Red Light District

An area of strip joints, brothels and other seedy locales. Very much based on reality.

Generally portrayed in one of three ways in fiction:

The liberal version: Drunk happy people, women waving down from balconies. The protagonist gets to have a good time, or gets made fun of for being unable to. The most friendly take on the district.

The pitiful version: Drunks collapsed in the gutter, battered strung-out prostitutes. The protagonist is probably here on business. Possible location in a Wretched Hive. Very common in cop shows and Anti-Hero comics. You're most likely to see this side of the district in the grey light of the morning.

The hostile version: The drunks will pick a fight with you, the women will rob you or knife you in an alley. Possible location in a Wretched Hive. The protagonist is either lost or hopelessly naive, and will be wishing he'd found version 1 before the end of the night. Also common in cop shows, particularly in the first five minutes when they're showing the soon-to-be victim.

Compare Band of Brothels.

No real life examples, please; we'd be here all day. Besides, The Other Wiki does a better job of covering Real Life red-light districts than we ever could.

Examples of Red Light District include:

Anime and Manga

Fruits Basket - One of Sohma Ayame's high school stories involves him defending a student who got caught going to the red light district. Ayame's solution? To make himself the object of the male students' lusts.
Seen in Monster in relation to one of Johan's more hideous moments. Which, as you know, is saying something.
In Samurai Champloo the main characters Mugen and Jin spend their night in one of these when they get some money. It's almost a Once Per Episode trope.
Jiraiya from Naruto is known to frequent the Red Light District. Many of his contacts from his Intelligence network are found there.
In one scene in Evangelion 1.0, Shinji wanders past one. He is so lost in his own depression (also his SDAT player) that he's largely oblivious.
The Yoshiwara district of Tokyo is mentioned from time to time in Ooku. Shogun Iemitsu downsizes the Inner Chambers and restocks the decaying pleasure district with desirable men after a Gendercide plague destroys the market for female prostitutes and leaves only dregs of men. The Reverend Kasuga earlier hired a few women from there for a plot.
Downplayed in Heat Guy J. Kabuki Road does have (or is implied to have) brothels, strip clubs, etc. but there is other entertainment, too.
In Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Orario's red light district has accrued around - and is run by - the temple to Ishtar, where there's very little differentiation made between sacred prostitution and the other sort.

Comic Books

Old Town from the Sin City series.
The Meta-Baron Universe feature Cities containing a "red ring" in the center and act like the local red light district.
The East End in Gotham City, where Catwoman made her home during the run of her book and Batman himself considered it a lost cause.

Fan Works

Party Girl, a story set in The Teraverse, takes place in part in the neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts that was once known as "The Combat Zone", but which (as the story notes) is in the process of gentrification and is no longer a Red Light District -- save for a single club which is key to the early part of the plot.

Film

All of "Hell" Valley in Back to The Future Part II.
Total Recall: Venusville in Sector G on Mars. Features "The Last Resort" bordello and psychic mutant children.

Literature

The Red Light District of New Orleans in the early 1900s is heavily featured in The Meq, though it doesn't really fit into any of the above three categories because it's shown so realistically.
The city of Ankh-Morpork in the Discworld books has an area known as the Street of Negotiable Affection, which is maintained by the Seamstress's Guild.
- Renamed from "The Whore Pits" after much representation from said Guild.
Huntsdale, the city Wicked Lovely is set in. Aislinn apparently prefers in to the bright, shiny, happy places because it has more iron, and so keeps The Fair Folk away....except when it doesn't.
George Alec Effinger's Marid Audran series takes place in the Budayeen, a 23rd century Red Light District in a Cyberpunk Muslim/Arab city.
The caravanserai area of Vorbarr Sultana in Barrayar. By the time of the later books in the series it has been cleaned up and gentrified (but you can still get into trouble in some of its back alleys.)

Live-Action TV

The 1975 Barbary Coast TV series, starring William Shatner. It took place in 1870's San Francisco's Barbary Coast district.

Music

The Toy Dolls wrote a song called "Caught Up The Reeperbahn" about the infamous red light district of Hamburg.
Porcelain and the Tramps produced a song that's actually called "Redlight District". You look it up if you want.

Tabletop Games

The city of Sharn in Eberron has three red light districts—a tacky and tawdry one, a middle-of-the-road one with the biggest changeling influence, and an arguably tasteful one.
In Exalted, the Demon City has a gold light district. This is because gold is seen as an obscene color in hell due to its association with the sun. Also, the district is a very powerful demon in her own right.
- Most such locations in Exalted are blue light districts, the colour chosen to honour the Maiden (ahem!) of Serenity. In fact, the Maiden of Serenity's office is one of these, as it's modeled after the first whorehouse in Creation and still serves as a bar, whorehouse and opium den while also serving as a divine government building.

Theatre

The musical Tenderloin features a historical example from the Big Applesauce.
The musical Les Misérables features the song "Lovely Ladies", which involves prostitutes singing about their occupation and is set in what is meant to be one of these. Starts off as the "happy" version and gradually segues into the "pitiful" version.

Video Games

Dragon Age II: Kirkwall has the fantasy equivalent of this, the "Red Lantern District". It contains the Blooming Rose Brothel. Therein lies a apostate mage (or as Isabella calls her, an 'Apostitute') that uses mind control on Templars.
Final Fantasy VII‍'‍s Wall Market in Midgar is mostly the liberal version, with a dash of hostile. It's a lot more inviting than the rest of the slums, and the girls at the local sex hotel don't seem like they're suffering from much psychological damage (the player even gets to read what they're thinking). However, the district is run by a crime lord, and it's heavily implied that women get kidnapped and forced into prostitution on a regular basis. On your first visit, one of the NPCs even suggests that you sell Aeris off to the Don.
Grand Theft Auto III starts in the Red Light District.
Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army has one. It's important all of one time, then it's only good for dialogue collecting. Oh, and some careless person left a whole clip of fire bullets in front of the giant lamp.
The Futurama video game has a level set in the Red Light District.
Would you believe there's one of these in Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box? Layton and Luke catch the owner of the Molentary Express, Mr. Beluga, walking into a cabaret and attempt to converse with the woman standing outside. Not only is she one of the show-runners, but she hits on Luke (who's only twelve) after hitting on Layton.
Nar Shaddaa, the Wretched Hive in Knights of the Old Republic II, has a Red Sector.
Duke Nukem 3D: Episode 1 Level 2 is called Red Light District. It contains a porn shop complete with private video booths, a bar, and a strip club.
Left 4 Dead 2‍'‍s DLC The Passing has some Red Light influence, in fact, the song that plays during the intro is called Dead Light District
Circuits Edge, the 1989 CRPG, was based on George Alec Effinger's Marid Audran novels (see Literature, above), and like them is set in the Budayeen, a Red Light District.
On World of Warcraft, Goldshire, a village near Stormwind, has become this, whether the developers like it or not. (It's hardly a secret, either.) As hard as it is to believe, players with female characters will often use them as strippers, prostitutes, or both, using them for laughs, gold, or even actual money. Some role-players call it "Whoreshire", "Pornshire", or by players who don't object, "The Las Vegas of WoW".

Web Comics

This panel of Goodbye Chains has Banquo revisiting the whorehouse of his youth. Banquo enjoys himself thoroughly; Colin, well... not so much.

Web Original

There's one in Fillydelphia that apparently sells transgender pins.

Western Animation

In an episode of The Simpsons, Homer is asked to take the dog to the vet to be neutered (after the dog had fathered a litter of puppies in an episode parodying 101 Dalmatians), but he feels bad for Santa's Little Helper. So Homer takes SLH to the Red Light District of Springfield, which has not only porn theatres, prostitutes, etc. for the human men, but also for dogs to enjoy. Homer even pays to play air hockey with a prostitute while SLH has some "fun" with her dog.
From the Star Trek Lower Decks episode It should come as no surprise to any Trekkie that the City Planet of Ferenginar (homeworld of the Ferengi) is both this and a "tourist trap". The city is like a science fiction version of the Vegas strip, complete with neon. Mariner states that it is what heaven would be like if God were stupid but she is nonetheless anxious to gamble at the Museum of Haggling and then Haggle at the Museum of Gambling. Even the public library has both a casino and bar (among the most popular), her friend Quimp admitting that nobody has come there for the books for over a century.