DB doesn't really belong to Toriyama anymore, does it?

[DragonBallFoodie]

It now belongs to Toyotaro, Toei, and Funimation/Crunchyroll, and maybe Fox (since it still has film rights).

Toriyama's loose reign over the story has the disadvantage of anyone making their own version, It's why the Abridged series worked out, and its popularity means it can be considered canon (and in some respects it is actually funnier than what Toriyama came up with).

The advantage is we can choose our own canon/continuity, so make of that what you will.

[sangofe]

Of course it belongs to Toriyama. It strictly belongs to Toriyama, Shueisha, and Toei. Every other company has just bought rights for different areas. If you mention other companies you should list up companies in South America, Europe, and other in Asia.

In the Nordic countries Sony has been handling the subtitling translation from the english translation). SF Studio has the rights for the movie.

[MasenkoHA]

Holding the English license now equates to ownership, I guess.

[sangofe]

Holding the English license now equates to ownership, I guess.

Why's that?

[TheBlackPaladin]

I'm actually curious to what degree Toriyama legally "owns" Dragon Ball. Plenty of IP creators don't own the rights to their creations. Heck, Sylvester Stallone is still bitter about how he doesn't own the rights to the Rocky franchise.

[JulieYBM]

The Anime Economy by Justin Sevakis tackles this question. Toriyama likely retains final say-so but because he's not particularly interested in being hands-on and understanding the various aspects of leading a franchise we mostly just get the occasional involvement (movies, overseeing a comic).

[Hellspawn28]

maybe Fox (since it still has film rights).

They don't. They lost the rights years ago and you don't even see the 20th Century Logo when watching Superhero.

[Grimlock]

It now belongs to Toyotaro, Toei, and Funimation/Crunchyroll, and maybe Fox (since it still has film rights).

No, it belongs to Shueisha. They are the right holders of this franchise and (sometimes along with Toriyama) have the final say.

But it's true (and expected) that Dragon Ball would eventually outgrow its creator. So we would naturally come to a point where Toriyama would "lose power" over its own creation. Up until the 2000s, it seems Toriyama could still say "no" to whatever Toei and Shueisha wanted to do, but as of 2010s, things seemingly changed. As per VegettoEX, Movie 14 would happen with or without Toriyama, so I think by now Toriyama can't say "no" anymore to whatever project they decide to do.

In reality, it's Shueisha that truly commands this franchise. And after learning that it was them that requested for Android 21 to have a transformation, pretty sure they are also the ones deciding a lot of stuff behind the scenes, including what Dimps can and can't do in Dragon Ball Heroes.

Toei can pitch ideas for a new animation, but if Shueisha say "no", then there won't be any new animation.

The advantage is we can choose our own canon/continuity, so make of that what you will.

Pretty sure that's already the case, as neither Toriyama nor Shueisha have stated what's canonical in this franchise. We already have that advantage.

[MasenkoHA]

As far as I can tell Toriyama's continued involvement in the franchise is out of respect to him and not any sort of legal obligation on Shuiesha's end.

[Hellspawn28]

He never own the franchise anyways. The series always belong to Shueisha since day one.

[Grimlock]

Shueisha to Akira Toriyama at some point in the near future:

[WittyUsername]

Does Fox/Disney even still have the film license for Dragon Ball at this point? The latest movie was distributed strictly by Crunchyroll/Sony in the states.

Anyway, yeah, I’m pretty sure the rights to Dragon Ball are co-owned by Toei and Shueisha, but since Japanese companies generally seem more respectful to creators of their IP’s, it means that Toriyama has a lot of power over the franchise.

[DBZAOTA482]

It was never really his property. It was Shueisha's from the beginning but they still consult him for ideas and the overall plot lines for DBS because he's highly respected within the industry.

[John Pannozzi]

Bird Studio (Toriyama's company) and Shueisha own the underlying copyright to the original Dragon Ball manga and the characters and concepts from it.
Other parties own (part of) the rights to various Dragon Ball-related media (Toei Animation, Toei Studios and/or Fuji TV with most Dragon Ball anime, Toyotaro with the Dragon Ball Super Manga, Bandai Namco with the video games, etc.).

Funimation/Crunchyroll/Sony has the license to most of the Dragon Ball anime in the USA (and some other countries), and Viz Media (owned by Shueisha and its sibling company-of-sorts Shogakukan (sp?)) has the license to most Dragon Ball (and Dr. Slump and other Toriyama)-related manga in the USA.

I think that explains it.

[damn]

Toriyama's loose reign over the story has the disadvantage of anyone making their own version, It's why the Abridged series worked out, and its popularity means it can be considered canon (and in some respects it is actually funnier than what Toriyama came up with).

I cringed so hard.

TFS is not canon, it's youtube trash garbage and unfunny . If you want to see funny then watch the Funimation/Ocean Dub or Big Green Dub. At least there they weren't trying to be funny and were only funny unintentionally.
If you unironically like garbage like TFS let alone think it's better than the actual series then you're not even a real fan.

Canon is Original 42 volumes and to hell with the rest.
Toriyama should have left it as it was instead of bothering with Super and all this Toei cashgrab nonsense.

Real fans respect the source material and don't mess with it. Real fans love the original series.
Real fans can see that all this Super/Toyotaro/Movies new stuff is just pandering to the deviantart Dragon Ball AF crowd hence why it has a tracing hack like Toyotaro working on it.
Real fans are guys like Eiichiro Oda who created One Piece by taking inspirations from Dragon Ball but not ripping it off, not the deviantart/fanfiction guys who actively spit disrespect at the series with their nonsensical OCs just like Sonic fans do.

God I'm so beyond disgusted by your post.
You don't get to steal the Dragon Ball franchise.
The series is Toriyama's. He's the one who created it. Without him we wouldn't have Dragon Ball.
It doesn't belong to even Japanese fans let alone us foreign fans.

Sad thing is that I can't even dismiss you as a troll because I know you're serious.
Instead of trying to create something of their own nowadays people just want to steal existing properties.
Truly sickening.

[damn]

As per VegettoEX, Movie 14 would happen with or without Toriyama, so I think by now Toriyama can't say "no" anymore to whatever project they decide to do.

Without Toriyama's approval DB Super would have completely flopped like GT did.
His name alone fooled many into giving Super Manga/Anime a chance and also caused many to pretend they like it in the first place.
You take Toriyama's name off of the Super Manga and it would sell considerably less, hence why despite his very limited contributions they play up his name a lot in marketing.

[Kaboom]

If you unironically like garbage like TFS let alone think it's better than the actual series then you're not even a real fan.

Let's NOT have needlessly inflammatory comments like this, okay?

Despite my personal agreement with some of your comments about Super and other new material itself being phoned-in worthless dreck... we REALLY don't need to be slinging mud about who is or isn't a "true fan" over it. Even less so over harmless fan projects.

Okay? Consider this a free and friendly warning to rein in the scathing and misplaced judgmentalism.

[Jiren The Alpha]

As per VegettoEX, Movie 14 would happen with or without Toriyama, so I think by now Toriyama can't say "no" anymore to whatever project they decide to do.

Without Toriyama's approval DB Super would have completely flopped like GT did.
His name alone fooled many into giving Super Manga/Anime a chance and also caused many to pretend they like it in the first place.
You take Toriyama's name off of the Super Manga and it would sell considerably less, hence why despite his very limited contributions they play up his name a lot in marketing.

I need some empirical evidence on that one chief.

[Grimlock]

Without Toriyama's approval DB Super would have completely flopped like GT did. His name alone fooled many into giving Super Manga/Anime a chance and also caused many to pretend they like it in the first place.
You take Toriyama's name off of the Super Manga and it would sell considerably less, hence why despite his very limited contributions they play up his name a lot in marketing.

Do we have evidences that "Dragon Ball GT flopped" in the first place?

[FPSSJ4_Goku]

Without Toriyama's approval DB Super would have completely flopped like GT did. His name alone fooled many into giving Super Manga/Anime a chance and also caused many to pretend they like it in the first place.
You take Toriyama's name off of the Super Manga and it would sell considerably less, hence why despite his very limited contributions they play up his name a lot in marketing.

Do we have evidences that "Dragon Ball GT flopped" in the first place?

Kinda, considering that GT not only didn't have the same high TV ratings its predecessors did, but it's also considered the black sheep of the franchise. It kinda did flop TBH