Just what does the word "canon" mean when referring to anime?


I've been wondering for quite a while. Each time I have questions about either
anime or manga, someone always refers to the word "canon", or "non-canon".

I've searched up what the word means on Google to help expand my understanding
on it, and many answers that differ very much show up. It's helped me in no
way at all.

What does the word canon mean and how does it refer to anime or manga?




Something being _canon_ essentially means it's true to the _primary_ 1
storyline. A good example of this would be when talking about fanfiction - if
a fanfiction has two people dating in it, it would be _canon_ if those two
characters are actually dating in the storyline of whatever the fan-made work
is based on. It would be _non-canon_ if that's not true.

This isn't just limited to anime or manga; this refers to any fictional story
when talking about artwork, literature, discussions, etc produced by fans or
non-official sources.

For example, when talking about "ships" between characters, it's canon if they
are actually in a relationship. If they aren't and it's just what fans like to
speculate about, it's non-canonical. Of course, it's not always this binary;
some things are heavily based on real parts of the story but the speculation
itself is either false or might be unconfirmed.

1As Pablo pointed out in the comments, I originally had "official" here, but
there is an important distinction to make - a company that owns the rights to
this media may produce official additional media that may not canon because
the author of the original work didn't have any contribution or say in it, but
it is still official because it is produced by the company with the copyright.




Something being _canon_ essentially means it's true to the _primary_ 1
storyline. A good example of this would be when talking about fanfiction - if
a fanfiction has two people dating in it, it would be _canon_ if those two
characters are actually dating in the storyline of whatever the fan-made work
is based on. It would be _non-canon_ if that's not true.

This isn't just limited to anime or manga; this refers to any fictional story
when talking about artwork, literature, discussions, etc produced by fans or
non-official sources.

For example, when talking about "ships" between characters, it's canon if they
are actually in a relationship. If they aren't and it's just what fans like to
speculate about, it's non-canonical. Of course, it's not always this binary;
some things are heavily based on real parts of the story but the speculation
itself is either false or might be unconfirmed.

1As Pablo pointed out in the comments, I originally had "official" here, but
there is an important distinction to make - a company that owns the rights to
this media may produce official additional media that may not canon because
the author of the original work didn't have any contribution or say in it, but
it is still official because it is produced by the company with the copyright.

