume 92: Luffy and Franky don’t talk to each other
▼ Volume 93: Luffy and Franky don’t talk to each other
▼ Volume 94: Luffy and Franky don’t talk to each other
▼ Volume 95: Luffy and Franky don’t talk to each other
▼ Volume 96: Luffy and Franky don’t talk to each other
At this point, we’re through the (admittedly brief) Levely Arc, and well into the Wano arc. Then, finally…
▼ Volume 97: Luffy and Franky do talk to each other!
The long-awaited (by those who noticed it) resumption of dialogue between Luffy and Franky comes in Chapter 976.
Franky: “One ship is getting away!”
Luffy: “Doesn’t matter! We’re going in the same direction.”
To summarize, that’s a gap of 274 chapters/25 volumes with no face-to-face communication between Luffy and Franky, and even if you count their Transponder Snail chat, it’s still 247 chapters/24 volumes. In terms of publishing dates, Volume 72 went on sale in Japan in August of 2013, and Volume 97 in September of 2020, so that’s seven years and one month of silence between the leader of the Straw Hat Pirates and his shipwright.
It’s worth pointing out that, in keeping with Luffy’s warm and friendly persona, the seven-year gap in conversations isn’t a case of him giving Franky the cold shoulder or some sort of falling out between the pair. But Luffy always has a lot on his plate, not just because of his famously large appetite but because he’s also the star of the biggest shonen manga in history, with an ever-increasing scope of adventures and interpersonal relationships that he’s at the center of. Still, he is technically the boss of the Straw Hat Pirates, so it’d probably be a good management policy to say hi to his nakama at least once a year or so.
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