How do you say "canon" as in "official for a story universe"?


There's specific words out there like 正典 meant for the Bible, but what's the
common term for referring to a story. As in "the Christmas Special isn't canon
for the Star Wars universe". I figure there must be one used casually for
gamers, and manga and anime fans. I'd guess カノン but it's not in any dictionary
I can find - so it might be slang.




_Official_ as opposed to fanfiction/dojin is simply **公式**.

But do you want to refer to the canonical story line as opposed to that of a
spin-off based on an alternative/what-if story? Like "main" _Attack on Titan_
as opposed to [_Attack on Titan: Junior
High_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Titan:_Junior_High), or "main"
_Dragon Ball_ as opposed to [_That Time I Got Reincarnated as
Yamcha_](https://dragonball.fandom.com/wiki/Dragon_Ball:_That_Time_I_Got_Reincarnated_as_Yamcha)?
In this case, both are 公式, so to speak, but **本編(ストーリー)** is the word to refer
to the "main" story line. 正史 sounds grandiose but can be used if the story is
very long like _Star Wars_. カノン seems to be used among hardcore fans of
foreign fiction, but it's safe to say ordinary anime/manga/game fans do not
recognize this term.

**EDIT:** In a rare situation where many titles that can be called 本編 conflict
with one another and people want to agree on the "truely official" history,
something simple like 公式設定 is used. See
[宇宙世紀](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%AE%87%E5%AE%99%E4%B8%96%E7%B4%80#%E5%85%AC%E5%BC%8F%E8%A8%AD%E5%AE%9A%E3%81%AE%E5%AE%9A%E7%BE%A9)
for an example.




_Official_ as opposed to fanfiction/dojin is simply **公式**.

But do you want to refer to the canonical story line as opposed to that of a
spin-off based on an alternative/what-if story? Like "main" _Attack on Titan_
as opposed to [_Attack on Titan: Junior
High_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Titan:_Junior_High), or "main"
_Dragon Ball_ as opposed to [_That Time I Got Reincarnated as
Yamcha_](https://dragonball.fandom.com/wiki/Dragon_Ball:_That_Time_I_Got_Reincarnated_as_Yamcha)?
In this case, both are 公式, so to speak, but **本編(ストーリー)** is the word to refer
to the "main" story line. 正史 sounds grandiose but can be used if the story is
very long like _Star Wars_. カノン seems to be used among hardcore fans of
foreign fiction, but it's safe to say ordinary anime/manga/game fans do not
recognize this term.

**EDIT:** In a rare situation where many titles that can be called 本編 conflict
with one another and people want to agree on the "truely official" history,
something simple like 公式設定 is used. See
[宇宙世紀](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%AE%87%E5%AE%99%E4%B8%96%E7%B4%80#%E5%85%AC%E5%BC%8F%E8%A8%AD%E5%AE%9A%E3%81%AE%E5%AE%9A%E7%BE%A9)
for an example.

