Dragon Ball Theme Park

[sangofe]

Incredible, but true. A Dragon Ball Theme Park is being constructed. Guess Saudi Arabia is on my list of countries to go to now?

https://en.dragon-ball-official.com/news/01_2533.html

"The Saudi Arabia-based Qiddiya Investment Company has announced that it will be constructing the World’s only ever Dragon Ball theme park as part of its "Qiddiya" giga project!

The Dragon Ball theme park will boast a whopping size of over 500,000 square meters and feature seven different areas that recreate various iconic locales from the original series, such as Kame House, Capsule Corporation, and Beerus's Planet.
At the park, visitors will be able to join an adventure with Goku and pals as they enjoy the world of Dragon Ball, from the very beginning of the anime all the way up through Dragon Ball Super!

This theme park will feature five state-of-the-art rides as part of a lineup of 30+ attractions! And if that wasn't already exciting enough, construction of a 70 meter-high Shenron is also planned, with this landmark containing a large-scale roller coaster inside!
In addition, there will also be fully stocked hotels and restaurants available at the park to enable fans to immerse themselves in the world of Dragon Ball for an entire day of fun.

Stay tuned for more details about this amazing project that will bridge the world of Dragon Ball and real life!"

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

This is great news, but I wonder why Saudi Arabia of all places. Orlando, Florida would have seemed to be a given as they already have a Dragon Ball themed restaurant and as the box office success of Super Hero showed the US is one of the biggest markets for Dragon Ball.

[eledoremassis02]

This is great news, but I wonder why Saudi Arabia of all places. Orlando, Florida would have seemed to be a given as they already have a Dragon Ball themed restaurant and as the box office success of Super Hero showed the US is one of the biggest markets for Dragon Ball.

The restaurant isn't official and I think has since been rebranded (dropping the Saiyan name). Universal and Disney are pretty much the law around there so I feel like if one of the two aren't interested then it wouldn't get done. It's probably whoever had the money and the interest got it. If I had to assume a Dragon Ball park would of went anywhere I would of assumed it would have been China.

[goku the krump dancer]

Can’t freakin wait!

[WittyUsername]

Why Saudi Arabia?

[JulieYBM]

Damn, it's a shame that I could never go.

I assume that some eccentrict billionaire funded this?

[Tian]

In addition, there will also be fully stocked hotels and restaurants available at the park to enable fans to immerse themselves in the world of Dragon Ball for an entire day of fun.

I hope there's some Dragon Ball themed food in those restaurants like 7 Falafel Dragon Balls...


... or Super Saiyan Shawarma.


Ever since I tried Middle East food, it became one of my favourite foreign cuisines along with the Basque and Peruvian ones.

[TheRed259]

Awesome!

[SHINOBI-03]

I'm as shocked as everybody else are.

[Jord]

Why Saudi Arabia?

Because this beautiful country has a lot of money and wants to become an entertainment capital.

[WittyUsername]

Why Saudi Arabia?

Because this beautiful country has a lot of money and wants to become an entertainment capital.

I just can’t imagine why anyone would want to vacation there, unless it’s for religious reasons or because they’re friends with the royalty.

[sangofe]

Why Saudi Arabia?

Because this beautiful country has a lot of money and wants to become an entertainment capital.

I just can’t imagine why anyone would want to vacation there, unless it’s for religious reasons or because they’re friends with the royalty.

Yeah, to be honest Saudi Arabia has no appeal to me either but with this Theme Park I might go there one day. If I get the money to.

[Hellspawn28]

Why Saudi Arabia?

Because this beautiful country has a lot of money and wants to become an entertainment capital.

Yeah, but it's not very safe for people who are LGBTQ+, women, and other religions as SA can hostile towards them.

[PurestEvil]

NGL at first I was pretty taken aback by this, but I remembered that they also made the "Little Asia" festival/park in Jeddah. I am still a bit surprised though that the fundamentalist Islamic government of Saudi Arabia would open a park dedicated to a fictional story that involves heathenish religion and magic (both prohibited by strict sects).

[SHINOBI-03]

It should be noted that Saudi Arabia are and still have Comic Conventions since at least 2017 and have hosted other anime events across the kingdom. This is not something new for them, but it is on this scale.

NGL at first I was pretty taken aback by this, but I remembered that they also made the "Little Asia" festival/park in Jeddah. I am still a bit surprised though that the fundamentalist Islamic government of Saudi Arabia would open a park dedicated to a fictional story that involves heathenish religion and magic (both prohibited by strict sects).

There's the keyword here; "Fictional". Magic and sorcery-themed tales aren't prohibited if they were intended to be fiction. Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter are still having huge fandom on the same scale as Arabian Nights that equally have plenty of magic and fantastical elements but they're not banned due to their nature of being fiction. The usage of the title "God" is the closest thing to raise some concerns but Dragon Ball cleverly uses alternate titles for their characters "Kami/Guardian, Lord, King, Kaio, Kaioshin". High chance they would go with the English dub that used these titles in their dub.

Injustice had to alter the title from "Gods Among Us" to "The Mighty Among Us" and the second Shazam movie changed the title from "Fury of the Gods" to "Fury of the Kings". But these changes were for the titles only. The spoken dialogue still uses god but the subtitles used different titles for the movies which also applied to Marvel's movies whenever Thor's territory is at hand.

[Jord]

Why Saudi Arabia?

Because this beautiful country has a lot of money and wants to become an entertainment capital.

Yeah, but it's not very safe for people who are LGBTQ+, women, and other religions as SA can hostile towards them.

True, in the grand scheme of things, companies don't care about that. They just pulled out a wad of cash for the rights and are aiming to make a lot of money with this theme park

[Cure Dragon 255]

Ojamajo Doremi is all about witches and magic, and it is extremely popular in the Middle East. I thought they removed all the magic from the Arabic dub, but no. The one major thing they did is swap the ending theme for the opening of the arabic dub! There is much misinformation for the Arab territories.

ANOTHER surprise hit full of magic is JEWELPET. The girls have leggins undern their skirts but that's it as far as censorship goes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKQm5_wKncU Arabic Ojamajo Doremi opening

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGazLILHoJ8 Arabic Jewelpet opening.

[capsulecorp]

They couldn't even wait a month before Toriyama passed before selling the rights to a Dragon Ball theme park, to Saudi Arabia of all places? Disgusting.

[Cure Dragon 255]

These kinds of deals are IMPOSSIBLE to just suddenly close and start the building process, this must have been going on for MONTHS.

[WittyUsername]

Dragon Ball does evoke Middle Eastern imagery from time to time. I do remember reading that the Arabic dub of DBZ was heavily censored and tried to downplay the references to Eastern religion and mythology, but I don’t typically hear about Muslim countries having some taboo against fantasy elements in movies and television.

Still, Saudi Arabia is a pretty terrible place to go for a vacation. Even China would be preferable.