Derek1st
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For those who read my original thread, this is the redone version with new formatting and fonts etc.
Every piece of literature with more than one iteration has an issue with canoninity. One of the most famous cases is with the star wars universe because of inconsistencies etc. Fans have made official tiers of canoninity.
Well we anime fans are no stranger to these issues, especially in a little manga that goes by the name Dragonball Z
Although there has always been some issues with what is an "official" addition to the story and what isn't, the new movie "Dragon ball Z: Battle of Gods" has raised some more issues that I'll go over
First I'd like to address some concerns that were raised by this movie, and then i'll get into my formal guide
When advertising for battle of gods began marketing, they advertised it as "an official continuation of the dragonball serialization". Meaning that its officially canon. However this brings up some problems. Its still a movie without any manga counterpart, and although it was heavily influenced by Akira toriyama, you can't overlook that it wasn't his idea to make this project.
He was originally requested to do some character designs, and give some advice on the plot etc. They already had a basic idea mapped out. He got so excited seeing his work again, he almost COMPLETELY reworked the movies script. When someone said "i want this to happen" he'd go "no, THIS is happening" and when someone said "this is my idea for super saiyan god" he went "no THIS is what a super saiyan god looks like". Toei had no problem because they originally didn't think he'd want to help, but now that he did, they were willing to give him ANY creative liberty.
This is where things start to fall apart though. What makes dragonball so hard to follow the canon, is that Akira toriyama does not MIND delegating things to other people. He knows that he had limited experience with animation as high level as whats seen in the movie, so other than some basic concepts in the fight (what dialogue is spoken, when one character starts to take an edge, etc) he lets the animators take full control over the choreography etc. When bardock, the father of goku's concept came up, he originally didn't have bardock as a part of the manga. He liked the idea so he wrote him OFFICIALLY into the manga. He is not like some people who care about whats canon and what isn't, he does not MIND giving people control.
The bottom line
I know i'm rambling but here's the point I'm coming to. Just because the animators say "the original author is on board, so this is canon" might not necessarily make it canon by some peoples definition. Pretty much, he's given them a creative licence to decide whatever they want to put in and make it canon. Sure, he gives it the seal of approval, but some avid manga enthusiasts would have a hard time calling something not written by him canon, even if they say it IS. Luckily, dbz is not very plot intensive (it has some phenomenal character development and emotional writing though) so its no big deal. But for hardcore fans, its still troubling when Battle of Gods referenced a plot theme that had been previously addressed in an OVA.
In the animated special "Yo, Son Goku and his Friends Return", there is a new character named Tarble, vegeta's brother. Now Akira toriyama most likely didn't have even a SINGLE input to this. But does battle of gods referencing tarble make it canon? Can toei now link ALL of their anime only elements into the official serialization? What does that mean for Gt? Is THAT canon now?
Fear not, because I think I can make this plenty easy for ALL to understand. There is a HUGE GAP between all the OLD dbz components (anime and manga) and the NEW components (anime and YES there IS new manga). Think about it, for us americans, the gap isn't as big, but dragonball z manga finished in Japan TWENTY YEARS AGO. The anime ended very shortly after, including all of the movies. With the exception of cross overs, cameos, and that one videogame animated short "Plan to eradicate the all saiyans", there is nothing from the dragonball universe.
Fast forward to that short "yo son goku and his friends return", we get a new anime only short (which toei is trying to make official by referencing it in the now "canon" battle of gods), we get the new movie, we get "Episodes of Bardock", we get the original manga series by AK "Jaco, the Galactic Patrol man" which is set in the dbz universe that comes with an new dragonball chapter "Dragonball Minus". Is jaco canon? Some of the events in dragonball minus conflict with the original bardock story.
Anyway, our canon issues are solved if we have OLD CANON and NEW CANON. Notice that akira toriyama is SIGNIFICANTLY older now. Thats why battle of gods wasn't suppose to be too dark. he wants kids to enjoy it too. HE is different, TOEI is different. It only makes sense to make 2 canon's.
Here is my official guide for the old canon.
All Dragonball movies are non canon (tree of might, bojack, broly etc). This is obvious because they're so inconsistent. Dragonball Gt (drum role please...) IS NON CANON. All of the manga chapters are 100% Canon. Now we get to the second tier: semi-canon. The fight scenes of dbz ANIME are not written by AK, but he still approves of them. He knows its hard to do fights in manga, so he gave them that control. Therefore, while events in these episodes may never be referenced in the manga, they are still semi-canon. The 2 OLD dbz ova's (bardock, father of goku and History of trunks) are also semi canon. They both reference concrete things in dbz without conflicting with things, and bardock was actually added to the manga, making him canon. So i will call this semi canon. You can enjoy it, and call it official, just know that akira toriyama likely won't reference events in them directly, just the ideas involved.
Next, is my official guide to NEW canon.
Dragonball z battle of gods is CANON. The next movie is suppose to have even MORE impact from the author and he is even going to nitpick dialogue lines. So IT is canon. However, the 2 ova's are SEMI canon (in reference to the new dbz material). I disagree with toei trying to include that reference to Yo son goku and his friends return in the movie, but if akira says they can do what they want, its HIS word. So even if that conflicts with old canon, it is still acceptable among the NEW canon series. The chapter Dragonball minus is CANON to the new dbz. It is. It conflicts with the bardock story, but its ok. Besides, manga trumps anime every time. The "Jaco the galactic patrol man" manga is technically referenced in DB minus, so i have to give it canon status, but i'll air on the side of "somewhere between canon and semi canon". Meaning that you can call it canon, but I doubt Jaco will be mentioned in the new movie lol.
Anyway, let me know what you think. Enjoy!
Every piece of literature with more than one iteration has an issue with canoninity. One of the most famous cases is with the star wars universe because of inconsistencies etc. Fans have made official tiers of canoninity.
Well we anime fans are no stranger to these issues, especially in a little manga that goes by the name Dragonball Z
Although there has always been some issues with what is an "official" addition to the story and what isn't, the new movie "Dragon ball Z: Battle of Gods" has raised some more issues that I'll go over
First I'd like to address some concerns that were raised by this movie, and then i'll get into my formal guide
When advertising for battle of gods began marketing, they advertised it as "an official continuation of the dragonball serialization". Meaning that its officially canon. However this brings up some problems. Its still a movie without any manga counterpart, and although it was heavily influenced by Akira toriyama, you can't overlook that it wasn't his idea to make this project.
He was originally requested to do some character designs, and give some advice on the plot etc. They already had a basic idea mapped out. He got so excited seeing his work again, he almost COMPLETELY reworked the movies script. When someone said "i want this to happen" he'd go "no, THIS is happening" and when someone said "this is my idea for super saiyan god" he went "no THIS is what a super saiyan god looks like". Toei had no problem because they originally didn't think he'd want to help, but now that he did, they were willing to give him ANY creative liberty.
This is where things start to fall apart though. What makes dragonball so hard to follow the canon, is that Akira toriyama does not MIND delegating things to other people. He knows that he had limited experience with animation as high level as whats seen in the movie, so other than some basic concepts in the fight (what dialogue is spoken, when one character starts to take an edge, etc) he lets the animators take full control over the choreography etc. When bardock, the father of goku's concept came up, he originally didn't have bardock as a part of the manga. He liked the idea so he wrote him OFFICIALLY into the manga. He is not like some people who care about whats canon and what isn't, he does not MIND giving people control.
The bottom line
I know i'm rambling but here's the point I'm coming to. Just because the animators say "the original author is on board, so this is canon" might not necessarily make it canon by some peoples definition. Pretty much, he's given them a creative licence to decide whatever they want to put in and make it canon. Sure, he gives it the seal of approval, but some avid manga enthusiasts would have a hard time calling something not written by him canon, even if they say it IS. Luckily, dbz is not very plot intensive (it has some phenomenal character development and emotional writing though) so its no big deal. But for hardcore fans, its still troubling when Battle of Gods referenced a plot theme that had been previously addressed in an OVA.
In the animated special "Yo, Son Goku and his Friends Return", there is a new character named Tarble, vegeta's brother. Now Akira toriyama most likely didn't have even a SINGLE input to this. But does battle of gods referencing tarble make it canon? Can toei now link ALL of their anime only elements into the official serialization? What does that mean for Gt? Is THAT canon now?
Fear not, because I think I can make this plenty easy for ALL to understand. There is a HUGE GAP between all the OLD dbz components (anime and manga) and the NEW components (anime and YES there IS new manga). Think about it, for us americans, the gap isn't as big, but dragonball z manga finished in Japan TWENTY YEARS AGO. The anime ended very shortly after, including all of the movies. With the exception of cross overs, cameos, and that one videogame animated short "Plan to eradicate the all saiyans", there is nothing from the dragonball universe.
Fast forward to that short "yo son goku and his friends return", we get a new anime only short (which toei is trying to make official by referencing it in the now "canon" battle of gods), we get the new movie, we get "Episodes of Bardock", we get the original manga series by AK "Jaco, the Galactic Patrol man" which is set in the dbz universe that comes with an new dragonball chapter "Dragonball Minus". Is jaco canon? Some of the events in dragonball minus conflict with the original bardock story.
Anyway, our canon issues are solved if we have OLD CANON and NEW CANON. Notice that akira toriyama is SIGNIFICANTLY older now. Thats why battle of gods wasn't suppose to be too dark. he wants kids to enjoy it too. HE is different, TOEI is different. It only makes sense to make 2 canon's.
Here is my official guide for the old canon.
All Dragonball movies are non canon (tree of might, bojack, broly etc). This is obvious because they're so inconsistent. Dragonball Gt (drum role please...) IS NON CANON. All of the manga chapters are 100% Canon. Now we get to the second tier: semi-canon. The fight scenes of dbz ANIME are not written by AK, but he still approves of them. He knows its hard to do fights in manga, so he gave them that control. Therefore, while events in these episodes may never be referenced in the manga, they are still semi-canon. The 2 OLD dbz ova's (bardock, father of goku and History of trunks) are also semi canon. They both reference concrete things in dbz without conflicting with things, and bardock was actually added to the manga, making him canon. So i will call this semi canon. You can enjoy it, and call it official, just know that akira toriyama likely won't reference events in them directly, just the ideas involved.
Next, is my official guide to NEW canon.
Dragonball z battle of gods is CANON. The next movie is suppose to have even MORE impact from the author and he is even going to nitpick dialogue lines. So IT is canon. However, the 2 ova's are SEMI canon (in reference to the new dbz material). I disagree with toei trying to include that reference to Yo son goku and his friends return in the movie, but if akira says they can do what they want, its HIS word. So even if that conflicts with old canon, it is still acceptable among the NEW canon series. The chapter Dragonball minus is CANON to the new dbz. It is. It conflicts with the bardock story, but its ok. Besides, manga trumps anime every time. The "Jaco the galactic patrol man" manga is technically referenced in DB minus, so i have to give it canon status, but i'll air on the side of "somewhere between canon and semi canon". Meaning that you can call it canon, but I doubt Jaco will be mentioned in the new movie lol.
Anyway, let me know what you think. Enjoy!
