Is Broly Canon?

Broly has been a fan-favourite character ever since he debuted in 1993 with his very own feature-length movie titled Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan. However, Broly had never actually appeared in any of the Dragon Ball Manga, making fans ask the question, is Broly canon?

Yes, Broly is officially canon after appearing in Dragon Ball Super: Broly, released in 2018. But Broly was not considered canon in his first three movie appearances.

Broly’s first three movie appearances aren’t canon.

This may seem confusing at first, but traditionally for Dragon Ball Z, all of the movies released weren’t considered canon and were officially considered filler. This is because they weren’t based on a manga written by Akira Toriyama and were made while the animators were waiting for new chapters to be released. So Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan, Dragon Ball Z: Broly – Second Coming and Dragon Ball Z: Bio-Broly, while amazing films, weren’t considered part of the main storyline. But these rules only applied to Dragon Ball Z, and everything changed when it came to Dragon Ball Super.

Dragon Ball Super changed the status of Movies.

Dragon Ball Z movies were all considered filler until the release of Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods. Although this film has Z in its title, it can really be considered the first of the Dragon Ball Super series as it was made 17 years after Dragon Ball Z ended. But this is the first film with the story outlined by Toriyama himself, so it was really the first-ever film considered canon, followed by Resurrection F. Although they went back and retold these stories in the Dragon Ball Super manga and anime, replacing the canon of the movies, they are still considered semi-canon to this day.

Dragon Ball Super: Broly – 100% canon

So after the 2 ‘canon’ movies came out, there was the Dragon Ball Super anime that ended with the Tournament of Power Saga. After this, another canon movie was released, named Dragon Ball Super: Broly. So although this wasn’t Broly’s first movie appearance, it was his first canon movie appearance as the story was outlined by Toriyama himself and would be continued by the Dragon Ball Super Manga. There doesn’t appear to be plans to go over this movie in the anime, and it’s expected that Dragon Ball Super will return with the Galatic Prisoner Saga. So it looks like Dragon Ball Super: Broly is currently and will stay canon for the foreseeable future.

Broly gets a mention in the manga, solidifying his canon status.

Even if you doubted Broly’s canon status based on just a movie appearance, which weren’t traditionally canon, then surely the fact that the battle between Broly and Goku/Vegeta was mentioned in Chapter 42 of the Dragon Ball Super manga reinforces his canon status even further. You might argue this makes the character of Broly canon but not the events of the movie, but I think until contradicted, we should just take the movie as canon and leave it at that.

Is Broly Canon? – Final Thoughts

Canon in Dragon Ball can be a complicated and ever-changing issue. If you asked me when I was younger, I’d have said Dragon Ball GT was canon, and I think a lot of people would have agreed. But with Dragon Ball Super coming out, Dragon Ball GT was unanimously reduced to mere filler. So although the movie Dragon Ball Super: Broly may be superseded in canon by something else, we think the character of the Legendary Super Saiyan Broly is here to stay and are delighted about it! He was regularly voted as the most favourite non-canon character, so now that prize will have to go to someone like Cooler.