Fusions and improbable alliances have always been core to Dragon Ball Z lore. Even so, this particular team-up wasn’t on anyone’s bingo card.
The Élysée Palace revealed on Monday that France and Saudi Arabia are joining forces on a manga-themed amusement park drawing on Dragon Ball Z, planned for a site northwest of Paris. The two countries will split the cost: €6 billion, roughly $7 billion.
How it came about is the more entertaining part. Reuters reports that the concept emerged during a 2025 meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, when the two discovered they were both devoted fans of Akira Toriyama’s franchise.
Two heads of state, one shared childhood
Turns out world leaders are weebs too.
The money is coming from Qiddiya, the Saudi entertainment and investment group that already has a Dragon Ball park of its own in the works. That project sits in Qiddiya City, an entertainment hub still being developed outside Riyadh, and is expected to feature more than five rides, 30 attractions, hotels, restaurants and a 230-foot Shenron.
Which means the Paris site isn’t a standalone experiment. It’s the second Dragon Ball destination on the same company’s ledger.
What the theme parks are actually for
For years now, Saudi Arabia has been purchasing a foothold in sports and entertainment — a playbook critics label “sportswashing,” aimed at cleaning up the country’s public image. Among its other bets, the kingdom created the LIV Golf league and just finalized the Public Investment Fund’s acquisition of gaming giant EA.
The image could use the polish. Saudi Arabia is known for its authoritarian regime and its human rights abuses. Capital punishment is applied to a range of nonviolent offenses, prisoners are tortured, free speech is restricted, migrant laborers endure horrific working conditions and anti-LGBTQ laws are enforced. Per reports of CIA findings, bin Salman has been accused of ordering the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Those facts sit uneasily next to a giant animatronic dragon. They’re supposed to.
Nobody said when
No opening date accompanied the announcement, and no construction schedule either. Just a figure, a location and two enthusiastic signatures.
France is eyeing three parks near Paris in total, with the Dragon Ball one among them. New York City is also getting a Dragon Ball attraction of its own.
Somewhere in the northwest suburbs of Paris, a plot of land is waiting on the French cousin of a 230-foot wish-granting dragon.