I know we've had discussions in the past about which historic period in human history the Golden Kingdom could've taken place in. But I'm wondering if one were to look purely at the designs of Prince Endymion and the Shitennou as they appeared in the Golden Kingdom, with their caps, armor, and swords, which historic period would one say their outfits were inspired by?

I was trying to come up with a description the other day on a separate website, and I realized that I don't have a good description for the costume design of Prince Endymion and his generals. It's not quite medieval or renaissance, though I kinda want to say high fantasy, a la Lord of the Rings-esque, but that doesn't quit fit either. :\ What do you guys think?

Wow this is a good question. I'm stumped. (Though admittedly I don't know much about period fashions...) I always thought Helios' design was a bit Middle Eastern somehow? I can't really find anything similar atm though...

As for the Shitennou... Their suits actually remind me more of combat uniforms such as this British Air Force one from the early 1900s:


This is probably not the earliest example of that kind of style, but it's one that came to mind anyhow ^^;;;.

That's a difficult one. When it comes to the Golden Kingdom I do have a theory. In terms of their outfits I can only really see the Shitennou wearing a typical modern army uniform with a few artistic features, it seems way too contemporary to be useful as any kind of indicator of nationality.

Since it has been discussed before feel free to point out whether or not this has been disproven yet, however given what I understand about the established history this theory is based on information from the DiC dub and my knowledge of medieval Earth. My theory is that of all things Endymion and the Golden Kingdom is related in one form or another to the Mongolian Empire, the largest empire in history. The DiC dub specifically refers to a suggestion that the Silver Millennium took place 1000 years ago; given the time of the anime it places the timeline at 995CE or AD if you want. However I tend to feel that that is only a range and not to be taken too specifically. I personally feel the point in time was actually at around the 1200s as the Mongols were emerging as a power.

At 1225 the Mongolians reached Europe by invading medieval Russia and pressing west to as far as Poland, only a couple of years later the universal ruler Temujin - more commonly known as his title Genghis Khan - died and divided the massive empire amongst his four sons while still maintaining the nation under a single ruler. Batu Khan continued the expansion in Europe and over time with his own victories and that of his brothers elsewhere the empire split into the four states Temujin himself gave to his sons, Batu Khan was given the western state which was named the Golden Horde. The Golden Horde was established as it's own state from 1241 to 1502, I personally believe that on some level the Moon Kingdom established contact with Mongolia and more specifically the Golden Horde at around the time of Queen Metalia's attack and that it's possible however remote or unfalsifiable that Endymion and the Shitennou are Mongols.

I agree with Diagnosed's comment that they're wearing military uniforms. I think they're inspired by the Prussian uniforms, as the boy's uniform traditionally worn alongside the girl's sailor suit is inspired by Prussian cadet uniforms. The Four Heavenly Kings seem, to me, to be wearing pared-down versions of the Prussian-inspired early German army uniforms from the 19th century:

The military uniform influence for the Shitennou is a good point. But what about Endymion's uniform? I can see the color resembling 19th/early 20th century military uniforms, but the armor I feel like wasn't based on anything specific. The spaulders and greaves are not noticeably decorated, and the spaulders' wide flat shape is unlike anything I can find on medieval armor, which tends to be rounded and conform to the shape of the shoulder.

I'm a bit late on this post but I thought this was interesting and possibly backs up the idea that the Shitennou uniforms are Russian-based!

mangaka-chan wrote:

The military uniform influence for the Shitennou is a good point. But what about Endymion's uniform? I can see the color resembling 19th/early 20th century military uniforms, but the armor I feel like wasn't based on anything specific. The spaulders and greaves are not noticeably decorated, and the spaulders' wide flat shape is unlike anything I can find on medieval armor, which tends to be rounded and conform to the shape of the shoulder.

I personally took this to be a more fashion-based outfit. Naoko has a love of the runway and I always assumed she did a bit of embellishing on Endy since his pauldrons are absurd and not really practical so much as "fashionable."

I wonder if TuxedoUnmasked has been lurking our threads XD.

https://www.tuxedounmasked.com/2018/06/09/what-was-the-inspiration-for-the-dark-kingdoms-uniforms/