Official "Canon" Thread

Discussion regarding the entirety of the franchise in a general (meta) sense, including such aspects as: production, trends, merchandise, fan culture, and more.
The Dark Knight
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Official "Canon" Thread

Post by The Dark Knight » Tue Mar 03, 2026 9:59 pm

It's very common for all types of threads to get completely derailed as a result of someone bringing up the concept of canon, even if the user's intention was never to start a debate. As a result of Toriyama's original manga having multiple sequels that have nothing to do with each other, and with Super getting a remake that will undoubtedly make things even more confusing, I believe it's time to have a dedicated thread for this specific topic. Whatever your thoughts are on the concept of canon, please share them here moving forward.

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Re: Official "Canon" Thread

Post by Grimlock » Wed Mar 04, 2026 12:16 am

There is already an "official thread" for that, but I guess it's old now since the last post. :lol:

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Re: Official "Canon" Thread

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Wed Mar 04, 2026 9:53 am

The Japanese side don't care about the concept of canon, but if there is an "official history" of Dragon Ball it is Akira Toriyama's original manga, as published by Weekly Shonen Jump between 1984 and 1995, and everything else is DLC.
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Re: Official "Canon" Thread

Post by PhantomSaiyan » Wed Mar 04, 2026 10:03 am

Dragon Ball Ireland wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2026 9:53 am The Japanese side don't care about the concept of canon, but if there is an "official history" of Dragon Ball it is Akira Toriyama's original manga, as published by Weekly Shonen Jump between 1984 and 1995, and everything else is DLC.
Nothing more than this needs to be said really. Canon debates are end up being so silly

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Re: Official "Canon" Thread

Post by MCDaveG » Wed Mar 04, 2026 11:33 am

My thoughts on this are shaped by various Japanese media. I remember being puzzled at first with Japanese movies for various shows overall, as I took off in the early days of internet... Whoa, Dragon Ball, Saint Seiya and these other shows have movies that will expand the stories from the show? Kinda... I have learned the term Gaiden and what it means, basically a side-story. The movies and game stories were just original stories using the original characters, using the tropes from the main show with no story impact on the original show.

And that's how I perceive the sequels with Super virtually having status of being canon just because it was and now returns to be the main vehicle for the franchise... otherwise, GT, Super and Daima can be all considered Gaidens.

My question would be, what continuation do you favor the most? And that might be your personal canon of things, but besides the original manga run, canon basically doesn't exist.
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