Now that Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is out in theaters, hardcore fans have been discussing if the movie is canon, and how it fits into the original timeline established by Akira Toriyama. Most notably when taking into account the time skip and epilogue found in the final chapters of the original manga.

There are in fact several reasons why the new movie focusing on Piccolo and Son Gohan is canon. We detailed below the three big reasons: Akira Toriyama's involvement, the movie's plot itself, and the direction Shueisha and Toriyama have been taking with the Dragon Ball franchise as a whole.

Needless to say, this story contains spoilers for Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.

Akira Toriyama Wrote The Script For Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero

Akira Toriyama, original author and illustrator of the Dragon Ball manga, directly participated in the production of the Super Hero movie. Toriyama is credited for the story and screenplay. He also picked the movie's title. He also explained in a pamphlet interview that he forgot about the first "Super" in the title, leading to this comical repetition.

Moreover, Toriyama also handled the character design for the new android characters Gamma 1 and 2, for Cell Max, and for the new transformations in the movie: Orange Piccolo and Beast Gohan. Once the ban for spoilers on the movie was lifted in Japan, new comments from Toriyama were published, where he explained the thought process behind each transformation.

Orange Piccolo And Beast Gohan Were Also Confirmed As Canon By Toriyama

To summarize his comments, Akira Toriyama explained that this is the first time that Piccolo actually transforms, but since he has no hair, he decided to change his skin tone to make sure he looks different than usual. Piccolo is also Toriyama's favorite character, so he's happy to have given him a power-up in the same way as Son Goku and Vegeta in the Super series so far. Lastly, Toriyama mentioned the transformation could have a cooler name than "Orange Piccolo", but that Piccolo would definitely think of a lame name like that so it fits his personality.

As for Beast Gohan, long story short Toriyama explained that he based it on Gohan's teenager days during the Cell saga, by giving him a scarier feel, and by making his hair stand up even more than back then. Toriyama was a bit skeptical with the result, but he's pretty happy now that fans praised it. Toriyama also jokingly noted that he's out of ideas for now for future Gohan transformations if he ever transformed even further.

At the end of the day though, the fact that Toriyama wrote the movie isn't enough evidence to prove that the movie is canon. Especially in the anime industry, where in counterpart, it's common to find anime projects that are canon despite not involving the original authors. However, there are many story elements in the movie itself pointing out it's canon.

The Super Hero Movie Fits Perfectly Within The Manga's Timeline

The original Dragon Ball manga ended at chapter 519, with chapter 517 including a ten year time skip after Buu was defeated. Chapter 517 established how Gohan has stopped training to mainly focus on his biology research, something which is also reflected in the Super Hero movie, with Piccolo reprimanding Gohan for not training enough.

Chapter 518 also introduced Gohan and Videl's daughter, Pan, who is said to be 4 years old. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero reintroduces Pan for the first time in the Super series, with Piccolo mentioning she is 3 years old. In other words, this means the Super Hero movie is still happening within the time skip, just like everything in Dragon Ball Super so far.

There's also the fact that the movie begins with a long introduction of the Red Ribbon Army. Not only this is a good recap for those unfamiliar with Goku's childhood adventures, it also ensures that everything fits with the lore introduced in the early days of the manga.

Shueisha And Toriyama Aren't Afraid Of Retcons

Ever since the Dragon Ball Super series started, everything has been made to make it fit with the manga and make it canon. The biggest example is how originally, chapter 518 of the manga had Goku mention to Bulma they "haven't met in 5 years". In reprints after Dragon Ball Super happened, Toriyama changed that line to "4 years" to make the events from Super fit.

Even assuming that the Super Hero movie was not canon in some way and included some inconsistencies, it's certain that Shueisha would make it canon later on with retcons. Right now, Dragon Ball as a franchise is thriving more than ever thanks to the Super series bringing it back to the main stage, and introducing it to new generations of fans. The Super series is a worldwide success, and the Super Hero movie itself is a huge win for Toriyama, Shueisha, and Toei Animation. The movie currently earned over $55.75 million worldwide and shows no signs of stopping. Its revenue will grow even further as it releases in more countries in Europe and in France especially, where Dragon Ball has been massively popular since the 80s.

At this point, the Dragon Ball Super series is printing way too much money for its anime movies to not be canon. If any future story element introduced in Dragon Ball Super does not fit with the timeline of the original manga, it's very likely Shueisha will retcon these story elements into the manga.

There you have it, the three biggest reasons why Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is canon. Seeing the story depicted in the Super series is getting closer to the end of the time skip in the original manga, we might even end up getting past the time skip. And get a "real" sequel to the manga, similarly to what Dragon Ball GT strove to accomplish.