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Money is the cause of many conflicts, but it can also be a powerful motivator for parties to bury the hatchet. When a property is as big and valuable as Dragon Ball, it can take a bit of time to work out exactly how to best serve everyone’s interests. And, at the recent Dragon Ball Genkidamatsuri, we got our first look at how everyone involved in the franchise may have put their difference behind them following the death of Akira Toriyama.

As we reported back in 2024, the death of Akira Toriyama cast Dragon Ball into a legal grey area with regard to copyright. Companies like Shueisha and Bandai Namco, who make billions off of publishing the Dragon Ball manga and adapting it into anime and video games, wanted to keep going with their same business plan. However, Akio Iyoku, the former head of the Dragon Ball Room and editor at Shueisha who had earned Toriyama’s favor, set up Capsule Corporation Tokyo to help him manage the rights to Dragon Ball and other intellectual properties. 

Even before Toriyama’s death, the beloved Dragon Ball creator preferred to work with Iyoku, which caused tension with Shueisha, who disliked working with Iyoku. The result was a stalemate where no one would budge, and, at least for a time, no new Dragon Ball was being made.

Fast-forward to January 2026, and it seems some progress has been made. A new Dragon Ball game is in the works and two new anime projects are being made; the first is a remaster of the first arc of the Dragon Ball Super anime and the other is an adaptation of the next arc in the Dragon Ball Super manga. Problem solved, right?

It still isn’t 100% clear if a permanent solution to the Dragon Ball rights issue has been found. The new Dragon Ball video game, titled Age 1000, was in development long before Akira Toriyama’s death, so the rights would have been sorted before the issues arose. We’re not certain if Shueisha or Toei Animation would have had to negotiate the rights for the new anime projects; one is using existing footage and remastering it, and the other is adapting material that has already been published. The Dragon Ball Super manga remains on hiatus and seems unlikely to return until a more permanent agreement can be made.

However, the biggest sign that there is a thaw in the battle for Dragon Ball rights is that Akio Iyoku himself was on hand with Shueisha to help announce the anime projects at the Dragon Ball Genkidamatsuri. Because there are millions of dollars at stake with the fate of Dragon Ball, and that is a powerful motivation to come to some sort of agreement together.

Each week, Popverse's resident anime expert Trent Cannon runs down the latest and, dare we say "greatest," in anime and manga in Popverse Jump. Some recent columns have included... 

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