Summary
The past five years have been great for anime and gaming fans when it comes to theme parks. First, in March 2021, theNintendoWorld part of Universal Studios Japan opened, welcoming fans of Mario and more into a fun playground. Then, in November 2022, theStudio Ghiblitheme park opened, letting fans of the beautiful movies step inside of them and experience them firsthand. Nintendo World is in Osaka, Japan, while the Studio Ghibli park in Aichi, Japan.
Now, as reported by the officialDragon Ballwebsite, the next theme park to open for otaku will be aDragon Ballpark. Despite being a Japanese franchise, though, the park will not follow the pattern of other anime and gaming parks, and it will not open in Japan. Instead, it is going to open somewhere you may never have guessed - Saudi Arabia.
A VERY Short History ofDragon Ball
If we went into all thehistory of theDragon Ballfranchise, you would be reading for a while, so we are just going to go over the basics for anyone who needs to be brought up to speed. Currently,Dragon Ballhas 6 anime series with another (Dragon Ball Daima) slated for 2024. There are also 21 movies, numerous video games, card games, and more. The first series, simply calledDragon Ball, aired from 1986 to 1989, and the franchise has been going strong ever since.
Because of its popularity and the sheer number of properties in the franchise,Dragon Ballis one of the highest-grossing franchises of all time. Itsmanga is also one of the best-selling, with over 420 million copies sold around the world. The franchise has been praised by critics around the world and has even been credited with helping bring anime to the world outside of Japan, and helping spread interest in manga and anime to international audiences due to its popularity and wide reach.
TheDragon BallTheme Park
The news about theDragon Balltheme park is still very new, so we do not have many details yet. However, the website has reported a few things to get our imaginations rolling. First, the park is being built by the Saudi Arabian company, Qiddiya Investment Company. It will be the first theme park in the world to be entirely forDragon Ball, despite the franchise’slong and beloved historyinternationally.
TheDragon Ballpark will reportedly be over 500,000 square meters (around 123.5 acres) when it is completed, with seven different themed areas. To put that into perspective, Tokyo Disneyland is 115 acres, and Universal Studios Japan is 130 acres, of which Nintendo World is only a part. TheDragon Ballpark is going to be huge, especially for a park focused on just one franchise!
TheDragon Balltheme park will feature recreations of some of the famous buildings and locations from the franchise, including the Kame House fromDragon BallandDragon Ball Z, and the Capsule Corporation building, both of which have already been mentioned. The website claims that the park will give fans a chance to immerse themselves in the world of the anime, with series fromDragon BalltoDragon Ball Superall represented.
A concept video has already been released by the Qiddya group to announce and advertise the park, which is completely in English. The video does not have any real footage of the park yet, but instead uses a mixture of live actors and 3D animation to show the vision the company has for the park. 3D experiences and roller coasters are both featured in the video, and its goal seems to be to create a park whereDragon Ballfans from around the world can come together and have fun. Some of the buildingslike the Capsule Corporationare also visible in the video.
There is sadly no date yet for when the park is going to be open, but there are plenty of concept images that you can check out and dream about in the meantime. Considering this is the first piece of news we have had so far about theDragon Balltheme park, we imagine it is still a long way from opening, but we will be keeping our fingers crossed it opens sooner than we expect. In the meantime, at least we haveDragon Ball Daimato look forward tothis year.
Dragon Ball
Dragon Ball is a franchise by Akira Toriyama which follows the adventures of Goku, a powerful warrior who protects the earth with his group of friends. A recent title from the series is Dragon Ball: The Breakers, an action style game where 7 players have to survive being hunted by the Raider.
