So, what is Canon in Anime? Many franchises hit they're height in popularity when they hit television, anime is no exception. As such many people watch both anime and read the manga, however anime has a lot of filler. As well some details can be left out or added into the anime to add to the world and the characters (examples being: The "Dragon Ball" franchise, Yu-Gi-Oh, Naruto, One Piece, Bleach, Fairy Tail, Etc.). But this brings up the argument of "should this development which is exclusive in anime be ignored?", please let me know your thoughts.
I'm pretty sure that most of the "elitist" fans say that what happens in the manga is considered "canon" and any deviation from that in the anime's content shouldn't be viewed as "canon".
I believe both should be enjoyed and it should be a matter of taste which one is better. Just because the manga's content is considered "canon" doesn't automatically mean that it's superior to the one in the anime.
Anime developments count as "canon" for a lot of fans. Example: the 2003 FMA anime stuck to the manga to a certain degree, and then deviated, with the whole world travelling and all, but most FMA fans count that as part of canon as well as the other ending that followed the manga.
For me, "canon" is a loose term, especially when it comes to deviations like the above. I pick based on which one I like better, like what TimeBomb says.
Filler arcs are commonly accepted as canon as well, since most of them don't conflict with the manga arcs.
Its a dumb label used by weeaboos who argue over anime. Canon means what the Fans consider official content, when in realoty, anything released by a company is official media. Redundancy in a box.
I've been rewatching DBZ and this seems like the right place to bitch.
Whether or not filler is actually good depends on how it's handled. And with Dragon Ball Z, they handled it fucking terribly. I've been watching about 4 episodes of filler - and going - since they left for Namek.
First some stupid - but thankfully short - segment in which theu run into a group of disenfranchised aliens floating around in space who mistake them for henchmen of Freeza. It's a part of an episode, barely lasts 12 minutes. It's okay.
But then, we have fake Namek. Good god, fake Namek. Here, a couple of fake Namekians take them through the painstakingly lengthy process of finding fake Dragon Balls only to reveal that - surprise - it's all fake. Cue lengthy, multiple episode fight scene, and continue main story.
I love this show, but fuck me that was horrible. The only non-canon bits of it that were good were the movies.
