Which is canon, anime or manga?

[Mazingerdestro]

Personally I consider both canon.
They have minor differences.
If you must have one answer then consider the manga a different universe from the anime.

None contradicts the other and they basically say the same story.

[Gokculo]

My take on what is or isn't canon (probably thinking too hard about this):

(This list encompasses the original manga run and the first two anime series, as well as the remastered Kai version of Z)

•If it happens in both the manga and anime, yes, it is canon.

•If it is confirmed in an official guidebook or by Toriyama himself, it is canon.

•If it happened only in the anime filler, and serves to develop the world and characters, it is canon until it is contradicted. If it is contradicted by a canon source, then it is no longer canon.

•If it happens in anime filler and does not significantly develop canon material, it is considered a side story and is only canon if it is specifically referenced again either in later filler or in canon material.

•If it occurs in an anime TV special, and is not contradicted by a more canon source, it exists in a grey zone where it can be assumed to be canon. If it is referenced later by a canon source, it is canon.

•If two contradictory versions of events happen between the anime and manga, the entirety of the manga version is canon, while the parts that do not contradict the manga exist to bolster the story but are subject to erasure from canon should it be contradicted later. (This makes Gregory canon.)

•Jaco the Galactic Patrolman is canon. Dragon Ball GT is not. The movies are not. The OVAs are not. Dragon Ball Super is.


IN TERMS OF SUPER:
The rules are reversed. The anime takes precedence over the manga. If an event occurs in the manga but not in the anime, it is only canon until it is debunked by an anime source. This is because the manga is promotional material for the anime.

[sintzu]

The manga is promotional material for the anime.

I looked at the manga's official announcement and there's nothing in it that says it's promotional material for the anime.

Both tell the same story and both are being released like any other product so I think they're treated equally rather than one being more important or canon over the other.

[Ajay]

I looked at the manga's official announcement and there's nothing in it that says it's promotional material for the anime.

Both tell the same story and both are being released like any other product so I think they're treated equally rather than one being more important or canon over the other.

It's important to remember that V Jump as a magazine is all about promoting other products. It's not an alternative to publications like Weekly Shonen Jump that exist to house fresh new material. It's all about tie-ins and adaptations.

If it's in V Jump, it's absolutely promoting something else, rather than being a primary product on its own. Whether that plays into what you consider canon or not is up to you, of course, but Super's manga is very much promotional material for the anime.

It jumps around through Battle of Gods, skips Resurrection 'F', and rushes through the tournament's finale. It's a fun little thing that readers can pick up and get a taste of what the anime is currently offering. Nothing less, nothing more, unfortunately.

[Neon Z]

I looked at the manga's official announcement and there's nothing in it that says it's promotional material for the anime.

Both tell the same story and both are being released like any other product so I think they're treated equally rather than one being more important or canon over the other.

It's important to remember that V Jump as a magazine is all about promoting other products. It's not an alternative to publications like Weekly Shonen Jump that exist to house fresh new material. It's all about tie-ins and adaptations.

If it's in V Jump, it's absolutely promoting something else, rather than being a primary product on its own. Whether that plays into what you consider canon or not is up to you, of course, but Super's manga is very much promotional material for the anime.

It jumps around through Battle of Gods, skips Resurrection 'F', and rushes through the tournament's finale. It's a fun little thing that readers can pick up and get a taste of what the anime is currently offering. Nothing less, nothing more, unfortunately.

It only really skips around the movie remakes though. Aside from that, the only thing really rushed was the Universe 6 epilogue, something that happened in the actual manga too sometimes (like the Buu Saga after match which is just a collection of images with a brief narration). Also, Toei isn't credited for the manga at all.

Like I've mentioned before, I think one of the reasons this manga might exist is to allow Shueisha/Bird Studios to own Dragonball Super and the new characters introduced by it, unlike actual Toei original productions.

[FoolsGil]

We should just Star Wars it.

Toriyama Canon - 1) The Plot he's written in the Dragonball manga, DBZ Movies 14, DBZ Movie 15, and any Super Plots he written. 2) all the characters he's ever created, no matter how they are used in the anime, movies, OVA, TV Specials or Videogames

Toei Canon - 1The filler written in Dragonball, Dragonball Z, the plots in Super not written by Toriyama, the plots of GT, OAVs, TV Specials and all other movies and the use of characters that Toriyama only penned and created, but never used in any plots he's written, and any characters that Toriyama never created

Media Canon - Anything, whether characters or plot that was never penned by Toriyama or Toei

[Marlowe89]

While both appear to be adapting from Toriyama's basic plot outline in their own ways, I would argue that the anime is the "canon" version of Super simply because it's advertised as the main medium for the series. The manga sometimes departs from the anime in some pretty interesting ways but it's ultimately a secondary companion.

[SpiritBombTriumphant]

See the quote of VegettoEX in my sig for your answer, OP.

[sintzu]

We should just Star Wars it.

I have it split into levels :

Level 1 Canon : The original manga, the changes made in the Kanzenban like the extended ending & the additional info Toriyama gives that doesn't go against them.

Level 2 canon : DB, Kai & Z's 2 TV specials.

Level 3 canon : Super, BOG, RF, the 2008 OVA & the Jaco manga.

Level 4 canon : Filler arcs, GT, DB's 4 movies, Z's 13 movies, Episode of Bardock & the plan to destroy the Saiyans.

[FoolsGil]

We should just Star Wars it.

I have it split into levels :

Level 1 Canon : The original manga, the changes made in the Kanzenban like the extended ending & the additional info Toriyama gives that doesn't go against them.

Level 2 canon : DB, Kai & Z's 2 TV specials.

Level 3 canon : Super, BOG, RF, the 2008 OVA & the Jaco manga.

Level 4 canon : Filler arcs, DB's 4 movies, Z's 13 movies, Episode of Bardock & the plan to destroy the Saiyans.

Looks good to me, though where would GT be? 5th Level?

[Chiki]

There's a fairly obvious problem with saying both the manga and anime are canon.

I think everyone can agree that logical contradictions are bad, right? If both universes were canon, then the statement "Goku has Kaioken SSB" would be both true and false, which is a logical contradiction, and you can prove anything from a logical contradiction, even things like 1+1=6.

My personal view is that the manga is canon, or at least most of the manga is canon, since it is closer to Toriyama's outline. The mess of having Kaioken SSB basically necessitates that.

[Alruneia]

We should just Star Wars it.

I have it split into levels :

Level 1 Canon : The original manga, the changes made in the Kanzenban like the extended ending & the additional info Toriyama gives that doesn't go against them.

Level 2 canon : DB, Kai & Z's 2 TV specials.

Level 3 canon : Super, BOG, RF, the 2008 OVA & the Jaco manga.

Level 4 canon : Filler arcs, DB's 4 movies, Z's 13 movies, Episode of Bardock & the plan to destroy the Saiyans.

Looks good to me, though where would GT be? 5th Level?

I'd put it on Level/Tier 4. GT fits on the same level as the Toei movies, since Toriyama didn't write it.
Also, I'd add a Tier 5 to put EoB and Keikaku on. They'd be together with video games, since they're directly related to them. Dragon Ball Z Abridged would also go here, since this tier is the "obviously non-canon" tier.

[sintzu]

I have it split into levels :

Level 1 Canon : The original manga, the changes made in the Kanzenban like the extended ending & the additional info Toriyama gives that doesn't go against them.

Level 2 canon : DB, Kai & Z's 2 TV specials.

Level 3 canon : Super, BOG, RF, the 2008 OVA & the Jaco manga.

Level 4 canon : Filler arcs, DB's 4 movies, Z's 13 movies, Episode of Bardock & the plan to destroy the Saiyans.

Looks good to me, though where would GT be? 5th Level?

I'd put it on Level/Tier 4. GT fits on the same level as the Toei movies, since Toriyama didn't write it.

That's where I was going to put it but forgot.

[Quantum-Kakarrotto]

I agree with this list for the levels of canon. But I would also add a 5th Level for everything that Toriyama tells us in interviews that he says is canon but sometimes never is.

[Miracles]

As far as I understand, it seems both the manga and anime versions of the Champa arc and Future Trunks arc are both canon.
Since they're both based on Toriyama's plot outline, whereas things like the majority of the slice of life and the Purple Jelly Vegeta arc that happened in the anime were Toei's doing since it was not covered in the manga nor did they receive an announcement of Toriyama's involvement like the other two canon arcs.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... -24/.96670

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... ne/.101915

While the Battle of Gods and Resurrection of F movies (which were directly written by Toriyama) are canon over the Dragon Ball Super retellings which were just Toei's shitty take on them.

Also Toriyama does appear to check the storyboard of each chapter of the manga and feels that the manga "should keep them on track!" referring to Toei's animators. So at the very least the manga isn't any less canon than the anime simply because it's promotional material.
http://www.kanzenshuu.com/translations/ ... b-version/

You understand how it goes!
Good job.

[Neo-Makaiōshin]

There's a fairly obvious problem with saying both the manga and anime are canon.

I think everyone can agree that logical contradictions are bad, right? If both universes were canon, then the statement "Goku has Kaioken SSB" would be both true and false, which is a logical contradiction, and you can prove anything from a logical contradiction, even things like 1+1=6.

My personal view is that the manga is canon, or at least most of the manga is canon, since it is closer to Toriyama's outline. The mess of having Kaioken SSB basically necessitates that.

What do you base that on? Can you prove it in some substantial way?
Why is the anime not the closer interpretation of said outline?
Do you even have said outline from Toriyama in your hand to prove or disprove either of them?

[Chiki]

There's a fairly obvious problem with saying both the manga and anime are canon.

I think everyone can agree that logical contradictions are bad, right? If both universes were canon, then the statement "Goku has Kaioken SSB" would be both true and false, which is a logical contradiction, and you can prove anything from a logical contradiction, even things like 1+1=6.

My personal view is that the manga is canon, or at least most of the manga is canon, since it is closer to Toriyama's outline. The mess of having Kaioken SSB basically necessitates that.

What do you base that on? Can you prove it in some substantial way?
Why is the anime not the closer interpretation of said outline?
Do you even have said outline from Toriyama in your hand to prove or disprove either of them?

It's actually incredibly easy to prove that the manga is closer to Toriyama's outline. The anime has fillers like Goku vs. Monaka Beerus, Tagoma, flying Pan, etc. by virtue of being much more slower paced than the manga. The manga has no time for fillers and is much, much more fast paced with no fillers. Therefore, the manga is closer to Toriyama's outline.

[ShinKikoho27]

The plot outline is what's canon. The anime and manga are their own interpretations of the plot outline adapted into different mediums.

One isn't more canon than the other however the anime includes content that was not in the plot outline like the Copy Water arc and other filler. So basically the Super anime is to Dragon Ball Z what the Super manga is to Dragon Ball Kai, they're both adaptations of the same thing but one has more filler to pad it out than the other.

But the manga version of the Universe 6 or Black arc isn't more or less canon than the anime version of the Universe 6 or Black arc.

That would only be canon if Toriyama personally drew a new manga that implemented those ideas in it, but as it stands the sole purpose of Toriyama's draft is to serve as basis for a final product ( which is both the anime and the promo manga ) rather than something meant to be taken by its own. The same principle also applies to FnF's screenplay Toriyama personally wrote.

Looking at it objectively all of Toriyama's contributions to new Dragon Ball material are pretty much a bunch of unused ideas that never really made it into proper canon.

[DBZGTKOSDH]

The manga is closer to Toriyama's outline, while the Super anime is written as a sequel to Z/Kai instead of the original manga, so the manga is probably more canon, I would say.

[TheMikado]

I looked at the manga's official announcement and there's nothing in it that says it's promotional material for the anime.

Both tell the same story and both are being released like any other product so I think they're treated equally rather than one being more important or canon over the other.

It's important to remember that V Jump as a magazine is all about promoting other products. It's not an alternative to publications like Weekly Shonen Jump that exist to house fresh new material. It's all about tie-ins and adaptations.

If it's in V Jump, it's absolutely promoting something else, rather than being a primary product on its own. Whether that plays into what you consider canon or not is up to you, of course, but Super's manga is very much promotional material for the anime.

It jumps around through Battle of Gods, skips Resurrection 'F', and rushes through the tournament's finale. It's a fun little thing that readers can pick up and get a taste of what the anime is currently offering. Nothing less, nothing more, unfortunately.

This seems to be the correct answer to which I say I absolutely hate the Super anime but thoroughly enjoy the Super promotional manga. So if the anime is generally considered "canon" then the canon version of Super's events are dead to me at this point.