According to a news article in Weekly Toyo Keizai, a Japanese finance and business magazine based out of Tokyo, the rights to who owns Dragon Ball are somewhat murky following the untimely demise of franchise creator Akira Toriyama.
The controversy is centered around Akio Iyoki, the former head of Shuiesha (Dragon Ball's publisher) Dragon Ball Room.
He recently decided to go independent and established a new company, called Capsule Corporation, obviously taking inspiration from the company owned by Bulma and Dr. Brief in the Dragon Ball franchise.
According to the report, Shuiesha was unhappy with some of the decisions that Iyoki made during his tenure as head of the Dragon Ball Room and ultimately reassigned him to another department. This was the decision that led to Iyoki going independent.
Complicating matters further was the fact that Toriyama and Iyoki were reportedly very close and that Toriyama was unhappy with Shuiesha's treatment of Iyoki. The notoriously recluse Toriyama decided to make Iyoki his spokesperson for all business matters related to Dragon Ball.
This resulted in tense meetings with video game publisher Bandai Namco, according to an insider. Meetings related to upcoming Dragon Ball games would involve Iyoki and representatives from Shuiesha, with Namco unsure of who was actually the deciding voice.
With Toriyama's passing the dispute over whether Shuiesha or the Capsule Corporation has final say over business matters related to the Dragon Ball franchise remains unresolved.
According to Weekly Toyo Keiza, Toriyama's family will have to get involved to decide which company has final say when it comes to negotiating buisness deals for things such as video games, films, anime and other spin-offs of the manga.
Per Kanzenshuu, they're reporting that Shuiesha owns the rights to the manga, while Capsule Corporation holds the IP's video game and anime license.
While this conflict will likely play out behind-the-scenes, fans can look forward to the upcoming Dragon Ball Daima anime which will begin airing in October. In the new anime, it seems there's a new Demon King, following the Z-Fighters' defeat of Dabura during the Maijin Buu arc.
It seems the rise of the new Demon King has inexplicably resulted in several of the Z-Fighters being reduced to children by the Dragon Balls (a story beat the should remind fans of Dragon Ball GT).