Yamcha Uniform Guide

Some of the weirder complaints I get about my art often involves how I choose to dress Yamcha. They tend to gripe about how I give him an undershirt and boots, saying "That was never in the anime/manga!" or something to that degree. Well, with this guide as a reference, I hope to use it to educate those who don't know what they're talking about, and even aid those other Yamcha fans who, like myself, are obsessively accurate (or try to be) in what they attempt to do.

I'm sure there will be other complaints in the future about anything and everything, so I figured I'd cover the man's entire battle wardrobe. Ironically though, this probably won't be free of errors. Still, let's get started.

Yamcha's Bandit Uniform

Yamcha has been seen in a few color variations of this uniform, although the basic pattern has remained unchanged.

TOEI's version/standard

Distinguishing details

1. Red kanji

2. Orange pants

3. Purple gauntlets w/ red trim

4. Blue boots w/ red trim

Toriyama's color scheme/Anniversary movie

Distinguishing details

1. Black kanji

2. Tan pants

3. Green gauntlets w/ red trim

4. Black boots w/ red trim

Yamcha's Turtle School Uniform

Unlike Goku, Yamcha's uniform and emblems stayed mostly unchanged throughout the years. Maybe he's more of a traditional fighter who wants to honor the purity of his art and school heritage- who knows? Regardless, aside from training gear and emblems, Yamcha doesn't make any big changes to his uniform except for an ever further plunging neckline like Goku's.

This is the basic Turtle School uniform from Dragonball. There were minor universal color differences between this and the version seen in Dragonball Z worn by all Turtle School students.

Differentiating Features:

1. Turtle emblem in either yellow or white field

2. black or blue belt

3. blue or black slippers

Training Gear

Many people will swear up and down that Yamcha never wore a weighted and/or normal undershirt and/or boots like Goku and eventually, Krillin. I offer you proof hereafter, from both the manga and the anime, that he indeed did.

Here we see Yamcha training atop Kami-sama's Lookout wearing what looks like his old bandit boots. He's not wearing an undershirt in this shot, but later wears one just like everyone else for his training.	And here Yamcha is clearly wearing an undershirt as he senses Nappa and Vegeta's arrival.
This is my favorite picture of all and the only one of it's kind. Yamcha is clearly wearing an undershirt and, coolest of all, his own unique boots. This outfit is never seen again in the manga, and this shot is actually from an old splash page from when this group arrived at Kaio-sama's home to train.	And of course, we have the anime shot. There are others, but I chose to show only this one. Yamcha is wearing an undershirt while training with Tenshinhan. This look can be seen now and then, even later on with his spike haircut, but usually for posters.

Emblems

Yamcha has really only added one emblem to his gi, signifying he was trained by Kaio-sama himself, the Lord of Worlds. In the canon manga he wears it only briefly, but it is also seen in DBZ movie 3: The Tree of Might.

As you can see, Yamcha wears Kaio-sama's emblem over his heart and the Turtle emblem on his back, which is the exact opposite of how Goku wore them after training with Kaio-sama.

Also, perhaps this entire uniform was given to him by Kaio-sama in the same manner that Goku's was. If so, it means this particular uniform was made of the same special fabric that is able to "repel small attacks".

Unfortunately, this is damaged upon Yamcha's impalement by Android 20 and he is later seen wearing a uniform with the Turtle emblem on both sides.

Here in "The Tree of Might", Yamcha wears the Kaio-sama emblem on his back and Turtle emblem over his heart just like Goku did. Of course, just like all the movies, this series of events never really happened as they contradict the canon storyline.

Yamcha's Armored Coat

I honestly have no idea what this thing is all about. If it were just the coat, I'd say it was just casual attire. But what's with the armor? It's like Piccolo's shoulder gear without the cape! Tenshinhan and Chaoutzu are both wearing recognizable attire and Krillin is dressed casually, but what the heck is this? Maybe it's related somehow to his enigmatic Wolf-style roots or maybe it's just something cool Toriyama wanted to draw. Who knows? It's just one more mystery about Yamcha.