Dragon Ball: Why Super Sayan hair is blonde? Explored

In the Dragon Ball series, Saiyans are some of the most important characters. The likes of Vegeta and Goku belong to this particular race, known for their prowess in fighting. One of their most popular traits is that they can transform into a giant ape. Apart from this, plenty of such traits distinguish them from other characters in anime and manga series.

Another popular transformation that took the entire anime and manga community by storm was the Super Saiyan. This metamorphosis, which can only be accomplished by Saiyans, raises their physical abilities to an entirely new level.

One of the reasons for the hype around this transformation in the series is its aesthetic appeal. In the manga, characters would have white-colored hair since the format only supported monochrome scale, while in the anime, Super Saiyans had blonde hair. But why did the creator choose this particular hair color? Let’s find out why Akira Toriyama made this decision.

---

Dragon Ball: Understanding why Akira Toriyama chose the blonde/white color for Super Saiyans

Goku's Super Saiyan in the manga (Image via Shueisha/Akira Toriyama)

In their Super Saiyan form in the Dragon Ball manga series, the Saiyans have white-colored hair. Akira Toriyama opted for white since it was easier than filling the hair with a jet-black color. At the time, Akira Toriyama had only one assistant, who helped him out during chapter releases. However, the assistant wasn’t particularly skilled at coloring hair. Naturally, this frustrated Toriyama, and he was forced to take measures to make the process more efficient for both of them.

The creator of the Dragon Ball series gave Goku a new transformation and capitalized on this opportunity to make his panels easier to draw, thus making the whole process efficient. When the anime adaptation was being made, the color chosen was blonde since it was quite similar to the original hue in the source material.

The time-consuming work of coloring Goku’s hair was a massive problem. But it gave rise to one of the most important transformations, which paved the path for the series. There are other such examples in the Dragon Ball series where Akira Toriyama simply removed certain elements from the show to make it easier for him to draw.

Fans who have watched the earlier parts of the series recall Saiyans from Universe 7 having tails. Goku was no exception until there was an episode when his tail was cut.

Comment byu/Ion_Spectre from discussion indbz

This was the episode where Puar transformed into a massive pair of scissors, cutting Goku's tail to make the artistic process easier for Toriyama. According to an interview published on Kanzenshuu, a reporter asked the mangaka about Goku’s tail and whether or not it was a nuisance for the manga artist. Toriyama confirmed and stated that drawing the tail was cumbersome.

Toriyama was supposedly advised by his editor to add a tail to Goku because it was a unique design element that distinguished him from the others. However, he found it quite troublesome, admitting to the tail being a nuisance. These are some of the design- and efficiency-based decisions in this series.

Stay tuned for more Dragon Ball anime and manga news as 2023 progresses.