Narutopedia:Canon policy

"Canon" is a term used to define what parts of a fictional work are authoritative/accurate/true. Canon is in some cases defined by those involved with the creation of the fictional work, such as its original author or its rights holder. More often than not, however, canon is decided by fans of the fictional work, with the exact definition of canon differing from one fan to another.

The Narutopedia is not concerned with what is and is not canon. The Narutopedia's objective is to document the Naruto series in all its forms. Editors of Narutopedia should not impose their personal views about a given work's canonicity onto the wiki's content pages, nor should readers expect the wiki's content pages to reflect their personal views regarding canon. Failure to abide by this may lead to a block.

Content guidelines
The Naruto series debuted in 1999. In the decades since then, the series has spanned several different forms of media by several different creators. As such, it is inevitable that contradictions between sources will emerge. The Narutopedia should document these contradictions in some way, but it should avoid making conclusions about which of two or more competing statements is "true". How to present these contradictions is up to editors: maybe all conflicting sources can be adequately detailed in the same sentence or paragraph; maybe it is simpler to focus on one source and note the other(s) elsewhere, such as in a dedicated subsection or as a point of trivia.

Even in cases where there is no known contradiction, it can be useful to label which particular media a piece of information is from, especially when that information is unique to that media. For instance: "In the anime, such and such happens," or "According to the novel, such and such is true." Plot sections of character articles are often divided by what media or arc of a media an event occurs in, which is another acceptable form of labelling information. If an editor chooses not to clearly label a piece of information in this way, they are strongly encouraged to provide a reference instead, so that others who have not read or seen the corresponding source can at least know where the information is from.

Media types
For practical reasons, the Narutopedia has tended to present information differently depending on which form of media it originates from. This section attempts to summarise and explain these tendencies. The order in which these medias are discussed is not necessarily deliberate. The tendencies described are also not necessarily prescriptive; editors should ultimately use their best judgement when it comes to how to present information.

Manga
The Naruto manga (written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto) and the Boruto manga (written by Ukyō Kodachi and illustrated by Mikio Ikemoto) are the original sources that all other medias are invariably drawn from or based upon. What is "true" in the manga will almost always be "true" in all other forms of media as well. There are occasional exceptions: the Sexy: Boy on Boy Technique has never been depicted outside of the manga. Nevertheless, information from the manga is almost always beyond reproach and can be included in articles without special scrutiny. Such treatment is also extended to the various manga omake (excepting the promotional "Road to Naruto the Movie"), though not all omake are serious enough to need detailing often, if ever.

There have been several supplementary guidebooks for the manga, such as Rin no Sho and Hyō no Sho, which expand upon characters or concepts seen in the manga. The Narutopedia tends to give information from these guidebooks the same weight as information from the manga itself. However, the guidebooks are understood to be promotional in purpose, meaning information can be hyperbolic to the point that it shouldn't be taken too literally. The guidebooks are also hamstrung by their publication date, meaning the provided information may be vague so as not to spoil later manga developments, or even that the provided information is contradicted outright by later manga chapters. Eccentricities of the guidebooks such as these are usually noted as trivia.

Anime
The anime was the first adaptation of the manga to be released, debuting on television in 2002. It is one of the more common entry points for fans into the rest of the Naruto series and, over time, has become the most prolific source of information; there are now more episodes of the anime than chapters of the manga. Most anime episodes are based on chapters of the manga, and are relatively faithful to their source; what changes are made often come in the form of expanded dialogue and extended fight sequences, in order to fill airtime. Later seasons of the anime sometimes even adapt specific novels, but these are more varied in their faithfulness: the adaptation of Konoha Hiden is reasonably accurate to the novel, whereas the adaptation of Itachi Shinden takes significant liberties with the novels' material.

Because these episodes of the anime are ultimately adaptations, the Narutopedia gives preference to the source material where there is a discrepancy between the two: the wiki focuses on the source's version of events, noting the anime's differences afterwards. Discrepancies may not emerge until long after an episode airs, where a creative liberty that an episode takes is contradicted by later manga chapters or even newer anime episodes; in cases such as these, the newer material is given preference. In the absence of any discrepancy between the anime and its source, then the anime's depiction of events is taken at face value.

The anime sometimes creates its own material that is not based on any particular source. This original material is rarely, if ever, referenced by any other media, meaning the wiki can present that content as-is with little concern of it being directly contradicted elsewhere. Original content depicted in the Boruto anime is even advertised as being supplemental to the Boruto manga, in principle making those anime episodes just as authoritative as the manga. Even despite all of this, editors may still wish to clarify when this original content originates from the anime.

Various OVAs have been released over the years. There is no set pattern in how the wiki treats these OVAs: some are treated as original content no different than the anime's original content; some are treated as adaptations that are liable to be contradicted elsewhere; some are treated as wholly separate from any established continuity, as is done with most movies (which are discussed further below).

Novels
The first noteworthy novel to be released was Naruto Jinraiden in 2012. Novels became more common following the conclusion of the Naruto manga, with nine different novels being released in 2015 alone. Novels are primarily inspired by the manga, but sometimes make selective use of original content from the anime, technically placing the novels somewhere between the manga and anime. Shueisha has released different timelines over the years establishing the novels within the same chronology as the manga, but this doesn't change the Narutopedia's approach: each novel is treated as an independent, original work.

Although these novels all share the manga as inspiration, individual novels do not always draw from each other; what happens in one novel may never be mentioned or referenced in any subsequent novel. The only real exception is when multiple novels are written by the same author: the author of one novel is very likely to reference its events, characters, or concepts in later novels that they write. Just as novels generally do not directly reference each other, neither do they tend to directly contradict each other. For these reasons, the Narutopedia present the novels' contents as-is, treated as original content just the same as is done with the anime's original content. For the sake of clarity, editors are encouraged to clearly indicate which specific novel a piece of information is taken from.

Prior to the publication of Naruto Jinraiden, each of the Naruto movies received its own novel adaptation. These novels expand upon their respective movie, going into greater detail on certain aspects of the movie's events than the movies themselves are able to. As such, a movie's novel can be considered supplementary to its movie. Beyond informing upon its respective movie, these novels are treated no differently than said movie.

Movies
Beginning with Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow in 2004, individual movies were released annually for many years. Up through Road to Ninja: Naruto the Movie in 2012, each movie is inspired by what, at the time of its release, were recent anime episodes. Beyond inspiration, these movies do not typically fit anywhere within the anime's presentation of events, the anime generally does not acknowledge anything that happens in the movies, and what happens in a given movie cannot reliably be called accurate to the rest of the series. For these reasons, the Narutopedia treats movies as having separate continuities that are unconnected from each other and other parts of the series; when information from movies is given, the Narutopedia attempts to separate the information from the rest of the article to avoid confusing potentially incompatible pieces of information.

The Last: Naruto the Movie in 2014 was the first movie to share the manga's continuity, being advertised as taking place between Naruto chapters 699 and 700. For this reason, the Narutopedia treats The Last just the same as it does any other manga material. The same is done for Boruto: Naruto the Movie from 2015. However, the Boruto movie was subsequently adapted for the Boruto manga, which itself was adapted for the Boruto anime. As a result, even though the Boruto movie is itself still the same as the manga, preference is given to the later manga and anime adaptations when there is any difference between them; as ever, discrepancies between medias should be noted somewhere within relevant articles.

One exception to the above is the Blood Prison. After being introduced in 2011's Naruto the Movie: Blood Prison, the Blood Prison has since been depicted and/or referenced in the manga, the anime, and Kakashi Hiden. Beyond the Blood Prison's existence, these other medias mostly ignore the rest of what happens in the movie, so the Narutopedia treats the movie just the same as it would any other.

Video games
Various video games have been released over the years. Like movies, each video game is loosely inspired by what were, at the time of its release, recent episodes of the anime. But these video games are chiefly that: games that allow players to fight as characters from the series. Whatever story is present in the game only exists as a pretence for these fights. Often, a game's story is simply a truncated retelling of the anime up to that point, giving players a chance to experience memorable fight sequences for themselves. Any differences that are created from this simplification are generally not worth noting outside of the respective video game's article.

Less commonly, video games may create original stories, placing established characters (often Naruto Uzumaki) into new settings with new concepts and new characters. As with the earlier movies, these video games do not mesh with other medias or even other video games, and therefore these games' original material is treated just the same as original material from the movies: separately.

One noteworthy exception is the Narutopedia's articles about different jutsu. Certain video games have provided names for jutsu that are depicted in the anime with no name given, which the Narutopedia uses for ease of reference; these jutsu articles should clearly note the name's origin. In the event that a name is later provided elsewhere in the series, that newer name would be given preference. Jutsu that are wholly original to video games are treated just the same as any other video game-exclusive content.

Spin-offs
Kenji Taira has released several Naruto spin-offs over the years, Rock Lee's Springtime of Youth Full Power Ninja Chronicles being the first. These spin-offs reuse characters and concepts from the manga, but are comedic in purpose and do not establish themselves as within any other media's continuity. In principle, this means the Narutopedia treats information from the spin-offs just the same as it does with movies and video games: mentioned separately. However, these spin-offs have their own wikis (such as the Rock Lee's Springtime of Youth wiki), which are generally better suited for detailing the spin-offs. Whether to mention these spin-offs in the Narutopedia's articles is up to a given editor.