It was stated, and is a common fact, that Akira only creates the story, the characters and basically the general 'outline' for the Dragon Ball Super series. However, it was also stated that he gave the scriptwriters free reign to change, explore, add and expand to his ideas, his story, his characters and generally the series however they saw fit.

In his own words: "As with last time, I wrote the overall plot outline, and the scriptwriters have been compiling and expanded the story content into individual episodes, making various changes and additions, and generally doing their best to make the story more interesting."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Ball_Super

So does this prove that Dragon Ball Super is partially non-canon? From what Akira said, it seems that this is the case. He gives the outline of the series, while the scriptwriters and anime staffs add in new ideas (including new feats and such) for the episodes, changing and expanding his ideas to make it more interesting.

Therefore, the outline is what's canon and the rest could be regarded as 'less canon'.

It could be argued that his 'allowing' of the staff to alter & expand the series could make the series 'canon' even though these altered & expanded ideas are not his own. But many anime series do this and many mangakas pay no mind, yet do we canonise the new material?

In a joint interview with Akira & Dragon Ball Super author Toyotaro, it was revealed that both Toyotaro and the staff in charge of the animated version of Dragon Ball Super at Toei Animation are writing the 'more fleshed out details' of the series - while Akira himself only provides the 'rough plot' for it.

http://www.capsulecomputers.com.au/2016/04/akira-toriyama-interview-hints-at-dragon-ball-super-continuation/

This further shows that a good portion (perhaps the majority?) of the series (post-movie sagas) is not canon. When it's said that they write the 'more fleshed out details' of the series, this probably includes the feats we've gotten from Beerus, Whis, Goku, Vegeta and the rest.

Akira also mentioned that he hopes that Toyotaro will become more involved with writing out the story as the series progresses, which implies that after he stops producing content for the series (the 'outline' of the series), he wants certain approved individuals such as Toyotaro to take over.

But the question is - when will that time come?

So what we're seeing here is that a great portion of Dragon Ball Super is non-canon, even though Akira plays a part in creating the general 'outline' of the series, because the majority of the series (post-movie sagas) are not his original ideas (excluding some new characters and the plot), but the ideas of Toyotaro & the animation staff who have added in their own original ideas, as well as having altered, explored and expanded Akira's ideas.

Could this mean that a lot of Beerus, Whis & Goku's new feats in the series are not canon, as in, they were thought of by the author of DBS and the staff of the anime as a way to make the series 'more interesting'?

Dragon Ball Super is already officially partially not canon if we go by what we've been told, but will there be a point where the series will be filled with so much non canon material that we'd question the canonicity of the series?

This is supported by what Akira said recently in response to Shueisha's creation of a new department ('Dragon Ball Room') dedicated entirely for the Dragon Ball Super anime (for creating new ideas, new stories and new characters and such) in June - “It’s really great that I don’t have to do anything now.” he jokingly commented.

http://www.saiyanisland.com/2016/10/shueisha-establishes-department-focused-exclusively-on-dragon-ball/

If we add this to what we were told before when he said he wanted Toyotaro to become more involved with the series, could this mean that Akira plans to let the series continue under the guide of the animation staff and Toyotaro after he stops giving his own ideas?

Dragon Ball Super is already partially non-canon, and it seems like it's becoming more and more so.

To be honest, this explains some of the abnormalities regarding Dragon Ball Super.

At one point the anime was behind the manga, but now it's far ahead of the manga and contains content that not even the manga contains yet (though this can be attributed to the fact that the manga also serves as the promotion for the anime version).

In the original Dragon Ball Z manga, Future Trunks already knew how to turn into Super Saiyan before Future Gohan's death, but in the DBZ anime we were shown that he only turned into it after seeing Future Gohan's corpse on the ground, which means that the anime version was not canon.

Surprisingly, recently in the Super anime we were shown the non-canon (anime) version of Future Trunk's past in his flashback, where we saw him transforming into a Super Saiyan when he saw Future Gohan's corpse.

Is it 'canonising' the scene, or was this just a mistake on the anime staff's part?

But the question is - when will Akira decide to leave the series and let the chosen others take over? And when this happens, will Super still be considered canon?

EDIT:

I found this person's comment on Kanzenshuu to be interesting:

"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."

Super is canon and Akira barely remembers his own series so any inconsistencies really don't prove it's not canon

You should do a TL;DR to summarize your question but well, the other guys are right ^^ but to address what you say about Trunks as an example, never in the manga or well "main manga" the story of FT is actually shown and I can't actually remember which one came first, if the tv special or the manga special (the one you are referring to) but there's already a debate about the canon of it, people tend to consider the tv due to minor changes from the manga special (as the one you point) and the fact that the manga poorly shows the story compared to the anime, even tho Toriyama wrote the manga, same case with Bardock, we already had the special where he is a total badass then Toriyama made a manga special and is nothing compared to the tv special. In any case Toriyama seems to be taking points from the main manga and ignoring the specials, so he seems to be taking consideration more the TV telling from those cases, he basically retconned that part from Trunks, just as it has happened before with that DB characters that he forgot to include in DBZ and what now seems to be the case for Bra as well.

Now for the manga thing, the manga serves as publicity for the anime but both are still canon and all, hope you know that, so them being ahead of the anime is still not a big deal as the anime is not ahead of the manga, is the main canon source and blah.

Just because Toriyama decides to back off (thing I don't think would happen as he provides the story for it but still) that doesn't remove the canonicity from Super, because Super started as such and Toriyama wouldn't be just approving the thing as it happened with GT, he would be passing the mantle to Toyotaro.

@edbeatle: what does arevalo mean?

And even if he did remember everything, retcons are still a thing.

Super is canon, Trunks' Super Saiyan transformation change is a retcon, and any other minor discrepancies between Super and DBZ should be considered retcons as well. From the looks of it, Toriyama might want to eventually take the DC/Marvel approach where other writers push his universe, but either way, everything being done right now is considered canon.

Toriyama has said Super is canon. And inconsistencies thrive in DB.

@mrx1122: Oh, ups, I was on my cellphone and it mixes some languages with the autocorrector.

ok

Thank for clearing that out @edbeatle, it makes sense and it was the right choice since the anime version was without a doubt more epic. Yeah, I've read that the manga was created to publicise the anime, it's a good idea, but what I'm saying is that for a big series like DBZ, it's rare for that to happen which is why I find it 'abnormal' (poor word choice haha). One Piece, Naruto & Bleach are/were the biggest series and it's never happened, unless we're talking about filler, which is why I find it 'weird'. I'm not used to it I guess.

In relation to what you both said, disregarding the inconsistencies I mentioned (which I agree doesn't prove that it's not canon), we can still see that Super has some levels of non-canonicity due to the fact that Akira allows the author of the DBS manga (Toyotaro) & the anime staff to change, add and expand to his ideas for the series. Plus, he even allows them to add in their own ideas to make it 'more interesting'.

Canon = material that the original author creates. So when he allows others to alter and expand his ideas, as well as add in their own ideas, the canonicity of a portion of the series becomes questionable.

E.g. Whis, Beerus & SSB Goku are fully canon, however, we can consider some of their feats to be non-canon since they were very likely the creations of Toyotaro & the anime staff, to make it 'more interesting'. I wouldn't be surprised if they exaggerated a lot of their feats.

I'm saying that the majority of the series can be considered canon (characters, story etc... basically the outline) since Akira provides them, but the more 'fleshed out details' like fights, drama, problems, techniques, feats, some other characters etc... could be considered not canon since they were not created by the original author but added in by others to elongate the series and for more episodes, making it 'more interesting'.

This is supported by when Akira said that he gives the 'outline' of the series, but lets the anime staff & DBS manga author expand, alter and add to his ideas, as well as add in their own ideas so that his 'outline' can be fleshed out into individual episodes.

I agree that it's a possibility when you say that Toriyama wants to take the DC/Marvel approach. It's very apparent that post-King Piccolo Saga Goku/DBZ itself was created to be the 'Superman of Japan', with Journey To The West influences.

- Goku sent to Earth via a space pod before/as his original planet is destroyed -> parallels Clark's origins exactly

- IIRC, in the Bardock special, we saw a plaque outside of the room baby Goku was in, with text written in a language VERY SIMILAR to the language of the Kryptonians

- Goku finding out his real name is 'Kakarot' -> Clark finding out his real name is 'Kal-El'

- Vegeta Saga -> similar to the plot of Superman II (1980) (three Saiyans arrive to destroy & sell the planet -> three Kryptonians arrive to take over the planet)

- The 'Dead Zone' from 'Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone' (movie 1, 1989) -> parallels the 'Phantom Zone' from Superman/DC (first appeared in 1961)

- Super Saiyan

- Saiyaman

- Gohan & Videl -> Clark & Lois (especially with the whole 'secret superhero' thing at the start of the Buu Saga)

- Nam-Ek is the name of a Kryptonian war criminal created by DC, who first appeared back in 1974: http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Nam-Ek_(Earth-One) -> Nam-Ek is a very unique name, so it's surprising that years later a new series came about which had a planet called 'Namek' in its world.

- Akira's Dragon Ball Minus recently retconned the Bardock Special, making the origin story of Goku even more similar to Clark's: in the original special, Bardock didn't care about baby Kakarot until he started having precognitions, who was being launched out of the planet via a space pod solely to colonise Earth; in Dragon Ball Minus, this is entirely different. Bardock returned to Planet Vegeta as he felt suspicious of Frieza, then met up with his wife Gine and, worried that it'd be destroyed, they launched Kakarot out of the planet -> this parallels how Kal-El was purposely launched out of Krypton by both his mother and father so that he would be saved from the planet's destruction, suggesting even further that Akira wanted to make Goku the 'Japanese Superman' all along.

The only thing I'm finding hard to come to terms with is whether Super can be considered truly fully canon. I'd say, if Super is fully canon, then things like some Naruto, One Piece & Bleach fillers (e.g. fleshed out scenes that were never in the manga etc...), Dragon Ball Z movies, Silver Age Superman, Superman Prime etc... are also fully canon. But I disagree with this. If one is non-canon, then the other is too IMO. So I'm settling for 'partially canon' right now.

@lettsplay10: If Dragon Ball Super is fully canon, then shouldn't One Piece, Bleach & Naruto fillers such as where manga material scenes are 'fleshed out' also be considered canon? :P

copy vegeta arc is the only filler arc in super

@lettsplay10: If the Copy Vegeta Arc is filler, since it's argued that Toei had the biggest role in it, then so is a huge portion of Dragon Ball Super, since Toei has the power to expand and alter Akira's ideas, as well as add in their own ideas. Then Super Saiyan Blue, Beerus & Whis' feats are actually filler too, since Toei's staff & Toyotaro were the ones who created those feats out of Akira's said characters.

Also, something I find weird as well is how the anime is said to be the source material, yet the CV Arc is considered filler & 'non-canon'. Really confuses me honestly.

Super is completely canon.

Super is canon.

@yusuke_kurosaki: If Toriyama had the idea, wrote it and is basically in charge, specially for the anime then everything is canon as it's the main source, it can't be filler in the anime. Even if people change some things the whole idea of it is stil from Toriyama and we don't know what did they add or not so everything is considered canon. Basically, Toriyama and Toei despited the anime as main so even if the influence of Toriyama is not big at some cases it still counts as canon imo

@edbeatle@lettsplay10@emperorthanos@helloman@dreadstroke@freshflintstone@mrx1122@thanosismad@nerevarine_11

I think I've found something that settles this once and for all.

I found this person's comment on Kanzenshuu to be interesting:

"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."

@yusuke_kurosaki: all are canon even cv arc

SO what you are saying is that is cannon.

I honestly think they should make GT canon and Super non canon. GT wasn't as good as Z but Jesus oh my dear lord Super is horrible. If Super does remain canon and doesn't improve then that brings the Dragonball series from a 10/10 to a 7/10 which is a little above AVERAGE. It's disgusting on what they did to the Dragonball timeline with this trash series. I'd rather watch Naruto 100 times in a row than watch the full series of Dragonball Super. It's so bad. So boring. So poorlyyyy written. Just terrible in general and it should just be cancelled personally. But what do I know? I'm just a "fan" of Dragonball and DBZ. Disgusting

@mrx1122: Super is a joke and is the only series that should either be non canon or obliterated from Dragonball

@rick014292: Dragon ball super hasn't done anything to the timeline. Super takes place during a complete deadzone save for a few events that it covers. If you want to see Toriyama screwing with the timeline, play the game he wrote the store for, Dragon Ball Online.

Also, complaining about poor writing in Dragon Ball Super while ignoring all the poor writing from Dragon Ball and Z is a bit disingenuous. And before you go off, Dragon Ball and Z were still amazing series in spite of the writing.

Remember, this is Toriyama, High Lord of Asspulls and doing whatever is the most convenient, also heavy editor meddling.

@rick014292:

"that brings the Dragonball series from a 10/10 to a 7/10 which is a little above AVERAGE."

So basically what the series has always been?

The only thing that's "canon" is the original 42 volumes.

All it means is that Dragon ball isn't a one man show anymore

You know what else is canon?

Anyways, as far as I know it is canon.

When will dubbed version be released because I'm not watching Japanese version. Aww no

It's already on episode 31