The alphanumeric codes written across this sheet — Y-1, Y-4, CR-6 — are the actual working language of Toei Animation’s ink-and-paint department: paint-call codes that told the human painters exactly which shade of yellow belonged on which panel of hair, which crimson belonged on which section of the gi, which value went where across the finished figure. The subject is Goku crouched and powering into Super Saiyan 3 form, the longest-haired and highest-voltage transformation Dragon Ball Z ever introduced into its Buu-era vocabulary, with the trailing hair rendered in colored pencil hashing against the printed red frame guide. This two-drawing set documents the exact handoff point in the pre-digital production pipeline — not the finished painted cel, not the raw rough pencil, but the specific moment where the color decisions were encoded directly onto the sheet itself. The industry switched to full digital paint around 2000-01; drawings like these document a workflow that no longer exists.
Dragon Ball Z Original Production Drawing – Super Saiyan 3 Goku with Color Notes
