If you follow the news a little and you drag your gaiters on social networks, you have inevitably come across the announcement of the Dragon Ball amusement park, strongly relayed by fans of Akira Toriyama’s work. An announcement which comes a few weeks after the death of the greatest mangaka of our Humanity and which we are still mourning today. While the announcement of this park made many people happy, other people, however, began to rebel and found it scandalous that this park was installed in Qiddiya, a city located near Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. . What we must understand is that if this Dragon Ball theme park is coming to life, it is thanks to the leadership of the country and its sovereign, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Moreover, it is through its disproportionate ambitions that the country is making major changes, particularly in terms of the image that its country projects to the Western world. The famous soft power. But that’s not all, Mohammed ben Salman also anticipates the end of oil, estimated by some experts for 2050. If China has taken the lead over everyone in terms of electric transport, Saudi Arabia estimates that she has a card to play when it comes to entertainment and cultural expansion. Yes, it may seem contradictory when we know that the country is singled out for the problematic management of human rights. And yet, the future of our pop culture, whether it be video games, manga, anime and many other things, will undoubtedly pass through Saudi Arabia, all with the help of the Japan in addition…
Before going on long explanations concerning the soft power that Saudi Arabia began to deploy a few years ago now, we will already dissect the presentation video of the Dragon Ball park which has just been announced. First thing to know, the park will come to life in Qiddiya, a city located 40 km from Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. To make the project look good, an area of 500,000 square meters has been allocated so that we can immerse ourselves in the world of Son Goku and his entire clique. As we can see in these anticipation images, the idea is to reproduce the iconic locations of the Dragon Ball universe. The Capsule Corporation, the Kame House, the house of the Awesome Turtle, which will also be surrounded by water as in the manga and the anime, the Karin Tower, the Budokai Tenkaichi tournament, Frieza’s ship, the planet of Beerus and his enormous dead tree, the base of the Red Ribbon which can be seen in photos available on the official website, but also the Kami Kyūden, the tower of God, the same place where Goku, Gohan, Vegeta and Trunks are ‘train into the time room to confront Cell. A bit like the Super Mario World park at Universal, the idea is to reproduce several biomes which will be stuck to each other so that the visit is as immersive as possible, knowing that in the middle of all this, there will have a huge gargantuan Shenron, 70 meters tall, placed in the middle of the park and serving as the base for a rollercoaster.
Seven different zones were announced, with around thirty attractions, restaurants, hotels, homes in the shape of crystal balls, and when I see all that, it’s impossible not to want to take a plane ticket to get there. This is exactly what Mohamed Ben Salmane wants to create among this generation nourished with Japanese culture, knowing that he himself is a big fan of Japan, manga, anime, video games. But this desire to promote Japanese pop culture in his country is not just a simple whim of a young billionaire, since this project was validated and undoubtedly also initiated by Shueisha, the famous Japanese publishing house. origin of the greatest mangas. And what you need to know is that Japan and Saudi Arabia have been working hand in hand for several years now. Did you know, for example, that if the Grendizer license is making a comeback, it’s thanks to Saudi Arabia? We had the Microids video game ok, but above all there is a new anime which is about to be released with the added bonus of Go Nagai at the helm of this new project. Saudi Arabia works closely with the company Dynamic Planning, the Japanese owner of the rights to Goldorak, and this partnership authorizes the exploitation of the “Goldorak” license and its characters through amusement parks and special events throughout the Middle East. Moreover, it was in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, that a 33.7 meter high statue of Grendizer was erected last year in 2023 and which is recognized by Guinness World Records as the largest metal sculpture of a fictional character in the world. Obviously, nothing to do with the French version of the space robot built on a roundabout in Auvergne.
And projects like those of the Dragon Ball park and Goldorak are not isolated cases and are above all the prerogative of Mohamed Ben Salmane. At the age of 38, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia was lulled by manga and anime from Japan, because you should know that during the 80s, the Middle East was also nourished with popular culture Japanese. Mohamed Ben Salmane is also a huge fan of video games and the NeoGeo, the Rolls Royce console from the 90s which made the young Mohamed Ben Salmane dream, so much so that the latter bought the company SNK for the sum of 96.18% in February 2022 for the sum of 522 billion won, or the equivalent of $430 million, via its MISK foundation. Besides, the acquisition of SNK is only a simple appetizer. Saudi Arabia also announced in September 2022 that it wanted to invest no less than $37.8 billion in the video game sector. It is through the Savvy Gaming Group, owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia, that the desire to establish itself in the video game landscape will be made.
In detail, it is indicated that 18.6 billion will be invested in minority stakes in development studios but also video game publishers. We also know that the country recently acquired an 8.3% stake in Nintendo after filing a file with the Japanese Ministry of Finance, again through the Saudi PIF fund. Nintendo is not the only video game publisher to be the target of Saudi Arabia, since Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Nexon, Capcom, KOEI TECMO and Take-Two Interactive are also in the sights, knowing that the country has also strengthened its position recently with a capital increase. From now on, Mohammed Ben Salmane owns 5.8% of Electronic Arts (compared to 5.1% a few months ago), but also 6.8% of Take-Two Interactive (compared to 5.3% recently), all this by purchasing respectively 2 million and 3 million shares at the end of 2022. But that’s not all, we also learned that 13.3 billion dollars will be devoted to the acquisition of a new leading publisher, undoubtedly against their will. Who will be the prestigious video game publisher who will be swallowed up by the incessant desires of Mohammed Ben Salmane? We’ll know sooner or later. In the meantime, Saudi Arabia continues to invest and sponsor young talents in the field of eSports, in order to support them in their careers.
Of course, all this raises ethical questions, especially since Saudi Arabia is a country without democracy, knowing that any political opposition is severely repressed. All this may be about to change, since in the Saudi capital, the atmosphere has changed. Social life, long confined to the private sphere, spills over into the public space. Cinemas, theaters, concert halls, art galleries, culture is now within everyone’s reach. The new restaurants, each more fashionable than the last, are also growing like mushrooms.
