As creator Akira Toriyama’s perennially popular Dragon Ball franchise prepares to embark on a new future with its upcoming series Dragon Ball DAIMA, people are still wondering whether Dragon Ball GT is still canon.
Is Dragon Ball GT Canon?
Originally running for 64 episodes and a television special from 1996 to 1997, Dragon Ball GT took place several years after the events of the enormously successful Dragon Ball Z. Unlike DBZ and Dragon Ball, DBGT lacked Toriyama’s creative involvement, with its canonical status something of an open debate for decades among fans. Further confusion has arisen with the launch of Dragon Ball Super, a series set before DBGT, but with clear inconsistencies with what narratively would occur next.
Dragon Ball Super, which does have Toriyama’s creative input compared to DBGT, which does not, features a whole line of new combat transformations for its main character. This includes DBS introducing the Super Saiyan God forms, Goku achieving the Ultra Instinct form, Vegeta unlocking Ultra Ego in the Super manga series, and Gohan and Piccolo each getting new forms in the continuation film Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. None of these forms appear in DGBT, a glaring omission as the Z-Fighters face progressively more formidable enemies.
There are also discrepancies with returning character appearances between DBGT and DBS. DBGT opens with Emperor Pilaf and his associates Shu and Mai trying to steal the Black Star Dragon Balls, visibly aged from when audiences last saw them in Dragon Ball to reflect the passage of time. Years earlier in DBS, the Dragon Balls are instead accidentally used to revert the trio into the age of children, rather than the older versions in DBGT, something that the franchise is only doubling down on with its younger characters in DAIMA.
Other prominent characters in DBS include the Supreme Kai and Frieza, with the former still fused with his assistant Kibito in DBGT but magically separated from him in DBS. Frieza is resurrected at the end of DBS but is dead throughout DBGT, which implies that he’s been dead ever since Future Trunks killed him in the middle of DBZ, opening up another large inconsistency.
With all this in mind, it’s relatively safe to say that Dragon Ball GT, despite having earned its fair share of vocal fans, is no longer considered canon to the core franchise. Instead, the series has become something of a side-story, an extended “what if” starring the iconic Dragon Ball characters beyond the events of Dragon Ball Z. These elements still live in ancillary material, like video games and non-canonical series like Super Dragon Ball Heroes, but, without Toriyama’s involvement, they are not a part of the official continuity.
