What's the real color of Goku's first gi?

[FireFly]

Most of the colored pages (and the digitally colored manga) depict it as orange, but both the first chapter (which had blue hair Bulma in fairness) and the black and white pages depict it in a much darker shade. The final chapter cover also seems to depict it as either a dark blue or dark purple like the anime, and it's in color:



So which one is it?

[Soppa Saia People]

First Chapter: Purple
After that: Orange
Limited Color pages: Black
Anime: Purple
That's how I think it goes.

[FireFly]

Yeah it's the same gi in universe but for some reason it changes color wildly from orange to purple/black/dark blue, even though it's consistently far darker than Goku's later gi...

[Soppa Saia People]

Yeah it's the same gi in universe but for some reason it changes color wildly from orange to purple/black/dark blue, even though it's consistently far darker than Goku's later gi...

It's only black in the limited color pages and the black and white ones. I'm not sure why it's purple in the first chapter.

[FireFly]

Yeah it's the same gi in universe but for some reason it changes color wildly from orange to purple/black/dark blue, even though it's consistently far darker than Goku's later gi...

It's only black in the limited color pages and the black and white ones. I'm not sure why it's purple in the first chapter.

Yeah Toriyama always seems to color it as orange despite making it black in all black and white pages. My guess is that he forgot its original color like he forgot Shu's original name and made it orange (along with Bulmas hair being purple)

What's also weird about it is that the limited color pages almost always make Goku's other gi light red/orange while keeping this one black, even though they're both orange in the full color ones.

[Soppa Saia People]

Yeah it's the same gi in universe but for some reason it changes color wildly from orange to purple/black/dark blue, even though it's consistently far darker than Goku's later gi...

It's only black in the limited color pages and the black and white ones. I'm not sure why it's purple in the first chapter.

Yeah Toriyama always seems to color it as orange despite making it black in all black and white pages. My guess is that he forgot its original color like he forgot Shu's original name and made it orange (along with Bulmas hair being purple)

What's also weird about it is that the limited color pages almost always make Goku's other gi light red/orange while keeping this one black, even though they're both orange in the full color ones.

Because it would be impossible to use orange in a black and white color scheme.

[FireFly]

Yamcha's orange/yellow pants and Goku's turtle gi he doesn't seem to mind leaving white in B&W pages though.

[Soppa Saia People]

Yamcha's orange/yellow pants and Goku's turtle gi he doesn't seem to mind leaving white in B&W pages though.

That's a very fair point.

[Thouser]

In the black and white pages it's always colored black, which implies it's much darker than the turtle dōgis, which are always left as white in the b&w art. On at least one occasion in b&w (chapter 9 title page) the first gi was colored gray using screentone.

The first gi is also black in the limited color pages, while the turtle dōgis are colored red.

As for full color art, in chapter 1, it was colored purple. This color scheme also appeared on the covers of the second tankōbon and tankōbon vol. 9 (which was just chapter 3's title page recycled), and of course was carried over to the anime.

In chapter 19, Toriyama colored it a yellow-orange in the full color pages, although it was still black in the limited color pages. It was also orange on the cover of the first tankōbon.

It should be noted that the turtle dōgi has appeared in other colors as well. On the cover of tankōbon vol. 5 it was colored green, and on the cover of vol. 7 it was red (like in the limited color pages, although obviously the cover is in full color).

[FireFly]

IIRC Gohan's Piccolo gi became green in one colored chapter and Piccolo's belt changes color now and then even though it's usually red, so I can buy the turtle outfit being consistently enough orange. Goku's first gi for some reason is always depicted as dark in B&W but randomly becomes orange outside of very early chapters.

[Cipher]

I wouldn't put any emphasis on limited-color pages, or even his decision to black in the gi after debuting the orange version; Toriyama's goal was always just to get something aesthetically pleasing out of his range of reds and blacks.

It's purple in the first chapter, and orange after that in the manga. Like, with surprising consistency in subsequent color pages and promotional art. So it seems as if Toriyama "settled" on orange, just as he did purple for Bulma's hair after the first chapter. For whatever reason, Toei stuck with their colorations from the opening pages of chapter 1.

Though maybe he'd changed his mind again by the final volume's release, or simply used the color pages from chapter 1 as a reference.