Line #161 Main/BlackBlood


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9	[[quoteright:320:[[Manga/SaintSeiya https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/black_blood.png]]]]
10	[[caption-width-right:320:Violence against humans: unacceptable.\
11	Violence against squid-people: [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman acceptable]].]]
12
13	The problem with violence is that people tend to bleed when they are stabbed. [[BloodyHorror Blood is scary]]. But changing the color of blood to something like black makes everything family-friendly, right? Pools and pools of nice, safe, black blood... Never mind the original violence.
14
15	With any luck, this is just something tacked on to fit broadcast standards, with a more realistic color used for the DVD release.
16
17	Some opt just to [[BloodlessCarnage not show blood at all]] [[Creator/FourKidsEntertainment despite any violence]].
18
19	Black-and-white comic books (which includes most, if not all, manga) generally have black blood (where it's featured) out of necessity.
20
21	Not to be confused with cases where the "blood" is ''supposed'' to be a different color, like with [[MachineBlood robots]] or some [[AlienBlood aliens]], or it's an indication of a severe condition (say, being fatally poisoned). It's worth remembering that a large quantity of blood (especially venous) will look close to black, which is where this colour choice comes from in the first place.
22
23	This is common in some video games as a form of AdjustableCensorship, where the player has the option of changing the blood color from red to something less realistic.
24
25	If you're looking for high-class aristocrats, you want BlueBlood. Speaking of blue, see BlueLiquidAbsorbent, where blood, particularly menstrual blood, is shown in blue to demonstrate the absorbency of maxi pads in advertisements. If you're looking for "black" in the sense of African, you want PassFail.
26
27	Compare RainbowPuke, where someone vomiting is depicted with rainbow colors instead of the normal to tone down the grossness.
28
29	Not to be confused with ''Manga/BlackBloodBrothers'', ''ComicBook/TheBlackbloodAlliance'', or BloodIsTheNewBlack. Or [[Film/BigTroubleInLittleChina Black Blood of the Earth.]] Or the ''[[KlatchianCoffee other]]'' Black Blood of the Earth.
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31	----
32	!!Examples:
33	[[foldercontrol]]
34
35	[[folder:Advertising]]
36	* The trailer for ''Film/HollowMan'' edits the color of the blood used in a JumpScare to find the invisible man to a dark brown color, making it look like the character threw coffee.
37	* The trailer for ''Film/TheMist'' retouches the blood to a black color on the face of a man who runs into the store for shelter. This is also done for the blood on the safety rope and the bloody hand-print left on the window, despite the split-second nature of these shots.
38	* Trailers for ''Film/ResidentEvil2002'' showed zombies doused in blue gore. This was not the case in the actual film.
39	[[/folder]]
40
41	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
42	* Italian dubs of various anime edit blood in many ways: sometimes they just recolor it in black/brown (as in most of the above examples), sometimes they just make the whole scene either in black and white (''Manga/CaseClosed'', ''Manga/OnePiece'') or in sepia tones (''One Piece'', only in the Alabasta arc although)... but the most absurd one was in the earlier episodes of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', where they not only made the blood black, but also gave ''grey skin'' to the bleeding characters. The scene in episode 6 when Naruto stabs his hand with a kunai becomes very [[{{Narm}} narmful]], with a lot of scenes showing his grey skin while his clothes, hair and ''everything else'' are still in full color.
43	* ''Manga/ZeroSevenGhost'' uses this from the first episode, when they bother to add in the blood at all. Very frustrating if you've read the manga and know the blood ought to be there when it isn't. Later in the series, the blood displayed becomes neon red, or magenta, but definitely not what real blood looks like!
44	* In ''Manga/{{Akira}}'' when Tetsuo makes three people explode most of their blood is black.
45	* One of the sillier instances of Black Blood happened in Episode 13 of ''Manga/BambooBlade'' for PsychoLesbian Reimi's {{nosebleed}}. There was no reason for it to be black, but it was.
46	* In ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', blood is only colored red when it drips on the floor. The movies tend to depict blood as red more often.
47	* In ''Anime/CControl'', during a deal, Entrees lose their money through this whenever slashed [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe or otherwise]]. However, this is symbolic: black blood could also mean [[{{Pun}} leaking]] [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything oil]].
48	%%* Just about every murder scene in ''Manga/CaseClosed''.
49	* ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'''s anime adaptation is usually able to depict blood as red, as it originally aired late at night on several channels in Japan. However, the theatrical release for the ''Mugen Train'' movie has a few key scenes where particularly big splashes of blood are colored black, such as Tanjiro's desperate maneuver to escape Enmu's dream world and the final battle clash, though afterwards the home release on Blu-Ray and DVD corrected that, making it red.
50	* Like the ''Transformers'' comics, this is [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in ''Manga/DigimonVTamer01'', where most of the characters are not actual organisms. Red blood does appear occasionally though.
51	* ''Franchise/DragonBall'':
52	** During the Saiyan Saga, Goku bleeds black during the battle with Vegeta.
53	** Piccolo and other Nameks bleed purple blood in ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', but it should be noted that both Piccolo Sr. and Piccolo Jr. had bleed red blood in some instances before they were revealed to be aliens - the former when he was bitten on the thumb and got a hole in his stomach (triggering his explosive death) and the later when he got his arm severely injured during his fight with Goku on the Budokai tournament, and severed his very own arm (only to regrow it again in a matter of seconds, as well as in the fight with Raditz). In the American censored version of the fight with Raditz, Piccolo Jr.'s red blood was edited to be green, invoking this trope. After it was revealed that he was an alien and his blood was retconned to be purple, it was no longer edited.
54	** In the censored TV versions of ''Anime/DragonBallZKai'', all of Goku, Gohan, Krillin, and Vegeta's blood is a brown-ish-black-ish color.
55	* In ''Manga/FairyTail'', most - if not all - blood has been censored out of the anime, replaced with either comical injuries (lumps, red-marks) and thus played for laughs in the less serious moments, or a GoryDiscretionShot and/or darkened streaks or patches in more serious moments to imply where blood had either dried or been wiped away. The only times so far that this was ever solidly averted was in the movies ''Phoenix Priestess'' and ''Dragon Cry'', where the injuries were both shown openly and bled freely, and in anime scenes where the characters actually or almost died from blood loss [[spoiler:such as with God Serena getting torn open by Acnologia and when Juvia and Gray stab themselves to try and save the other]].
56	** Of course, this is completely averted in the manga, where characters often bleed during fights.
57	* ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'':
58	** Being a popular Shonen series, and also being produced before the days when violent anime was screened during the night, desaturated, typically-glowing white blood was the ''only'' way that ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' could air on television ''at all.'' Of note is that this decision seems to have satisfied the censors enough to leave the series' trademark martial arts and killing techniques completely intact.
59	** There is some genuine red blood in the anime TV series, most notably when Shin cripples Kenshiro in their first fight. You will never see it when Kenshiro makes a random mook's head violently explode, however. As a general rule of thumb, if the wound is minor (such as Kenshiro being subject to PaperCutting) or if the character in question has ''finished'' bleeding, the censors were okay with it - so, red blood on characters or on the floor/other objects was okay, but not if it was in motion.
60	** Averted in the 1986 film by Creator/ToeiAnimation in its full-gorifed glory and film series by North Star Pictures.
61	* ''Manga/{{Inuyasha}}'':
62	** While the manga always depicts characters' blood as red in colored artwork, the anime makes use of this trope frequently -- blood is most likely to look darker on characters wearing darker clothes. This can have the odd effect of making the wounds of the [[BringMyRedJacket red-wearing protagonist]] ''more'' jarring.
63	** Averted in [[TheMovie the movies]]; like in the manga, blood is always red.
64	* In ''Anime/{{Kaiba}}'', blood is ''green''. This is consistent with the fact that 90% of everything in the setting looks like a Picasso painting, architecture included.
65	* Gen Shishio from ''Manga/{{Kekkaishi}}'' seems to bleed ''white'' blood.
66	* ''Literature/KingsGame The Animation'' is a horror series where characters frequently die bloody deaths, but blood is colored dark brown instead of red.
67	* Downplayed in ''Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid''. The blood from the wound that Tohru had when she first met Kobayashi was black, but the blood sent flying when Kobayashi pulled out the sword was dark red.
68	* ''[[Anime/TsukuyomiMoonPhase Moon Phase]]'' uses red blood for minor wounds (vampire bites), but switches to black when someone gets a hole dug into their chest.
69	* ''Manga/MyBrideIsAMermaid'' opts for sprays of clear/rainbow-tinted fluid, an effect retained in the DVD release. (Probably a ShoutOut to ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' which used the same manner of censor and yet still managed to be awesome in spite of itself.)
70	* Not ''all'' of the blood in ''Anime/MyselfYourself'' is black, just everything greater than a scratch on the finger.
71	* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
72	** The anime adaptation rarely uses this trope, but it makes an exception when Gaara kills three competitors during the Chuunin Exams, a scene that featured more blood than the rest of the series combined. The black color of the blood might be a result of the blood thickening the sand.
73	** Also, the Brazilian release drastically darkened Hinata's blood on Naruto's hand after her defeat at the Chūnin Exam preliminaries.
74	** The German TV release apparently thought [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids Naruto is great for elementary students]] and decided to censor it, sometimes making the blood black, sometimes censoring it to the point of ''deleting all the corpses'' (which ends up quite hilarious in the scene with the memory of Sasuke where he runs through [[spoiler:his former hometown, only to find everyone dead, including his parents]], since he freaks out over nothing).
75	* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'':
76	** In the anime, the few times Ash is cut onscreen he bleeds black. What's odd is that you see the blood fly through the air very dramatically, but his clothes remain uncut. The reason as to why Ash's blood is black is likely because of the animation style.
77	** {{Averted\|Trope}} a few other times, like when Misty got cut on a vine or when N got attacked by a Pokemon.
78	* ''Manga/RaveMaster'' does this. The most obvious example is the second opening which has short scene with Haru's face covered in black good.
79	* In ''Anime/SailorMoon'''s first season, Nephrite had a HeelFaceTurn and was quickly hunted down and stabbed through the ''chest'' with branch tentacles. His blood was everywhere, but it was green so it was okay to show, even on Western Television. Curiously, the other 3 of Queen Beryl's generals all bled red whenever receiving injuries.
80	* Picture above: the heavily-censored "Knights of the Zodiac" English dub of ''Manga/SaintSeiya''. Squid-ink blood was actual Dic being subtle, right up there with [[BloodlessCarnage editing out the blood altogether]] -- other scenes painted the blood neon green and called it "fighting spirit." Since ''Saint Seiya'' is a series where many characters become OverdrawnAtTheBloodBank, this got silly very, very fast.
81	* ''VisualNovel/SchoolDays'' uses this trope (though it's red for the DVD release). Though for some odd reason, the second murder during the same episode has red blood, even in the censored version.
82	* ''Manga/VampireKnight'': In the anime. The manga actually has red blood in the colored pages.
83	* In ''Manga/WaqWaq'', almost everyone has black blood. Like ''Soul Eater'' above, it's not a form of censorship but rather a plot point: red blood is a prophesied trait of the "kami".
84	[[/folder]]
85
86	[[folder:Comic Books]]
87	* Used occasionally in ''ComicBook/{{Catwoman}}''. One notable example is in issue #23 -- when Hilary shoots Jorge in the head, there is a big puddle of black blood oozing from the wound on the floor.
88	* ''City of Silence'' by Creator/WarrenEllis and Gary Erskine uses black blood, which is weird considering how gleefully {{Squick}}y the comic is about displaying a decadent dystopia.
89	* Used in ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'' #181 when Bullseye fatally wounds Elektra by slashing her throat with a playing card and stabbing her with her own sai, although one panel features a trail of red blood as she limps over to Matt Murdock's apartment.
90	* In ''ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHeroMarvel'' -- a ''war'' comic, albeit one in which any named protagonist or even antagonist dying is a major plot event -- blood is usually black, with the occasional redness in the "glossy patch" (where a bit of white would be on an oil slick to show that it was reflective).
91	* This trope crops up in the ''ComicBook/GreenLantern1941'' origin story. After the bridge he's working on is blown up, Alan Scott retrieves the body of one of his colleagues, absolutely drenched in blood, but looking like India ink.
92	* ''ComicBook/HardBoiled'' utilizes black blood, may be justified in the case of the protagonist since he's a robot.
93	* ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW'': In issue 3, when Chrysalis kills a kitten, there is black blood. It not being red, coupled with the actual killing being offscreen are probably the only reasons this scene was allowed.
94	* Wounds geyser what looks like mud in quite a few Creator/MarvelKnights-era ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'' stories.
95	* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
96	** The Pre-Crisis story ''ComicBook/ActionComics'' #544, introducing the revamped, SkeleBot9000 version of Brainiac, shows Superman taking what was, at that time, an unprecedentedly graphic beating. His blood is colored black, and frankly, that just makes it ''creepier.'' Then again, this was the brief period in the mid-'80s when Gil Kane was inking his own work, lending a very surreal look to his normally very realistic pencils. The black blood is just one more factor making the already weird images start to veer into nightmare territory.
97	** At some points in ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfSuperman'', Superman's blood is black as Doomsday cuts him, but not all the time.
98	* In ''ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesAdventures'' #54 after The Mighty Mutanimals are shot to death by The Gang of Four, black blood is seen oozing from their bodies.
99	* Used when Franchise/{{Tintin}} is shot in the shoulder in ''[[Recap/TintinTheBlueLotus The Blue Lotus]]''; the adventure was drawn and originally printed (both in ''Le Petit Vingtième'' and in album form) in black and white. When it was republished in a colorized version over a decade later (in 1946) most of the original linework was left untouched.
100	* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel'': Justified, since most of the important characters [[MachineBlood are robots]].
101	* ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'' had Peter Parker come home to find Uncle Ben dead and black bloodstains on the carpet.
102	* In Issue #8 of ''ComicBook/WestCoastAvengers2018'', when Gwen cleaves through a dozen Masque minions with her katanas, all their blood is black. Gwen lampshades this, noting "this will be way less bloody than usual... probably."
103	* The ''ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'' series is kind of notorious for it. In the hands of a bad artist, it can look like just blotched inking.
104	[[/folder]]
105
106	[[folder:FanWorks]]
107	* Eren has black blood in "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13858618/1/ Attack on Titan A New Path]]'' since he possesses the Grimmified Founding Titan. It also acts as [[FertileBlood Grimm liquid]] from which he can make Beowolves.
108	* In ''Fanfic/DamonaInTheDetails'', [[VideoGame/YokaiWatch Damona]] briefly bleeds black blood after Jibanyan scratches her.
109	* ''Fanfic/DanganronpaDarkenedHope:'' As in the canon Danganronpa artstyle, the blood is neon pink.
110	* Salem from ''Fanfic/RubyAndNora'' is said to bleed black blood after [[spoiler:Pyrrha]] cuts her.
111	* In ''Fanfic/RWBYScars'', it's shown that Grimm bleed black.
112	[[/folder]]
113
114	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
115	* The animated movie ''WesternAnimation/TheBatmanVsDracula'', while it had a few drops of red blood, but switched to black when [[spoiler:Vampire Joker spilled the entire contents of a blood bank's vault]].
116	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid\|1989}}'' Ursula has black blood first seen when Eric shoots a spear at her cutting her arm, then when he kills her by ramming her with the mast. Somewhat justified - Ursula's top half is human, and her bottom half is octopus-like. Cephalopods like octopi and squid have blue blood, which when mixed together with red human blood, might in fact come out somewhere close to black.
117	* ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'': Unlike the liters of bright red blood from his source material, [[Franchise/MortalKombat Kano]] ripping the zombie's heart out online sprays a few drops of purplish goo.
118	[[/folder]]
119
120	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
121	* ''Film/ThreeHundred'' had incredibly dark blood.
122	* PlayedForHorror in ''Film/ColorOfNight''. Psychiatrist Bill Capa suffers from a psychological condition where he is no longer capable of seeing the color red after a traumatic experience. Unfortunately, a serial killer starts targeting his new patient group. While investigating the home of one of the victims, who happens to be an erotic painter, Capa sees a pool of black paint on the floor in his studio. You can see where this is going.
123	* It might not really be blood, but when Silent Bob breaks open Azrael's chest in ''Film/{{Dogma}}'', there's lots of black evil.
124	* For ''Film/EvilDead2'', director Sam Raimi attempted to keep his R rating by filling the Deadites with every color of fluids ''except'' red. And then splatter it all on Bruce Campbell at once. It didn't work and the movie got slapped with an X rating anyway, so they opted to release it unrated instead.
125	* Parts [[Film/FridayThe13thPartVIITheNewBlood seven]] and [[Film/FridayThe13thPartVIIIJasonTakesManhattan eight]] of the ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'' series have much darker blood that the previous films, probably because the [[MediaWatchdog MPAA]] was really cracking down on horror films in the late 80s.
126	* ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn'' features buckets and buckets of blood, but the vampire blood is green and not red. According to Word of God (on the DVD commentary), this was because the censors were OK if the blood was green.
127	* The ''Film/{{Gamera}}'' films feature different colors of blood depending on which monster is bleeding. Gamera himself bleeds green, while Space Gyaos bleeds purple, to name two examples.
128	* The trailer for ''Film/KillBill Volume 1'' digitally retouched the blood on the Bride to a black color for the scenes from the fight with the Crazy 88, just to get an All Audiences rating for it. In the movie itself, that fight scene was partially turned to black and white for the US release for a similar reason; audiences elsewhere got to see the gore as Tarantino intended. A few shots from the black and white sequence were shown in full color during the end credits for ''Volume 2''.
129	* In George A. Romero's ''Film/LandOfTheDead'', a lot of the blood was actually digitally colored black in order to work it's way down to an R-rating for theaters. The Uncut DVD fixes this, and shows young girls a reason why navel piercings are a baaaad idea.
130	* ''Film/ThePrincessBride'' uses copious amounts of Black Blood, particularly during Westley's fight with the ROUS and Inigo's duel with Count Rugen.
131	* Creator/AlfredHitchcock famously shot ''Film/{{Psycho}}'' in black and white, specifically so he could use chocolate syrup to represent Janet Leigh's blood in the shower scene.
132	* In ''Film/RunSweetheartRun'' when [[spoiler:Ethan]] is exposed to [[spoiler:sunlight]] he is shown to have black blood.
133	* Film/Saw3D is infamous for having pink blood, an especially egregious characteristic given that this film is also BloodierAndGorier than previous films in the Franchise/{{Saw}} series. This, instead of being a form of censorship, was a deliberate choice by the filmmakers to ensure the blood looked red in 3D, but for whatever reason it was not colour corrected back for the 2D release.
134	* Meanwhile, ''Film/SinCity'' has white blood. Or, in one particular case, ''yellow'' blood. This is an artifact of the comics it's based on, which are entirely black and white (no gray!) except for the yellow Junior (and his blood). It's worth noting however that it changes from shot to shot and story to story. In "That Yellow Bastard" the blood is always white, save for the Bastard's, but in "The Hard Goodbye" pretty much all the blood is bright red (in the commentary the directors noted that the black blood just made Hartigan's face look muddy instead of beaten to a pulp, [[EnforcedTrope so they had to make it red]]). "The Big Fat Kill" throws consistency out the window in favor of interesting visuals. One character is shown with his hand blown off and spewing white blood, but when his throat is slashed, red blood splashes on another character's face.
135	* ''Film/{{Stardust}}'': When Prince Primus' throat is slit he turns out be a literal BlueBlood. Creator/MatthewVaughn confirmed that they had to use a different color for ratings reasons and decided to go with the pun.
136	* ''Film/TaxiDriver'' uses foamy pink blood during the climactic scene where Travis Bickle goes on a one-man killing spree. Actually, it's the entire scene that had been desaturated to make the blood less offensive.
137	* The New Zealand psychological thriller ''Film/TheUgly'' had literally black blood. According to [[{{Website/Wikipedia}} TOW]]: "Author John Kenneth Muir writes in his book, ''Horror Films of the 1990s'', about how this visual cue may suggest that Simon (the film's serial killer) never saw his victims as being human, making it easier for him to kill."
138	* Seen in ''Film/TheWitches2020'' when The Grand High Witch cuts her hands on the fans when trying to grab the children who were turned into mice through the vent.
139	[[/folder]]
140
141	[[folder:Literature]]
142	* ''Literature/BoneSong'' by John Meaney is set in Tristopolis, a CityNoir where humans live side by side with fantastic creatures, including black-blooded [[RevenantZombie Revenant Zombies]].
143	* Orcs and other evil creatures in the ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' universe are sometimes described to have black blood, though whether this is literal or figurative is left as an exercise to the reader. (It's ''probably'' not figurative, since the black blood of Gothmog's troll guards caused Hurin's axe to smoke and wither in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion''.)
144	* Blood is sometimes described this way in ''Literature/TheRedTent'', particularly when it results from particularly tragic deaths, such as DeathByChildbirth.
145	[[/folder]]
146
147	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
148	* In ''Series/The100'', 'nightbloods' are people with black blood who can withstand radiation. It is both genetic and can be made in a lab.
149	* In ''Series/{{Helix}}'', this is {{justified\|Trope}} as a marker of infection with {{the virus}}es NARVIK-A and NARVIK-B. NARVIK-A infectees hemorrhage to death and liquefy into a black mess, while NARVIK-B infectees develop highly visible TaintedVeins and begin to excrete black mucus and BadBlackBarf from their mouths.
150	* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' is guilty of this in at least two episodes. In the first, it was justified in that the guest character was Cyborg of ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' fame and it wasn't blood but mech fluids (keeping in line with the comics). In a later episode that pitted General Zod against Clark, Clark gets a bloody lip that bleeds black blood (which is odd, as Clark has been shown to bleed red blood several times before).
151	* In ''Series/TrueBlood'' (ironically), you can see [[spoiler:Maryann's]] black blood (and heart) when [[spoiler:Sam kills her]].
152	[[/folder]]
153
154	[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
155	* Papa Shango, the voodoo practitioner of the early 1990s WWF, literally could as part of his gimmick make his opponents (or, at times, Wrestling/UltimateWarrior or "Mean" Gene Okerlund) ooze black blood ... and he didn't have to be anywhere near the arena to do this!
156	* Mostly seen in the late-90s and up, recaps of bloody matches would be shown with the color out.
157	* And oddly enough, a forgotten character in early-'90s WCW was called "Black Blood."
158	[[/folder]]
159
160	[[folder:Video Games]]
161	* If you [[AdjustableCensorship turn off the "Gore" option]] in ''VideoGame/AlienHominid'', enemies spray flowers when stabbed.
162	* In ''VideoGame/AlienQuarantine'', aliens bleed green blood.
163	* ''VideoGame/ANNOMutationem'': In a PensieveFlashback when Ann sees the memory of [[spoiler:her SuperpoweredEvilSide emerging that caused her to lose control, attacked Ryan]] and [[EyeScream struck his eye]], the blood from the injury is colored white.
164	* The halls of Arkham Asylum in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'' are liberally decorated with black smears and splatters. This was originally intended to be blood, but was changed prior to release so that the game could get away with a T rating.
165	* In ''VideoGame/BendyAndTheInkMachine'', black ink is used as blood for the ink monsters.
166	* Appropriately (yet strangely for an M-rated game); the game ''VideoGame/{{Black}}'' has no blood at all, but rather sparks and black fragments (shredded kevlar?) emit from enemies.
167	* ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'':
168	** In the European and Australian versions of ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaBloodlines'', all of the blood is replaced with what appears to be water. Also the realistically gross-looking reddish zombies were recolored a comical shade of green.
169	** The Scarecrow enemies in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'' have green blood instead of red, the only such example in the entire game, in fact. Perhaps done as a minor concession to good taste, since the enemy --a male or half-naked female corpse, gorily impaled on a pole-- is already rather gruesome even with green blood.
170	** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDissonance'' features pink blood. Rather than censorship, this is most likely due to the game's rather garish color palette [[note]][[VideoGame/CastlevaniaCircleOfTheMoon the previous entry]] was criticized due to being too difficult to play in the original GBA owned to a [[BackThatLightUp lack a backup light]]. ''Harmony of Dissonance'' overcompensated by having plenty of color saturation that ''also'' attracted some criticism.[[/note]]
171	* ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'' uses neon pink for its blood, though [[StylizedForTheViewer characters still describe it as red]]; contrary to common misconception by the fanbase, this wasn't to avoid any ratings issues (as the game already gets a high content rating for many other reasons) but was a conscious decision on the part of the devs to make the atmosphere less grim and more "psychopop". However, this only applies to fresh blood. Dried blood is depicted as dark red. This carries over to all titles in the franchise with the exception of ''Anime/DanganRonpa3 - Future Arc'', where the comparatively more grim atmosphere is accompanied by more naturally red blood. Early builds of the first game can also be seen with red blood as well. In ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'', this even applies to [[spoiler:Mechamaru [[MachineBlood bleeding oil]]]], which is colored light blue.
172	* ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'': The ''Souls'' games give you the option to change the blood to "mild" (black), or "off."
173	* The US console release of ''VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}} 3'' uses ''white'' blood, which, at best, makes it look like sand or kitty litter. And, just to make things utterly nonsensical, Jedah's blood-based attacks are still rendered in the same color they were in the arcade. The effect this had on Dmitri's super attack is legendary. First he turns his opponent into a pretty female (if necessary), then he bites their neck, which causes a pool of blood to form directly under them. But in the censored version, it forms a pool of ''white fluid''. The result looks nearly pornographic.
174	* ''VisualNovel/DokiDokiLiteratureClub'': The Platform/PlayStation4 and Platform/PlayStation5 versions of ''[[UpdatedRerelease Plus]]'' change [[spoiler:the scene where [[https://youtu.be/Uv99i-hkBSQ?t=8574 Yuri stabs herself to death]]]] to have black blood instead of red, as is the case in every other version of the game.
175	* The international versions of the Platform/NintendoEntertainmentSystem port of ''VideoGame/DejaVu1985'' changes the dead alligator's blood from red to black.
176	* ''VideoGame/DestroyAllHumans'' usually opts for BloodlessCarnage instead, but when you use the [[AnalProbing anal probe]] to make someone's head explode, it bursts in a shower of ''green'' blood.
177	* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'':
178	** ''VideoGame/DigimonStoryCyberSleuth'' renders all blood neon pink. This is most noticeable during a cutscene in ''VideoGame/DigimonStoryCyberSleuthHackersMemory'' which has a GoryDiscretionShot that fills the screen with pink blood.
179	** ''VideoGame/DigimonSurvive'' instead opts to use standard black blood, which cleverly doubles as a FadeToBlack during the more violent scenes.
180	* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' inverts this, for some reason. While many characters will remark on how the Darkspawn's tainted blood is black, ''all'' blood effects are rendered in bright red, no matter the race or species of the victim. The Warden can claim that this is a common misconception and it's actually red, but it ''[[TheCorruption burns]]'' when it touches you. [[GameplayAndStorySegregation This doesn't happen either]].
181	* The [=PS2=] port of ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'' had this in all cases of blood in order to avoid a 18+ rating at a time where the CERO system was being reclassified. Oddly enough, the DS port restores the blood as red and still has the same rating as the [=PS2=] version.
182	* ''VideoGame/HouseOfTheDead'' does something similar with its "censored" release. All of the red bits that are result of the gore effects (so flesh, blood as well as some of the giant maggots) are changed to Green instead of red. However, bloody marks that appear on-screen upon getting hit are still red. Strangely, the Dreamcast port of ''House of the Dead 2'' lets you switch between red and green blood, but the damage marks are permanently set to bright orange either way.
183	* ''VideoGame/{{IMGCM}}'' uses neon pink for the blood color. Especially in demons' death sprites in the gameplay, the CG of woman's corpse in Demon's Tower dungeon intro, and [[spoiler:[[TotalPartyKill heroines' onscreen deaths scene]] in Chapter 6 Episode 5 in the first arc of the main story]]. Another one is an aversion, due to unusual color contrast of the CG scene. In the Chapter 12 Episode 5, the blood color is red in the scene where [[spoiler:the main universe Iroha gets brutally {{impaled\|WithExtremePrejudice}} by Nemesis Iroha a.k.a. her [[AlternateSelf Ultimate Magica Self]], who has become a raging FallenHero.]]
184	* ''VideoGame/InazumaEleven'' didn't had characters bleeding at all for most of its run, being aimed at kids. The first character who ever bled in the anime adaptation was Sakanoue Noboru in episode 6 of ''Orion'' after Luci Fanos cut his leg with a knife hidden in his cleat. The color of Sakanoue's blood was black.
185	* ''Franchise/JoJosBizarreAdventure'':
186	** This is likely being done in ''VideoGame/JoJosBizarreAdventureAllStarBattle'' to both mimic the black-and-white coloring of the manga as well as keep the game from venturing beyond a Teen rating.
187	** ''VideoGame/JoJosBizarreAdventureHeritageForTheFuture'' has black blood (or white in the arcade version), though it can be switched to red in the settings/by the arcade operator.
188	* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
189	** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'': Famously, the original gold cartridge version had Ganondorf vomit red blood when Link killed him, but this was changed to green in later releases, among other changes (Link still bleeds red when taking damage, however).
190	** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'' displays a brief but rather large gush of black blood when attacking Shadow Beasts.
191	** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom Tears of the Kingdom]]'': When [[spoiler:Ganondorf tears the implanted Secret Stone out of his head in preparation to swallow it and undergo the forbidden draconification rite to gain enough overwhelming power to crush Link]], the wound left in his forehead is filled with bubbling black ichor, indicating his Demon King form has this.
192	* ''VideoGame/LEGOStarWars: The Force Awakens'' replaces the bloody handprint on Finn's helmet in the film with a green stain to help keep an E10+ rating.
193	* In the ''VideoGame/TheLordOfTheRingsTheTwoTowers'' game for Platform/PlayStation2 and Platform/{{Xbox}}, not only do the orcs and trolls bleed black blood, but so do the heroes. However in the ''[[VideoGame/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing Return of the King]]'' game, the enemies bleed but the heroes don't.
194	* Initially played straight in ''VideoGame/MadRatDead'', with the Mob Rats and the Doctor bleeding yellow blood. [[spoiler:Eventually it's revealed that the deaths of the Mob Rats and the Doctor were just hallucinations.]] From then on, every character is shown to bleed red blood.
195	* In ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcomInfinite'', the blood Jedah uses in his attacks was changed from red to purple.
196	* ''VideoGame/MasterDetectiveArchivesRainCode'', the spiritual successor to the Danganronpa games, follows in its footsteps with neon pink blood for its victims. [[spoiler:This time, though, the blood is actually acknowledged as pink in-universe, and it isn't until near the end of the game that the main characters realize just how strange that is. Then you start to wonder why Yuma's blood is red whenever he bleeds during the mystery labyrinths... setting up the twist that most of the murder victims were actually homunculi.]]
197	* ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'' changed its red blood to white blood for the Japanese release. However, this does make fit as the cyborg character from ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' had artificial white blood. One character in the Japanese version did keep red blood - [[spoiler: Samuel]] - which helped reinforce the division between him, a human with a robot limb, and the full-body/almost full body cyborgs battled in most of the game.
198	* ''VideoGame/MetalSlug'' has a [[AdjustableCensorship "censored" setting]], which features ''water'' for most enemies instead of blood. Zombie blood becomes green, the pirates from ''Metal Slug 4'' bleed black, and the Amadeus Syndicate soldiers (also from ''4'') have their blood removed entirely.
199	* To match the [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings source material]], in ''VideoGame/MiddleEarthShadowOfMordor'' and ''VideoGame/MiddleEarthShadowOfWar'' orcs have black blood (although the lightning sometimes causes it to look blue), while humans have red blood.
200	* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter3Tri'' has an option allowing the player to turn off the blood splashes and the green splashes (or whatever bugs bleed) and possibly some other visual effects. This is actually justified by the game as it hints that it helps the Wii in the performance of the game if it's turned off. Either way, the blood effects are on by default.
201	* In ''VideoGame/MonsterParty'', the title screen is drenched in green stuff that was originally red in the unreleased Japanese version. Somehow, the level start screen and the entire second half of the first stage are still covered in red blood.
202	* ''Franchise/MortalKombat'':
203	** Even the franchise as a whole fell victim to this trope in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mysUcyxPY1s its Japanese version]]. Blood is green, while fatalities are presented in monochrome. However, [[EverythingTryingToKillYou stage fatalities]] were presented in full color. Apparently, it's okay if an opponent [[DisneyVillainDeath falls thousands of feet onto stone]], [[HollywoodAcid gets their flesh melted away]], or [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice hits spikes on the ceiling]] in color. Even censorship didn't save the franchise from being later banned altogether in Japan, however.
204	** The infamous SNES adaption of ''VideoGame/MortalKombat1992'' replaced blood pools with sprays of grey "sweat". WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd thought this actually made the game ''[[NauseaFuel more]]'' [[NauseaFuel disgusting]] than if they just left it as blood.
205	* ''VideoGame/NanoBreaker'' has a setting that change blood into a colourful kaledioscope of rainbow-sprays.
206	* The Japanese and European releases of ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'' turned all the blood black, which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't close to being a playable Tarantino movie. A scene involved the sequence where, after defeating a woman in battle, she commits honourable suicide by depinning a grenade and holding it in her mouth, [[YourHeadAsplode with predicable results]]. Since, just before, she told the main character that she was attracted to him, he awkwardly hugged her dead, still-standing, headless body. In the censored version, her head and shoulders were still attached, but completely black, ruining the impact. The game's sequels remain uncensored, however.
207	* ''VideoGame/{{Onimusha}}'' series:
208	** Averted in ''VideoGame/Onimusha3DemonSiege'', where there's an option for making fights even gorier (namely it allows you to bisect enemies with critical hits, though the corpses vanish almost istantly leaving no blood behind).
209	** In ''VideoGame/OnimushaDawnOfDreams'' enemies bleed red, but you have the option of changing it to green blood or to bloodless.
210	* Creator/ParadoxInteractive couldn't feature blood in their games for the Chinese releases and they couldn't remove the blood completely so they had a hard time to figure out a solution for the Chinese censorship. It ended up with a decision to make the blood black instead.
211	* In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil1: Deadly Silence'', the Nintendo DS port of the original ''Resident Evil'', blood is colored green. Fortunately, it can be switched back to red in the options menu, but green is the default for some reason.
212	* The ''VideoGame/SeriousSam'' games allow you to change the blood from red to either green or "hippie", which replaces blood smears with images of flowers and the gibs with watermelons and other fruits. You can also disable the blood (and/or gibs) entirely. The "kids" option in the [[UpdatedRerelease HD makeover]] has the blood replaced with sparkley stars, and gibs are now ''candy''.
213	* The Colossi in the T-rated ''VideoGame/ShadowOfTheColossus'' all bleed black blood when stabbed or shot. Then again, it might have looked ''weird'' if they had bled anything ''but'' black, given the [[RealIsBrown aesthetic]] of the rest of the game. "Black Blood" is actually the name of one of the tracks on the OST. Wander also vomits black blood after each Colossus battle, as well as [[spoiler: spraying a bunch when he's killed by Lord Emon's troops near the end of the game]].
214	* Early ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog'' trailers showed enemy alien characters spewing red blood when hit, but when [=ESRB=] announced a middle rating between Everyone and Teen, the developers changed the color to green. Of course, the aliens themselves are still reddish, not to mention the [[spoiler:similarity of our titular hero's red blood to his otherworldly creators]].
215	* A hidden setting in ''Franchise/SilentHill'' 1, 2 and 3 lets you change the enemy blood to green, black, or purple if red was making you feel too squeamish.[[note]] On console versions, open the Option menu and click both shoulder buttons.[[/note]] The first game is actually a bit more disturbing with black blood, because the default color is a not-very-realistic looking bright, translucent red like Kool-Aid.
216	* In perhaps the weirdest application of this trope ever, in ''VideoGame/SplosionMan'', people bleed ''meat''. And no, not as in gibs or "bloody chunks of meat" -- things like steaks, ribs, hams, sausages, and... donuts?
217	* The Korean and Japanese releases of ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'' have black blood spatters in death animations, even on Terrans. This makes some of the pro-gamer videos from South Korea look odd to western eyes.
218	* The German release of ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' and the Meet the Team shorts has the classes bleed oil instead of blood. However, the German version of the Meet the Sniper short still contains the red blood.
219	* The SNES ''VideoGame/TotalCarnage'' port had green "blood".
220	* In ''VideoGame/{{Turok}} 2'' there is an option to change the enemies' blood from red to green. [[BannedInChina Germans did not get that option.]]
221	* ''VideoGame/Wizard101'': The Blood Bat spell spits green blood. [[https://www.wizard101.com/forum/the-dorms/new-humongofrog-attack-please-2436 According to]] WordOfGod, it was originally meant to be red, but it was changed in order to ensure an E or E10+ rating.
222	* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'':
223	** In the original release of ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'', splatters of blood shown in some cutscenes were colored red. However, in the ''[[UpdatedRerelease Definitive Edition]]'', these were recolored to be black. Oddly enough, the blood on Metal Face's claws after he stabbed someone remained red.
224	** In ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3'', nearly all blood depicted is colored black. Examples include: [[spoiler:Vandham getting shot through the chest at the start of the game, leaving black blood staining his clothes]]; [[spoiler:the full flashback showing Joran's fate in which he is crushed under debris, with his blood pooling out from underneath]]; and [[spoiler:Cammuravi [[EyeScream gouging his own eye out]] to prevent himself from being [[BrainwashedAndCrazy controlled by Moebius]], leaving behind trails of black blood pouring out from his empty socket]].
225	* In the [[Platform/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem SNES]] version of ''VideoGame/ZombiesAteMyNeighbors'', all of the blood that was present in the Platform/SegaGenesis version is replaced with an unidentified purple slime.
226	[[/folder]]
227
228	[[folder:Web Animation]]
229	%%* The Proles in ''WebAnimation/LuckyDayForever''.
230	* Season 10 of ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'' feature the Chaingun Twins as new additions to the Insurrection's QuirkyMinibossSquad. They're able to pin down the Freelancers while the leader [[spoiler: and C.T.]] make their getaway, until Agent Florida regains consciousness and drops a crane on them, causing a massive yellow splatter. WordOfGod says this is paint and that they're (probably) human, but it's clearly intended to have this effect.
231	* In ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', any amount of blood more than a small trickle is visually represented as a burst of rose petals, ironically keeping the gore level minimal while still featuring a ton of red.
232	* ''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss'': When Blitzo is shot in ''Murder Family'', he bleeds black. This is reinforced in Season 2's ''Exes and Oohs'' where every demon killed on screen is shown to have black blood. Humans still bleed red though (and [[PaintTheTownRed a lot of it]]).
233	[[/folder]]
234
235	[[folder:Web Comics]]
236	* In ''Webcomic/DenmaTheQuanx'', usually this work depicts blood red. But once the people infected the Space disease, their blood turns black. It's apparently somewhat of a case of censorship.
237	* Averted in ''Webcomic/EarsForElves'' [[http://www.earsforelves.com/archives/632 here,]] which is surprising for a black-and-white comic. It's the only time color has been used in the main comic; the artists said that a great thing about making a webcomic was the ability to experiment.
238	* ''Roleplay/NanQuest'' uses this in a strange way. Freshly-spilled blood from wounds is black, but atmospheric bloodstains (including [[spoiler:Anna]]'s dismembered corpse) are red. In an otherwise black-and-white comic, [[SplashOfColor this is quite striking]].
239	[[/folder]]
240
241	[[folder:Western Animation]]
242	* There was a censored version of the ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'' episode "Mind Pollution", where Linka's cousin Boris cuts his arms on broken glass... and incriminating recolored puddles could be seen. (However, a different shot or two with red blood remained!)
243	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'': When the Disney Channel was finally convinced to show the BannedEpisode "Deadly Force", Elisa's pool of blood was changed to be black.
244	* ''WesternAnimation/OverTheGardenWall'': The giant dog in the first episode gets crushed between a rock and the turning mill-wheel of the Woodsman's mill, complete with a SickeningCrunch and vomiting a massive spray of Black Blood.
245	* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'': When "[=SpongeBob=] in [=RandomLand=]" references ''Fanfic/SquidwardsSuicide'', the image of Squidward used only has red pupils while the running fluids are black.
246	[[/folder]]

Context Main / BlackBlood