Evolution of Goku's Gi Colours

[KBABZ]

So here's a bit of research I did yesterday! The colour of Goku’s gi, as well as that of the Turtle School, is an interesting topic because Toriyama didn’t concern himself with figuring out what exactly the colours should be. This meant that in his full colour “key art” (ie individual, non-panelled artwork), he would often use different colours based on what felt best to him at the time. Bulma’s hair and the Flying Nimbus are two other examples.

My research chronicled this through Dragon Ball’s first three-and-a-bit years, by using the Dragpn Ball: A Visual History art book.

Famously, the Dragon Ball anime that began in 1987 sorted the colours out by using blue for Goku’s “Mount Paozu” gi with the bow belt, and using red and black from the manga’s limited colour pages for the Turtle School gi, as these were initially far more common than the “key art”.

In the lists below, “Issue” refers to the issue of Shonen Jump that the artwork appeared in, often also referring to the manga chapter’s title page from the issue as well. If there’s a bunch of entries for a single Issue, it’s most likely for a calendar!






As you can see, by 1987 Toriyama was colouring the Turtle School gi almost enttiely in a shade of orange, with the colour being the primary one in 1986. While the Red gi was still used in the Limited Colour Chapters, it would not be used in “key art” after this point aside from one instance in 1989. Yellow gi would make a comeback in the early 2000s as Toriyama started making more Dragon Ball art digitally.

Most famously, the 1989 Dragon Ball Z rebrand of the anime introduced a small but important change. Because Toriyama had been colouring the Turtle School gi primarily in orange since 1987, they reflected this in Z, also using the blue armbands and undershirt from this colouring too.

The blue gi meanwhile would not appear again in Toriyama's artwork for another nine years. Starting in January 1996, the blue gi would exclusively appear on Kid Goku to refer to his pre-Turtle School days, much as the anime had done in 1986. A dark green would also be used, and both of these colours also tend to be used for “End of Z” Goku.

The 2013 Color Editions meanwhile would apply the orange colour to Goku’s starting “Mount Paozu” gi, which is incorrect for 2013 because by that point Toriyama had been using blue for this outfit for seven years. However it’s also somewhat understandable: of all of Toriyama’s fully-coloured ink pages from the manga’s original publication, Goku only wears blue in Chapter 1, before switching to orange for the rest of the manga’s run.

[ArmenianPepsi]

Very interesting read for sure. Always neat to see how an artist can depict their characters in slightly different ways. You think you could make an imgur gallery showcasing all these slight variations in the gi's color?

[KBABZ]

Very interesting read for sure. Always neat to see how an artist can depict their characters in slightly different ways. You think you could make an imgur gallery showcasing all these slight variations in the gi's color?

I'd need a good scan of the Visual History book if I wanted to do that. Plus, I'd need to know the dates of all the Shonen Jump issues as well as the Anime Special and Season Special things, which I have no context on (this is why the lists aren't fully chronological!).

[Luso Saiyan]

As Toriyama eventually explained, the color is meant to be orange in reference to what Shaolin monks wore (the shade of orange can differ but it's usually light orange):

How did you decide on the coloring of costumes, such as the main characters’ [clothes] and the Kamesen-school dōgi?

For the colors of the dōgi, the motif is naturally the color of the robes [worn by] Chinese monks, such as the Shaolin. The fact that it became red in the anime was always something I was a bit dissatisfied with.

The reason there are a lot of characters with strange colors, such as Piccolo Daimaō, Freeza, Cell, and Majin Boo, is simply because varying the colors made it easier to grasp their individual differences.

[Kakkaroto735]

My question is about the aura colors and the Kamehameha colors. I have seen multiple yellow kamehameha waves and I always wondered, what was going on with that?
The aura isn't even seen till like the Namek arc in the anime for the most part. There's some with Nappa and Vegeta but little to none before that iirc. Yet the games just assign aura colors to pre namek characters. So some people end up thinking there is complete uniformity and that all the good guys have blue and the bad guys have red.

[KBABZ]

As Toriyama eventually explained, the color is meant to be orange in reference to what Shaolin monks wore (the shade of orange can differ but it's usually light orange):

How did you decide on the coloring of costumes, such as the main characters’ [clothes] and the Kamesen-school dōgi?

For the colors of the dōgi, the motif is naturally the color of the robes [worn by] Chinese monks, such as the Shaolin. The fact that it became red in the anime was always something I was a bit dissatisfied with.

The reason there are a lot of characters with strange colors, such as Piccolo Daimaō, Freeza, Cell, and Majin Boo, is simply because varying the colors made it easier to grasp their individual differences.

Interesting! At least that explains the Turtle School look. I've always liked blue as the differentiator for his early gi, to say that's he's a novice and has yet to enter official martial arts training.

Shame about the red gi, you'd think Toei would have followed his colour guides rather than falling back on what was in the Limited Colour pages.

[Luso Saiyan]

And the trademark orange led to his Saiyan name Kakarotto.

I do agree that it's unfortunate that the anime went with a more reddish color (and for so long).

[KBABZ]

And the trademark orange led to his Saiyan name Kakarotto.

I do agree that it's unfortunate that the anime went with a more reddish color (and for so long).

Yeah. Personally I like the red as a symbol of Goku's youth as part of my own nostalgia, but if I were the director of a Dragon Ball remake anime like Sailor Moon Crystal then I'd have Goku's newer "mountain boy" design that we first saw in Daizenshuu 1, followed by his iconic orange Turtle gi just before he starts competing in the 21st TB, and then of course his post-Kami outfit. I feel like Toriyama has a much better idea of what Goku's initial mountain boy look should is.

[marumuju]

I’m wondering if the red gi was chosen by the anime staff to symbolically reflect Goku’s status as The Hero? It could be they didn’t feel the need to be as faithful to the original as they could be since Jump was mostly in the limited color mode anyway... (Just a guess, the real reason might be something more mundane...)

[KBABZ]

I’m wondering if the red gi was chosen by the anime staff to symbolically reflect Goku’s status as The Hero? It could be they didn’t feel the need to be as faithful to the original as they could be since Jump was mostly in the limited color mode anyway... (Just a guess, the real reason might be something more mundane...)

Personally I think it's purely due to the limited colour pages. These were FAR more common in Dragon Ball's early days, so Toei likely felt that this colouring better reflected the public's perception on what Goku's gi colours were.