Dragon Ball Manga Park Near Paris Faces Rights Holders Approval Delay
An announcement about a manga-themed park near Paris has sparked major excitement among Dragon Ball fans—but fresh reporting suggests the project may not yet have cleared one of the biggest hurdles: securing the necessary rights from the franchise’s Japanese holders. The story has quickly shifted from headline-grabbing investment news to a more complicated reality check about licensing.
French outlet Le Monde reported that the Saudi-backed effort behind the proposed Dragon Ball attraction has not yet received approval from the rights owners in Japan. The publication cited multiple anonymous sources close to the project, stating that Qiddiya Investment Company, the subsidiary of the Saudi sovereign fund leading the initiative, reportedly has not obtained the license needed to use Dragon Ball characters and the franchise branding. Le Monde emphasized that this is “far from being a mere formality,” highlighting how significant the licensing step remains.
The Dragon Ball rights are held by three distinct entities: Bird Studio, the company associated with the late Akira Toriyama; Shueisha, the Japanese publisher behind the manga; and Toei Animation, which holds the rights tied to the anime adaptation. Because the franchise is managed across these separate organizations, any deal typically requires coordination rather than a single-party green light.
The clarification arrives in under a day of the official announcement from French President Macron, who unveiled an investment of 6 billion euros and called it “unprecedented,” framing it as a project intended to create 22,000 jobs—drawing a comparison in scale to Disneyland Paris. Macron also publicly shared his personal manga passion, including the claim that he owns an original drawing of Dragon Ball. His circle further described a shared enthusiasm with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, linked to an encounter in Riyadh in December 2024.
French regional leader Valérie Pécresse added to the momentum by releasing an enthusiastic video saying, “Son Goku will have his theme park just steps from Paris.” The new licensing complication undercuts that certainty while leaving open whether negotiations are still ongoing or stalled behind the scenes.
The broader takeaway is that manga-franchise approvals—especially for globally recognized properties—can be intricate and slow, even when the financial backing comes from governments and sovereign funds with the ability to invest billions. Le Monde pointed out that Shueisha and Toei Animation are notably attentive to how their franchises are managed and protected, and that the Toriyama family, through Bird Studio, has a strong interest in ensuring the author’s legacy is handled in an appropriate way.
There’s also a timeline wrinkle: the Dragon Ball park idea in Qiddiya City, announced two years ago by Qiddiya Investment Company, still has not opened. At this stage, it is not clear what stage the rights talks have reached for that earlier project either.
For fans, the appeal of a Dragon Ball theme park near Paris remains easy to understand—particularly given that France is described as the world’s second-largest manga market after Japan. But as this latest report underlines, the gap between a political announcement and a real-world opening can be measured in more than construction schedules: securing Japanese rights is a gatekeeping process that cannot be bypassed by enthusiasm alone.
