History Main / SkyscraperCity

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': Coruscant takes this to extreme levels. The ''[[CityPlanet entire planet]]'' is encrusted with giant skyscrapers... built ''on top of'' older skyscrapers... built on top of even older skyscrapers. Oh, and a few of the skyscrapers are actually the giant construction droids that build more skyscrapers. Most visits to the planet remain comfortably in the highest floors at the tip of the skyscrapers, or only dips down a ways to areas where the sunlight starts to be occluded but which are still far, far above the ground.

!! Examples:

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Comics]]

[[folder:Film]]

** [[WesternAnimation/BigHero6 San Fransokyo]], which is....basically just a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin combination of Tokyo and San Francisco.]] As expected, lots and lots of skyscrapers to be found here.

%%* ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'' may be the TropeCodifier for visual fiction at least. ([[http://twentyfourframes.wordpress.com/2010/09/02/metropolis-the-restored-version-1927-fritz-lang/ Seen here]] and [[http://www.architecture.uwaterloo.ca/faculty_projects/terri/dystopia/patterson/social_dystopia_1.html here]].)%%Links ain't context.

* Emphasized in ''Anime/GhostInTheShell'', albeit with many skyscrapers looking [[UsedFuture somewhat dilapidated and unpleasant to live in]]. One famous scene focuses on showing the claustrophobic view of the skyscrapers from street level (including many skyscrapers under construction and covered with unsightly girders) while other scenes show it from above (the ground seemingly covered with brightly-lit roads and highways). [[SubvertedTrope Uniquely]], many of these tall structures look quite bulky and mass-produced rather than slim and sleek architectural masterpieces, possibly alluding to the budding industry of mass-produced ''artificial people''. Nevertheless, the city (presumably Tokyo, as per the Manga, or possibly Hong Kong) is shown to have some under-developed areas (e.g. the open-air marketplace) which would seem very familiar to anyone born/living in an East Asian city during the last century.

* ''Franchise/StarWars': Coruscant' takes this extreme levels. The ''[[CityPlanet entire planet]]'' is encrusted with giant skyscrapers... built ''on top of'' older skyscrapers... built on top of even older skyscrapers. Oh, and a few of the skyscrapers are actually the giant construction droids that build more skyscrapers. Most visits to the planet remain comfortably in the highest floors at the tip of the skyscrapers, or only dips down a ways to areas where the sunlight starts to be occluded but which are still far, far above the ground.

* ''Franchise/StarWars': Coruscant' takes this extreme levels. The ''[[CityPlanet entire planet]]'' is encrusted with giant skyscrapers... built ''on top of'' older skyscrapers... built on top of even older skyscrapers. Oh, and a few of the skyscrapers are actually the giant construction droids that build more skyscrapers. Most visits to the planet remain conformably in the highest floors at the tip of the skyscrapers, or only dips down a ways to areas where the sunlight starts to be occluded but which are still far, far above the ground.

* As for the rest of the world, look out for Sao Paolo in Brazil, Panama City in... Panama, and Sydney, Melbourne, and Gold Coast in Australia.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons''. You never see the ground throughout the whole series. The exception is in "The Flying Suit," where George flies down to the surface. It is bright, grassy, and populated by birds who took to the ground now that the humans are in the sky. An episode of ''WesternAnimation/HarveyBirdmanAttorneyAtLaw'' explained that the people live in the sky because the Earth had become dangerously polluted.

* Sternbild from ''Anime/TigerAndBunny'' is so tall that has been divided into levels.
* The Field Spell Card [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Skyscraper "Skyscraper"]] in ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' builds a city made entirely of skyscrapers in the field. In a second season episode, Judai's friend Hayato (who's now a card designer for I2) gives him a new Field Spell called [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Skyscraper_2 "Skyscraper 2 Hero City,"]] which builds a far bigger, futuristic city of skyscrapers. Also, Edo Phoenix has an equivalent for Destiny Heroes called [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Dark_City Dark City.]]

* Gotham City from ''Franchise/{{Batman}}''. Even more so in ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy'' and taken UpToEleven in the posters.
* MegaCity One in the ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' comics. An establishing shot in an early issue showed the Empire State Building, now an abandoned historical relic, dwarfed by the skyscrapers around it.
* Asgard is depicted this way in ''ComicBook/TheMightyThor'', and in any Marvel comic taking place there.

* ''Film/BladeRunner'' appears to be set in that version of Los Angeles.
** Although, they do drive their cars on the ground and Rick Deckard even gets a parking spot [[RockStarParking right in front of his house]].
* Manhattan in ''Film/TheFifthElement'' is so high that we see its ground only once when Korben flees from the Police. Other than that, the endless rows of flying cars make it look like a bottomless city.
* Meanwhile City in ''Film/{{Franklyn}}''.
* 1927's ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'' may be the TropeCodifier for visual fiction at least. ([[http://twentyfourframes.wordpress.com/2010/09/02/metropolis-the-restored-version-1927-fritz-lang/ Seen here]] and [[http://www.architecture.uwaterloo.ca/faculty_projects/terri/dystopia/patterson/social_dystopia_1.html here]].)
* Coruscant from ''Franchise/StarWars'' takes this [[ExaggeratedTrope to a whole new]] [[{{Pun}} level]]. The ''[[CityPlanet entire planet]]'' is encrusted with giant skyscrapers... built ''on top of'' older skyscrapers... built on top of even older skyscrapers. Oh, and a few of the skyscrapers are actually the giant construction droids that build more skyscrapers.

* Creator/IsaacAsimov's Trantor. ([[http://io9.com/5799655/isaac-asimovs-foundation-the-little-idea-that-became-science-fictions-biggest-series Seen here;]] the tall objects are retractable cooling towers above the main buildings of the city.)
** Ironically, most of the citizens of Trantor as also ''afraid of heights'', as they never encounter enough open space to be able to judge how high up they truly are. When they actually encounter a window into the void, they can get a bit weak-kneed.
** Actually, in later works (such as ''Prelude to Foundation''), Asimov retcons the idea that Trantor is a Skyscraper Ecumenopolis. This is true of central business district-type areas, but most of Trantor is supposed to be suburban. (Asimov presumably did this to reconcile the fact that Trantor was an Earth-sized planet with "only" 40 billion people or so, while a planet covered entirely in Hong Kong-like urbanization would have a much larger population.)
*** It also appears to be mostly covered by opaque domes of various sizes.
* The eponymous city from John Twelve Hawks' novel ''[[Literature/TheFourthRealm The Golden City]]'' is actually just three gigantic, terraced towers.
* In Creator/RobertSilverberg's ''The World Inside'', much of the world is covered in vertical cities called Urban Monads, where people are born, live, and die without ever having to leave.
* In ''Literature/{{Updraft}}'', there's a fantasy version; the city consists of a cluster of living towers made of bone, high above the clouds (and slowly rising as the towers "grow"). Some are connected with bridges, but the fastest way to travel is by strapping on wings. People don't go down to the ground at all, and barely even acknowledge that there might ''be'' a ground.

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* In ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', this is the overall look of Atlantis (which isn't just a city but a starship).
[[/folder]]

* Sharn from the ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'' campaign setting for ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' is one of the few fantasy (well, DungeonPunk) versions. It's built on an area where flight magic is enhanced so the architects incorporated levitation spells into the structural supports. It's even a LayeredMetropolis.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''
** Hive cities are more accurately described as a kilometers-tall skyscraper the ''size'' of a city.
*** Much like Coruscant above, Warhammer 40K cities are said to be built in layers, with new levels being built on top of older ones, with the oldest even becoming buried by the weight of the buildings being added to it. In the hive cities these buried layers are generally where the outcasts live; mutants, psykers, heretics, xenos, and possibly even genestealer cults.
** Commorragh, the home of Dark Eldar is an impossibly large city composed largely of enormous scyscrapers, many of which are tall enough to serve as docking spars for starships.

* ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank'' takes this and pretty much makes it its own VideogameSetting! Nearly every game in the series has one, and amazingly they all manage to feel different from each other, even the ones that appear in multiple games. In all examples, the ground is never seen and is treated as a BottomlessPit. Said levels include:
** Metropolis from ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClank2002 Ratchet & Clank]]'', ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankUpYourArsenal Up Your Arsenal]]'', ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureToolsOfDestruction Tools of Destruction]]'', ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFullFrontalAssault Full Frontal Assault]]'' via DLC and the [[VideoGame/RatchetAndClank2016 2016 game]]/[[WesternAnimation/RatchetAndClank movie]] as Aleero City. It's easily the most well-known and iconic example in the series, and not just through repetition.
** Megapolis from ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando Going Commando]]''.
** Meridian City from ''Tools of Destruction'' and ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankIntoTheNexus Into the Nexus]]''.
** Axiom City from ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureACrackInTime A Crack in Time]]''.
** Luminopolis and Uzo City from ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankAll4One All 4 One]]''.
* Isla del Sol in the late chapters of ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}'' is hundreds of huge towers with a gigantic tower in the middle. When you get on top of that tower, SceneryPorn ensues.
* Aeropolis in ''VideoGame/FZero GX''.
* Taris from [[VideoGame/KnightsoftheOldRepublic KOTOR]].
** Until [[spoiler:Darth Malak orders his fleet to level the entire planet]].
** Also Nar Shaddaa, AKA the Vertical City, in ''VideoGame/JediOutcast''.
* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', most cities on the asari colony world of Illium are built close to the poles to escape the heat nearer to the equator. Higher levels of the cities are reserved for residential and commercial property and lower levels are used for industrial greenhouses and factories.
* The opening level of ''VideoGame/NinjaGaiden II'', aptly named "Sky City Tokyo" is exactly this. Your destination on the level is one of two twin towers... both built on top of an even bigger tower. Itself built several hundred meters above the ground. In the UpdatedRerelease Sigma II, you fight a [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere Buddha statue the size of the Statue of Liberty]] (which you ''also'' fight afterwards) at the end of the level: it looks puny compared to the building it climbs.
* You can build a city like this in ''VideoGame/SimCity'' if you so choose.
* The ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' series is absolutely full of these, beginning with Star Light Zone in the [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1 original game]]. As far as this trope goes, this series is notable for not needing to look futuristic, with plenty of examples using architecture from the past. Apparently, in the Sonic universe, even ancient people knew how to make extremely tall, sprawling cities.
** Stardust Speedway in ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD Sonic CD]]'' is a bottomless city in all time periods Sonic is present in, even when it resembled AncientGrome. The exception is the absolute bottom-most parts of the Ancient Grome time period, where water can be seen at ground level. All of these traits were kept for ''VideoGame/SonicMania''.
** The district of Station Square near Speed Highway in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' and ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' contains solely of buildings hundreds of stories tall and has no visible ground.
** City Escape in ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'' is ''not'' this trope, as most buildings are no taller than five stories tall, and the ground is always visible. Radical Highway, however, is a straight example, set in some other area of the unnamed city at night whose ground level is too dark to make out.
** Ice Paradise Zone in ''[[VideoGame/SonicAdvanceSeries Sonic Advance 2]]'' combines this setting with SlippySlideyIceWorld; it appears to be set in such a metropolis during a snowy winter. ''Sonic Advance 3'' opens with Route 99 Zone, which is the setting applied to a city with architecture resembling that of the mid-20th century United States.
** Grand Metropolis, Casino Park, and BINGO Highway in ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes'' are set ridiculously far up. Oddly, Power Plant and Grand Metropolis always has a visible floor not far below. Hang Castle manages to give this feel to a Transylvanian castle. As Cryptic Castle in ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog'' uses most of the same assets from Hang Castle, it gives off this feel too.
** Similarly, Night Palace in ''VideoGame/SonicAndTheSecretRings'' applies this feel to an Arabian palace, with its extremely tall and abundant spires, numerous ramparts, a large number of buildings and hallways visible from the outside, and no visible bottom.
** Night Carnival in ''[[VideoGame/SonicRushSeries Sonic Rush]]'' applies this theme to a city whose appearance is somewhere between [[CasinoPark Las Vegas]] and [[ItsAlwaysMardiGrasInNewOrleans New Orleans]].
** Future City in the ''VideoGame/SonicRiders'' subseries has a ground floor far beneath but is generally not visible.
** With the exception of the hub stage, Skyscraper Scamper in ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'' is like this. A dense fog envelops the lower levels. Some areas of Savannah Citadel and Rooftop Run also have this appearance, despite the former resembling a Saharan mosque constructed of mud and wood and the latter resembling a centuries-old northern Italian town.
** ''VideoGame/SonicForces'' has the appropriately named Metropolis location (which appears to be unrelated to Metropolis Zone from ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2''), one of the few cases where the city actually has a futuristic appearance. In this case, it's a very clean, bright place with flying cars and a white-and-cyan theme.
* Hengsha in ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' is on the way to becoming this. It's a giant two-tiered city split into Upper and Lower Hengsha. However, despite expectations, Lower Hengsha is not all-slums. It's where people tend to live and go out, while Upper Hengsha is where big businesses are located.
* The city of Anor Londo in ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' has several occasions in which you must cross over deep chasms in between buildings. The whole level takes place on the city's rooftops with the ground nowhere in sight.
* Rapture in the ''VideoGame/BioShock'' series is like this (at least from the outside; none of the actual levels look like they could be the actual inside of a skyscraper; either there are too many windows or too few floors or both). It sort of makes sense since it was mostly a planned city in which "ground level" is the rocky ocean floor, useless for building roads on. It's a little trickier to explain how people ''did'' get from one building to the next; supposedly they used radio-guided bathyspheres, and a railway system before that, but no rails are ever seen from the outside and each metro station contains docking room for only one tiny sphere.

* Harbor Prime in ''VideoGame/{{Dex}}'' has a population of 13.8 million people and its architecture is consequently dominated by skyscrapers and other tall buildings.
* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarOnline2'' has the premiere field of Episode 4's planet Earth: [[TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse Tokyo]].
* Rhythm Route in ''VideoGame/KirbyPlanetRobobot'' is a musical metropolis.
* Thrill City in ''VideoGame/{{Forza}}'' ''Horizon 3'''s "Hot Wheels Expansion". While the ground is perfectly accessible, much of the racing is done on tracks high in the air.
* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'' has New Donk City, capital of the Metro Kingdom, that is heavily based on 1930s New York City. The city itself appears to be [[LayeredMetropolis on top of an even larger skyscraper]].
* The ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series has at least four of these:
** The World That Never Was, an artificial world created by Xemnas from where he can slowly nurture his own Kingdom Hearts. While the Organization is nested in their floating castle, the rest of the world is littered in dark, hollow buildings and skyscrapers. The world's most iconic location is even called "Memory's Skyscraper."
** [[WesternAnimation/BigHero6 San Fransokyo]], which is....basically just a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin combination of Tokyo and San Francisco.]] As expected, lots and lots of skyscrapers to be found here.
** Scala ad Caelum, while not ''technically'' covered in skyscrapers, has endless mountain towns that build upon each other like legos, ultimately becoming quite huge, earning its name of "Stairway to Heaven."
** [[spoiler:Quadratum, a city that is almost an exact replica of Shibuya, if not for the fact that its a world on the [[EldritchLocation other side of reality (fiction, if you will)]].]]

* Invoked in the last Episode of ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'' with [[GreatBigLibraryOfEverything "the Majestic Witch of Theatergoing, Drama and Spectating's Grand City of Carefully Selected Books"]] (or "City of Books" to make it short). It's a library so gigantic that the shelves are compared to skyscrapers − it's not called "city" for nothing.

* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': Dave lives in one of these. [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=002565 Here's a link]] (end of the flash)
** Dave canonically lives in Houston TX, which really does have a lot of tall buildings (it has the third highest skyline in the US, after New York City and Chicago), though perhaps not quite as many as suggested by the flash.
* Southland in ''Webcomic/FamiliarTerritory''.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', Gotham has grown even more massive, to the point where it seems to be nothing but superstructures. Rooftop parks, vertical commuter trains, and elevated neighborhoods are common. The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlobFExM-UM opening]] shows Gotham's old skyline, which is positively dwarfed by the new skyline behind it. One episode centers around a robot called the G.L.M. [[FunWithAcronyms (Galvanic Lifter Machine, aka GOLEM)]] a fifty-foot tall monstrosity that is used to build these structures.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons''. You never see the ground throughout the whole series. The exception is in "The Flying Suit," where George flies down to the surface. It is bright, grassy, and populated by birds who took to the ground now that the humans are in the sky.
** An episode of ''WesternAnimation/HarveyBirdmanAttorneyAtLaw'' explained that the people live in the sky because the Earth had become dangerously polluted.
* In ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'', Jack frequently finds himself in cities like these. It's most apparent in "Jack and the Hunters," when hunters chase Jack up the buildings to the rooftops. Aku seems to put his lairs only in these super-tall cities too, which may be why Jack seems to be in these megalopolises half the time he's wandering the planet.
* In ''WesternAnimation/KongKingOfTheApes'', when Kong is being given a medal by the UN, New York is shown as almost entirely mile-high glass skyscrapers. As a MythologyGag, when Kong is swinging through the buildings, his friends point out the relatively small Empire State Building, far below them.

[[folder:AnimeAndManga]]

* The Field Spell Card [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Skyscraper "Skyscaper"]] in ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' builds a city made entirely of skyscapers in the field. In a second season episode, Judai's friend Hayato (who's now a card designer for I2) gives him a new Field Spell called [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Skyscraper_2 "Skyscraper 2 Hero City,"]] which builds a far bigger, futuristic city of skyscrapers. Also, Edo Phoenix has an equivalent for Destiny Heroes called [[http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Dark_City Dark City.]]

[[folder:{{Comics}}]]

[[folder:{{Film}}]]

* Manhattan in ''Film/TheFifthElement'' is so high that we see its ground only once, when Korben flees from the Police. Other than that, the endless rows of flying cars make it look like a bottomless city.

[[folder:{{Literature}}]]

** Ironically, most of the citizens of Trantor as also ''afraid of heights'', as they never encounter enough open space to be able to judge how high up they truly are. When they actually encounter a window into the void, they can get a bit weak kneed.

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]

[[folder:TabletopGames]]

*** Much like Coruscant above, Warhammer 40K cities are said to be built in layers, with new levels being built on top of older ones, with the oldest even becoming buried by the weight of the buildings being added to it. In the hive cities these buried layers are generally where the outcasts live; mutants, psykers, heretics, xenos and possibly even genestealer cults.

[[folder:VideoGames]]

* The opening level of ''VideoGame/NinjaGaiden II'', aptly named "Sky City Tokyo" is exactly this. Your destination in the level is one of two twin towers... both built on top of an even bigger tower. Itself built several hundred meters above the ground. In the UpdatedRerelease Sigma II, you fight a [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere Buddha statue the size of the Statue of Liberty]] (which you ''also'' fight afterwards) at the end of the level: it looks puny compared to the building it climbs.

[[folder:VisualNovel]]

[[folder:WebComics]]

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', Gotham has grown even more massive, to the point where it seems to be nothing but superstructures. Rooftop parks, vertical commuter trains, and elevated neighborhoods are common. The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlobFExM-UM opening]] shows Gotham's old skyline, which is positively dwarfed by the new skyline behind it. One episode centers around a robot called the G.L.M. [[FunWithAcronyms (Galvanic Lifter Machine, aka GOLEM)]] a fifty-foot tall monstrosity which is used to build these structures.

[[folder:RealLife]]

** An {{Aversion}} is UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC which had a height restriction on buildings that makes the Washington Monument the tallest building in the city. A popular myth is that the law specifically restricts any building from being taller than the monument, but this is not the case as the law grandfathered all buildings taller than the restricted height... the Washington Monument was the only structure that qualified at the time of of the law's enactment. The fact that the most common buildings in D.C. {{Establishing Shot}}s are all on the National Mall (a park running 1.9 miles from the Capitol Building in the East to the Lincoln Memorial in the West, with the Washington Monument in the center (in front of the White House). Additionally, the White House is notably one of the smallest State Residences in the entire world and doesn't have much in the way of room for [[WalkAndTalk long walking conversations as is common in many TV shows set in the building.]] There are plenty of skyscrapers in the edge cities that make up the D.C. metropolitan area, with Arlington, Virginia (right across the Potomac from DC proper) and Tyson's Corner, Virginia being two notable examples.
** [[UsefulNotes/OtherCitiesInTexas San Antonio, Texas]] is an interesting {{subversion}} because the ground is perfect for building skyscrapers and the ones that are there are fairly impressive, but the city has mostly grown outward, rather than upward. The Frost Bank building is the first skyscraper to go up in thirty years. These are known as "sprawl cities" where there simply isn't that much of an incentive to stay confined.

** Other examples of American Skyscraper cities include Las Vegas, Seattle, Indianapolis, Minneapolis and Denver.
* Ever since UsefulNotes/{{China}}'s [[UsefulNotes/ToGetRichIsGlorious economy started to rise rapidly]] in the TheNewTens, it has now become a second trope codifier. Examples of Chinese cities full of skyscrapers include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Chongqing, Beijing, Nanjing and countless others.

** Before there was China, there was (and still is) UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}. Of course, UsefulNotes/{{Tokyo}} is a quintessential example of a skyscraper city, lending its likeness to countless ficitonal skyscraper cities in various fictional works across Anime, Film and others.
** Hong Kong due to its mountainous terrain, is considered the tallest city in the world, having more skyscrapers than New York, and the most in the world at 355.
** Singapore is especially noteworthy. It's strategic location means that much of the global trade passes through its ports, giving it tremendous amounts of money, leading to a skyscraper city.

** Another notable region in Asia is the Gulf. Money gained from Oil and Natural Gas has given the countries of this region a massive boost in building infrastructure, leading to the building of impressive cities in breathtaking speeds. Examples include Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Manama, Kuwait, Riyadh and Jeddah.
** And now with increasingly rising economies in South and Southeast Asia, countries in these regions now also have examples of skyscraper cities. Notable examples include Kuala Lampur, Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok and Mumbai.

** A noteworthy ''aversion'' is London, which has a similar population to New York City [[note]]and the same property price issue that made the Big Apple the indirect trope namer for FriendsRentControl[[/note]] but only has the same number of skyscrapers (defined as buildings over 150m in height) as relatively tiny Boston. This is because of an issue that fictional examples of this trope often gloss over: The suitability (or lack thereof) of the terrain to hold a building's weight. London is on marshy, low-lying ground that couldn't support a Manhattan-style skyscraper until architectural technology caught up, and the first true example wasn't started until the 90s. Politics also play a part in this, as [[UsefulNotes/OneLondonThirtyThreeBoroughs each London borough]] has different height restrictions on how tall buildings can go (this is why Westminster is skyscraper allergic despite covering a large portion of Central London). But with more and more skyscrapers being built recently, London has become a straight example of this.
** Paris ZigZags trope. When the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_Montparnasse Montparnasse Tower]] was completed in 1973, it was immediately considered by locals as such an ugly and disgusting eye sore, that when the local politicians proposed a maximum height limit on the city's construction codes, the people's approval was nearly unanimous. However, this only applied to the department of Paris, not to the departments outside of the Beltway, skyscrapers are most definitely profitable, and there were lots of people willing to build lots of them; as a result, if you walk from the Louvre to the Arc du Triomphe and then continue walking straight until you leave the department of Paris, as soon as you cross the Beltway you'll enter the Skyscraper District of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Défense La Défense]].
** Another notable aversion is Moscow, which is in the same bailiwick population-wise, but has even less skyscrapers than London, if for a different reason. Moscow sits on sturdy clays underlain by stable basalt plate, so geology was no object. The reason was simply economical: back in the Communist era, when all land belonged to state that enforced strict building and zoning regulations, there simply wasn't much incentive to build up aside from the occasional prestige project — free land was a commodity Russia never had a shortage of. Only in UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia, after the land market appeared in TheNineties, skyscrapers became economically viable, and even then they are often criticized as built more for prestige than out of genuine necessity.
** Other European cities with a sizable number of skyscrapers include Frankfurt, Milan and Istanbul.
* As for the rest of the world, look out for Sao Paolo in Brazil, Panama City in... Panama, and Sydney, Melbourne and Gold Coast in Australia.

** Paris ZigZags trope. When the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_Montparnasse Montparnasse Tower]] was completed in 1973, it was immediately considered by locals as such an ugly and disgusting eye sore, that when the local politicians proposed a maximum height limit on the city's construction codes, the people's approval was nearly unanimous. However, this only applied to the department of Paris, not to the departments outside of the Beltway, skyscrapers are most definitely profitable, and there were lots of people willing to build lots of them; as a result, if you walk from the Louvre to the Arc du Triomphe and then continue walking straight until you leave the department of Paris, as soon as you cross the Beltway you'll enter the Skyscraper District of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=La_Defense&redirect=no La Défense]].

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* [[BigApplesauce New York City]], especially Manhattan, and UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} are arguably the TropeMakers and have had this as their reputation since the 1930s.
** {{Lampshaded}} by Creator/JimmyFallon in one of his "Thank you" notes.
---> "Thank you...New York, for being the only city in America with enough tall buildings for ComicBook/SpiderMan to do his thing. Could you imagine if Peter Parker was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico? LAAAME!"

** Hong Kong and Singapore are especially noteworthy. As [[LandOfOneCity Lands of One City]] their possibilities of expanding horizontally are restricted by the limited amount of suitable land available. Hong Kong particularly, due to its mountainous terrain, is considered the tallest city in the world, having more skyscrapers than New York, and the most in the world at 355.
** Similar to Hong Kong in that it's a port city with a lot of mountains limiting horizontal expansion, UsefulNotes/{{Busan}} in UsefulNotes/{{South Korea}} also has a lot of skyscrapers, even more so than the capital UsefulNotes/{{Seoul}} which has more than twice as much population. However Seoul is unparalleled in the amount of high-rise building it has, [[https://www.archdaily.com/896442/which-cities-have-the-most-high-rises far outstripping Moscow, the city with the second most high-rises, by a whopping 20,000 buildings]].
** A noteworthy ''aversion'' is London, which has a similar population to New York City [[note]]and the same property price issue that made the Big Apple the indirect trope namer for FriendsRentControl[[/note]] but only has the same number of skyscrapers (defined as buildings over 150m in height) as relatively tiny Boston. This is because of an issue that fictional examples of this trope often gloss over: The suitability (or lack thereof) of the terrain to hold a building's weight. London is on marshy, low-lying ground that couldn't support a Manhattan-style skyscraper until architectural technology caught up, and the first true example wasn't started until the 90s. Politics also play a part in this, as [[UsefulNotes/OneLondonThirtyThreeBoroughs each London borough]] has different height restrictions on how tall buildings can go (this is why Westminster is skyscraper allergic despite covering a large portion of Central London).
** Paris averts and at the same time applies this trope. When the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_Montparnasse Montparnasse Tower]] was completed in 1973, it was immediately considered by locals as such an ugly and disgusting eye sore, that when the local politicians proposed a maximum height limit on the city's construction codes, the people's approval was nearly unanimous. However, this only applied to the department of Paris, not to the departments outside of the Beltway, skyscrapers are most definitely profitable, and there were lots of people willing to build lots of them; as a result, if you walk from the Louvre to the Arc du Triomphe and then continue walking straight until you leave the department of Paris, as soon as you cross the Beltway you'll enter the Skyscraper District of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=La_Defense&redirect=no La Défense]].
** Another notable aversion is Moscow, which is in the same bailiwick population-wise, but has even less skyscrapers than London, if for a different reason. Moscow sits on sturdy clays underlain by stable basalt plate, so geology was no object. The reason was simply economical: back in the Communist era, when all land belonged to state that enforced strict building and zoning regulations, there simply wasn't much incentive to build up aside from the occasional prestige project — free land was a commodity Russia never had a shortage of. Only in UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia, after the land market appeared in TheNineties, skyscrapers became economically viable, and even then they are often criticized as built more for prestige than out of genuine necessity.
** Another notable aversion is Washington D.C. which had a height restriction on buildings that makes the Washington Monument the tallest building in the city. A popular myth is that the law specifically restricts any building from being taller than the monument, but this is not the case as the law grandfathered all buildings taller than the restricted height... the Washington Monument was the only structure that qualified at the time of of the law's enactment. The fact that the most common buildings in D.C. {{Establishing Shot}}s are all on the National Mall (a park running 1.9 miles from the Capitol Building in the East to the Lincoln Memorial in the West, with the Washington Monument in the center (in front of the White House). Additionally, the White House is notably one of the smallest State Residences in the entire world and doesn't have much in the way of room for [[WalkAndTalk long walking conversations as is common in many TV shows set in the building.]] There are plenty of skyscrapers in the edge cities that make up the D.C. metropolitan area, with Arlington, Virginia (right across the Potomac from DC proper) and Tyson's Corner, Virginia being two notable examples.
** San Antonio, Texas is another interesting subversion because the ground is perfect for building skyscrapers and the ones that are there are fairly impressive, but the city has mostly grown outward, rather than upward. The Frost Bank building is the first skyscraper to go up in thirty years. These are known as "sprawl cities" where there simply isn't that much of an incentive to stay confined.
** UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}} provides an interesting double subversion: Its City Hall was the tallest pre-skyscraper building in the world (and remains the world's tallest masonry building), but after that actual skyscrapers in the city studiously remained shorter than City Hall[[note]]By height, not floor count; Philly office towers could easily reach 30-40 stories without breaking the rule[[/note]] under a weird developers' gentlemen's agreement. The result was that for the better part of the 20th century, Philly's skyline was weirdly flat for an American city. However, after Liberty Place (deliberately built way taller than City Hall) was built in the 1980s, Philadelphia developers built taller and taller in Center City basically without limit. The result is that the skyline is dominated by postmodern and neomodern buildings built since 1985, even though Philly is one of the three oldest big cities in the U.S.
* The skylines of developing countries are quickly growing with more tall buildings added each year, including Chinese cities such as Shanghai and Wuhan, Southeast Asian ones such as Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, and South American cities such as Sao Paulo.

** Stardust Speedway in ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD Sonic CD]]'' is a bottomless city in all time periods Sonic is present in, even when it resembled AncientGrome. The exception is the absolute bottom-most parts of the Ancient Grome time period, where water can be seen at ground level.

** Grand Metropolis, Casino Park, and BINGO Highway in ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes'' are set ridiculously far up. Oddly, Power Plant and Grand Metropolis always has a visible floor not far below. Hang Castle manages to give this feel to a Transylvanian castle.

** A noteworthy ''aversion'' is London, which has a similar population to New York City [[note]]and the same property price issue that made the Big Apple the indirect trope namer for FriendsRentControl[[/note]] but only has the same number of skyscrapers (defined as buildings over 150m in height) as relatively tiny Boston. This is because of an issue that fictional examples of this trope often gloss over: The suitability (or lack thereof) of the terrain to hold a building's weight. London is on marshy, low-lying ground that couldn't support a Manhattan-style skyscraper until architectural technology caught up, and the first true example wasn't started until the 90s. Politics also play a part in this, as each London borough has different height restrictions on how tall buildings can go (this is why Westminster is skyscraper allergic despite covering a large swathe of Central London).

** Another notable aversion is Washington D.C. which had a height restriction on buildings that makes the Washington Monument the tallest building in the city. A popular myth is that the law specifically restricts any building from being taller than the monument, but this is not the case as the law grandfathered all buildings taller than the restricted height... the Washington Monument was the only structure that qualified at the time of of the law's enactment. The fact that the most common buildings in D.C. {{Establishing Shot}}s are all on the National Mall (a park running 1.9 miles from the Capital Building in the West to the Lincoln Memorial in the East, with the Washington Monument in the center (in front of the White House). Additionally, the White House is notably one of the smallest State Residences in the entire world and doesn't have much in the way of room for [[WalkAndTalk long walking conversations as is common in many TV shows set in the building.]] It is played straight, though, in the edge cities around the DC Beltway, such as Tysons Corner and Arlington, Virginia, where height restrictions need not apply.

** UsefulNotes/{{Philadelphia}} provides an interesting double subversion: Its City Hall was the tallest pre-skyscraper building in the world (and remains the world's tallest masonry building), but after that actual skyscrapers in the city studiously remained shorter than City Hall[[note]]By height, not floor count; Philly office towers could easily reach 30-40 stories without breaking the rule[[/note]] under a weird developers' gentlemen's agreement. The result was that for most of the 20th century, Philly's skyline was weirdly flat for an American city. However, after Liberty Place (deliberately built way taller than City Hall) was built in the 1980s, Philadelphia developers built taller and taller in Center City basically without limit. The result is that the skyline is dominated by postmodern and neomodern buildings built since 1985, even though Philly is one of the three oldest big cities in the U.S.

** A noteworthy ''aversion'' is London, which has a similar population to New York City [[note]]and the same property price issue that made the Big Apple the indirect trope namer for FriendsRentControl[[/note]] but only has the same number of skyscrapers (defined as buildings over 150m in height) as relatively tiny Boston. This is because of an issue that fictional examples of this trope often gloss over: The suitability (or lack thereof) of the terrain to hold a building's weight. London is on marshy, low-lying ground that couldn't support a Manhattan-style skyscraper until architectural technology caught up, and the first true example wasn't started until the 90s.

** Another notable aversion is Washington D.C. which had a height restriction on buildings that make the Washington Monument the tallest building in the city. A popular myth is that the law specifically restricts any building from being taller than the monument, but this is not the case as the law grandfathered all buildings taller than the restricted height... the Washington Monument was the only structure that qualified at the time of of the law's enactment. The fact that the most common buildings in D.C. {{Establishing Shot}}s are all on the National Mall (a park running 1.9 miles from the Capital Building in the West to the Lincoln Memorial in the East, with the Washington Monument in the center (in front of the White House). Additionally, the White House is notably one of the smallest State Residences in the entire world and doesn't have much in the way of room for long walking conversations as is common in many TV shows set in the building.
** San Antonio Texas is another interesting subversion because the ground is perfect for building skyscrapers and the ones that are there are fairly impressive, but the city has mostly grown outward rather than upward. The Frost Bank building is the first skyscraper to go up in thirty years. These are known as "sprawl cities" where there simply isn't that much of an incentive to stay confined.

* The Dark City of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' definitely counts.

** Paris averts and at the same time applies this trope. When the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_Montparnasse Montparnasse Tower]] was completed in 1973, it was immediately considered by locals as such an ugly and disgusting eye sore, that when the local politicians proposed a maximum height limit on the city's construction codes, the people's approval was nearly unanimous. However, this only applied to the department of Paris, not to the departments outside of the Beltway, skyscrapers are most definitely profitable, and there were lots of people willing to build lots of them; as a result, if you walk from the Louvre to the Arc du Triomphe and then continue walking straight until you leave the department of Paris, as soon as you cross the Beltway you'll enter the Skyscraper District of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_D%C3%A9fense La Défense]].
** Another notable aversion is Moscow, which is in the same bailiwick population-wise, but has even less skyscrapers than London, if for a different reason. Moscow sits on sturdy clays underlain by stable basalt plate, so geology was no object. The reason was simply economical: back in the Communist era, when all land belonged to state that enforced strict building and zoning regulations, there simply wasn't much incentive to build up aside from the occasional prestige project — free land was a commodity Russia never had a shortage of. Only in UsefulNotes/TheNewRussia, after the land market appeared in the 90es, skyscrapers became economically viable, and even then they are often criticized as built more for prestige than out of genuine necessity.
** Another Notable Aversion is Washington D.C. which had a height restriction on buildings that make the Washington Monument the tallest building in the city. A popular myth is that the law specifically restricts any building from being taller than the monument, but this is not the case as the law grandfathered all buildings taller than the restricted height... the Washington Monument was the only structure that qualified at the time of of the law's enactment. The fact that the most common buildings in D.C. {{Establishing Shot}}s are all on the National Mall (a park running 1.9 miles from the Capital Building in the West to the Lincoln Memorial in the East, with the Washington Monument in the center (in front of the White House). Additionally, the White House is notably one of the smallest State Residences in the entire world and doesn't have much in the way of room for long walking conversations as is common in many TV shows set in the building.

* [[BigApplesauce New York City]], especially Manhattan, has had this as its reputation since the 1930s.

* The ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series has [[spoiler:Quadtratum, a world on the other side of reality (fiction, if you will).]]

* The ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series has [[spoiler:Quadtratum, a fictional world that plays a prominent role from ''III'' onwards.]]

** The skylines of developing countries are quickly growing with more tall buildings added each year, including Chinese cities such as Shanghai and Wuhan, Southeast Asian ones such as Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, and South American cities such as Sao Paulo.

** Hong Kong and Singapore are especially noteworthy. As [[LandOfOneCity Lands of One City]] their possibilities of expanding horizontally are restricted by the limited amount of suitable land available. Hong Kong particularly, due to its mountainous terrain, is considered the tallest city in the world, having more skyscrapers than *New York*, and the most in the world at 355.

** Hong Kong and Singapore are especially noteworthy. As [[LandOfOneCity Lands of One City]] their possibilities of expanding horizontally are restricted by the limited amount of suitable land available.

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** Paris averts and at the same time applies this trope. The Montparnasse Tower was considered by locals as such an ugly and disgusting eye sore, that when the local politicians proposed a maximum height limit on the city's construction codes, the people's approval was nearly unanimous. However, this only applied to the department of Paris, not to the departments outside of the Beltway; as a result, if you walk from the Louvre to the Arc du Triomphe and then continue walking until you leave the department of Paris, as soon as you cross the Beltway you'll enter the Skyscraper District of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_D%C3%A9fense La Défense]].