Who Is Franklin Bordeau?

Franklin Bordeau is a major antagonist in the manga and anime series Hunter x Hunter. He is a founding member of the Phantom Troupe, an infamous group of Class-A bounty thieves originating from Meteor City, where he holds the membership number 7.

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Appearance

Franklin Bordeau is a giant, hulking man whose appearance heavily resembles Frankenstein's monster. As member #7 of the Phantom Troupe, his intimidating physique reflects his status as one of the group's primary combatants.

He has distinct, sewn-up wounds and visible stitches trailing around both sides of his mouth as well as multiple prominent scars running across his face. His earlobes are unnaturally long, stretching all the way down to his chest, and the tips of his elongated earlobes are pierced with large, golden hoop earrings.

Franklin has short, messy hair which is depicted as green in the manga and 1999 anime adaptation, but shifted to purple in the 2011 anime adaptation. According to the official character profile, he stands at a towering 219 cm (approx. 7'2") and weighs 225 kg (496 lbs).

As an Emission-type Nen user, Franklin voluntarily cut off the tips of his fingers to create open, gun-barrel-like holes. This self-imposed restriction acts as a permanent physical modification that drastically increases the power of his "Double Machine Gun" technique.

His classic outfit consists of a simple white jacket featuring black stripes along the edges, worn over bright blue overalls. He pairs his overalls with standard brown shoes. Like all members of the Phantom Troupe, he possesses a twelve-legged spider tattoo featuring his member number, 7, on its abdomen, though its physical location on his body remains hidden.

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Personality

Despite his grotesque, Frankenstein-like appearance and his capacity for mass slaughter, Franklin Bordeau possesses a surprisingly calm, mature, and deeply rational personality. As Member #7 and a founding pillar of the Phantom Troupe, he routinely subverts Hisoka's Nen personality theory, which stereotypes Emitters as quick-tempered and impatient, by acting as one of the group's most level-headed anchors. 

Franklin acts as an internal anchor for the Spiders. When hot-headed members like Phinks and Feitan get into explosive arguments, Franklin is often the one who steps in to defuse the tension and reason with them. He possesses a highly realistic, no-nonsense outlook. 

During the Succession War arc, while other Troupe members frantically hunt for Hisoka on the Black Whale, Franklin calmly sits alone in the dining hall. He reasons that since Hisoka actively wants to kill the Troupe, wasting energy tracking him down is pointless; he can simply wait for Hisoka to come to him.

Franklin places the survival and continuity of the Phantom Troupe above all else, including individual lives. When Chrollo is captured by Kurapika, Franklin points out the flaws in Shalnark's logic, reminding the group that worst-case scenarios must be accepted to ensure the Spider survives.

His rational mind does not equate to mercy. When a mission calls for bloodshed, Franklin is entirely remorseless, casually using his Double Machine Gun ability to shred through massive crowds of mafia members without a single trace of hesitation or malice.

Franklin is highly tactical regarding his Nen. His dedication to maximizing efficiency is so extreme that he willingly mutilated his own body, severing his fingertips to create gun barrels. This physical sacrifice serves as a psychological constraint, exponentially boosting the destructive force of his aura bullets.

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Background

Like most founding members of the Phantom Troupe, Franklin grew up in Meteor City, a lawless, forgotten junkyard city whose residents are legally non-existent to the rest of the world. As a child, he shared a bond with Chrollo Lucilfer and other founding members that was described as "thinner than water, yet thicker than blood". 

Even as a child, Franklin was big-hearted and fiercely protective. When a young, aggressive Uvogin tried to hoard the tape for himself, Franklin stood his ground, actively holding Uvogin off so Chrollo could escape safely with the cassette. They eventually formed an amateur theater group, and Franklin enthusiastically participated alongside Chrollo, Pakunoda, Machi, Phinks, Feitan, Shalnark, Nobunaga, Sheila, and Sarasa.

Sarasa was the bright, spunky, and deeply empathetic "heart" of their childhood circle. She voiced the Orange Cleaner in their plays. Desperate to find more videotapes for their group to record, Sarasa ventured out alone to a distant corporate trash dump near the Uga Forest. Unbeknownst to her, she was targeted by a sadistic group of human traffickers who routinely exploited the fact that Meteor City residents do not legally exist on public records.

When Sarasa missed a scheduled performance, Franklin and the rest of the children launched a massive search party. They eventually discovered her brutally tortured, dismembered corpse packed into a sack hanging from a tree, left alongside a note from the killers.

The horrific murder shattered the children’s innocence. After attending her funeral, Franklin and the core group unanimously elected Chrollo as their leader. Driven by pure grief and a desire to weaponize Meteor City against outside predators, they spent three years training in Nen. They deliberately chose a life of villainy, forming the Phantom Troupe (The Spider), to establish a global, terrifying reputation that would make anyone think twice before ever touching a child from Meteor City again.

Franklin is currently aboard the Black Whale 1, a massive emigration ship heading toward the Dark Continent. The Phantom Troupe boarded the vessel with a dual purpose: to steal the treasures of the Kakin Royal Family and to hunt down and execute Hisoka Morow, who has sworn to kill every remaining member of the Spiders.

While other members of the Troupe have split up into small groups or paired up to sweep the ship, Franklin has chosen to sit entirely alone on Tier 5 of the Black Whale. His rationale is simple and cold: because Hisoka is hunting them, Franklin believes it is a waste of energy to actively search the massive ship. He is intentionally acting as bait, waiting in an open, public area for Hisoka to come to him, confident that his Double Machine Gun is perfectly suited to obliterate Hisoka if he attempts a frontal assault.

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Powers and Abilities

In Hunter x Hunter, Franklin Bordeau is a powerful founding member of the Phantom Troupe (Member #7) whose primary Nen affinity is Emission, coupled with a very high dual affinity for Enhancement. As an Emitter, Franklin excels at detaching his aura from his body to project it over distances, allowing him to act as the primary long-range heavy artillery for the Spiders.

Physical and Combat Abilities

• Elite Physical Strength: Franklin ranks fourth in raw physical strength among all the original members of the Phantom Troupe. His natural muscle power places him directly beneath absolute powerhouses like Uvogin and Phinks, putting him comfortably above highly dangerous combatants like Hisoka, Feitan, and Nobunaga.

• Massive Physique: Standing as a giant, his natural body mass gives him a massive structural advantage in close-quarters physical clashes.

• Hand-to-Hand Combat Mastery: He is an incredibly skilled close-range, hand-to-hand brawler. His combat prowess is so refined that he didn't hesitate to physically brawl with Nobunaga during internal disputes, and he remains completely unfazed by the prospect of fighting high-tier martial artists.

• High Tactical Intelligence and Psychological Composure: Franklin functions as the voice of reason and the intellectual anchor within the Phantom Troupe during high-stress scenarios.

• Analytical Combat Mind: He is exceptionally perceptive and capable of breaking down complex gridlocks with objective, emotionless logic, allowing him to predict his opponents' moves and counter them efficiently.

• Extreme Stoicism: Unlike hot-headed members like Phinks or Feitan, Franklin possesses immense psychological patience, which translates to precise situational awareness on the battlefield.

• Superhuman Speed and Reflexes: Despite his colossal, bulky frame, Franklin possesses high-tier superhuman agility, movement speed, and reflexes. He can comfortably keep up with the blindingly fast combat speeds typical of Phantom Troupe members.

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Nen Affinity and Abilities

Nen (念) is a fundamental power system that allows individuals to control their life energy, known as aura. By manipulating their aura, Nen users can create unique supernatural abilities called Hatsu, enhancing their physical capabilities or creating complex, personal powers. 

• Nen Affinity: Franklin is a natural Emitter, allowing him to maintain the strength, speed, and cohesion of his aura even after it is separated from his physical body. However, he also has a high affinity for Enhancement, possessing incredibly high physical durability and raw defensive strength. He emerged entirely unscathed from a direct car explosion by reinforcing his body with aura. Franklin has a massive, extraordinary reserve of aura. He can fire thousands of devastating projectiles in a single onslaught without showing any signs of fatigue or stamina depletion.

• Double Machine Gun: Franklin opens the tips of his fingers, revealing gun-barrel-like openings in his phalanges. He then expels continuous, rapid-fire streams of aura bullets from all ten fingertips simultaneously. Because he fires from individual fingers, he can track, aim at, and slaughter multiple targets across different areas at once. Unlike normal firearms, Franklin's Nen bullets possess immense destructive force. During the Yorknew City auction massacre, his projectiles easily tore straight through other Emitters' hardened Nen puppets and retained enough kinetic force to instantly shred the armed mafia members behind them.

  • Self-Imposed Sacrifice: The true secret behind the terrifying power of Franklin's Double Machine Gun relies on a self-imposed sacrifice.Technically, cutting his fingertips off was completely unnecessary; he could have shot aura bullets from ordinary hands. However, Franklin chose to physically amputate the tips of his fingers to create realistic gun barrels because he felt it was a more "effective" and menacing concept. By committing this permanent act of physical mutilation, the sheer resolve of his vow multiplied the speed, piercing power, and overall lethality of his bullets dramatically.

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Goals and Reputation

Franklin's motivations are deeply tied to his upbringing in Meteor City and his foundational role in the Phantom Troupe. As a founding member, his desensitization to violence began with the brutal, childhood murder of their friend Sarasa, prompting the formation of the Troupe for retribution.

Franklin prioritizes the group over any single individual. During internal arguments, he famously stated he would kill dissenting members and restart the Troupe from scratch if it meant ensuring its ultimate survival. He acts as a violent, defensive shield for his lawless homeland, though his current objective aboard the Black Whale ship is to hunt down and kill Hisoka to avenge the fallen members of the Troupe.

To the public, Franklin is known as a cold-blooded, world-class criminal who commands mass terror. The global public views him as a brutal monster. He famously massacred the Underground Mafia Auction with a smile on his face, utilizing his "Double Machine Gun" ability to fire Nen bullets from his severed fingertips.

Internally among the Spiders, his reputation is completely different. Franklin acts as the calm, analytical emotional anchor of the group. He is highly respected for his wisdom and is often the only one capable of mediating explosive arguments between hot-headed members like Phinks and Feitan.

Among real-world Hunter x Hunter fans, Franklin occupies a unique niche as an underrated powerhouse. Fans frequently debate his power level because he cut off his own fingertips to increase his Nen restriction. His long-range firepower is acknowledged as devastating, ranking 4th in raw physical strength within the Troupe.

The fanbase widely appreciates his mature, practical personality. He is often viewed as a protective, grounding figure, particularly due to his endearing partnership with the airheaded Shizuku.

In current manga discussions regarding the Succession Contest arc, fans heavily speculate that Franklin is in extreme danger. Because he has chosen to sit alone on Tier 5 waiting for Hisoka to approach him, many suspect his straightforward, stationary strategy makes him a prime target for a sudden ambush. However, this choice may work out in his favor, since Hisoka seems to be on the upper tiers of the ship, far away from Franklin as of chapter 414.