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Phantom Zone: Difference between revisions
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Hurling a bad guy into an alternate dimension is a great way to provide a bloodless "death" for a [[Big Bad]], or just set up his return because you never know when he might pop back out of that alternate dimension to ruin your day. If animated shows for young kids ever require a villain to be [[Killed Off for Real]], they'll usually throw him in a [[Phantom Zone]] and then lock the door behind him; he's not really dead, but he's also never coming back. Of course, this can also be the setup for [[Sealed Evil in a Can]] via a [[Tailor-Made Prison]].
The name comes from an alternate dimension in [[The DCU]], where Krypton sent its condemned criminals; they didn't die, but they were almost completely unable to influence the world outside.
In video games, this is sometimes the justification for the [[Amazing Technicolor Battlefield]]. See also [[Crystal Prison]] for a common cage.
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== Anime and Manga ==
* A fox spirit in [[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.
* The [[There Can Be Only One|Alice Game]] in ''[[Rozen Maiden]]'' is fought in ''N-space'', while the series otherwise takes place in a single [[Building of Adventure]].
** Mostly, anyways. The characters are sometimes shown outside it, just not often. And, except for sneaking into the school library, not for anything especially important.
* [[Kagihime Monogatari|The Merveille Space in Kagihime]]. {{spoiler|It becomes a plot point because Aruto is the second male to be able to enter it apart from Alternate L. Takion.}}
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* Similarly, the Barriers in ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'', 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 [[The Federation]] 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 [[Everyone Is a Super|where everyone is a magic-user]], including the [[Innocent Bystander|Innocent Bystanders]].
* Timestop Barriers (Fuzetsu) from ''[[Shakugan no Shana]]''.
* Minor example in ''[[Digimon Tamers]]'': Rika's Renamon had the ability to talk to her in a pocket dimension where no time passed in the outside world. They could even enter it in a crowd of people, and when they got out again, nobody noticed.
* ''[[GaoGaiGar]]'''s Dividing Driver created a pocket dimension where the [[Humongous Mecha]] could fight the [[Monster of the Week]] without the property damage usually associated.
* Aversion: The dream world of ''[[Yumeria]]'' looks like a [[Phantom Zone]], but as Mone's appearance in the real world at the end of the first episode attests, there's a very real connection between the two.
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* In ''[[Prétear]]'', Shin, who is too young to fight anyway, has the job of setting up the zone and then watching as the grown-ups take care of business.
* The Room of Spirit and Time (aka Hyperbolic Time Chamber in the [[FUNimation]] dub) from ''[[Dragonball Z]]'' fits the trope.
** More applicable version would be the Dead Zone.
* An interesting version occurs in [[Bleach]]. The local [[Mad Scientist]] rigged up an entire town, sent it to the afterlife, and created an exact copy of the town, and set it up where the original was, in order to attempt to fool the [[Big Bad]], and also to prevent people from dying while the Shinigami and Hollows are fighting each other. How the scientist prepared for people trying to enter/leave the town while this switch is in place is never explained.
** Leaving is no problem - the inhabitants are all asleep (even the spiritually powerful ones, except maybe Kurosaki Sr. Entering... well, maybe [[Hand Wave|it's a Sunday]].
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* The Red Night in ''~11eyes~''. While the space of the battles is confined to inside the city, the place gets severely wrecked up and, thankfully, none of the property damage that occurs within transfers back to the real world.
* In ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', Evangeline is able to create one of these with her magic, transporting herself and the victim to her special resort. Naturally, [[Year Inside, Hour Outside|only seconds actually pass while this is happening]].
** Later, {{spoiler|we meet two of [[The Psycho Rangers|Fate's minions]], Koyomi, who has some power over time and Tamaki, who has some power over space, by combining their abilities can create one of these which they can trap enemies in. Its' [[Achilles' Heel]] was physical contact with the user, so it didn't last ([[Defeat by Modesty|one can't become distracted when using magic]])}}.
** There's also one contained in Eva's [[Black Magic]] scroll.
* The [[Humongous Mecha]] of ''[[Machine Robo|Sortie! Machine Robo Rescue]]'' have the ability to create special fields known simply as Zones to contain any enemies or obstacles that might get in the way of their rescue efforts.
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* Gluttony's stomach in the ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' manga and ''Brotherhood'' anime is literally an unending bloodsoaked void with no exit in which Ed, Ling, and Envy get trapped.
* Subverted in the [[Deconstruction]] of the mecha genre that is ''[[Bokurano]]''. The fights between the giant robots cause exactly as much damage as one would imagine. Cities are destroyed, thousands of innocents are crushed, etc.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
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== Live Action TV ==
* ''[[VR Troopers]]'' had the Battle Grid for when they wanted to deal with [[Mooks|the Skugs]] in relative privacy. For the actual [[Monster of the Week]], the usual MO was for JB to return them to [[Cyberspace]], which had a suspicious resemblance to ''[[Super Sentai]]'s'' [[BBC Quarry]] (''every time'').
* ''[[Ultraman Nexus]]''. Ultraman creates a so-called "Metafield" that surrounds him and the [[Monster of the Week]], creating a pocket dimension with a weird-colored sky and a rocky, craggy ground. In an interesting twist, the evil counterparts of Ultraman, [[Sarcasm Mode|subtly]] named Faust and Mephisto, can transform this Metafield into the "Dark Field," a pocket dimension with a darker sky (natch!) that weakens Ultraman slightly. Also, when the battles do threaten a real-world city, it becomes a major plot point.
* Battles in ''[[Kamen Rider Ryuki]]'' take place in a "Mirror Dimension" that is populated by ravenous monsters. This dimension can be accessed through any kind of reflective surface.
** The Americanized version, ''[[Kamen Rider Dragon Knight]],'' has this element, but the mirror dimension is a [[Parallel Universe]] named Ventara that was once populated until the [[Big Bad]] came to town, and the monsters (except for the ones the Riders are contracted to) all belong to him. There's also a Phantom Zone in the true Superman-form: for [[Never Say "Die"]] purposes, defeated Riders don't die, but are sucked into the "advent void," never to return.
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* The final track in ''[[F-Zero]] GX'''s Story Mode, as well as [[That One Level|the final track in the Diamond Cup Grand Prix]] (same setting, different layout).
* The boss battle with Giygas in ''Earthbound''.
* The entire plot of ''[[Super Smash Bros.|Subspace Emissary]]'' revolves around the titular subspace.
* Your final battle against Lavos in [[Chrono Trigger]] happens in one of these, with backgrounds from various eras overlayed with a lightshow.
* The ''Distortion World'' in ''[[Pokémon]]''. You can ''[[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|fight]]'' a giant, ultra powerful, legendary Pokemon, [[Olympus Mons|capture]] it, and make it [[Kid With the Remote Control|fight]]. Nothing else really, except run around.
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