The rights of the franchise - Who is on the top?

[DBZGTKOSDH]

Dragon Ball is owned by Shueisha & Toriyama, right? But who of the 2 has the most control over the franchise? Can Shueisha do whatever they want, even if Toriyama disapproves? Can Toriyama do whatever he wants, even if Shueisha disapproves?

[sintzu]

This is what he said regarding his part in BOG :

This was the first time that I participated in creating the story for a theatrical Dragon Ball anime. But that isn’t to say that I was requested to participate; In the midst of making partial changes, I got carried away, and ended up making it into an almost completely different story. Since the creator was the one making the changes, I suppose I may have caused a lot of trouble for the production side of things. For the scriptwriter in particular, it can’t have been pleasant.

It seems that due to him being the creator they couldn't say no to him so that could be the case with Shueisha as well.

[VegettoEX]

We don't know the contract details specifically or anything, but if other, similar franchises are any indication (and yes there are some anomalies like Saint Seiya):

Shueisha owns it. They can basically do whatever they want with it and farm out any aspect they want, and they will always own it.

There are pre-existing arrangements that they have, such as with Toei handling animation and Bandai Namco handling merchandise... and those arrangements will PROBABLY never be broken... but they likely could be if they really wanted to.

Toriyama likely cannot just do whatever he wants. He couldn't just write a one-off story independent of anyone else and publish it and call it Dragon Ball and that would be OK. He created it for Shueisha, and they own it. I don't know if I'd call it EXACTLY a "work for hire" situation like we had/have here in America, but it's pretty similar.

If Evolution is any indication, yeah, they can do whatever they want with it regardless of what Toriyama says or thinks.

[sintzu]

If Evolution is any indication, yeah, they can do whatever they want with it regardless of what Toriyama says or thinks.

"That being the case, there were parts where I wanted to show some spine, with a world and story only the creator could draw"

Does this mean he could've found a way to stop production on Evolution or at least stop it for awhile if he really wanted to ?

[VegettoEX]

Does this mean he could've found a way to stop production on Evolution or at least stop it for awhile if he really wanted to ?

Unlikely. Again, he doesn't own the series. He's certainly respected and given immense respect... but in this case, it was going to happen with or without him.

[MarcFBR]

Does this mean he could've found a way to stop production on Evolution or at least stop it for awhile if he really wanted to ?

Unlikely. Again, he doesn't own the series. He's certainly respected and given immense respect... but in this case, it was going to happen with or without him.

Are we sure about that? I was always under the impression that for manga and light novel creators, at least in the past, that IP ownership differed from the system as we understand is in the USA.

I mean, we certainly see manga creators go off and do their manga other places at times (sometimes with a title change, sometimes without) and Shueisha certainly owns rights to the publishing of the manga, but I'd say it's pretty likely the underlying property has some degree of ownership with Toriyama, which is why every copyright listing for the franchise lists his studio first.

I fully admit I could be wrong on this, but in most cases for manga that was my understanding how the system worked (Trigun being an example of someone going and doing it elsewhere.)

[Hellspawn28]

I'm pretty sure that Shueisha is the license holder for the franchise. If you wanted to make a new DB movie or TV show outside of Japan, you would have to go to them. Toriyama is just the creator, I don't think he has much control over the franchise license. It would be act like asking Stan Lee to make a new Spider-Man TV show.

[B]

It wouldn't surprise me if Shueisha probably has a very specific contract in regards to DB and other bigshots like One Piece; considering what happened to Saint Seiya and Fist of the North Star; two heavy-hitters now making money for other publishers.

[VegettoEX]

Are we sure about that? I was always under the impression that for manga and light novel creators, at least in the past, that IP ownership differed from the system as we understand is in the USA.

...

I fully admit I could be wrong on this, but in most cases for manga that was my understanding how the system worked (Trigun being an example of someone going and doing it elsewhere.)

Right. I guess my qualifiers weren't enough there, because...

It wouldn't surprise me if Shueisha probably has a very specific contract in regards to DB and other bigshots like One Piece; considering what happened to Saint Seiya and Fist of the North Star; two heavy-hitters now making money for other publishers.

Exactly. I wouldn't be surprised if they even renegotiated what those rights were over the years, specifically with regard to Dragon Ball.

[Rukura]

Toriyama likely cannot just do whatever he wants. He couldn't just write a one-off story independent of anyone else and publish it and call it Dragon Ball and that would be OK. He created it for Shueisha, and they own it.

From the looks of it, this seems to be exactly why there has been no continuation of D.Gray-Man in the last couple of years. Whatever their policy has been, at least after whatever happened with Saint Seiya and Hokuto (not fully in the loop on that), seems to heavily inforce that. Author wanted to continue it on her own, Shueisha doesn't let go. (For transparency's sake, there's a lot of hearsay to it so I don't know how much of it is actually the case)

[MarcFBR]

From the looks of it, this seems to be exactly why there has been no continuation of D.Gray-Man in the last couple of years. Whatever their policy has been, at least after whatever happened with Saint Seiya and Hokuto (not fully in the loop on that), seems to heavily inforce that. Author wanted to continue it on her own, Shueisha doesn't let go. (For transparency's sake, there's a lot of hearsay to it so I don't know how much of it is actually the case)

The creator of D.Gray-Man has put the franchise on hiatus multiple times because she has wrist problems.

In fact, I vaguely recall articles a month or two ago where she said she planned to start up again.

[Rukura]

The creator of D.Gray-Man has put the franchise on hiatus multiple times because she has wrist problems.

Such is true but, during the current hiatus, she did the character designs for the anime Valvrave and two one-shots. That's all I've stumbled upon, regarding D.Gray-Man.
I only heard something about her trying to get the rights to continue on her own. Very possible that it's not the case, just haven't seen anything confirming one way or the other.

[SingleFringe&Sparks]

I'm pretty sure that Shueisha is the license holder for the franchise. If you wanted to make a new DB movie or TV show outside of Japan, you would have to go to them. Toriyama is just the creator, I don't think he has much control over the franchise license. It would be act like asking Stan Lee to make a new Spider-Man TV show.

Maybe thats why he cant actually write off anything from Toei as strictly canon or noncanon because he either has no real say in how they market the franchise or he doesnt want to conflict with it. Like he doesnt completely reject GT calling it a "side story" from the company, but he doesnt refer to it because its not apart of his own personal idea of the storyline's direction: if that makes sense. It could also rationalize that with how BoG was developed, as he didnt really produce it from the ground up but just supervised it and contributed imput - but he didnt direct it.