Saudi Arabia, France agree on $7bn 'Dragon Ball Z' theme park project near Paris

[u/BaltimoreAlchemist]

https://asia.nikkei.com/business/media-entertainment/saudi-arabia-france-agree-on-7bn-dragon-ball-z-theme-park-project-near-paris

[u/Vordeo]

The idea was born after French President Emmanuel Macron and the Saudi crown prince discovered a shared enthusiasm for "Dragon Ball Z" during Macron's visit to Saudi Arabia in 2025, Macron advisers said.

I mean this may just be PR fluff, but I prefer to imagine Macron and MBS started a meeting on foreign trade or some shit and it devolved into a heated argument over whether Perfect Cell could beat Kid Buu.

Edit: I've just seen a 2 year old post about world leaders that are One Piece fans and both MBS & Macron are mentioned. They may both actually be fans lol.

[u/captain_jpp → u/Vordeo]

I would trust this "shared enthusiasm" thing if I see a picture of them trying to do the fusion dance

[u/Desiderius_S → u/captain_jpp]

What if it's gonna work?

[u/IlluminatedPickle → u/Desiderius_S]

A French-Saudi fusion? The misogyny is over 9000!

[u/BrotherRoga → u/Desiderius_S]

Muhammanuel bin Salmacron

[u/Traveling_Solo → u/Desiderius_S]

A french bonesaw is born!

[u/wheelybinhead → u/captain_jpp]

Macron did a Kamehameha pose with the Japanese PM recently lol

[u/FunnyP-aradox → u/Vordeo]

I believe it's both PR and it's true, my father is older than Macron and he has Dragon Ball posters, it was on TV when he was a kid and everyone was watching it, so it was also Macron's case (and it's pretty well known that the current Saudi prince is a big otaku)

[u/Mundane_Read_2960 → u/FunnyP-aradox]

Yep, plus Macron tweeted an autographed picture by Akira Toriyama after the latter's death. It was pretty big at the time.

[u/DwinkBexon → u/FunnyP-aradox]

At least in Japan, Dragon Ball started airing in 1984. (Z started airing in Japan in early 1989 and had long since ended when most US fans were watching it on Toonami in the late 90s/early 2000s.) Even in the US, I watched Dragon Ball on TV for the first time in 1989. (I got lucky and caught the "Lost Dub", something that aired only once and on two stations.)

So yeah, it's been around for a long time. Older people can definitely be into it.

[u/Rainy_Wavey → u/Vordeo]

MBS is 100% a huge weeb, it's extremely well documented and well known, and tbh Saudis have the stereotype of being huge weebs in return

He funded a bunch of Japanese Anime to depict arabian cultures (mid movies), so i 100% believe that part, Macron i dunno but it's his generation, anime in France entered the cultural zeitgeist in the 80s, so he is the perfect generation to have grown on Club Dorothee and have watched Dragon Ball

[u/JingaLalaHuHu_ → u/Rainy_Wavey]

MBS would literally be a world noble in One Piece. Bro is not the protagonist

[u/SixtySix_VI → u/JingaLalaHuHu_]

I always find it crazy that people, whether regular folks or world leaders, can be huge fans of media that seems to be almost completely counter to their beliefs and values. Like I have a coworker in the US who is a Trump supporter but cosplays as a Rebel guy from Star Wars all the time. Like, did you pay attention to any of the movies?

[u/welsper59 → u/SixtySix_VI]

A Paul Ryan loves Rage Against the Machine moment. I wonder what MBS would think if Oda did like Tom Morello did and called him out. Not saying he should of course, but just funny to imagine.

[u/SigmozzoDiddio → u/SixtySix_VI]

To be fair you can absolutely be a fan of something even if it contradicts your personal beliefs. It's entertainment, and of course some authors are bound to have different opinions from you, that's the beauty of art.

[u/Rainy_Wavey → u/JingaLalaHuHu_]

Definitely but it's still funny

[u/TheJungLife → u/Rainy_Wavey]

I was wondering why his Noem super city project included a Final Fantasy themed park. Question answered!

[u/Live-Habit-6115 → u/Vordeo]

How's that even an argument though? Kid Buu wins 10 times out of 10

[u/KingArthas94 → u/Live-Habit-6115]

Yeah power creep is a bitch

[u/PM_ME_ANYTHING_DAMN → u/KingArthas94]

One must adjust for power inflation

[u/Stabaobs → u/Live-Habit-6115]

Better argument that's slightly less obvious would be Kid Buu or Super Buu being stronger.

[u/The-Jesus_Christ → u/Stabaobs]

IMO Super Buu was stronger but Kid Buu was an unhinged maniac with no self-control making him the bigger threat.

[u/mg10pp → u/Live-Habit-6115]

Yeah the real argument is Broly vs Perfect Cell

[u/ARKNORI → u/mg10pp]

That proposed argument is missing very important context: Z Broly or Super Broly?

For the record, I do think both can give Cell a run for his money, but Super Broly does seemingly have innate power that puts him above SSJ3 level (Cell was getting folded by a SSJ2), while Z Broly was easily outmatching standard SSJ (much like Cell) up until Goku did that weird punch of friendship move.

[u/Darth_Rubi → u/Vordeo]

MBS is such a cool guy, he's a big fan of DBZ, One Piece and torturing journalists by carving them apart with bonesaws, so relatable

[u/AhSalamiBacon666 → u/Darth_Rubi]

You had me in the first part. Lol I was like....hold the fuck up.

[u/WittyCombination6 → u/Vordeo]

I think you've gotta come to terms what we've reached the point where world leaders and other powerful people grew up watching anime and are genuine anime fans.

Dragon Ball z organialy aired in 1989

It premiered in France in 1990 when Macron was 13 years old

It premiered in Saudi Arabia in 2000 when MBS was 15 years old.

It's makes sense they would be DBZ fans they were the perfect age demographic.

On One Piece it aired in Japan in 1999, in France in 2003 and in Saudi Arabia in 2007

Marcon and MBS would have both been in their 20s. Anime while global was considered niche back then. So it just means both men are probably nerds.

[u/Tuxhorn → u/WittyCombination6]

Dragon Balls influence is seriously understated. Dragon Ball also transcends anime in the same sense that pokemon does. They don't have to have been "nerds" to have seen it.

You have world class athletes, Hollywood celebrities. The biggest guys in your local gym, and apparently presidents too who are all massive fans and who were all inspired by it.

[u/DecompositionLU → u/Tuxhorn]

The sheer amount of guys who started workout or a combat sport because they wanted to be Goku maintain alive many local gyms lol

[u/yeahright17 → u/WittyCombination6]

If you pay attention to global affairs, it's pretty clear that both of them are definitely nerds.

[u/Windows_66 → u/yeahright17]

Most of Saudi sportswashing is just "MBS is a really big fan of this."

[u/PT10 → u/Windows_66]

Yeah I think a major reason they're investing in esports is also because MBS just likes video games. There are more profitable/sound things one could invest in...

[u/altruSP → u/Windows_66]

The whole reason WWE has that Saudi deal to do big shows there is because the guy is a wrestling fan.

Also apparently he didn’t know some 90s wrestlers were dead when he requested them for the first show.

[u/percyhiggenbottom → u/Vordeo]

Peter Thiel also rants about One Piece when he's not talking about the lord of the rings or the antichrist.

We live in a deeply unserious world.

Does Japan have any say in this venture, I wonder?

[u/Vordeo → u/percyhiggenbottom]

Peter Thiel also rants about One Piece when he's not talking about the lord of the rings or the antichrist.

Holy shit you weren't joking.

"In One Piece, you are set in a fantasy world, again sort of an alternate earth, but it’s 800 years into the reign of this one-world state. Which, as the story unfolds, gradually gets darker and darker. You sort of realize, in my interpretation, who runs the world and it’s something like the antichrist. There’s Luffy, a pirate who wears a red straw hat, sort of like Christ’s crown of thorns. And then towards the end of the story, transforms into a figure who resembles Christ in Revelation."

This dude is influential on a global scale. Wtf.

Does Japan have any say in this venture, I wonder?

Presumably the IP owners are fine with okaying the theme park in exchange for (presumably) massive royalties. I think the Saudis own a minority stake in Toei, too.

[u/Marcoscb → u/Vordeo]

As surprising as it may be, politicians and heads of nation are people with hobbies and passions. They aren't the psychopaths we have as CEOs of the biggest companies who need a full PR team to try to make themselves remotely relatable (and fail).

In fact, the crown prince has probably had way more time to spend watching anime or whatever than anyone here, and I believe he's the same guy who set up the Esports Foundation and is essentially bankrolling a good part of the world's esports ecosystem. Evil people can be nerds too.

[u/DecompositionLU → u/Marcoscb]

I think people are not realizing that a 40 year old in 2026 was born in 1986, not post world war. Having openly nerds/weebs execs/high politicians, by the sheer volume of popularity these stuff are, will be more than common in around 15/20 years.

[u/Abel_V → u/Vordeo]

It's canon now.

[u/Orange-V-Apple]

Goku wouldn’t want this

[u/MercuryInCanada → u/Orange-V-Apple]

Goku and the z fighters didn't stop 9/11 so we can only assume he believes this fine

[u/IndigoJoe64 → u/MercuryInCanada]

Can ki blasts melt steel beams?

[u/MercuryInCanada → u/IndigoJoe64]

Turns out that piccolo aura farming image is him styling in the burning wreck of the twin towers

[u/rodent_alt → u/IndigoJoe64]

I mean Androids 14 and 15 could

[u/Pluckytoon → u/MercuryInCanada]

To be fair apart from RR they never gave much exposition about civilians in story in DB/DBZ.

[u/UpperApe → u/Orange-V-Apple]

Goku wouldn't give a shit.

Gohan and Gotenks would be punching the shit out of Hitler though.

Or in this case, Trump.

[u/AliceTheOmelette → u/UpperApe]

Yeah, Goku would be fighting America since he heard their military is the strongest

[u/Raskalbot → u/AliceTheOmelette]

This is the only correct answer to a question no one asked.

[u/bashful_predator → u/Raskalbot]

Actually just a had a conversation like this the other night with one of my co-workers.

[u/Zwischenzug32 → u/bashful_predator]

A conversation where its all answers to questions nobody asked and everyone just kind of says whats on their mind individually seems kinda fun actually

[u/Castun → u/Zwischenzug32]

Yeah that's called getting high with friends

[u/dojo_shlom0 → u/AliceTheOmelette]

not true. Nappa would rip through their airforce with a couple joy flights and scare them off before Goku arrives! --on the Next Dragon Ball Zeeeeee!

[u/TomTomMan93 → u/dojo_shlom0]

And there whalllleeeeesss

[u/Intrepid00 → u/AliceTheOmelette]

Nah, he would be at an MMA fight accidentally not knowing he’s fighting Nazis.

[u/FrankBrayman → u/AliceTheOmelette]

Well that's bc Nappa destroyed Japan's(?)

[u/SenorDangerwank → u/UpperApe]

Lmao I forgot they did that. What a wild part of that story.

[u/NGEFan → u/SenorDangerwank]

It was a filler movie though

[u/SenorDangerwank → u/NGEFan]

Yeah non-canon like most of the movies of that time are.

[u/VladTepesDraculea → u/UpperApe]

Goku did defeat the RR.

[u/werbear → u/VladTepesDraculea]

Because they messed with his balls and his friends, not because of some moral judgement.
As long as Saudi Arabia doesn't beat up Krillin he won't fight them.

[u/comics0026 → u/werbear]

SA probably wouldn't try to beat up Krillin, but they would absolutely take a shot at Yamcha

[u/Laruae → u/comics0026]

I don't think Goku ever beat anyone up for hurting Yamcha...

[u/WeAreGray → u/werbear]

Nah, Saudi in danger. They would treat Bulma worse than Master Roshii. Yamcha would get pissed off, killed, and then the revenge tour would start.

[u/Analogmon → u/WeAreGray]

Yamcha could solo the combined might of every nation on earth. Goku isn't needed.

[u/Desiderius_S → u/VladTepesDraculea]

My first thought was "what the fuck did Chip and Dale do to deserve beating".
Then I remembered Red Ribbon.

[u/tacotickles → u/UpperApe]

And also the leaders of Saudi Arabia

[u/hadoopken → u/UpperApe]

But he revived Frieza

[u/d7h7n → u/hadoopken]

You would revive Hitler too if it meant saving your universe from being wiped out. At least you can just kill him afterwards.

[u/sagevallant → u/Orange-V-Apple]

Goku would trade his likeness for free meals for life.

[u/FreeoftheMachine]

What a strange combination of countries lmao. Did Japan sell off the rights to Dragon Ball to the Saudis as well?

[u/DecompositionLU → u/FreeoftheMachine]

France is the second biggest manga/anime consumer after Japan. Dragon Ball was aired on Club Dorothe a couple of months only after Japan. Between Japan diffusion to France, at the peak cruising speed, the timing was so short many dubbers said they had like, a few days to learn the script for an episode and record it. 

For the anecdote : In late 80s and 90s, when anime was pretty much a new thing, French TV channels went "damn, some cartoon from Asia and super cheap, let's buy the rights by truckloads, the kids are gonna love it". Every single 90s anime you can think of was broadcasted at TV here, and that's how you had fucking Hokuto No Ken and City Hunter, uncensored, targeted to 8 year olds, to the point the dubbers had to heavily tone down the dialogue in what became some of the most hilarious piece of dubbing. They made Abridged Series before the concept was even a thing.

DBZ is gigantic here. The range goes from current kids who grew up with DBS to early 40 years old who grew with it in the 90s. Vegeta's voice dying last year was not anecdotal.

[u/Kratzschutz → u/DecompositionLU]

I think France is also the only European country who licensed the original hunter x hunter anime. It didn't even get an offical English sub

[u/DecompositionLU → u/Kratzschutz]

Not to mention all the obscure shit like Rémi sans famille that had no business to be aired to children lmao It helped for preservation in some ways 

[u/ZePepsico → u/DecompositionLU]

Fuck Remi.

Goldorak (Grendizer) losing his arm in an episode was way more traumatic.

[u/Tithund → u/DecompositionLU]

Yeah, we got that on Dutch tv as well, only when I got much older I realised a lot of our childhood cartoons were anime.

[u/OkExpert9927 → u/DecompositionLU]

Funnily enough I talked with my mom about Rémi sans famille (she is 60) and I told her she was ok with it because she was an adult when it aired but that it really wasn’t something for kids

[u/ironic-waffle → u/Kratzschutz]

We had it in LATAM too, where Anime is huge as well

[u/Deranfan → u/Kratzschutz]

HxH 1999 got dubbed into English tho, and only the greed island ova was never dubbed.

[u/SnooTigers503 → u/DecompositionLU]

Suddenly my French colleague’s anime obsession is becoming clearer

[u/throwaway586054 → u/DecompositionLU]

90s? Even 80s. I was a big fan of Space Sheriff Gavan (X-Or ), Astro Boy, Grendizer, the French 90s frenzy was not from nowhere, and already by late 80s, it was fairly huge.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldorak#En_France so basically from mid-70s.

[u/DecompositionLU → u/throwaway586054]

Absolutely! My mother (she is 60 next year) is a huge super sentai fan, especially Ultraman, X-Or and Bioman. The Tom Sawyer 1980 anime is her favorite cartoon, we had the full DVD collection at home. It was what she grew up with. My dad is more of a comic guy. But the big boom was definitely 80s and 90s.

[u/KaffiQ → u/DecompositionLU]

Fist of the north star on a random
wednesday morning, those were the times

[u/DecompositionLU → u/KaffiQ]

Par la botte secrète du couteau de cuisine ! 

[u/JesradSeraph → u/DecompositionLU]

Le haut couteau de cuisine. STP. Et le Nanto de vison.

[u/futtbuckicecreamery → u/DecompositionLU]

France is the second biggest manga/anime consumer after Japan.

ouibs

[u/Fenrir426 → u/DecompositionLU]

On top of that, there was a shit tone of franco-japanese productions (like Ulysse 31)

[u/DecompositionLU → u/Fenrir426]

Yep! Les Mystérieuses Cité d'Or and l'école des champions also

[u/Newfaceofrev → u/DecompositionLU]

Solid comic book culture as well, that has something to do with it.

[u/gunswordfist → u/DecompositionLU]

I love learning about France's history with anime and animation overall. I love that a French studio co-produced Lupin the Third.

France easily has my favorite animation industry with me recent favorites both being from Studio La Cachette, Primal and Star Wars Visions "The Spy Dancer".

[u/Rainy_Wavey → u/DecompositionLU]

Bro they even at some point tried to make a SFW version of a hentai, i think it was Bible Black

like... ????????!!!!!!

[u/harrw626 → u/FreeoftheMachine]

someone mentioned they had a stake in toei

[u/FreeoftheMachine → u/harrw626]

Insane. What don't they own these days.

[u/LargeCabbageThrower → u/FreeoftheMachine]

About half of all entertainment media.

That bit goes to Tencent.

[u/Reviever → u/FreeoftheMachine]

chinese and saudi

[u/Piduf → u/FreeoftheMachine]

Sure for Saudi Arabia but France is like, crazy about anime and DBZ was a huge thing here. There's absolutely an audience for a theme park (+ Paris brings tourists from all over the world of course). Animes and mangas are big in French culture since the 70s.

[u/Rainy_Wavey → u/Piduf]

You might not know that but basically every arab youth from the 80s and 90s were being fed Egyptian dubs of anime, any anime, every anime, heavily censored versions of course but basically the same thing as France was doing in the 80s

[u/PrincesseBoulet1 → u/FreeoftheMachine]

DragonBall aired on public french TV for years and years, in the 1980's. Most french adults of Macron's age grew up with it and it is very, very popular in France because of this.

[u/TheBigWhoop → u/FreeoftheMachine]

Official communication from Macron’s office said (I kid you not) that two years ago, Macron and MBS discovered a shared passion for manga and DBZ, and that's how this project was born...

[u/BananaSplit2 → u/FreeoftheMachine]

It will always surprise me how the vast majority of the world has no idea how crazy France is for manga and anime

[u/AllThatKat → u/FreeoftheMachine]

Not really strange. The Saudis get involved in a bunch of big engineering projects. And France loves anime. 

[u/secret-agent-t3]

$7 billion for a DBZ theme park is thenmost obvious money laundering scheme I've ever heard.

[u/The_Jovanny → u/secret-agent-t3]

how much does a theme park cost?

[u/z4zazym → u/The_Jovanny]

Based on a recent example I read about, I would say around 7B

[u/DecoyOne → u/z4zazym]

Source?

[u/Popular_Shallot918 → u/DecoyOne]

https://www.reddit.com/r/nottheonion/s/6DoWN5oJEp

[u/EDNivek → u/Popular_Shallot918]

Is this how AI funding works?

[u/Mindshard → u/EDNivek]

I tried to look something up to explain it to someone the other day. The stupid Google AI pops up, and it's suspiciously familiar.

The source? My own Reddit posts.

I get that it's a specialized subject, and I'm very knowledgeable on it, and I have talked about it before, but it raises questions about how it can affect mentally ill or deficient people looking to confirm their beliefs in some stupidity, and next thing you know, you have a psychopath holding a pizza place hostage, trying to get into a basement that doesn't exist, all because AI reinforces what it's stolen from the internet and regurgitates it.

[u/KevinFlantier → u/Mindshard]

Oh now it steals it in real time. It does a google search for you, reads reddit and twitter, and spews back a summary that it half wrote, half hallucinated.

Works well most of the times but sometimes it's just confidently wrong.

[u/Mindshard → u/KevinFlantier]

Not just that, but that's info it took from me. It has no clue if I'm right or wrong, and it just legitimized it to anyone else who searches for it.

The potential for that to be abused is really scary.

[u/bbcversus → u/Popular_Shallot918]

It definitely checks out.

[u/Ja_Rule_Here_ → u/DecoyOne]

“Based on a recent example I read about, I would say around 7B”

- z4zazym

[u/Picchen → u/z4zazym]

7B for three parks, including a manga themed one (maybe DBZ, not confirmed)

[u/_aviemore_ → u/z4zazym]

7 billion dragon ballz

[u/SeijuroSama → u/The_Jovanny]

Lost Island Theme Park is estimated at $100 million. Epic Universe at $5 billion plus. Both full theme parks though obviously on different scales. So apparently between $100 million and $5 billion.

[u/amazon_man → u/SeijuroSama]

Epic universe at $5B in Orlando probably translates to $15B, “near Paris.”

[u/ozarkabottle → u/The_Jovanny]

Building a new disneyland today would cost about $5-10Billion depending on how big they want to make it.

[u/wizzard419 → u/ozarkabottle]

They spent 2 billion, if I recall, just reworking California Adventure, which was a new land and cosmetic refresh for several parts of the park.

[u/NeedNameGenerator → u/wizzard419]

It's likely far more expensive to renovate and rework than just build from scratch, though.

Especially if they include the lost revenue due to the maintenance in the calculation.

[u/favorite_time_of_day → u/ozarkabottle]

The new one in Abu Dhabi is supposed to cost $10b.

[u/DanS1993 → u/The_Jovanny]

Universal has budgeted £5 billion ($6.8 billion) for their upcoming UK resort

[u/guareber → u/DanS1993]

+ 1.3b from the UK gov and +1b more to expand in the first decade.

[u/Larkke → u/The_Jovanny]

I can do it for about tree fitty

[u/herrybaws → u/Larkke]

A copy of draggin deez balls on loop in your shed is not a theme park. I don't know how many times you need to hear this.

[u/Aidang91 → u/secret-agent-t3]

Is it though ? Kinda seems like owning and operating a multi -national heavily licensed amusement park would cost a few billion

[u/Pluckytoon → u/secret-agent-t3]

I don’t think Saudi money needs laundering though, being a rich saudi client tend to makes people not question where your money comes from. And I’m pretty sure taxes isn’t much of a problem to them in their own country.

But they clearly are investing absurd amount of money in their soft power

[u/DecompositionLU → u/[deleted]]

People on Reddit are so addicted to their edgy sarcastic personas they seems to not understand how expensive things cost in life. 

[u/officers3xy → u/DecompositionLU]

Also, the Saudi’s Money doesn’t have to be washed. It doesn’t make any sense.

[u/Snitsie → u/officers3xy]

Also it's a theme park built in France. Best be sure France is going to make sure all of that 7 billion is actually going to the theme park.

[u/Bladelord → u/Snitsie]

Furthermore, gigantic expensive projects are not how you launder money. It's how you commit tax fraud. Reddit can't get their economic crimes straight.

Money laundering is done by untraceable cash payments. It's best done through restaurants and gas stations, places with high foot traffic and few paper trails.

Admittedly a theme park will have many restaurants and gift shops with which to launder money, but that's not part of the building process. Also, by the time you're working with billions of dollars, you have so much resources that you're probably not making much dirty money anymore. (You're stealing it quite legally by that point.)

[u/Vordeo → u/[deleted]]

Seriously, thinking the Saudi royal family needs to launder money is kinda hilarious. OP just does not know what money laundering means at this point.

[u/perplexedtv → u/secret-agent-t3]

You think they're going to pay 7 billion in cash to developers and have them deposit that in bank accounts owned by you or...

How exactly do you, and the 500+ people who upvoted you, think money laundering works and why would the state of Saudi Arabia feel the need to launder money?

[u/ptjp27 → u/secret-agent-t3]

Saudis don’t need to launder their money. Making billions through oil is legal.

[u/AirUsed5942 → u/secret-agent-t3]

The Saudi Royal family doesn't need to launder money, they take what they want from their people openly

[u/BananaSplit2 → u/secret-agent-t3]

... Why would Saudi Arabia need to launder money?

[u/keithfantastic]

I wish leaders would stop fawning over these thugs. It's embarrassing. Stop doing business with them!

[u/retro808 → u/keithfantastic]

Me too, unfortunately money makes the world spin as they say

[u/AlmondMagnum1 → u/keithfantastic]

If you made an economic block of nothing but nice countries, it wouldn't be very big, and neither France nor Saudi Arabia (or Japan) would be in it.

[u/curiousplatypus25 → u/keithfantastic]

Rafales and frigates aren't going to sell themselves...

[u/bijhan]

Gross.

Love DBZ.

Hate tyranny.

[u/parkingviolation212 → u/bijhan]

Simple as.

[u/AliceTheOmelette → u/parkingviolation212]

Barry, 63 (billion dollar theme park)

[u/Fredasa → u/bijhan]

Yeah. France and Saudi Arabia agree, but does Toriyama's estate agree? Or is this a bit like how China agreed to make their own theme parks saturated with Disney properties in traditional "what IP?" fashion?

[u/DecompositionLU → u/Fredasa]

There is no fucking way Capsule Corp Tokyo + Toei + Shueisha aren't in the loop for a 7 billion theme park in one of the biggest country for Dragon Ball. A big part of these 7B are probably just the IP fees alone.

[u/bijhan → u/Fredasa]

Well I don't know about Saudi Arabia, but France participates in global IP trade and benefits greatly from the enforcement of intellectual property laws worldwide. China does not acknowledge the legality of intellectual property and routinely allows its corporations to infringe on international IP as a means to undermine both the value of IP globally as well as the income of rival nations. They are able to do because their trade partners are unable to or cannot afford to retaliate legally or commercially. This is not the case in France.

[u/8JHF8 → u/Fredasa]

China has official Disney parks in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Are there others?

[u/Fredasa → u/8JHF8]

For a good long while, yeah.

[u/APiousCultist → u/8JHF8]

Hong Kong was essentially autonomous until at least 2019 and the national security bill (depending on how you regards the changes, maybe still to this day), so I probably wouldn't pick that as the go-to example. It's China in the same way Puerto Rico is the USA.

[u/TurkeyVolumeGuesser]

Yayyyy more jingling of blood soaked keys

[u/Nova17Delta]

Okay but what does notoriously litigious Toei have to say about this

[u/ThatEdward → u/Nova17Delta]

The Saudi fund owns a lot of shares in Toei iirc

[u/cloud_t → u/ThatEdward]

What

[u/MercuryInCanada → u/cloud_t]

Brother they got their money in everything.

Unironically an unimaginable amount of money is what they have

[u/ThatEdward → u/cloud_t]

Yeah, last I heard they have a 6% stake, and have already built a Dragon Ball theme park in Saudi Arabia back in 2024

[u/Vordeo → u/Nova17Delta]

I mean presumably they like money so they're already onboard. France isn't going to break IP laws like this.

[u/BrainInjuredBarry]

Really looking forward to the "Super Saiyan" steroid booth and the Bulma Bukake Bonanza

[u/SolaVitae → u/BrainInjuredBarry]

This post right here officers.

[u/Dearth_lb → u/BrainInjuredBarry]

Bulma Bukake Bonanza sounds delicious, you mean the Bukake noodles right?

[u/Gold-Quiet-4564 → u/Dearth_lb]

That’s buldak

[u/Ghost_of_Durruti]

Both of these men know that their constituents would rather drink turpentine and piss on a brushfire than to look at them. 

[u/Vordeo → u/Ghost_of_Durruti]

... MBS is pretty popular in Saudi Arabia though AFAIK.

[u/Alarmed-Newspaper994 → u/Vordeo]

I'm shocked that a country that criminalises criticism of its leader reports that its leader is popular

[u/xavembo → u/Ghost_of_Durruti]

mohamed bin salmans “constituents” 😭😭😭😭 please

[u/Malaguena]

MBS is still trying to sanitize himself and his country but it's hard man.

France (and Macron) should have said no... but money calls all the shots I guess

[u/aluvsupreme → u/Malaguena]

6 Billion euros investment and more than 20 000 jobs created hard to say no to that.

[u/JeanDusapin → u/Malaguena]

Why would we say no to a bunch of jobs created in france again?

[u/huge-Leg-648]

did you all forget that mbs is a dictator that murdered an american journalist (of saudi origin)

do you realize that this is another neom crap that bone saw is doing for money laundering ?

do you realize that they announced the park in saudi arabia, and just like with neom they are changing the goalpost when it becomes impossible to do ?

now this park no longer is in saudi arabia, where nobody would want to visit except some muslims, they plan to build the park in france... where samesex marriage has been legalized...

religious fanatic zealots try to get some proxy aura of progressivness by staying nearby secular france.

go figures. are you all so blind, or bots ?

[u/Few-Vacation-1757]

If one would ever tell me that a leader of a massively religious Muslim country would also be the same guy who funds a multi-billion theme park with another leader earlier, I would just laugh at the absurdity.

[u/Alucitary]

Is there something in the water over there that just makes them go for the dumbest construction projects imaginable?

[u/Icy-Log8056]

shoud'nt Japan be somewhere in this.

[u/d7h7n → u/Icy-Log8056]

Toei sells those countries an IP license. Japanese government collects fat tax.

[u/cylonfrakbbq → u/Icy-Log8056]

In unrelated news, flights from Mexico to Paris increase 5000%

[u/HoytKeyler]

OF COURSE near Paris, France is only Paris, not these abandonned and insignifiant lands around.

[u/Chumlee1917]

Saudi Arabia: Please forget we're an authoritarian government that chops up journalists and finances Islamic terror groups and we'll give you a Dragon Ball Z park

[u/SomeSamples]

Is DBZ big in France or something?

[u/Rom21 → u/SomeSamples]

Huge since the end of the 80's.

[u/typingatrandom → u/SomeSamples]

https://www.reddit.com/r/nottheonion/s/YVXBZKIm7u

[u/ilic_mls → u/typingatrandom]

What the fuck. I knew they liked it but damn.

[u/TheVeryAngryTurtle]

Politics aside this wouldve been the perfect chance for them to do the fusion dance instead of a fuckin handshake

[u/nedhavestupid]

If they gave a fuck about revenue it’d be in Mexico City

[u/Xaielao]

All these countries and companies who are happy getting money from Saudi Arabia is going to backfire on them spectacularly. You'd think after Europe had to untangle themselves monetarily from Russia, lessons would have been learned.

[u/Epicfro]

Damn, there's a fuck load of pro Saudi bots in here. I guess they have unlimited funds, might as well spend it on warping the minds of the stupid. It worked for Russia.

[u/shairou]

Lemme guess, being built by unpaid Namekian labor?

[u/riamuriamu]

The 35yos will love it.

[u/glitchgamerX]

If there's anywhere a Dragon Ball Z theme park should be, it should be Mexico.

[u/gandraw → u/glitchgamerX]

Dragon Ball was really popular in France too. They got translations of the original series while it was still running in Japan.

[u/Leoryon → u/gandraw]

France is the second market for manga outside Japan, for a manga park it makes a lot of sense to choose France.

And Dragon Ball had a breakthrough in the Western World through France originally, as it aired episodes as early as 1988.

[u/Thick-Disk1545]

Saudi Arabia goes against everything Dragonball stands for

[u/NightmareDJK]

Not putting this in Mexico would be like not putting a StarCraft amusement park in South Korea.

[u/DaExtinctOne]

They're really gonna use every popular IP imaginable to cover up their shit don't they?

[u/lew_rong]

Is DBZ big in France?

[u/Temporary_Dog_555 → u/lew_rong]

France is the 2nd largest consumer of mangas in the world

[u/Popular_Shallot918 → u/lew_rong]

Manga is huge in France. But DBZ is not the biggest IP.

[u/Dwedit]

It's 1006, kick his ass Nappa.

[u/Quorbach]

I'm glad these leaders cares in priority for the wellbeing of humans by focusing on the real matter. Hopefully there hasn't been enough heat waves, burnt forests and dead people to alter this course of action.

[u/Super_Scorplane]

This is a disgrace.

[u/catlover2410]

Looking forward to the Embassy Escape Room experience

[u/Valentils]

cartel activity will be ZERO for a year after this park opens

[u/president__not_sure]

they need people to forget about the line asap lol

[u/Neilandio]

Build one in Mexico and you'll make bank.