The Super Saiyan 4 (SSJ4) form in Dragon Ball GT is known for its light pink-red fur, but the creator of this form originally had a completely different color in mind.
Contrary to what many fans think, this iconic transformation was not created by Akira Toriyama, the late creator of Dragon Ball, but by Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, a former Japanese animator. worked on Dragon Ball Z in the 90s.
In addition to being an animator, Nakatsuru is also a character designer and when talking about the concept of SSJ4, he revealed that he wanted it to be yellow, but the translation does not make it clear whether the artist just talk about hair on the head or even body hair or not.
Specifically in an interview, Nakatsuru was asked the following:
Interviewer: Are there any preliminary designs other than the final design?
Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru: No, only the final draft was developed. I used the same design with colors and created a version with blonde hair. However, I prefer the combination of black and red because it creates a more vibrant color palette.
As you can see, SSJ4 with blonde hair would make the transformation look very different, but as Nakatsuru said, the combination of red and black looks better.
The red and black color combination is also more in line with the designer's original idea, as he wanted to create a different form of Super Saiyan 3. Removing the yellow color and going for a more wild approach reminiscent of the giant gorilla Oozaru made this possible, and thus Super Saiyan 4 has become one of the franchise's most beloved forms. this franchise.