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NEWS: Toyo Keizai: Dragon Ball Rights Are Unresolved After Akira Toriyama's Death

With what we have so far, I'm inclined to believe Iyoku is the good guy here. From the wording in the source, it sounds like Toriyama trusted him. And since we apparently avoided crappy Dragon Ball AI and metaverse stuff while instead getting a Sand Land revival, it's easy to see why.

Hope rights issues don't turn Daima into a licensing nightmare like Sailor Moon, Candy Candy, and Macross before it...

Reason 2: The creator doesn't like it.

The Japanese copyright system gives an enormous amount of control to the original creator of a work, be it a light novel author, manga artist, game publishing group, or anime studio. In order for a deal to happen in which a show gets sold to be released overseas, or dusted off and given a new re-release in Japan (after the contracts for the original deals for the show expired), that creator has to approve it. And they are under absolutely NO obligation to do so.

Sure, they might get a little bit more money. But if the artist feels that the adaptation didn't do their original work justice, or they're embarrassed of the work to begin with, it's completely within their rights to withhold that adaptation from further release. Sometimes they might be trying to get a new adaptation off the ground, which would mean even more money, and they don't want to muddy the market for the show and confuse consumers by making the old version available again. Other times, they just want that anime adaptation buried.

Many in the anime industry get very frustrated when this happens, because they know there are fans that could be satisfied, and money that could be made. But if the original creator isn't interested, there's really not a whole lot that could be done.

Reason 3: Nobody knows who owns it.

A lot of original works made decades ago weren't made by production committees like they are today. Often, in the 80s and 90s, anime would be produced primarily by one or two companies, and many of those companies went out of business. Some of them did so in an orderly way, where another company bought the assets, or a remaining partner inherited the rights once held by the deceased company. But other times, it's not at all clear who owns the show after that.

Any disc publisher or streaming service in Japan or any other country would have to track down who owns a particular show and buy the rights if they're to make it available. But often times it's not even clear who they can even ask. If all of the involved companies are dead, the people that ran them are no longer in the business (or also dead), who could possibly authorize its further release? No legitimate company could ever release something without being able to prove that they have the rights to do so. (What if somebody sued?) And so, the title languishes.

Reason 4: The Producers Are Feuding.

Every once in a while, a production committee becomes dysfunctional, companies that once partnered together turn on each other, and massive fights completely derail any attempt to make money off of an anime. For an example of this, one needs to look no further than Macross, and the years-long legal fight between Tatsunoko Pro and Studio Nue over its ownership. That particular case didn't stop the franchise's release in Japan, but it very well could have.

I know of at least one show that has never seen release outside of VHS because its two producers hate each other and refuse to do anything that would enrich the other. There are, I am told, dozens more.

Shaman King, Saint Seiya and Battle Angel Alita have all slipped from Shueisha´s grasp

I wish Toriyama family just sold the rights to those who will actually actively work on new anime, manga, and games content.

I doubt anyone wants a Rings of Power situation with Dragonball. I agree we should let the franchise sleep after Daima. Maybe a new anime adaption of the manga decades into the future but that's about it.

I doubt anyone wants a Rings of Power situation with Dragonball.