Line #22 Main/AbsurdlyCoolCity


1	%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1593400424089461900
2	%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.
3	%%
4	[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_zootopiacity.png]]]]
5	[[caption-width-right:350:Zootopia is home to many different species of animals, so different temperature zones are a must.]]
6
7	In fictional settings, authors often decide to make great cities for their work. In "classic" sci-fi the city served as a common trope to be used to represent whatever society that existed. They, when animated, drawn, or otherwise shown a DesignStudentsOrgasm usually occurs. This comes in two flavors and is often the capital of TheFederation, TheAlliance, TheEmpire, or TheRepublic. Is usually a CityOfAdventure. If part of its coolness comes from bright lights, it may be a NeonCity.
8
9	These cities come in two flavors:
10	%% But, when listing examples, please do not categorize them into either flavor since several works show examples of both of them and it would get messy and overly redundant to list one work more than once.
11	* Shiny and full of wonders. Awe-inspiring cities such as, but not limited to, [[CityPlanet cities that take over an entire planet/plane of existence]].
12	* Dark and gritty. Equally imposing and with breathtaking cityscapes, but sinister at its core.
13
14	SuperTrope to CityPlanet.
15	----
16	!!Examples:
17
18	[[foldercontrol]]
19
20	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
21	%% * Mitakihara City from ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica''.
22	* Konoha by the time of ''Manga/{{Boruto}}'' became something akin to a metropolis, sky crappers dominating the city.
23	* Sternbild City, a three-leveled city decorated with several Statue-of-Liberty-sized monuments from ''Anime/TigerAndBunny'' is also a nice example.
24	%% * New Domino City from ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds''.
25	[[/folder]]
26
27	[[folder:Comic Books]]
28	* Gotham City from ''Comicbook/{{Batman}}'', epically [[ComicBook/BatmanNoMansLand post-earthquake]] when the city looks like a mash up of the 1930s, Gothic London and a modern city.
29	* ''ComicBook/BlackPanther'' has Wakanda, a sovereign nation in Africa whose capital city is perhaps one of the most gorgeous cities in comics. The seemingly infinite supply of [[{{Unobtainium}} vibranium]], the most versatile, strongest, and most valuable metal in the entire world, allowed Wakanda's people to advance technology and science to the point that the country is centuries ahead of the rest of the world (even [[ComicBook/IronMan Stark Enterprises]] and ComicBook/{{SHIELD}}) in terms of science and technology. In fact, Wakandan invention has advanced so far that the people hide the city from the rest of the world for fear of their technology being stolen and used for evil.
30	* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' mostly takes place in MegaCity One, which originally spanned the entire Eastern seaboard of the United States until it was seriously trimmed down during "The Apocalypse War" thanks to saturation nuking. Architecturally, it's a mishmash of styles from different decades with early stories even depicting (at the time of publishing) iconic New York buildings and landmarks, such as the World Trade Centre, the Statue Of Liberty, and the Empire State Building, dwarfed by newer city blocks.
31	%% * [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Asgard]].
32	* Metropolis from ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' is generally portrayed as a city of gleaming high-tech, especially when being compared to Gotham. This was especially the case in comics from 2000 to 2004, when it became "infected" by 64th-century super-science that made it into a SkyscraperCity with triple-decker monorails, service robots, and even an extremely clean biotech sewer system.
33	%% * Themyscira of ''ComicBook/WonderWoman''. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Themyscira-floating.jpg Just take a look.]]
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
37	* The [[http://cdn.awn.com/sites/default/files/styles/original/public/image/featured/1029571-watch-disney-unveils-deleted-scenes-zootopia.jpg?itok=Rodf1NYM city]] of ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'' with its multifaceted districts enabled by the installation of artificial climate zones.
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
41	%% * The city in ''Film/BladeRunner'' is certainly dark and gritty.
42	* Vampire New York as seen in ''Film/{{Daybreakers}}''. While it's the exact opposite of "shiny", the sheer infrastructure of adapting the biggest city in the world to vampires gets it put in this category. Besides, dark ''is'' shiny [[HumansThroughAlienEyes for vampires]].
43	* The eponymous ''Film/{{Dark City\|1998}}'' [[AlwaysNight (set only at night)]] is a SceneryPorn-tastic, GermanExpressionism-inspired, AlwaysNight CityInABottle.
44	%% * The titular Film/{{Metropolis}} as it borrows from Creator/HGWells.
45	* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
46	** Starbase Yorktown in ''Film/StarTrekBeyond'' is like a DomedCity but with the dome being a perfect sphere, as it is ''in space.'' It is also beyond gigantic. ArtificialGravity will make the definition of "down" different for you than for the street twisting above you.
47	** [[http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Stratos Stratos City]]: CrystalSpiresAndTogas for everyone! ([[FantasticRacism Except Troglodytes.]])
48	** [[TheFederation Starfleet's]] own capital, [[http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/San_Francisco San Francisco]] (the actual capital city of the Federation is Paris, but San Francisco was seen quite a bit more, and at times played host to non-Starfleet governmental functions).
49	* ''Franchise/StarWars'': Coruscant is a city that covers the entire planet. It's so large they needed an entire [[AllThereInTheManual subsidiary guide just to explain how it worked.]]
50	[[/folder]]
51
52	[[folder:Literature]]
53	%% * New Krobuzon from Creator/ChinaMieville's ''[[Literature/BasLagCycle Bas Lag]]'' trilogy.
54	%% * ''[[Literature/TheBooksOfEmber The City Of Ember]]''.
55	* In ''Literature/DeltoraQuest'', Tora is a magically shielded, self-sustaining city. It is all carved of seamless marble, except the plinth that symbolized their vow of loyalty towards Del's kings, and filled with tapestries and fresh fruit that the protagonists (who come from the more medieval lands outside) find extremely welcome.
56	* Ankh-Morpork from ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', though most of its dark has turned into grime (and might occasionally become part of something served in a bun).
57	%% * In ''Literature/JamesAndTheGiantPeach'', James tends to think of New York City this way.
58	%% * [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Minas Tirith]].
59	* ''Literature/PreludeToFoundation'': Hari Seldon explores multiple areas of the planet-wide city Trantor, capital of the [[GalacticSuperpower Galactic Empire]], which is almost entirely enclosed and continues many kilometers underground.
60	%% * ''Literature/TheTimeMachine'' and has a shiny Art Deco city on top and a gritty worker's city under the earth.
61	* Dresediel Lex from ''Literature/TwoSerpentsRise''. Floating skyscrapers, giant black-glass pyramids for office buildings, zombie street cleaners, and goddesses hovering over every poker game.
62	* ''Literature/TheReckonersTrilogy:''
63	** Newcago (the former city of Chicago) is dark and gritty, under a perpetually black sky, the entire city transmuted to steel with many living in tunnels beneath.
64	** Babilar (once New York) by contrast, is a bright and colorful party city where the waters rise up so high, the people live on the roofs and upper stories of skyscrapers.
65	** Ildithia (Atlanta) is a city of salt that grows out of the ground on one side, collapses on the other, cycling through once a week and so crawling across the landscape.
66	* In the future depicted by ''Literature/TheUnexploredSummonBloodSign'', not-Disney has made a habit out of buying defunct cities and converting them into amusement parks. The result is still clearly a city- but the immaculate, ideal ''version'' of a city, complete with an army of janitors and construction workers who come out at night to keep its flawless image maintained. Citizens remark that it's like living in a fairytale.
67	[[/folder]]
68
69	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
70	* Minbari cities such as Yedor and Tuzanor from ''Series/BabylonFive''. In fact, the planet is rich in ginormous crystals, so much so that they carve entire cities out of these crystals. [[http://babylon5.wikia.com/wiki/File:Minbar_01.JPG Just take a look.]]
71	%% * ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinotopia Dinotopia]]'''s [[http://dinotopia.wikia.com/wiki/Waterfall_City Waterfall City.]]
72	* ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'' has Armenelos, the capital-city of the most advanced civilization on Arda. The entrance to the city is made through a defile filled with statues of horses, men and Ulmo, carved in stone. Armenelos is a ShiningCity of CrystalSpiresAndTogas, has a mountain-sized statue of Eärendil the Mariner, suspended water channels that not even real cities have, a royal palace reminiscent of Hagia Sophia, and a roman-like arena.
73	%% * In ''Franchise/RoboCop'', OCP ''portrays'' Delta City as '''Shiny and Awesome''', but, like every other product OCP makes...
74	* Atlantis from ''Series/StargateAtlantis''. [[CrystalSpiresAndTogas Crystal Spires]] on hyperdrives.
75	--> Our city is submersible and can fly between galaxies. What does ''yours'' do?
76	[[/folder]]
77
78	[[folder:Toys]]
79	* Metru Nui from ''Toys/{{BIONICLE}}'', an island-sized CitadelCity made up of six [[ColorCodedElements color-coded]] [[ElementalMotifs elemental]] [[ElementalNation districts]]: a rocky mining area with a MuseumOfTheStrangeAndUnusual that descends way underground, a desert full of mysterious canyons and sculptures, a series of ancient seaside temples, canals and fountains, a red hot forging and manufacturing complex, a futuristic transportation hub full of flying and floating craft, and an icy region of crystalline star observatories, with the mile-high Coliseum tower in the middle connecting all. The whole city is actually the brain unit of a [[HumongousMecha planet-sized]] [[PhysicalGod robot god]], with the sky over the city being a projector screen where the stars are the robot's thoughts. All this had a real-life effect on the franchise: Toys/{{Lego}} and Advance spent so much money designing this elaborate city with its numerous monuments and interconnected systems that [[ExecutiveMeddling they forced the writers]] to reuse it for an extra year.
80	[[/folder]]
81
82	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
83	* Sharn from ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}''. Literal mile-high towers, floating islands, and flying taxis, starting at a WretchedHive down in the undercity and progressing to lavish estates built on magically solidified clouds up at the top.
84	* In ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}: Lands of Creation'', which details the actual setting's TimeOfMyths, many Exalted channel their wealth and power into building their own personal utopias. Examples include Samiaren, the treetop city built out of amber, and Illio Stara, the size-shifting city built into one little bonsai. Some Exalted's ideas of 'utopia' are significantly creepier ([[BigBrotherIsWatching Dari]], for one), but even they must carefully conceal such horror with cleanliness and public amenities.
85	* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': Ravnica, the massive city the shares a name with the plane it covers almost totally, is this. Ten wildly different guilds, ranging from the blood-thirsty [[CircusOfFear Cult of Rakdos]] to the by-the-book law makers of the [[KnightTemplar Azorius Senate]], vie for control of the city.
86	* Most cities in ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'' could count, although most of the Martian cities are in various states of decline, but New York takes the cake. It's in many ways the same as our universe's New York in 1938, only with even more money thrown into it and enough sky traffic to make it feel like [[Franchise/StarWars Coruscant]].
87	* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' has quite a lot. Eldar cities and the Dark Eldar capital of Commorgah are both very impressive (the former are CrystalSpiresAndTogas style cites housed inside Craftworlds, spacecrafts the size of small moons, the latter is a [[EvilTowerOfOminousness Dark Towers and Spikes]] style city located inside the Webway). Humans have numerous heavily populated worlds with impressive looking cities, but the grand price goes to Holy Terra, seat of the Imperium. The Imperial Palace alone covers most of what used to be Eurasia.
88	[[/folder]]
89
90	[[folder:Video Games]]
91	* ''VideoGame/ANNOMutationem'': Skopp City is described as one of the best cities around as citizens are living without any discomfort and unlike [[ViceCity Noctis City]], there's hardly any trouble from the [[TheMafia Factio Pugni]].
92	* The City of [[EldritchLocation Yharnam]] from ''Videogame/{{Bloodborne}}'' won't win any prizes for urban planning, but its dark gothic structures, intricate streets and tall imposing spires make it a true sight to behold.
93	%% * New Mombasa from ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'', particularly in ''VideoGame/Halo3ODST'', where it feels legitimately futuristic.
94	* ''Franchise/MassEffect'':
95	** The Citadel is [[RuleOfCool a giant space station.]] Just [[http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Citadel check out its page]]. It is awesome. [[spoiler: Of course it was made by crazy Robo-Cthulhu death farmers. But that's beside the point.]]
96	** Although it's getting beat upon at the time by Reapers, future Vancouver looks pretty impressive, as does the Asari city on Thessia. Illium, which you get an aerial car chase through in ''Lair of the Shadowbroker'' is similarly scenery-porn-tastic.
97	* Dentech City from ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork''. The fact that EverythingIsOnline compounds this. And its virtual counterpart Navi City which '''is''' online.
98	%% * "''Ubiquitos''" (mostly known as 'The City') from ''VideoGame/MirrorsEdge''. See also AsceticAesthetic and SceneryPorn.
99	%% * Any city level from ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank''. You'd think those guys were architects.
100	%% * [[CityWithNoName The City]] from the ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}'' series.
101	%% * And the major cities of ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': Silver Moon, Undercity, the Exodar, Dalaran and Shattrah.
102	* The Crème Republic in ''VideoGame/CookieRunKingdom''. [[spoiler:The trope is deconstructed, as the city-state's glamour is revealed to be a cover-up for corruption, scandals, and even a hidden part of the city dedicated to all of the poor citizens.]]
103	* Chronopolis from ''VideoGame/LegoMarvelSuperHeroes2'' is a mish-mash of different locations throughout the Marvel multiverse: Not only are there [[CityNoir three]] [[{{Tomorrowland}} versions]] of [[BigApplesauce Manhattan]] in it, but also [[{{Tomorrowland}} Xandar]], [[{{Afrofuturism}} Wakanda]], [[TheDungAges Medieval England]], [[TheShangriLa K'un-Lun]], [[UnderTheSea Lemuria]], [[LethalLavaLand Asgard]], [[BuildLikeAnEgyptian Ancient Egypt]], [[WeirdWest the Old West]], [[BadFuture the Hydra Empire]], [[{{Tomorrowland}} Hala]], [[GladiatorGames Sakaar]], [[{{Tomorrowland}} Attilan]] and [[SpaceZone Knowhere]] as well, bringing together a wide variety of heroes and villains.
104	[[/folder]]
105
106	[[folder:Web Comics]]
107	* ''Webcomic/{{Drowtales}}'': [[http://www.drowtales.com/mainarchive.php?order=chapters&id=5 Chel'el'sussoloth,]] [[MeaningfulName literally means]] "City of light in the darkness". For LonelyRichKid Ariel, it's a fantasy world beyond her wildest dreams, to {{Cloudcuckoolander}} Lirel, it's a WretchedHive that also has CrystalSpiresAndTogas... perfect for having AHellOfATime.
108	* [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20070319 Mechanicsburg]] (also see [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20070321 the next page]]) from ''Webcomic/GirlGenius''. It became a modern city filled with tourists after the disappearance of its former rulers. However, when Agatha, the rightful heir, returns and the [[ForDoomTheBellTolls Doom Bell]] is [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20111104 rung]], the city reverts back to its old self. Also, the city is controlled by a [[GeniusLoci sentient castle]] and all residents are automatically [[UndyingLoyalty loyal minions]] of the Heterodyne.
109	%% * The titular Webcomic/MegaTokyo.
110	[[/folder]]
111
112	[[folder:Western Animation]]
113	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Futurama_-_The_Future.jpg New New York]] actually finds itself suffering from a garbage ''shortage'', while they dump their radioactive sewage directly into [[http://futurama.wikia.com/wiki/File:OldNY.jpg Old New York]] and the sewers below, the later of which now look like [[http://futurama.wikia.com/wiki/File:Mutantvillage.jpg this]] because of a civilisation of mutants (who [[FantasticRacism are required to live there by law]]).
114	* ''Creator/CartoonNetwork'' gave us [=CN City=] in their promotional materials for an entire era. It's mostly the famous characters that make the city so cool, but it still has plenty of coolness to offer on its own. Imagine stores and businesses run by famous cartoon characters, and entire landmark locations such as [[WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor Sector V's Treehouse]], [[WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003 Titans Tower]], and [[WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends Foster's]] all in one massive city.
115	* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
116	** Canterlot, the capital city impossibly perched on a steep mountain.
117	** Cloudsdale, a hovering (and possibly mobile) city made almost entirely from clouds and rainbows and featuring a weather factory.
118	** The Crystal Empire, whose crystal street layout is actually an enormous accumulator array to collect love and camaraderie from the city's inhabitants and feed it into the city's central spire to be weaponized against evildoers.
119	* Zaofu in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', a city made entirely of metal. The city is made to look like a congregation of lotus flowers that stay open in the day and are closed at night.
120	[[/folder]]
121
122	%%[[folder:Real Life]]
123	%% ** [[http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotos-g295424-Dubai.html Dubai.]]
124	%% ** [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Hong_Kong_Night_Skyline.jpg Hong Kong.]]
125	%% ** [[https://livejapan.com/en/article-a0001580/ Tokyo]] Old, meet new.
126	%% ** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seoul Seoul.]] Just whoa.
127	%% ** San Antonio, Texas.
128	%% ** Modern/Greater Lisbon, Portugal. [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Expo16.jpg Parque]] das [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Lisboa_-_Expo98_-_Vista_Geral.jpg Nações,]] Amoreira, Praça Marquês de Pombal. (Not to be confused with old, Royal Lisbon.)
129	%%[[/folder]]

Context Main / AbsurdlyCoolCity