Space Elevators in Fiction - Anime, Comics, and Manga

Anime, Comics, and Manga

• 21st Century Fox, web comic by Scott Kellogg, depicts attempt to build a proof of concept space elevator.
• Battle Angel Alita, the floating city of Tiphares/Zalem is actually the bottom end of one of two space elevators, each located on the opposite ends of the world and joined by an orbital ring. Its sister city Ketheres/Jeru is at the opposite end of the elevator.
• Biomega, a manga series by Tsutomu Nihei, features a space elevator referred to as the "Intercontinental Mooring Cable."
• Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040, anime series, contains a skyhook throughout the series.
• Cannon God Exaxxion features a space elevator built on Earth using alien technology.
• The third episode of Cyber City Oedo 808 features a space elevator that criminal turned cop Benten rides to investigate a murder.
• Dicebox, web comic, Ch.5. The space elevator, a shimmering thread against the sky, was "obsolete years before we were born", but still a tourist attraction.
• Dirty Pair "Project Eden", anime, a James Bond-like pre-title sequence is set in a climber-car on a space elevator, one such that leads to an orbital ring habitat about an unnamed planet. It and the ring are destroyed by the end of the heroines' visit (but not their fault!).
• Eureka Seven features a starship linked to the Earth's capital by a space elevator.
• Hammer Locke, DC Comics limited series, features a space elevator under construction in mid-21st century Africa.
• Kiddy Grade, anime series, in which a space elevator combined with an Orbital ring structure is used on most populated planets.
• In Kurau: Phantom Memory, space elevators are used as spaceports for easier traveling between the Earth and a full colonized Moon.
• Legend of the Galactic Heroes, anime series, depicts a space elevator in the planet Phezzan.
• In Mobile Suit Gundam 00, all the superpowers have a space elevator (Permanent Orbital Station) of their own, linked to a Solar Power Satellite array used to harness solar energy for their use. Each elevator has two orbital stations: the lower orbital station functions as a spaceport and tourist attraction while the high orbital station houses the elevator's control facilities and provides physical access to the solar array. The partial destruction of the Africa elevator in the second season reveals that the elevators have ablative armor plates for protection against debris; purging these plates require the technical crew to jettison the counterweight at the orbital end in order to avoid the now-unbalanced elevator's complete destruction. They play a critical plot role in power balance and maintaining spheres of influence by denying electricity to rogue states.
• Nemesis the Warlock, comic strip by Pat Mills, book 4 The Gothic Empire.
• Outlaw Star, anime series, episode 14 "Final Countdown", features the problem of a falling elevator due to a terrorist attack.
• Starship Operators, anime series, episode 5 Great Escape, briefly depicts an orbital elevator ride on a fictitious planet.
• The Super Dimension Century Orguss (1983) anime TV series features a conflict over a space elevator.
• Tekkaman, anime series, depicts six "orbital elevators" located throughout Earth and locked in space by an orbital ring structure. Every episode deals with the space elevators.
• Turn A Gundam, anime series, depicts an ancient hypersonic skyhook which has been maintained operationally by nanomachines over thousands of years. An ancient mass driver is also used for transporting space-vessels from earth's surface to the skyhook.
• Zone of the Enders: Dolores, i, anime series, contains an orbital elevator early in the series, and then is the focus of the end, where someone is trying to destroy the counterweights to make the elevator collapse. Intriguing use of emergency counterweights depicted.