Torishima is against the Dragon Ball Theme park in Saudi Arabia

[Hellspawn28]

Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud has a track record of war crimes and I don't like the genocide that the country does towards Yemen. It's why I don't like supporting them. I even feel guilty being a SNK fan because they own SNK.

[Kaboom]

For the record, the forum rules don't technically have a "no politics" clause. It's just that we expect discussions to stick to Dragon Ball, or at least DB-adjacent topics, and political tangents usually stray too far from that. But in this case, "this DB theme park shouldn't be getting launched in a country with heinous human rights violations" is pretty clear-cut and totally fair game... for now, at least.

[Hellspawn28]

I won't able to go because a queer nontheist (spiritual but not religious) person like me won't be allowed in Saudi Arabia .

[JulieYBM]

This just reminds me that I should reread the list of US states that I can't travel to lol

It'll be interesting to see if Japan ever does a Dragon Ball amusement park, even if it's just a temporary one. I mean, I wouldn't be able to go to that one, either, but I bet it would look nice lol

[Hellspawn28]

I'm too broke to go to Japan

[nineko]

Italy

That would be ideal for me for obvious reasons, though I'd be ok with France as well, it's not an impossible trip and I would definitely do it.

Japan or Saudi Arabia, I'll pass.

[L3anD3RStar]

The good news I suppose is that its’s very unlikely the park will ever actually get built, let alone open and operating. Oligarchs have a proud tradition of announcing grand big projects without any infrastructure or expertise to support these projects.

I’ve watched enough Defunctland videos to know theme parks are NOT EASY. If by some divine intervention this park actually gets built it’ll be an entertaining shite show, but I think that’s it.

[Saiya6Cit]

Well... it is true... global pollitics are very unstable right now, we have wars and rumors of wars. A theme park requires a Large Investment and no one can guarantee revenew by today's economy, travel restrictions are increasing as well.... so... maybe not in Saudi Arabia or Japan, or America and Europe... but why not Canada or even in Mexico? Nickelodeon opened a waterpark/hotel in Cancun Mexico during the pandemics and they are just fine.


A shame, totally. Had this been the year 2014-2018 the park woud have been way cooler and successful than Lego Land or Mario Land (is that how it is called the mario bros franchise theme park?... hopefully)

I would do my best to go to it if they open one, no matter where it could be.

[Jord]

The good thing about Saudi Arabia is that they have the money to make it spectacular, instead of cramming it somewhere in Europe and cramping on the budget.

[Cipher]

Torishima rocks, actually.

The good thing about Saudi Arabia is that they have the money to make it spectacular, instead of cramming it somewhere in Europe and cramping on the budget.

Love providing fascist oil dictatorships boatloads of money to normalize and abate human rights abuses, it's very cool.

[Jord]

I am not going to veer into politics, and to have a good theme park for a big property like this you need both money and a lot of space. I don't think that no matter how popular Dragon Ball in Europe is, the space or money would be sufficient.
Not to mention that Europe already has a ton of great theme parks on a relatively small piece of land, with a new Universal park coming soon. There would be a ton of competition.

[JulieYBM]

Veering into politics is worse than being critical of the fascist institutions that use nostalgia and commercial art to distract for their fascism, didn’t you know?

[eledoremassis02]

I just am not interested in a Dragon Ball themepark period.

[Jord]

— The government of Saudi Arabia, together with Toei Animation, is planning to open a Dragon Ball theme park. Are you involved in this project, M. Torishima?

No, I have absolutely nothing to do with it. If I were still at Shueisha, I would never have approved that plan. My main reason is simple: Japanese children wouldn’t be able to go there.


Reading this back, this sounds odd for a world wide brand. You could argue that Japanese children could go there if their parents take them there on vacation.
Also, let's say the park is build in Japan. Then you could argue that most Western children wouldn't be able to go there.

[WittyUsername]

You could assume that Western children are simply less of a priority in Torishima’s eyes. Or perhaps his opposition really does have something to do with the Saudi government and he just doesn’t want to openly say it.

[Hellspawn28]

Also, let's say the park is build in Japan. Then you could argue that most Western children wouldn't be able to go there.

Japan is the main home for Dragon Ball. It would make sense to do a DB theme park in Japan.

[damn]

Art is political and DB does carry poliitical messages (anti militarism and anti totalitarianism, I mean Freeza is a landlord tycoon after all XD)

This is completely false and not at all how Toriyama thought. There is no political message in DB, as confirmed by Torishima himself who said that DB has no life lessons or messages.
Toriyama just liked military tech and fashion, there is no deeper thought to it.

Freeza was inspired by opportunistic land speculators at the time of the Showa bubble era because he thought those people were the worst. That in itself isn't really a political stance. It's like saying Toriyama had a political stance against Torishima and Yu Kondo because he based villains on them. Nonsensical.

Getting tired of you westerners shoving politics into everything.

[damn]

You could assume that Western children are simply less of a priority in Torishima’s eyes. Or perhaps his opposition really does have something to do with the Saudi government and he just doesn’t want to openly say it.

It's something called ''National Pride''.
Dragon Ball is a National Treasure.

I doubt he would be opposed to opening DB parks in other countries but Japan should get it first.

Think about it this way: Imagine if the first Disneyland was opened in China or Japan back in the 50s instead of being opened in the US.
Americans would be massively disappointed. Same thing here.

Also, believe it or not the Japanese generally do not care about global politics. They only care if it affects them in some way.

[JulieYBM]

Art is political and DB does carry poliitical messages (anti militarism and anti totalitarianism, I mean Freeza is a landlord tycoon after all XD)

This is completely false and not at all how Toriyama thought. There is no political message in DB, as confirmed by Torishima himself who said that DB has no life lessons or messages.
Toriyama just liked military tech and fashion, there is no deeper thought to it.

Freeza was inspired by opportunistic land speculators at the time of the Showa bubble era because he thought those people were the worst. That in itself isn't really a political stance. It's like saying Toriyama had a political stance against Torishima and Yu Kondo because he based villains on them. Nonsensical.

Getting tired of you westerners shoving politics into everything.

'Lack of intention' doesn't really matter when one's art still winds up having a political message based on how they create it. Toriyama's depiction of queerness in Dragon Ball has a political effect because of the stereotypes and tropes he employs to encourage his audience of children to laugh at and see queer characters as less-than.

But returning to the subject of Freeza being based on land speculators: this is still a political message. Toriyama saw issues with part of housing—an inherently political issue—and thought that said issue was fucked up enough to use it as the basis for a villain in his comic. Pretty cut and dry.

All art is political, whether an author—or editor—is smart enough to understand that.

[Koitsukai]

Crazy to think there is no political intention or stance in using a landshark as the basis for creating the greatest villain the franchise ever saw. He portrays those people as absolutely evil, he is not whitewashing them, he is not trying to redeem them. They are scum of the Earth, and so is Freeza.
There's a reason why, IDK, A-16 or Dende weren't based on landsharks but the most evil guy was. Because landsharks are evil.