Ken's karate gi reflects what's unique about his characterisation, going beyond merely indicating that he knows karate and is good at it. This essay is a companion piece to the essay analysing the scenes featuring Ken in his gi in E13.
Exceedraft's outro features Ken performing his karate and cooking skills as part of a showcase of the Exceedraft members' unique skills. His karate gi allows him a wide range of motion to perform karate techniques unlike the apron he wears over his regular outfit while he cooks. Yet in both outfits, he appears visually impressive as he pulls off skillful moves with his karate kata and perfect pancake flip.
The contrast between Ken's two looks in the outro draws attention to his ability to impress others whether in or out of a fight. Notice that while the outro also features Hayato and Ai as skilled in physical combat, they’re shown to demonstrate their fighting skills on live opponents while Ken just performs kata, i.e. patterns of movements, on his own.
In the show itself, we get to see the impact of Ken’s ability to appear impressive and admirable on a particular case’s complication and resolution.
Exceedraft E4 features Ken in his gi in the lead-up before a case for which he plays a central role. He wears it while sparring with Tsuyama, the arsonist who Ken has reformed and who's seemingly the case's primary perpetrator.
Both Ken and Tsuyama wear white gi with belts of different colours that reflect the difference in their level of skill and experience in karate. Ken wears a black belt meant for the most advanced practitioners of the martial art while Tsuyama wears a white belt for beginners. Tsuyama's white belt suggests that he has only recently taken up karate, likely due to Ken's influence. He has become more like Ken in picking up Ken's interest and perhaps also Ken's virtues by extension, thus distancing him from his criminal past.
Their similar appearances in their gis also suggest another similarity that becomes clear later in E4 when Tsuyama once more displays his knowledge and skill to start fires that used to define him as a former arsonist. Both Ken and Tsuyama are alike in having been defined by their unique abilities that are potentially threatening and harmful to others. The scheme in E4 results in Tsuyama picking back up his ability to harm others with fire. There’s a parallel here with Ken’s fighting ability as a former karate champion becoming once more relevant to how he influences and relates to others because of Ken's career change from firefighter to police officer.
Ken sparring with Tsuyama could be seen as his way to not only support Tsumaya, but also to transform the potential within both Tsuyama and himself to hurt others into a force of good, which then raises his desperation to believe in Tsuyama's innocence. We could then see Tsuyama, like Fujio and Kogure in E13, as being a sort of mirror for Ken [LINK].
E28 is the last episode where Ken appears in his gi. This episode is similar to the outro in two ways. Firstly, it showcases what's unique about each member of Exceedraft. Secondly, Ken doesn't fight anyone in his gi and only performs kata, executing a series of moves done while maintaining perfect form.
The emphasis in E28 is not on Ken's ability to physically subdue others, as in E13, but on his skill and the experiences he gained through applying it that both defines his individuality.
Individuality differentiates the Exceedraft team from the hired assassins in E28 who've gone as far as to undergo plastic surgery for ambushing and annihilating Exceedraft. The team's perception of themselves as unique individuals is also important for exploring their involvement with David Akiba, the alien who reappears in E28 and who compromises his uniqueness to inhabit a human body for pursuing his nemesis on planet Earth.