I’ve been keeping a close eye on Dragon Ball Kakarot. As such, I’ve begun to see discussion within the Dragon Ball community that suggest because certain events in Dragon Ball Z Kakarot have somewhat “reconned” certain events in the anime, and coupled with the fact that Toriyama himself worked on this game, they should be considered the new “canon”! I’m writing this because there seemed to be a lot of it in the game.
Personally, I don’t blame fans for going with that logic. Since the announcement of this game, one of the key marketing tools that they used was the fact that fans will be able to experience untold stories, written by Akira Toriyama himself. This was a rhetoric that I came across time and time again. Because of this, if anything were to be out of place or changed certain well-established lore, fans could be led to believe that these changes were part of Toriyama’s will to “retcon” certain events. And thus, they’d become the new canon to the Dragon Ball lore.
One example that I noticed and wasn’t too happy with myself, is the idea that Piccolo actually did not destroy the moon, but instead, he creates an illusion in which it looked like he destroyed. That really undermines the destructive feat that Piccolo achieved, however, in turn, would explain why the earth’s oceans didn’t go crazy when the moon disappeared.
However joking aside, that honestly presents a lot of problems. We’re talking JK Rowling problem, in which the author took the liberty to change a lot of the established world & characters of Harry Potter through tweets. In that case, since she is the author, she technically can do it, however, there will come a time where people will stop taking these changes seriously if they come outrages.
When it comes to Dragon Ball’s case, let us remember that this isn’t the first time that Toriyama has personally worked on a game to contribute to a story. From Xenoverse to games like Dragon Ball FighterZ, the guy has contributed to a lot of games. Whether it be coming up with a small story or a new character, it does not mean that everything he creates necessary becomes canon unless he himself makes it abundantly clear that it is.
So, if I were you fellow Dragon Ball fans, I would approach the Dragon Ball Kakarot game like this: if it’s absolutely new and those not contradict previously established lore in the manga or anime, the sure you “could” consider it anime. If it does contradict it, the game is wrong. That’s how I’d approach it. Let me know what you guys think in the comments below.
