I tried to make sense of the complicated and convolluted Dragon Ball Canon

[Avenant]

If I recall correctly, the Future Trunks special chapter in the Manga is what the "History of Trunks" film was adapted from, which makes the Future Trunks story-arc canon with the Manga, since it was actually IN the manga, right?

For me it doesn't quite work like that. As DB- showed, the anime and manga can tackle the same subject matter and have very different results. Even History of Trunks does this in regards to when Trunks goes Super Saiyan, so (annoyingly) it isn't so cut and dry.

Ah, I see what you're saying. I stupidly didn't think about the Trunks special being included in the original 42 volumes so I, for some odd reason, thought the specific mention by OP Vegeta_Sama meant it was excluded in his interpretation of the Manga canon. My bad! lol

[Ozotto]

It really depends on how you define canon, and if you`re willing to accept there are multiple canon for Dragon Ball or not.

If you`re a purest, the original manga run is as canon as you can get.

I like the think of canon as a specific media done by the original author without long breaks.

If you want to include material that exists after long breaks from the original canon, i`d argue that`s potentially another canon, a modern version and not a classic version.

[GamerSkull]

I, for one, just consider the manga (the original 42 volumes) as canon including History of Trunks and Bardock: Father of Goku (because they are referenced in the original manga only).

Everything else is secondary and I treat them as alternate timelines or "what-if" stories.

I know others disagree with me on this but it's just how I choose to view the series... since I'm a bit sour on most of the other DB-related material. (I think GT is very mediocre but that one still holds a special place in my heart mostly due to nostalgia but even then it's a "what-of" story for me).

[Android 21]

Not enough care still goes into this series’ writing for us to care about what’s canon and what isn’t.

[Jackalope89]

Goku goes from monkey boy in the mountains, to new father in Z, to man-child in Super with the power of Gods.

There's your canon.

[Grimlock]

Goku goes from monkey boy in the mountains, to new father in Z, to man-child in Super with the power of Gods.

There's your canon.

That's continuity though, the flow of events from the main timeline. Nothing to do with canonicity.

[Nero<>Akira]

Why is this a question lol? Dragon Ball's main canon is the manga, Jaco, Minus, 08 OVA, and Super (both anime and manga). It also doesn't matter if Super may have a filler character. That's just a retcon or an unfortunate inconsistency/plot hole. Bog & F are simply the original versions of 2 canonical stories and you are free to view them (they are superior but they are pretty much what the original gundam series is to the rest of the UC canonical timeline; the original version that doesn't really matter; The rest of the UC timeline in Gundam follows the trilogy of films that retell the original MSG story; you can watch the original series regardless though). The Super anime exists in two continuities however. Both the manga and the Dragon Ball Kai anime.

[GamerSkull]

Grimlock has the right idea. Dragon Ball doesn't have a single, central, defined canon, and trying to force one into existence on your own is just inviting a huge and unnecessary headache.

Because even if you try to stick to the baseline and normally given assumption of "Toriyama's works alone," that still leaves you with a whoooole lot of criss-crossing and contradictory stuff. I mean, just looking at Super alone should prove that by itself, because we now have three different versions of those original Battle of Gods and Resurrection F stories to choose from. In those cases and others like them, you'd need some official decree to firmly decide which things "count" and which don't, and that simply hasn't happened yet.

When it comes to Dragon Ball, "canon" is almost entirely up to personal opinion and criteria.

I basically agree with all of this. Especially that last sentence.

Dragon Ball canon can be chosen by the individual in a lot of cases. Some want GT to be canon over Super and to them, that's pretty much the case because that's how they'll re-watch the series.

It really comes down to the individual.

Regarding movies or conflicting media, the "alternate timeline" excuse is probably the most valid one to use.