History Main / PhantomZone

* ''Literature/TheCloakSociety:'' The Gloom is a dimension accessed via shadows, which the villain Phantom can draw power from and control. [[LegionOfDoom Cloak]] uses it for ExtradimensionalShortcuts and, in an {{Inversion}} of the TropeNamer, manage to trap the ''heroes'' there using the Umbra Gun.

** The distortion created from the clash between various supernatural powers in Baggage City produces one of these, which drew in the people involved in the battle and also made tragedy more likely to occur. It was engineered by GREMLIN as an experiment into Holism and its existence proven when it was shattered by the [[AntiMagic Imagine Breaker]] with Touma's appearance.\

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'':

* The Class Cards in ''Manga/FateKaleidLinerPrismaIllya'' hide in darkened replicas of portions of the real world, much like Closed Space in ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'', which collapse and vanish shortly after the card is captured. It's a good thing the collateral damage isn't transferred to reality, because some of the fights cause extreme environmental devastation.
* Rider's Reality Marble in ''LightNovel/FateZero'' generates these. [[spoiler:[[AchillesHeel Ultimately leads to his own destruction]], as it allows Archer to use his world-destroying weapon without damaging the real world.]]

* Closed Space in ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'', where giant ethereal beings known as Celestials rampage about destroying everything. No damage is reflected in the real world, but the Celestials still need to be destroyed in order to destroy the Closed Space and prevent TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.

* A fox spirit in LightNovel/{{Kanokon}} uses these to provide privacy when she attempts to have sex with the show's protagonist. At one point the zone breaks down, returning them both to the middle of a crowded street in front of about fifty of their schoolmates.

* Invoked by the protagonists of ''LightNovel/NyarukoCrawlingWithLove''. Nyarko even lampshades it in the first episode as a "convenient barrier", ''twice'', explaining it as "[[MediumAwareness important information]]", complete with an AsideGlance.

* Seal of Suppression (Fuzetsu) from ''LightNovel/ShakuganNoShana''. Stains everything red, everyone outside forgets that the sealed area exists and avoids it subconsciously, and lets the Flame Hazes and Denizens wreak as much havoc as necessary within its limits.

* ''Manga/{{X1999}}'': The Kekkai are seven magical seals spread around Tokyo to prevent the impending apocalypse. Each Kekkai is protected by a magic user belonging to the group known as "Dragons of Heaven", sworn defenders of humankind's continued existence. Another group, the seven Dragons of Earth, meanwhile, are [[GaiasVengeance protectors of Earth]] ''from'' humanity, tasked with destroying all Kekkai. When the two sides battle, one of the Dragons of Heaven must erect a Kekkai Field to remove the surrounding landscape (minus the muggles) from the regular space and into the Phantom Zone, where they can battle unimpeded. If the Dragon of Earth attacker is killed or driven off, the Kekkai Field is removed safely, undoing any structural damage that occurred inside; however, if the host Dragon of Heaven is killed instead, their Field fails and all battle damage becomes permanent, with horrifying consequences to the hapless muggles caught in it.

* In ''Series/Supergirl2015'', the titular heroine's rocket remained trapped many years into the Zone before breaking free and landing on Earth. Season 6 features the Zone more heavily, and has it occupied by actual Phantoms that force the inmates to experience YourWorstNightmare.

* In ''VideoGame/GuildWars'', the [[CrystalDragonJesus crystal dragon Glint]] hides inside a grain of sand... ''in the middle of a desert''. It just so happens this magical grain of sand contains a PhantomZone where Glint makes her home. The place is pretty huge and includes six areas, one of which houses Glint herself. You can even optionally fight Glint as a BonusBoss. She's arguably tougher than most endgame bosses.

The name comes from an alternate dimension in Franchise/TheDCU, where Krypton sent its condemned criminals; they didn't die, but they were almost completely unable to influence the world outside. [[SentencedToDownUnder Much like]] {{UsefulNotes/Australia}}.

* The ''Film/{{Supergirl}}'' movie has the title character thrown into the Phantom Zone by her nemesis Selena using the power of the Omegahedron, which strips ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} of her powers in the process. Zaltar, who came to the Phantom Zone as a self-imposed exile for losing the Omegahedron in the first place, pulls a HeroicSacrifice to allow her to escape and regain her powers.

* A minor example in ''Anime/DigimonTamers'': Rika's Renamon has the ability to talk to her in a PocketDimension where no time passes in the outside world. They can even enter it in a crowd of people, and when they get out again, nobody has noticed.

* The witches of ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' hang out in bizarre "labyrinths" that are only accessible in a small area, and the entrance is InvisibleToNormals. But normal people can still get sucked into them, usually to their doom. [[spoiler:Walpurgisnacht is so powerful that it doesn't need a barrier, so it rips the city to bits instead.]]

* The witches of ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' hang out in bizarre "barriers"[[note]]"sealed space" would be a more accurate translation, but "barrier" is what everyone uses...[[/note]] that are only accessible in a small area, and the entrance is InvisibleToNormals. But normal people can still get sucked into them, usually to their doom. [[spoiler:Walpurgisnacht is so powerful that it doesn't need a barrier, so it rips the city to bits instead.]]

* The boss battle with Giygas in ''VideoGame/EarthBound''.

* At the end of ''Film/FantasticFour2015'' the gang go back to the extradimensional Planet Zero where they got their powers and have to defeat Doctor Doom to stop him attacking Earth.

* Similarly, the Barriers in ''Franchise/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'', which works by displacing magic users into a contained Phantom Zone, though damages to the environment are still retained and need to be fixed by TheFederation afterwards. Useful in the first two seasons where the setting was the non-magical earth, so only the magical heroes would be trapped with the current threat. Nigh useless in the third season and beyond, where the setting is Mid-Childa [[EveryoneIsASuper where everyone is a magic-user]], including the {{Innocent Bystander}}s.

* The Kekkai in ''Manga/{{X1999}}'' are seven magical seals spread around Tokyo to prevent the impending apocalypse. Each Kekkai is protected by a magic user belonging to the group known as "Dragons of Heaven", sworn defenders of humankind's continued existence. Another group, the seven Dragons of Earth, meanwhile, are [[GaiasVengeance protectors of Earth]] ''from'' humanity, tasked with destroying all Kekkai. When the two sides battle, one of the Dragons of Heaven must erect a Kekkai Field to remove the surrounding landscape (minus the muggles) from the regular space and into the Phantom Zone, where they can battle unimpeded. If the Dragon of Earth attacker is killed or driven off, the Kekkai Field is removed safely, undoing any structural damage that occurred inside; however, if the host Dragon of Heaven is killed instead, their Field fails and all battle damage becomes permanent, with horrifying consequences to the hapless muggles caught in it.

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1297549309095760200

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/DPGhostZone_1851.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:His parents built a very strange machine; it was [[AnotherDimension designed to view a world unseen]].]]

* ''Anime/YuGiOh'' has the Shadow Realm. The Millennium Items each can transport the area around the user (and anyone else in it) to the Shadow Realm, an AlternateDimension full of {{Mons}} that can be summoned to fight each other. Alternatively, they can trap a person's mind in the Shadow Realm, leaving their body functioning normally (although from the fact that Jonouchi/Joey breaks out of it, this is implied to be an illusionary spell cast on the victim) or seal their soul into a SoulJar. (Yami Marik does the former, Pegasus does the latter.)

* Creator/GrantMorrison's ''Franchise/{{JLA}}'' introduces the Still Zone, where the League battle the White Martians and, later, Prometheus. According to these stories, the Still Zone (or, as Prometheus calls it, the Ghost Zone), which the White Martians use in place of {{Hyperspace}}, is both the Phantom Zone and (according to the angel Zauriel) Limbo...and probably also the Stasis Zone that was at the time standing in for the Phantom Zone in [[ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes M'Onel's]] origin and the Buffer Zone that [[IntangibleMan Bgzltians phase into]]. A later story adds [[TimeMaster Epoch's]] "timeless void" and ComicBook/DCOneMillion's "tesseract space" to the list.

** The distortion created from the clash between various supernatural powers in Baggage City produces one of these, which drew in the people involved in the battle and also made tragedy more likely to occur. It was engineered by GREMLIN as an experiment into Holism and its existence proven when it was shattered by the [[AntiMagic Imagine Breaker]] with Touma's appearance.

* Battles in ''Anime/IlSolePenetraLeIllusioni'' happen in the "Astralux," which is something like a collective subconscious.

* Zero Time in ''Anime/StarDriver''.

The name comes from an alternate dimension in Franchise/TheDCU, where Krypton sent its condemned criminals; they didn't die, but they were almost completely unable to influence the world outside. [[SentencedToDownunder Much like]] {{UsefulNotes/Australia}}.