Why This Topic Landed in Japan
The story of a Japanese manga or anime being used abroad without permission, with the rights holder protesting and the fait accompli standing anyway, is one Japanese readers have followed for decades. What was new here was the level it came from. This was not a small operator or an individual: the plan had been presented at the level of a head of state and a regional government, and the licensing check was still missing. Toei Animation's statement covers itself and the other companies holding rights, and says plainly that nothing was granted and nothing was known. The images and video used in the coverage were official material for Qiddiya, the large entertainment city under construction in Saudi Arabia, and have no connection to the French plan. Whether a real project ever existed, or whether an announcement simply ran ahead of the paperwork, is still open, and that gap is part of why the story spread the way it did.
Key Reaction Themes
- Most posts treated the missing license as evidence that Japan is not taken seriously — The offence identified was not the infringement itself but the fact that nobody thought it necessary to ask first.
- The next largest block predicted that Japan would fold anyway — Protest now, settle for money later; a statement was seen as the most the rights holder would ever do.
- A recurring note was plain disbelief at the scale — Posters kept returning to the question of how a project announced at head-of-state level could have skipped the rights check.
- A smaller group read it as a deliberate fait accompli — Once construction starts the rights holder has no leverage, or is better off waiting to sue after opening, so the silence is tactical.
- A few tried to reconstruct what actually happened — The original announcement placed the park in Saudi Arabia, and the statement may simply be saying that a sudden move to France was news to the rights holders.
What Japanese Netizens Are Saying
Toei Animation denies licensing the Paris theme park
The rights holder says no license exists, removing the premise of a plan that had been reported at length.
サウジアラビアから1兆円を超える投資を呼び込むというフランスのドラゴンボールテーマパーク。マクロン大統領が「規格外の発表」と胸を張り、日本でも大々的に報じられましたが、「日本の権利者から許諾がまだ取れていない」らしく、口あんぐりとなってしまいました。国内メディアではこの点殆ど触れ Show more
Sources: Toei animation, Yahoo! news, 2ch
Comments:
- "Japan is being taken way too lightly."
- "They were being so open about it that I just assumed permission had already been granted."
- "Can a plan announced at head-of-state level really be unlicensed?"
- "Does that even happen? France? On a plan this big?"
- "But all gutless Japan can do is say how it feels, lol"
- "Japan's spineless diplomacy will just approve it after the fact, right? Pathetic!"
- "Then again, if the leaders of France and Saudi Arabia ask you, you kind of have to say yes, don't you."
- "Whoever builds it first wins."
- "If construction has already started they can be squeezed at will — however much you gouge them, they still have to come and get the license."
- "So they're staying quiet for now, on the calculation that suing after it's finished and open will bring in far more in damages?"
- "If Japan doesn't grant it now, people over there will start bashing Japan — I've seen that endlessly in the piracy arguments."
- "The official announcement at first was that it would be built in Saudi Arabia, right? Isn't the statement basically saying they never heard about it suddenly being built in France?"
