Frye

"Say it with sizzle... I'm Frye!"

- Frye introducing herself in Return of the Mammalians

Frye Onaga is a character in and one of the three members of the band Deep Cut, alongside Shiver and Big Man, with whom she co-hosts both Anarchy Splatcast, the news show of Splatsville, and Splatfests. She is also the second reachable boss of Return of the Mammalians. Her signature color is yellow.

She is voiced by Laura Yokozawa.

Appearance
Frye is an Inkling with medium brown skin and a round face, with darker brown lips and large eyes under round yellow triangle eyebrows. Her irises are golden, with yellow pupils in the shape of a plus, similar to that of the Squid Sisters and Pearl. Her Inkling eye mask is fairly large and exaggerated, and ends with points that lift off the sides of her face. On top of her eye mask are thick yellow eyelashes with an orange gradient at the ends. Her top teeth are sharper and more prominent than other Inklings, and sometimes peek out of her closed lips like fangs.

Frye's yellow tentacles are thin and wavy, and reach about shoulder length. She styles them in two parts: one lock tied with an off-white cord framing the left side of her face, and the other tucked behind her right ear, baring most of her forehead. Her tentacles end in a light purple gradient. Frye's ears are longer and pointier than those of other Inklings, with a slight orange blush at the tips. Her right ear is pierced with three moray eel tooth-shaped earrings.

Frye has a fun, yet rebellious sense of fashion, with a possible root in traditional Indian culture. Her outfit consists of a sleeveless yellow turtleneck crop top under a small yellow shawl made from a shiny translucent material. She wears off-white pants that are extremely baggy, pulling inspiration from the traditional costume of certain Indian dances. Three holes on the left side of her pants reveal she wears black leggings underneath. Around her waist is a thin tan rope belt; hanging from it on the left side is a large golden squid charm with two purple tassels tied through holes in the ornament. On the top left of her head is a golden-colored hat resembling chunks of fried squid. Her feet are partially covered by off-white toe-less socks.

In Alterna, she also wears a tan and white eel mask, with possible inspiration taken from Japanese tanuki masks.

During Splatfests, any part of Frye's appearance that is normally yellow changes to match the color of her Splatfest team, while any part that is normally purple changes to a color directly opposite of her Splatfest team: including her fingertips, toes, mouth, squid charm tassels, and pant hole edges. In addition, her fingertips and toes glow in the dark while her shawl lights up with the music.

During the Zombie vs. Skeleton vs. Ghost Splatfest, Frye's usual turtleneck is black, and her shawl is replaced with a silver shoulder necklace consisting of a chain with round, dangly pendants. She wears a head chain with teardrop-shaped pendants on her forehead, as well as a triple metal cuff bracelet on her right arm and black triangular earrings. Her tentacles are black fading to a light orange, and she wears a murex shell on her head, possibly referencing a human ribcage. Her usual pants are black and torn on her right leg, revealing bright purple leggings underneath, while her squid pendant is replaced with one that has the shape of Deep Cut's logo and is held by two silver chains instead of a cord. Her socks are replaced with black bandages held up with thin metal chains, while the cord on her hair is black instead of white. Her eyelashes are colored purple fading to orange, and her eyes have a purple tone fading towards their usual yellow; she also has dots of white make-up on her temples and cheeks.

During the Friends vs. Family vs. Solo Splatfest, Frye's signature color turns to pale yellow, with her tentacles and eyebrows changing to it; additionally, the tips of her fingers and toes turn light pink and the inside of her mouth turns yellow. She wears an ornate, pointy black masquerade mask, a small white top hat with a golden ribbon, a sleeveless yellow button-up crop top with black buttons, cravat and collar, and yellow flared sleeve cuffs with a black button; in place of her usual pants are glittery pants colored yellow on the left and black on the right, featuring a diamond hole pattern which reveals white leggings in place of the standard round holes, and flared white openings. She wears socks similar to her standard ones, but with yellow soles. Her shawl is translucent black and glittery. Similar to Shiver, Frye does not wear her usual earrings.

Personality and traits
Frye is peppy and reckless, often wearing her emotions on her sleeve. She is known for her fearlessness and audacity, often rushing headfirst into dangerous situations without fear or hesitation. This tends to get her into trouble, which Big Man and Shiver have to save her from. Though she can sometimes appear menacing or brag about her abilities, it is all in good fun, and at her core, she is a kind and fun-loving individual.

She possesses a deep love for singing and dancing, being trained in both at a young age and becoming very physically fit as a result. She likens the different forms of her eel attacks to dances, and often dances when excited. Because of this, she is also extremely gluttonous, as evidenced by her Splatfest dialogue, where she frequently talks about food and chooses food-related teams. She has stated that she is not picky and will eat anything.

Frye can also be slightly airheaded, noted for consistently breaking into dance in the middle of Salmon Runs instead of focusing on the enemy, as well as only focusing on the "big boss" rather than the lessers. She also prefers to use a head-on approach rather than a nuanced strategy, completely ignoring the Grizzco employee handbook and stating that her winning strategy for Turf War is to "splat your enemies...then splat them again! And again!" She can also be quite the prankster, as she has a habit of stealing her bandmates' snacks, and once gave Big Man a chocolate-covered onion on Valentine's Day.

Early life
Frye was born into the Onaga clan, a family of eel charmers well-known for representing the Splatlands. She was raised by her grandfather, as her parents have been traveling the world since she was a child, and grew up alongside a younger brother and younger twin sisters. Due to being busy with dance lessons and eel training, Frye notes not having had the time to make "real friends" as a child, although she used to sneak out quite a bit. She met Shiver and Big Man through their familial ties during their childhoods, but remained nothing but acquaintances with them at the time. In middle school, Frye was noted as "a little bit wild, a little bit reckless" student; in school, Frye was classmates with Shiver, and the two began looking out for each other, then started to bond over their shared love of singing. They would often go to the school rooftop and sing together, before deciding they wanted accompaniment, which lead to them seeking out Big Man, a pianist. This led to the formation of Deep Cut as it is known today.

After this, an older classmate asked the trio to make a cheering song for a school competition. Big Man and Frye agreed, but Shiver demanded 30,000G payment, which led to the creation of Hide and Sleek, Deep Cut's very first song. A local bowling alley commissioned a song for a commercial, to which Shiver hiked their price up to 300,000G, and what resulted was their second song, Smeared Canvas, with lyrics inspired by Frye's observation that "the world is a big bowling ball". The success of the commercial, and the song along with it, made Deep Cut relatively well known in the Splatlands.

A few years later, Deep Cut were made the hosts of the Anarchy Splatcast.

Splatoon 3
By the time of Splatoon 3, Deep Cut had become relatively well known within the Splatlands for both their music and the Anarchy Splatcast. As part of Deep Cut, Frye announces Big Runs, reports stage rotations, and hosts Splatfest events, performing her solo song, Anarchy Poisons (Snake Mix), and Anarchy Rainbow for the entire event. They are also the ones who initially report the news of the Great Zapfish's third disappearance.

Return of the Mammalians
Frye and the rest of Deep Cut are initially hostile to Agent 3 and the New Squidbeak Splatoon, declaring that all treasure in Alterna is theirs to plunder and that they will not let anyone else have it. Later, when the New Squidbeak Splatoon agrees to give Deep Cut the treasure (after using it to remove Fuzzy Ooze), they explain that their bandit activities were to give back to the people of the Splatlands, and never meant harm to the New Squidbeak Splatoon. They decide to become Marie's employees and the player's allies, and help them in defeating Mr. Grizz. Frye uses her eel charming abilities to create a whirlpool that arcs high into the air, helping boost Agent 3 into outer space.

Boss
Frye is the second boss of the single-player campaign, Return of the Mammalians, and the first Deep Cut boss. Her boss kettle is found on the Cozy & Safe Factory site.

In the manga series
Frye, along with Shiver and Big Man, first appeared in Issue 17 of the CoroCoro manga Splatoon 3: Splatlands, where she and Shiver told Team Blue about the Splatsville Great Eight. Her role in the manga is similar to the role in the game.

Trivia

 * In the Japanese version, she speaks with the personal pronoun washi (most commonly used by old men), adding "ja", "zo", and/or "na" at the end of her sentences, and addresses people she isn't close with as omae-san. While this is associated with being old-fashioned, this pattern is also close to the Chūgoku dialect, particularly that of Hiroshima, and has a "jolly" association with the tone. The connotation of speaking like an old person is lampshaded in the Japanese version, as she makes the comment:「最近の若いもんはつまらんのう」or "The Youth of today are so dull," during her first meeting with the New Squidbeak Splatoon.
 * The habit of using the pronoun washi was picked up from her grandfather, who raised her.
 * Also in the Japanese version, the phrasing Frye uses to describe herself ("dancing gangster"), also used as a subtitle in her boss fight, refers to moray eels being nicknamed "gangsters of the sea" (海のギャング) in Japan, hinting at her eel association.
 * Splatoon 3 Sunken Scroll 11 reveals that Frye is a descendant of the Onaga Clan, as her appearance and dress greatly matches the Inklings depicted, especially her eel mask. Additionally, there seems to be a genealogy on the left side of the page, marking where Frye falls in the family tree.
 * Frye is described to "sing with a melody that makes you feel as if a desert is in sight". However unlike Shiver, her voice actress (Laura Yokozawa) has a musical background that is different from her singing style, being that of jazz.
 * During her boss battle, Frye uses the Indian pungi flute to summon her eels. This type of flute is used for a variety of practices, but is most commonly associated with snake-charming.
 * Frye's family crest depicts a pitcher plant. In Japanese, the word for pitcher plant 靫葛 utsubokazura contains the word for eel, 鱓 utsubo.
 * If the player has Color Lock toggled, Frye's ink color in her boss fight changes from yellow to blue. Her design also changes with the yellow and the blue swapping places, and the face of the Octostomp's remains change color to blue. Also, her hair color when viewing the spinning Octostomp from the launchpad remains yellow, changing to blue only when the player superjumps into the boss arena.
 * Frye is the first Inkling in-game with a visible tongue. Previously, Inkling tongues had only been shown in 2D artwork, such as in the artwork for Splatoon Naughty vs. Nice Splatfest.
 * In her dialogue in the Rock vs. Paper vs. Scissors, Gear vs. Grub vs. Fun, and Dark Chocolate vs. Milk Chocolate vs. White Chocolate Splatfests, Frye is shown to be very indecisive.
 * One of Frye's speech soundbites bears a strong resemblance to This is likely to be a coincidence.
 * When Frye introduces herself in Return of the Mammalians, her mask can be heard hitting Smallfry.
 * It is said in The Art of Splatoon 3 that Frye's younger brother is going through a rebellious phase.
 * Dialogue from Anarchy Splatcast, as well as Frye's Tableturf Battle Deck, implies that she prefers Splatanas.
 * Frye was 22 years old in early concept art in the Splatoon 3 artbook.
 * Frye is implied to have a keen sense of smell, as she was able to smell a hidden key in the Alterna Space Center: Entrance mission.
 * Frye shares her title, The Eel Deal, with the tenth level of the 1997 video game, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back.

Etymology
"Frye" comes from the verb "to fry", the action of cooking food over heat, contrasting with Shiver's name, as the verb "shiver" usually happens when one is cold. A "fry" is also one of the collective terms for a group of eels.

"Utsuho" is a rare Japanese female given name usually written with the kanji 空 "sky/void" or 空穂 "sky/void + ear", both pronounced utsuho. It is a pun on 鱓 utsubo, the Japanese word for "moray eel". This is in reference to Frye descending from a lineage of moray eel trainers.

"Onaga" may come from the word naga, which means "snake" in many Indian languages. This could be relevant to the fact she uses an Indian punji to command her eels, similar to how they are used to charm snakes in India and the Middle East. Additionally, her version of Anarchy Poisons is called Snake Mix. This is in reference to Frye being inspired by Indian/Middle Eastern culture. Additionally, it can possibly be an anagram of 穴子 anago, the Japanese generic word for saltwater eels.