One of the biggest debates among the Dragon Ball fandom, whether the Dragon Ball GT anime series should actually be considered canon or not, has finally been answered. A timeline for the entire franchise's story provided by Shueisha itself and shown at a 2017 event caused a commotion among fans because it also includes the events in Dragon Ball GT.
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Dragon Ball GT is an anime that came out in 1996, one year after the end of the Dragon Ball manga. Due to the incredible success of the anime adaptation of Akira Toriyama's masterpiece, Toei Animation decided to create a new anime based on an original story, with character design by Toriyama.
Dragon Ball's Publisher Made GT Canon With An Official Timeline
GT was never considered part of Dragon Ball's canon, but because the anime's story picks five years after the manga's ending, and it uses the same characters, a decades-long debate began between fans who consider GT canon, and those who don't. The debut of Dragon Ball Super, the actual, official sequel to the original series, should have cleared the air because it's a completely different story from GT, but things are not so simple.
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Thanks to fans online, like Reddit user am77_exe, pictures resurfaced from the 2017 edition of an event called Dragon Ball Tenkaichi Budosai, a Japanese festival dedicated to the franchise, which included an exhibit on the history of Dragon Ball. Shueisha, the publisher of the manga, provided an Official Dragon Ball Timeline Board that included Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Super, and Dragon Ball GT, complete with pictures of the most famous characters from the anime, such as Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta, and Goku and Vegeta's future descendants. This is possible because Dragon Ball Super takes place immediately after the end of Z, while GT was set five years later, so the timeline is still coherent, for now.
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According to the timeline, Dragon Ball GT takes place between the years 789 and 889 of the Dragon Ball calendar (for reference, the battle with Frieza on Namek takes place in 762). This is, however, not the first time that GT has been considered part of the franchise's canon. In 2013, a timeline was included in the Chouzenshuu 4: Dragon Ball Super Encyclopedia, an illustrated book guide to the franchise, that was identical to the timeline used for the Akira Toriyama: The World of DRAGON BALL art exhibition held in Tokyo and Osaka. Both timelines included the events in Dragon Ball GT, so the one used in 2017's Budosai is just further confirmation that, according to Toriyama and Shueisha, who own the franchise, the much-maligned anime is indeed canon.
Why GT's Canon Status Is So Controversial For Dragon Ball Fans
Fans Are Divided On Dragon Ball GT's Place In The Franchise
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DBGT first debuted in 1996, one week after the end of Dragon Ball Z, and since then, it's grown an uneasy reputation among the franchise's passionate fanbase. Since the series was not adapted from manga by series creator Akira Toriyama, it instantly raised a red flag for many hardcore fans who'd later consider it not canon.
Promotional material for almost any Dragon Ball content receives the attention of fans if it claims to have had Toriyama's involvement, which is ironic because typical DBZ fans seem more excited by the series' intense battles instead of the comedic adventure aspects the author arguably enjoyed writing more. Translated interviews and statements from official releases like Dragon Ball databooks over the years have featured Akira Toriyama acknowledging DBGT and how, while he had very little involvement with it, he considered it "...a grand side-story of the original Dragon Ball," which has been interpreted by fans in different ways.
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"...they should free themselves from the shackles of Shueisha's official Dragon Ball timeline and create stories unhindered by its developments."
The DVD box set release of Dragon Ball GT included an original drawing of Super Saiyan 4 Goku by Toriyama and also a declarative statement of how much he helped with the series. The Dragon Ball translations archive site Kanzenshuu shared Akira Toriyama's message included in the release that stated: "For GT, all I did was just come up with the title, design the initial main cast and some of the machines, and also do a few images." This statement proves that the creator of Dragon Ball did not have much of a role in crafting the events of DBGT, which adds to the debate about whether the series should be considered part of the franchise canon if its creator did not have a role in its story.
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Should Dragon Ball GT Stay Canon or Be Forgotten?
Series Canon Status Can Change In The Future
If Shuiesha did decide to officially eliminate DBGT from the franchise's canon, it would remove the desire of many to seek it, which is not something its producers want. Because its story takes place ten years after the end of DBZ, there hasn't been a solid reason to remove its events from the Dragon Ball timeline until the events of Dragon Ball Super began to approach the year DBGT begins on the franchise publisher's official timeline. Still, enough notable content in the series deserves to be in the franchise and possibly reworked into future Dragon Ball stories.
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Certain aspects of DBGT's stories remain popular, like the Super Saiyan 4 transformation and the concept of corruptible Dragon Balls, that many fans want to keep in the franchise. Still, Dragon Ball has successfully reintroduced previous non-canon material with excellent results, especially regarding Broly in the Dragon Ball Super: Broly movie. Like GT, the new Dragon Ball Daima anime features a young Goku, which may be an opportunity to give the beloved character a new but temporary transformation similar to Super Saiyan 4, which could be another clever way to rework DBGT's best aspects into the timeline.
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Since Dragon Ball GT was created to capitalize on DBZ's popularity without the guiding hand of Akira Toriyama, declaring it as officially non-canon or part of a separate timeline could be considered appropriate. Whether it be Toyotaro or someone else taking over the role of crafting future Dragon Ball material, they should free themselves from the shackles of Shueisha's official Dragon Ball timeline and create stories unhindered by its developments. Or they'll likely find ways to reintroduce certain elements that fans loved to create excitement that can fit into the newer series like Daima and Dragon Ball Super.
Even Akira Toriyama Considers GT "Canon"
In fact, one of the reasons why many fans don't want to consider GT as part of the canon is that the anime is the least appreciated part of the Dragon Ball saga, bringing significant changes to popular characters and introducing new ones that were scarcely successful.
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Perhaps the best possible answer to GT's canonicity is that the series actually takes place in a parallel universe, a concept that was introduced in Dragon Ball Super. Super Saiyan 4 also appears in Super Dragon Ball Heroes, a manga set in an alternate universe. Until there is an official statement of the opposite by Toriyama or Shueisha, fans of Dragon Ball should consider Dragon Ball GT's story as part of the franchise's canon, as this official timeline proves.
All episodes of Dragon Ball GT are currently streaming on Crunchyroll!
Source: am77_exe/Reddit
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Dragon Ball GT
Adventure
Dragon Ball GT is the third series in Akira Toriyama's most famous anime franchise. However, it is the first one not to adapt a manga storyline. Set after the events of the Buu Saga, Dragon Ball GT sees Goku and the Z-Warriors battle powerful villains such as Baby, Super 17, and the Shadow Dragons. 18 years after the 64-episode show was met with a lukewarm reception, Dragon Ball Super replaced it in the anime's official continuity.
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*Availability in US
- Cast
- Masako Nozawa , Yûko Minaguchi
- Release Date
- March 26, 1997
- Seasons
- 1
- Streaming Service(s)
- Hulu
- Franchise(s)
- Dragon Ball
- Writers
- Akira Toriyama
- Showrunner
- Akira Toriyama
