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Goku's T-shirt is one of the several elements in Dragon Ball that has become iconic throughout the years because of the design, the color scheme, and the fact that it is used by the protagonist of the most influential anime series of all time. Even those who have not seen or read the story are familiar with Goku's T-shirt because of the character's popularity. However, one thing most fans are unaware of is how many times the said shirt has changed throughout the series.
Goku uses several kanji throughout the Dragon Ball Z portion of the story because of the different masters he had in the series, but fans don't know that the changes were intentional. Author Akira Toriyama was a fan of martial arts and that is quite obvious from the series, although some might have not noticed that Goku's T-shirt also serves as a way to highlight his growth in the story.
Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for the Dragon Ball series
Goku's T-shirts signified the different masters he had throughout Dragon Ball Z
A Gi is the blue and orange uniform that Goku has been using throughout the series since he became a young adult while training with Mr. Popo and Kami. However, while he initially used the Turtle Hermit School kanji in his Gi, several people don't know how that changed throughout the series.
Once Goku was trained by King Kai when he was in the afterlife during the events of the Saiyan saga, the latter gave him his symbol once the training ended. This is used by the protagonist until he arrives at Namek, where it has been shown that he became his own master. This is fairly common in martial arts once a person reaches a certain degree of expertise, thus wearing a Gi with his own logo.
Goku's T-shirt, once the Android saga begins, no longer has the logo of any master because now he has the role of the mentor, which was displayed by him training Gohan in the Cell saga and Goten and Trunks during the Buu saga.
While the fans who picked up on this have praised this detail as a sign of Goku's growth as a martial artist, that tendency has changed with Dragon Ball Super.
The character of Goku throughout the series
While Goku's T-shirt is a good representation of the character growth he had as a martial artist, his legacy as arguably the most important anime protagonist of all time is extremely significant. That is something that a lot of people feel even to this very day, with shonen anime protagonists still influenced by him.
Goku has a lot of elements that have become classic staples of the shonen genre, his cheerful personality, training arcs, getting older through time skips, and even power-ups through transformation, such as the iconic Super Saiyan.
Final thoughts
Goku's T-shirt changed throughout the series and had different symbols because it served to represent the different masters that he had in Dragon Ball. It also serves as a reminder of how Goku went from being a martial arts student to a master, which is shown by the way he trained Gohan, Goten, and Trunks.
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