A theme park based on the Japanese manga series Dragon Ball is to be built as part of a new £8billion entertainment and leisure district in Saudi Arabia.
A 70m dragon will be at the heart of the new venue which the scheme’s backers say will include at least 30 rides.
If the plans are realised, the park will be the world’s first attraction of its kind based on the Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama in 1984.
The plans unveiled by Saudi-owned Qiddiya Investment Company (QIC) show the park will extend across half a million square metres.
A roller coaster will be housed inside the giant dragon centrepiece, which is modelled on the magical Shenron character from the animated series.
Hotels and restaurants are also included in the scheme, which is a tie up between QIC and Toei Animation, the producer of the Dragon Ball series.
The theme park will be built at Saudi Arabia’s Qiddiya mega-project, a vast entertainment resort which forms part of the kingdom’s bid to diversify its oil-rich economy.
About an hour’s drive from Riyadh, Qiddiya will be two to two and a half times the size of Disney World once built. Media reports put the cost of the district’s infrastructure alone at £7.8billion ($9.8bn).
Qiddiya aims to capture a share of the region’s entertainment market from Bahrain and Dubai, which have proven popular with thrill-seeking Saudis.
Some Dragon Ball fans welcomed news of the series’ first theme park, but others questioned the decision to locate it in Saudi Arabia, given its record on human rights.
The theme park announcement comes just days after the death of Dragon Ball’s creator. Mr Toriyama died at the age of 68 on March 1 of acute subdural hematoma – pressure from bleeding in the brain.
His Dragon Ball series spawned various TV series, games and films by focusing on the story of a monkey-tailed boy called Son Goku who goes on various adventures in search of seven magical balls while defeating the villains who get in his way.
In 2019, Toriyama was made a French knight of the Order of Arts and Letters and was announced as a 2024 winner of Tokyo Anime Award Festival’s lifetime achievement honour along with Dragon Ball voice actor Toshio Furukawa.
