GT is absolutely part of the "original, pre-Super anime canon" if one is to look at it like that. Despite my earlier stance that I don't like breaking things in "multiple canons," that's just how I view it because...that's how it is. I don't consider it canon to the manga's story or with either rendition of Super, but in conjunction with the original DB and Z anime, absolutely. We know Toriyama had very little to do with GT (and nothing to do with the story), and people have tried to make his words on it indicate that he "hates" the series so they could "prove" it's not canon for years. Here is Herms' translation, in which his tone has been and can be up to interpreation https://www.kanzenshuu.com/translations ... ama-intro/. Obviously he wouldn't publicly trash the series, as this was a blurb from the GT Dragon Box. But to me, his comments are still pretty carefully worded and honestly pretty...neutral? He's not in any way acknowledging GT as a part of his canon, but he's welcoming people who enjoy GT to view it as a "grand side-story" to Dragon Ball. I take this to mean you can count it alongside the original anime if you want to, and if you don't want to, you can easily disregard it.There will be people saying Dragon Ball GT is canonical (if there are people in this very forum who would do that, please do speak up!
Again, that's the thing with this whole debate. People are going to say there's an obvious Toriyama canon...and you're right, even though I still maintain the current work by Toriyama can be viewed in conjunction with or separate to his original 42 volumes (pre-updated Kanzenban ending). People will maintain there's an original anime canon of OG+Z, with GT in the mix if you want to include it...and you're right. Obviously there's the 3 OG DB movies, the original 13 DBZ movies, and the GT-aesthetic DB movie Path to Power floating out there. And then it goes on with the advent of the Son Goku and friends special which was the one this topic specified (Toriyama canon or not is still in question when it comes to the extent of his involvement), the pre-Super Z movies BoG and RoF, then the Super anime, the Super manga, and Super Broly. And Heroes/Dragon Ball Online being it's own thing.
No one is coming to any formal agreement on this debate because people are defining canon on different terms, none of which are technically incorrect here, and that's fine, but it's important to point out. There's a Toriyama canon across the original manga and anything he's helped write in more recent years, there's an original Toei canon, there's a current Toei canon...I'm not going to get into the rest. But generally, the people mentioning any Toriyama as THE canon is because he's the author/creator of the original work and they ascribe sovereignty to his work over anything else. That's perfectly fine. And then, with the advent of all the anime, the filler, etc....I mean the whole reason this topic was begun in the first place is because someone wanted to know where this anime fit in with Toriyama canon. I don't think anything anyone has said here has been wrong, really, for the points they're arguing. The thing is, everyone is coming at it from a different angle. If we're talking about a clear Toriyama canon, then yes, a lot will be non-canon to that. And then so on. I think myself and any of the people stating "everything" or "nothing" is canon just meant any of them can form "a" canon to fit how you want it to, if you exclude something here-and-there that contradicts something and consider the different mediums separate from one another. That's it. Maybe the point wasn't explained well or got overcomplicated in the process. And now I look like a hypocrite because, despite saying [in nerd voice] "multiple canons are silly," I've discovered that's exactly what I do across the different mediums. I just don't think of them as "universes" per se. But it's clear the people talking about an OG anime canon or even a Dragon Ball Online canon aren't talking about the same thing as the "main Toriyama canon"...and that's also fine.
Anyway, I'll let y'all have this topic now for real. Apologies if there's any typos; I typed this after randomly waking up in the middle of the night. Back to bed I go.