Hello, I found your post about the uniforms and I was wondering if you know why Koito's is different from the rest? I still dont get much about the ranks and stuff so im not sure if its related to that or not
Yes, I do know.
For start Koito, like Tsurumi, it’s an officer, while the other guys (Ogata, Tsukishima, Kikuta, Tanigaki and so on) are only enlisted soldiers.
Officers used to have different uniforms compared to the enlisted soldiers, which are the uniforms I analyzed.
As you can see the coats were definitely different and officers always had boots (enlisted soldiers normally had shoes, although in GK some of them were shown to have boots).
But, you might point out, Koito’s uniform doesn’t look like the one for an officer.
That’s because around the end of the Russo-Japanese war, Japan decided to issue new uniforms.
Those new uniforms were meant to have a coat that was more or less the same for enlisted soldiers and officials.
Koito, being an officer fresh from academy, only wore the old uniform in academy (see chap 200), but once he joins the army he was likely handed a new uniform.
Tsukishima apparently got a new uniform after he was involved in the explosion in the Yubari mine. Maybe his old uniform was too ruined so he was given a new one.
Other soldiers continued to use their old uniform, either until they were dismissed or until their old uniform wasn’t usable any longer.
That’s why the 7th division doesn’t change uniform en masse.
This uniform Koito wears is temporary. Later on the Army will switch it again, and again until we’ll get the WW2 uniform.
To give you an idea of how Koito’s uniform was a middle way here there’s an image of his uniform and of one of the WW2 soldiers.
They’ll change the collar (judged highly uncomfortable) and the way they place the insigna (in Koito’s uniform they’re on his shoulders, in the WW2 uniform they’re those tiny things on the collar), they’ll change the type of sword officers will carry (Koito has a sabre, WW2 soldiers had a Katana) and they adopted a new type of pants. The hat too is slightly different. Officers continue to wear boots while enlisted soldiers continue to wear shoes.
Anyway GK takes place in a time in which the Army was changing a lot, hence the various uniforms used.
Even Kikuta’s rank will disappear in a while (you might know him as a Warrant officer but actually he is a “Special Duties Sergeant Major”. When his rank will disappear all the ones having it will be turned into warrant officers, which is likely why translators went with it).
I hope it helps!