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Dragon Ball Canon
Introduction
The Dragon Ball series is a massive franchise spanning books, anime, video games, novels, theme park rides, Audio Drama CDs, etcetera. Due to this, the continuity and cosmology is overall large and somewhat convoluted, this page will be explaining the overall canon and then the cosmology for Dragon Ball.
Contradictions
The Dragon Ball series is one of the most inconsistent in terms of continuity with effectively everything. For example, not even things as basic as hair colors and outfit colors are consistent in Dragon Ball, the afterlife is very inconsistent across every Dragon Ball media, even ones that are canon to one another, etcetera. Toriyama himself is famously known to forget a lot of things. One of the most popular examples is him completely forgetting about Super Saiyan 2 and thinking Super Saiyan 3 was Super Saiyan 2.
| “ | No, I don’t do that. That’s why I keep on forgetting things. If I don’t forget stuff, new ideas won’t come to mind. For example, you know how there’s “Super Saiyan 3”? I didn’t know that. (laughs) The whole time, I thought that was “Super Saiyan 2”. And I drew that myself. (laughs) Anyhow, I thought “2” was the one with long hair. It was like, “Man, I’ve really forgotten stuff…”. | „ |
Pointing out a contradiction is not, by itself, sufficient to declare something non-canon. It’s worth remembering that Goku being a Saiyan was itself a massive retcon; Zenkai Boosts didn’t exist in early Dragon Ball, so Goku never grew stronger after near-death experiences back then.
This is effectively for arguments like Goku claiming 3 is his max form while Daima introduces that he actually have Super Saiyan 4, this would not be enough to say Daima is not canon as using contradictions and retcons like this would require declaring nearly every Dragon Ball installment non-canon.
Canon & Continuity
In the Same Timeline
Dragon Ball Manga
This should be self-explanatory, though the peaceful world saga has a slight bit of retconning done to it, this will be explained later down the line.
Dragon Ball Daima
Not only was Daima directly made by Toriyama and it was a work he put more effort into then usual.
Dragon Ball Super Anime
Toriyama directly notes the Dragon Ball Super anime is followed by the Dragon Ball Super movies, which the official continuation that take place between the Majin Buu Arc and the final chapter, the movies and anime are both canon to each other as Toriyama has officially said movies like DBS Broly are the next story in the series currently airing on TV (Dragon Ball Super). Though Bulma has not noted to see Goku in five years in the original Peaceful World Saga, this can just be accepted as a retcon.
Dragon Ball Super (Manga)
The Dragon Ball Super manga is noted to be a canonical sequel to Dragon Ball, while this is also said for the anime.
Dragon Ball Z Anime
Dragon Ball has various media that essentially re-tells the story from the manga, along with an anime adaptation, while there's great debate over how the canon works, Dragon Ball Super alone dispels any argument over whether or not the anime and manga are two different continuities or not. The Dragon Ball Super anime as shown above is directly connected to the Dragon Ball Super movies which are the official continuation of the Dragon Ball manga. Now why does this matter? Not only does the Dragon Ball Super anime directly show anime flashbacks, but characters such as Gregory exist in the Dragon Ball Super anime, when he's a character that did not exist in the Dragon Ball manga, showing the Super anime acknowledges events and characters in the Toei anime.
Dragon Ball Z Kakarot
DBZ Kakarot is considered canon with Toriyama directly noting how it will include backstories that haven't been told in the manga, giving it even further expansion into the canon as it gives more context for things. Kakarot also now contains the Peaceful World Saga, the full story of Daima, content from Battle of the Gods and Resurrection F.
Dragon Ball Xenoverse
An actual common misconception in the Dragon Ball fandom is that Xenoverse is not usable in canon discussions though this is not further from the truth. The way Xenoverse works is that there's a time patrol that preserves the canon, with Xenoverse Trunks directly noting in Xenoverse that there is a "Scroll of Eternity" that contains all of time and history with everything listed in there. This is further shown DBZ Kakarot where Towa and Mira appear to fight Goku, taking place before Xenoverse 2. Xenoverse also has events from DBS within its scroll of eternity.
Dragon Ball Fighter Z
Android 21 has her canon backstory within Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.
Alternate Timeline
Dragon Ball GT
GT considers the movies canon, with characters like Cooler showing up, and Goku referencing that him and Vegeta have fused in the past to Gogeta, which would only be possible with Fusion Reborn. As the movies are directly stated to be taking place in another dimension[1], GT by extension takes place in a different dimension.
Dragon Ball Z Movies
As noted with the GT section, the movies are directly stated to be taking place in another dimension[2].
Dragon Ball Heroes
Heroes is essentially the same story as Xenoverse though it is not Xenoverse. This can be seen with the story of Dragon Ball Heroes and Xenoverse not aligning. There is no time patroller that's the hero of the Tokitoki or Conton City, Fu has completely different goals in Xenoverse and Heroes, etcetera. We also have a direct statement from the creator of Dragon Ball Heroes with them noting Xenoverse and Heroes are different and original characters from heroes don't exist within it[3].
Non-Canon
Dragon Ball Evolution
This movie has absolutely no connection with the original Dragon Ball mythos. It's a film loosely based on Dragon Ball, it's never once referenced by any other Dragon Ball media, including content like Heroes which essentially has every game as an alternate universe.
Conclusion
This is how we officially handle the canonicity of Dragon Ball on this site. Any further questioning of the canon or works regarding it should be discussed on the talk page.
References
- ↑ What is your personal stance on Dragon Ball’s theatrical films, Sensei?
I take the movies as “stories in a different dimension from the main story of the comic”. I’m entirely just an audience member for them. - ↑ What is your personal stance on Dragon Ball’s theatrical films, Sensei?
I take the movies as “stories in a different dimension from the main story of the comic”. I’m entirely just an audience member for them. - ↑ Higuchi: Mechikaboola was a character originally mentioned by name only in the PC game [DB Online]. We originally created the Xeno warriors with [Bandai Namco Entertainment]’s [DB Xenoverse] team, but since Mechikaboola didn’t appear in [Xenoverse], we made Mechikaboola, who initially existed solely by word-of-mouth, into an actual concept with only [SDBH]’s team.
