Is Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero Canon - And Why Does It Really Matter?
Though there have been over twenty movies in the "Dragon Ball" franchise, fans are right to be confused about how much they mean to the extensive canon of the ongoing anime series. After all, as if the jumps between sequel iterations like "Z," "GT," and "Super" weren't daunting enough to keep up with, many of the films actually aren't even significant to the main story.
Naturally, this will lead many fans to likely wonder whether the latest film, "Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero," is considered to be canon, especially given its vast ramifications and the powerful new forms and abilities of long-established heroes like Piccolo (Takeshi Aono/Christopher Sabat) and Gohan (Masako Nozawa/Kyle Hebert) it reveals. The movie follows the return of the Red Ribbon Army and the warriors' struggles to defeat their powerful androids.
Luckily for fans who sat down with "Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero," the film's events are considered canon in the ongoing series. This, of course, means that viewers can expect to see Beast Gohan and Orange Piccolo in "Dragon Ball Super" as well, on top of their jaw-dropping debuts in the film.
Which other Dragon Ball movies are considered to be canon?
As previously stated, the majority of the films are not considered to be canon. This is because "Dragon Ball" creator Akira Toriyama was not involved in the creative process behind most of the films. While Toei Animation was given carte blanche to tell plenty of stories with the central characters, for this reason, they're mostly just meant to be fun "what if?" scenarios for fans to enjoy.
As such, only four movies are considered canon in the overall storyline of the "Dragon Ball" franchise. On top of "Super Hero," those are "Battle of the Gods," "Resurrection 'F,'" and "Broly," which finally made the fan-favorite character from many of the past films into a canon character who lives and breathes in the main timeline.
Fans are well within their rights to watch and enjoy the many other myriad films that have spawned from the "Dragon Ball" franchise. However, it's still worth knowing which ones have ramifications for the ongoing events of the series, especially for those who just want to watch the vital stuff while catching themselves up to watch the latest episodes "Dragon Ball Super."