Really? I thought I remembered reading it somewhere.
...though it helps that the position in the timeline leaves it open. The Majin race, for example, doesn't get formed until 11 years after the current point Super is at.
"It's liberating, realizing you never need to be competent." — UltimatepheerDragon Ball doesn't really have canon as in "this body of work is what matters and everything is extra or contrary" but it does have continuity.
When people say the anime filler is non canon they mean it's not part of the manga's continuity, often would be impossible to fit into said continuity(Garlic Jr) or gets completely changed in the event the manga does decide to use it(demon world).
When people talk of the movies before Yo, Son Goku And His Friends Return being non canon what they mean is that each and everyone last one was a Non-Serial Movie meant to be familiar to viewers but not actually making an effort to fit into continuity. The only one that even can is Bojack Unbound but it still actually isn't part of the manga in anyway and isn't really part of the anime's story either, as Goku explicitly breaks a rule for the dead the in said film the anime later says he can't do.
Yo, Son Goku And His Friends Return, Battle Of Gods and Revival Of F were explicitly stated to be taking the manga's continuity into account and adding to it. Jaco The Galactic Patrolman and Dragon Ball Minus(unfortunately) are also supposed to add to the continuity of the Dragon Ball manga. Neko Majin Z was not, it was explicitly a nonsensical gag. Continuity became a mess when Dragon Ball Super came out in both Anime and Manga form and proceeded to do the same thing as the three movie specials, literally the same thing in the case of the second movie.
Dragon Ball online purposefully disregards every invention of the Anime, making it easy to fit into the Manga's continuity, unlike Dragon Ball GT. The issue with 'canon' is this, the only authority on Dragon Ball we have right now is Akira Toriyama. Not Shonen Jump, not TOEI Animation, not NTL, not 20th Century Fox, not Dimps, Toriyama. So those who preferred Dragon Ball Online to GT, which itself is a microcosm of those who prefer the manga to the anime, say that online is "canon" because Akira Toriyama worked on it. The fact that the manga, and by extension, DBO, has much tighter continuity than the anime even taking things like Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball Minus into account is used to strengthen the manga/online/anti GT camp's argument that their preferred entries in the Dragon Ball series are "canon".
Continuity is still fairly straight forward. The movies and the manga are clearly staying in line with the first manga. Where Online fits into things has become unclear but it's an MMO, which are inherently malleable, likely would have conformed to the revelations brought about had it still been running and even if it had not already came up with two In-Universe explanations for any discrepancies: the number of alternate timelines are potentially infinite and the known timelines are being ruined by the Time Breakers. Xenoverse is more like the non serial movies, taking familiar elements but not trying to be in continuity with them. If it has to be placed, the anime is obviously where it would fall into. Super is simply an Alternate Continuity to the films and to itself in anime-manga, which again, were already acknowledged in universe by DBO.
Continuity takes a bit to sort out but there it all is. Canon? There isn't any besides everything Akira Toriyama works on that isn't shown to be out of continuity all together. Of course there are also many a Word of God that fans take as part of "canon" but aren't yet in continuity as such.
edited 11th Nov '15 9:20:45 AM by IndirectActiveTransport
Buldogue's lawyerSee now this...
What exactly does it disregard? The only changes Online made, that I know of, are the appearance of the Yardratians, and what happened to Future Trunks. The premise itself obviously involves the player characters, as they're effectively altering history - but other than that, what part of the anime does it ignore?
I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!I don't mind GT particularly; yeah, it was flawed, but I personally loved its flaws.
I just thought Online did a better job at worldbuilding.
And I'm grateful that Xenoverse incorporated both.
...though, honestly, on the topic of canon, I'm willing to abandon it entirely if Minus/Jaco is involved.
edited 11th Nov '15 10:30:30 AM by BaffleBlend
"It's liberating, realizing you never need to be competent." — UltimatepheerOnline made all the Nameks have four fingers because five was an invention of the Anime, Korin is blue instead of white, anime exclusive characters like the saber tooth that chases Goku and Dr. Flappe do not appear in references, time leaks or time machine missions, nor are any references to the anime version of the demon world(which Xenoverse does reference), no cave of darkness, no maykojin among the races of the universe, everything the anime came up with is gone.
Buldogue's lawyerIt's more that I can't adequately figure out just why I don't like it. With Super Saiyan 3, it looked ridiculous. The hair was comically long and the forehead was distracting. Super Saiyan 4...I guess it just looked too different? Like, it didn't even look Super Saiyan, it looked too much like an emo monkey.
Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?Of course it doesn't look like the other Super Saiyan forms. It's supposed to be closer to their giant monkey forms than to their other SSJ forms.
And it actually does fit on the running theme of each transformation making the Saiyan look wilder and more primitive.
himitsu keisatsu seifu chokuzoku kokka hoanbu na no da himitsu keisatsu yami ni magireru supai katsudou torishimariAlso, mandatory pants. Goku grows a yellow gi bottom and Vegeta grows leather pants. The transformation causes you to grow pants.
The f*ck?
edited 11th Nov '15 1:39:14 PM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub."Soon we'll get Golden Cell followed by Golden Broly and Golden Buu. After that we'll get Platinum Freeza."
Heart Gold Freeza and Soul Silver Cell.
Nope. Goku transforms into Super Saiyan 3 from a child-sized version of his GT gi. His clothes vanish and are replaced with the yellow gi bottoms. His clothes return when he changes back.
Where do the clothes go? Where do the pants come from? I mean, at least with the Fusion Dance everyone gets the same outfit when they fuse, so it can be assumed that the outfit is somehow encoded into the technique or something. But Goku and Vegeta spawn different pants when they transform, so I guess pants are encoded in a Saiyan's DNA or something.
edited 11th Nov '15 1:41:24 PM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.

Dragon Ball Online and Xenoverse aren't actually canon to anything. I did once believe that, but the truth is they just use the canon to make original plots.