I Still Cannot Forgive Dragon Ball for Changing the Best Part of Trunks

Dragon Ball is chock-full of memorable characters, epic moments, and spectacular drag-out brawls that have defined the shonen genre for decades, with the time-skipping Z-Fighter known as Trunks being one of the most recognizable heroes in the franchise’s ever-expanding lore, easily making him one of my favorite Saiyan warriors. When Dragon Ball Super premiered ten years ago, Trunks’ character design was changed in a head-scratching way, throwing into question why his already perfect look needed to be altered at all.

Making a strong first impression in his Dragon Ball Z debut, “Future” Trunks burst onto the scene with purpose after revealing himself to be a Super Saiyan and dusting the seemingly indestructible Mecha Frieza with ease, instantly catapulting him — and his badass character design — into the upper echelons of Dragon Ball stardom.

Eventually introducing “Kid” Trunks later on in Dragon Ball Z, Future Trunks re-appeared in Dragon Ball Super sporting a much different look than before, with a big change from his previous incarnations altering one of the best parts of Trunks’ character: turning his hair from purple to blue.

Trunks Originally Had Purple Hair but It Was Changed to Blue in Dragon Ball Super

Trunks’ New Blue Hair Baffled Fans

Having purple hair in his first manga appearance, Future Trunks retained this hair color when transitioning to the anime space. At the same time, his mother, Bulma, made her blue-haired anime debut in Dragon Ball years earlier — an odd choice considering her manga hair was also purple like her son’s. Jumping forward in time to when Kid Trunks replaced Future Trunks as Dragon Ball Z’s “main” version of the character, Kid Trunks was given lavender hair which then carried over to Dragon Ball Super, a settled anime detail that Dragon Ball Super’s version of Future Trunks threw a wrench into.

With purple being the true hair color of Trunks in official Dragon Ball manga continuity, it’s worth wondering why Dragon Ball Super’s creators didn’t abide by the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” rule, especially considering how popular Trunks’ original design was with fans, unlike, say, a character like Yamcha who always seemed to have a new look whenever he popped up on screen. Though there are a few timelines at work in Dragon Ball continuity that could explain away some of these cosmetic-related issues, this hair change ultimately affects Trunks more than being just an inconsistent visual detail.

Dragon Ball’s Trunks Was at His Best When He Had Purple Hair

Trunks Made His Anime and Manga Debut With Purple Hair

It’s true that Dragon Ball has its share of plot holes and continuity problems, but changing Trunks’ canon hair color seems like a battle that didn’t need to be fought, especially with Super already nerfing Trunks in noticeable ways that turned him into an almost unrecognizable person compared to his Dragon Ball Z counterpart. And while it makes sense from a certain perspective that the creators of Super wanted an easy way to distinguish Future Trunks from his younger self, the change makes it hard to connect who the character was in Dragon Ball Z and who Trunks is now.

It goes without saying that outside of Future Trunks utilizing Super Saiyan Rage against Goku Black in an admittedly epic fashion, anything blue-haired Trunks can do, purple-haired Trunks can do better, with Dragon Ball Z and its various non-canon movies proving that point time and time again. Furthermore, Trunks’ simpler visual design in Dragon Ball Super is a far cry from his badass and bulked-up look in Dragon Ball Z, with Trunks’ hair color alteration suddenly going from something seemingly trivial to a clear symbol of how much the character has changed since his debut as a mysterious future man.

Trunks’ Controversial Dragon Ball Hair Color Change Isn’t Going Anywhere

Trunks’ Hair Will Stay Blue in Dragon Ball Super

Oddly enough, now that Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero has shifted the franchise’s timeline forward to feature Trunks as a teenager, his younger self’s previously purple hair has turned a Future Trunks shade of blue, with the only reasonable explanation being that the older Trunks gets in Super’s continuity, the more his hair grows to match his counterpart’s design. But that theory would break pre-established continuity because in Dragon Ball Z, Future Trunks’ hair is still purple, implying that this confusing color swap was a purposeful retcon for reasons that are still unclear, despite heavy fan outcry about the decision.

Though it’s possible that Dragon Ball Super simply made Trunks’ hair blue to match his mom’s stylish look in the anime, it’s worth noting there’s been no official reason for this hue change from either the late Akira Toriyama or Toei Animation, making this visual tweak a mystifying yet entirely deliberate decision that I simply can’t wrap my head around. Regardless of why this questionable change came about, I’d never let something as trivial as Trunks’ hair color ruin my enjoyment of Dragon Ball, but if I had to choose between his blue or purple-haired era, the choice is easy.