Torishima is against the Dragon Ball Theme park in Saudi Arabia

[Jord]

Is it bad that I expected the women to have hijabs? There is nothing wrong with that but it is surprising.

I feel these parks, aimed at Western tourists are aimed at more Western values. They are dubbed in English as well and to me it feels like an "American" park that's simply located in a different country.

[L3anD3RStar]

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

There’s a saying that you may not fukk with politics, but politics, will fukk with you. Don’t think that minding your own business and keeping your own community safe will protect you from the crazies with very strong opinions about what books you should be allowed to read. Their whole movement is about following you home and making sure you’re not sleeping with a QUEER or WRONG RACE person or teaching your kid about TRANS PEOPLE or VACCINES.

Point is, ignoring these movements won’t make them go away. Sooner or later, they will find you, wherever you’ve gone to avoid them. You’d better be ready when that happens.

[Hellspawn28]

Given that Damn never reply back to anyone, it's better to ignore them.

[Jord]

Come to think of it, Universal Japan had a 4D DB movie with Dragon Ball Z: The Real 4-D. They also have One Piece related events. I wouldn't put it past them to build a real non-screen based DB ride there.

[Von]

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.

Thank you

And yes, 100%! Freeza being an evil tyrant land speculator IS political indeed. "Damn" just said "it's not political" when giving the exact same example as I gave is peak DB fan moment right??

Regadless, all Art is Political. Because we live in a society, and art reflects that.

The fact that Toriyama didn't care / didn't think about it / didn't intend to convey whatever.... Doesn't make it any less conveying a message.

There's an interview where he said he added Gohan, didn't really remember why, and realized "wait, that's when my son Sasuke was born, right?" and he just... "oh" lol

[Von]

Then I am curious to learn how they got around the removal of Raditz in the show.

Well, they DID remove a character in the Z dub but it wasn't Raditz but Shenron. Raditz was re-written as Goku's former friend who turned evil.

Yes, you read it right. They somehow thought it was better to introduce Raditz as some guy whom Goku met off-screen in the past.

Damn, Daniel. Shenron? Like how can you do DB without Shenron? I understand why (idolatry) but like, Dende? Kami? Any of the Kais? The implications XDDD

Just for this, I'm glad French Arabs and French Muslims (and Arabs and Muslims who aren't French but live / grew up in France) grew up with the same dub (and light censorship haha) as the rest of us because, Damn Daniel...

(I should one day talk about our national treasure, if you're interested to know what this is about I'll gladly explain because that's how important DB is / was !!)

[Tian]

Well, they DID remove a character in the Z dub but it wasn't Raditz but Shenron. Raditz was re-written as Goku's former friend who turned evil.

Yes, you read it right. They somehow thought it was better to introduce Raditz as some guy whom Goku met off-screen in the past.

Damn, Daniel. Shenron? Like how can you do DB without Shenron? I understand why (idolatry) but like, Dende? Kami? Any of the Kais? The implications XDDD

Well, they had to change the whole concept of Dragon Balls as well.

In the Arabic dubs of OG DB and Z, they were treated as mere collectible items that either you "sell" them for money and stuff or allow you bring back your friends from... the Galactic Martial Arts school.

I wish I was kidding but yes, they changed the goddamn Other World to a Galactic Martial Arts school.

[Jord]

Well, they DID remove a character in the Z dub but it wasn't Raditz but Shenron. Raditz was re-written as Goku's former friend who turned evil.

Yes, you read it right. They somehow thought it was better to introduce Raditz as some guy whom Goku met off-screen in the past.

Damn, Daniel. Shenron? Like how can you do DB without Shenron? I understand why (idolatry) but like, Dende? Kami? Any of the Kais? The implications XDDD

Well, they had to change the whole concept of Dragon Balls as well.

In the Arabic dubs of OG DB and Z, they were treated as mere collectible items that either you "sell" them for money and stuff or allow you bring back your friends from... the Galactic Martial Arts school.

I wish I was kidding but yes, they changed the goddamn Other World to a Galactic Martial Arts school.

Is there a place that summarizes all the changes to the Arabic dub?
I find these changes hilariously creative.

[Tian]

Is there a place that summarizes all the changes to the Arabic dub?
I find these changes hilariously creative.

Yes. Fellow Kanzenshuuer SHINOBI-03 made a thread about the Arabic dub.

[Von]

Top tier archiving shenanigans.

But yeah, anyway, the Theme Park situation, Torishima made a statement in another podcast saying he was very pissed about the word "barked" that was used in the original article, and there was a redaction / semi retraction-ish and a whole lot of /facepalm situation.

If I find my way out of my spiral, I'll update the whole ordeal.

[Jord]

Is there a place that summarizes all the changes to the Arabic dub?
I find these changes hilariously creative.

Yes. Fellow Kanzenshuuer SHINOBI-03 made a thread about the Arabic dub.

Thanks. It is a very interesting read. What a bizarre dub.

As for the theme park, it's actually makes a lot of sense if you look at the bigger picture. The Saudi region is spending big on improving their allure and alter their international image. There are already some theme parks, and Disney is building their next big one on Abu Dhabi. Recently WWE announced that their biggest show, Wrestlemania, will not be held on American soil in 2027. Rather, it will be in Saudi Arabia. Those countries have a lot of money to spend so in a way it's not a big surprise that they could buy the rights to build a Dragon Ball theme park.