Getting Started Writing Articles for the Kanzenshuu Wiki

Kanzenshuu is one of the greatest online resources for Dragon Ball anywhere, known for its accuracy and a little bit of entertaining. As a contributor to the Kanzenshuu Wiki, it is up to you to uphold that tradition of accuracy and entertainment by writing clear, concise, and well-researched articles. It’s not easy! But with a little help from this guide (and your article-writing peers), you’ll be writing quality articles in no time.

Start From A Template

There is nothing worse than staring at a blank page waiting for inspiration. Especially in the beginning, we have many pages that are either not there at all (a green link) or pages that are stubs to be filled in later. It’s best to start there because your new page will already be linked from around the wiki and be spelled correctly for the site’s standards. That will save you time later. Also make sure to pick pages (at least at first) that you already know something about. You will learn more as you research (and probably learn that you are wrong), but having an idea in your head about the shape of a topic will help you to find your feet quickly.

Remember that when you are writing about a topic, the Kanzenshuu reader expects to learn more than just a plot summary. They want to learn about the history of a character, who drew or wrote them the first time, how their names were chosen and how they work or don’t work in the series (in a well-cited way). This is not the place for fan essays on character strengths. This is not the place for “fanon” (see below).

The first thing to do is copy in the template from the style guide, being careful to remove the unnecessary formatting. You can find all the templates in the style manual. This will give you a starting set of subject headings to aid in your writing. Most topics should have something to say about each subject heading in the style manual, but you can remove excess headings if it is warranted. Don't forget also to follow our Style Manual for basic things like date formatting, use of italics, and the level of professionalism we expect in well-written articles.

Do Your Research

You’re going to be tempted to dive in immediately, but do your research! Kanzenshuu requires information to be cited properly, so even if you “know” something to be true you have to have done your research to back it up. Unfortunately, most of the primary sources for Dragon Ball are written in Japanese and so you will be reliant on the research from others, even as you have to make sure to tie it back to the original sources. This can sometimes be challenging, but the other Kanzenshuu team members can be a big help!

Always start your research with what’s on the main Kanzenshuu site in the “Guides” section. Especially if you are working on an episode or movie, the Kanzenshuu guides can be a great starting point and make up much of your final text. From there, you should explore Herms’s “Guide to Guides” on the Forum and see what is applicable to your topic. Most characters and events are well covered in the “History of Ever” guide, while locations are detailed in the “Hitchiker’s Guide” and Daizenshuu 7. Those may reference sections in the manga; make sure to track those references down. After that, a Google search to find other forum posts on your topic may be helpful. Look for posts and replies from informed team members such as the Kanzenshuu staff.

Make sure you are keeping track of the the references, both your own and the ones that the various contributors provided in those guides. When you write your article, remember that you cannot cite the guides (even the good Kanzenshuu ones!), but that you should be citing the original sources that they drew upon. The hardest part may be tracking down original page numbers as forum guides frequently did not include these. For Daizenshuu 7 and GT Perfect File 1, these page numbers can be worked out from online sources. For other guidebooks, if you do not have them, feel free to contact other members of the wiki team on the chat to assist.

Writing In-Universe

When working on biographies and histories, one of the first portions of the article will be written “in-universe”. For most articles, you should approach this in-context. For a page about a movie or anime-filler character or location, you should write the history from the perspective of that movie or anime. Try to make it clear in-context that is what you are doing, although the reader should be aided by the Infobox (more on that in a bit). Try to cover the important elements of the history without going overboard. We want to be informative but concise.

Caution: When a character, location, or similar are included in a Toriyama work but substantially filled out in another medium, limit the top history section to just material by Toriyama. This anime- or movie-specific information is important and should be included in a subsequent section. Dragon Ball doesn't have an official continuity so use your best judgement, but in general you should consider the following as "Toriyama material":

The original Dragon Ball manga, as well as interviews and supplementary material by Toriyama directly related to the manga.
The Jaco the Galactic Patrolman manga, including the “Dragon Ball Minus” bonus chapter.
Information from the revived movie series including Battle of Gods, Resurrection F, and the 2018 Broli film.
At a high-level, the key events in the Dragon Ball Super anime and manga are also written by Toriyama. Use caution including material from these sources, especially where it may contradict another source, and stick to events whenever possible that are in both the anime and manga adaptations.
Material from the Daizenshuus and other official reference books may be used where they do not contradict the above, but caution must be used as those books sometimes give weight to anime- and movie-specific events.
In general, events from the original-run movies, anime-filler (including Dragon Ball GT), Episode of Bardock, Dragonball Evolution, Dragon Ball SD, Neko Majin, The Case of Being Reincarnated as Yamcha, promotional animes, tie-in manga, and similar material should only be used in the main “in-universe” sections of articles that directly relate to those mediums. These details can (and should!) be included elsewhere in the article if it adds value.

This is not a hard and fast rule; Dragon Ball does not have a "canon", but Toriyama ideas have pride-of-place and should be given the most prominence when writing.

About “Fanon”: Even official sources are not always perfectly aligned. When writing a history, we have a natural tendency to try to paper over the gaps and make everything fit together nicely. It is not our role to duct-tape a consistent narrative together, that just produces “fanon”. Our job is to document what happened in the series and point out the inconsistencies and alternate versions of events in a well-cited way, in the appropriate sections of the article. Even the Daizenshuus are sometimes guilty of this duct-taping!

Name Puns

Most articles will require a section on the name puns or other pneumonic that was used by the creator. These are some of the most fun little details in the Dragon Ball universe and fortunately most the hard lifting has been done for you already. You can find most of these in the “Name Pun Roundup” on the forum. Remember that you cannot cite the forum directly, so use the citations that are listed for which reference book to know how to cite the pun for the wiki. If you need page numbers, you may need to go to the chat for assistance. Make sure to include the pun information in Japanese and English, with the original Japanese spellings.

Filling in the Infobox

To be completed...

Before Your Submit - Check Names

Kanzenshuu, including the Wiki, uses a consistent set of names for characters, attacks, and locations that are sometimes different from both the Viz translation of the manga as well as the anime subtitles or dub-names. You need to make sure all of your names are as correct as possible. Be careful! Even the forum posts or Daizenshuu translations that we cited above may not have the correct “Kanzenshuu” name spelling!

For character names, you can find almost all of our official spellings on the Cast Guide.
For locations and attacks, check the episode or movie summaries on the Episode or Movie Guide if it is mentioned in the story description.

If all else fails, ask the chat.

Before You Submit - Add Categories