#also i'm a bit bitter from the V L D fandom still

[kitty-bandit]

Hi Kitty :) hope ur doing good. I’ve been thinking, would DGM art from Hoshino count as canon? Or is canon specifically just for story related things?

I might ruffle some feathers with my answer on this, so fair warning. ^^;;

There is a difference between Canon and Word of God. If you’re unfamiliar with the difference:

Canon is short for canonical and refers to the work as a whole. In this instance, for DGM, canon would be the manga and (to some extent) the anime series.

Word of God is what fandom calls any information given to us by the creator(s) (and for DGM, that would be Hoshino).

Fandom can argue over and over again until its out of breath and blue in the face about what is or is not considered canon. Some people argue that Word of God should be counted as canon material, but I don’t believe it should–at least not in absolute terms.

I consider canon material for DGM to be the manga and, to a lesser extent, the anime. Anything in fanbooks, interviews, or social media is not canon. Now, I can already hear everyone screaming at me saying “But, Kitty! Hoshino said it! It must be true!” So hear me out.

The separation between Word of God and canon starts to get murky when you move from one author to multiple ones–specifically when you get into movies and television, which has multiple people working on a single project.

Hoshino mostly has control of her manga. (I say mostly only because editors can have a final say in some aspects of censoring, but there is no telling what she might have had to change due to those circumstances.) But the anime is different. It has a producer, directors, artists, etc. who are all interpreting Hoshino’s original canon work. And those interpretations can differ from the original canon.

“Wait!” you say, “What about fanbooks! And her insta! Hoshino has control of those!”

And I agree; she does. But there are two big reasons why I don’t consider Word of God to be canon.

1. Not everyone has access to Word of God. If you were to pick up a movie or book and consumed the media beginning to end, you would be satisfied. You’ve completed the story arc. You move on. I know it’s hard to believe in an age where internet exists and we have access to creator’s twitters/tumblrs/instas/FBs, but it was not always the case. And again, not everyone will follow every single creator that they’ve consumed media for.

Which means that a person’s canon will differ if they have or have not consumed Word of God content. If you consider Word of God as canon, then someone who is not following every single person who has worked on a TV show/movie/book, doesn’t have the whole picture. Where as if you consider canon only to be the source material, then we’re all working with the same deck of cards.

Specifically for DGM, I’m betting most people don’t know about the Reverse Novels. Some people in the DGM fandom consider these canon, but it leaves out a large swath of fandom who has never actually encountered them or even knew of their existence. The trouble with the Reverse Novels is that they were not written by Hoshino, though they were authorized by her. Also, they’re in Japanese (obviously) and never received official translations. It’s almost impossible to find them now, let alone get a translation. The same holds true for the fanbooks. How can we count a second hand source as canon when it’s not accessible to the majority of the (non-Japanese speaking) fandom? And how can we trust that the translation is correct?

2. Word of God frequently contradicts Canon. If any of you have follow JKRowling’s twitter, you might know what I’m talking about. Word of God is unreliable, and can completely come out of the blue. It can contradict canon events and even make you question what the author was thinking. But there’s another part of Word of God that makes it difficult to pin down–when there are multiple creators.

This usually happens with big movie/TV franchises. Multiple writers/producers/directors/etc. all putting their own spin on canon. And sometimes, actors even get sucked into it. (C’mon people, we all remember what happened to the V L D fandom. The cast and crew are still getting harassed by fans to this day. It was a nightmare.) What Word of God amounts to then is headcanons that are given clout because someone is working on the project. But as we all know, no one has the same headcanons as someone else 100% of the time, which leads to contradicting information and shouting matches about who is right and who is wrong. And this leaves fandoms in chaos after the face, squabbling over ship wars and other dumb things.

With Hoshino, again, we see less of this. But one instance came to mind with some official merch a year (or was it two?) back. The infamous KandAbs poster that came out after Hallow debuted. Hoshino wrote a post on her previous insta about how she didn’t approve of the poster, which had hella Yu//en vibes. The incident was the reason she deleted her first instagram account, but has since remade it (thank goodness). But this illustrates the issue with Word of God contradicting canon. An official poster was seen as an official stance, then decried by the author. What are we supposed to believe then?

Taking Word of God as canon comes with a host of problems. I’m not here to tell people that they can’t enjoy Hoshino’s insta, or take what she says to heart and call it canon if they want.

All I’m saying is that I don’t want people arguing over what is or is not canon when it comes to Word of God information. You can consume and enjoy that content. You can consider it canon in your own view of the works. But I will not call it canon.