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A subvariety of this trope allows for a small amount of blood, looking more like a ketchup stain from a particularly sloppy lunch, to mark the location of a wound.
This was a common trope in [[Action Series]], [[Adventure Series]], and [[Crime and Punishment Series]] until
Fantasy and some historical works, similarly, will not show blood even when someone is stabbed or cut. In some examples (particularly shows geared towards younger audiences), swords and other bladed weapons will seemingly [[Flynning|only be used to clash against each other]], and never be shown to draw blood. Two swordsmen will exchange blows for several seconds, but the telling blow will be a kick or shoulder block to knock the opponent down. Scenes of the aftermath of a battle will show broken or dropped weapons, discarded shields, fallen banners, dozens of arrows, and the occasional helmet or three, but never any bodies.
A second, ''somewhat'' more humorous variation is to depict a relatively harmless conflict or game, such as
May be [[Justified Trope|justified]] in a science fiction setting using [[Energy Weapons]], although it's a common misconception that the massive heat produced by the beam would instantly cauterize the wound before it had a chance to bleed. [[Did Not Do the Research|This is not necessarily the case]]. While a laser in a movie may just knock over people with little signs of blood or burning, [[Nightmare Fuel|it's best not to dwell too much on what the wounds from such a weapon would really look like...]]
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Contrast [[High-Pressure Blood]] when the amount of blood is unrealistic by being excessive. Compare [[Symbolic Blood]] when they use a substitute involving robots or fantastical creatures that have something resembling blood. Usually goes hand-in-hand with [[Never Say "Die"]], a [[Disney Death]], and a [[Disney Villain Death]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Advertising]] ==
* The infamous [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz-sC-vSIXk Sportka ad] with the decapitated cat.
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== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[Noir (anime)|Noir]]'' is surprisingly bloodless for having a pair of gun-wielding assassins as heroes. This was originally done to placate TV censors, but was not added back into the DVD run after audiences seemed to find the effect artistic. Blood is present when you saw Kirika bleeding at the beginning of Episode 7: "The Black Thread of Fate".
* Neither of the [[Spiritual Successor|successor series]]
* Most of ''[[Death Note]]'s'' early episodes tend to avoid this trope, with occasional exceptions like when Kichiro Osoreda is run over by a car after attempting to hijack a bus, or {{spoiler|when Matt is gunned down by Takada's bodyguards.}} Of course, most deaths in the series are caused by mystically induced heart attacks, [[Justified Trope|so this makes sense]].
** {{spoiler|Light's death}} totally [[Averted Trope|averts]] this.
* Most of ''[[Lupin III]]'' uses this; Goemon and Jigen can wipe out entire armies without any visible blood spillage. This is ingrained enough into the series that when the movie ''In Memory of the Walther P-38'' used the [[Gory Discretion Shot]] instead, it just didn't feel right. The
* ''[[The Slayers]]'' is mostly bloodless for two-thirds of a seasonal run, even when Gourry slices up an entire regime of baddies. While it allows joke characters to return, the last parts of a season manage to kick up the level of blood and cast aside this trope -- notably, the second anime season warranted [[Clothing Damage]] for most of the villains, and then, in a memorable scene later on, Amelia gets a near-fatal, bloody wound from a demonic attack.
** The movies and OVA series play this trope completely straight. Any manga and the light novels, on the other hand, [[Averted Trope|avert]] this.
* ''[[Kara no Kyoukai:
* ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]'' falls straight into this in the series finale, where a character gets literally [[In the Back|stabbed in the back]] with a sword, and there is ''zero blood.'' Clean through either a lung or the stomach. Possibly justified by the fact that said character is wearing black, which blood would not readily show up on. However, there is no blood on the sword, nor is the character lying in a puddle of their own blood. There isn't even a clothing hole where the sword went through. The only thing to indicate they even got stabbed in the first place is heavy breathing and cringing. Also, for a series that centers around constant sword fights, the swords never hit an opponent during fights, just the other sword or their opponent's [[Clothing Damage|clothing]] or [[Close-Call Haircut|hair.]]
* ''[[Claymore]]'' uses this for stylistic contrast. Fights are shown with fairly little blood but several scenes show an extremely brutal aftermath.
* ''[[Hellsing]]'' surprisingly, uses this in
* ''[[Sailor Moon]]'', the episodes where the Talismans show up. Despite both Uranus and Neptune getting injured (the former shot by apparently invisible darts and the latter ripping herself free from some sort of thorny vines), neither bleeds.
** Averted somewhat in the first season, where Nephrite bleeds quite a bit before he dies. It's only somewhat averted because [[Alien Blood|the blood is green]].
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** There's a few instances in early episodes where Sailor Moon gets scraped or cut by a youma, drawing a small amount of blood that then goes away one shot later.
** Also averted with Taiki, one of the alien Sailor Starlights, bleeds briefly after squeezing a rose, poking his/her hand.
* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' generally averts this by merit of [[Non-Lethal Warfare|people not getting killed at all]], but when {{spoiler|minor
** That said, there's plenty of blood flying around when non-lethal blows are involved, especially once the cast makes it to the Magical World.
* Very definitely averted in ''Negima''{{'}}s sequel, ''[[UQ Holder!]]'' -- in the first chapter alone, we see the two main characters dismembered (and one literally sliced in half at the waist), trailing and pooling blood. ([[Good Thing You Can Heal|They get better]].)
* ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'' falls severely to this, best shown when Tsuna is sliced in the back from hip to shoulder each direction without a single drop of blood.
** This is only true of the [[Bowdlerize|anime adaption]], whereas in the manga, blood is not only frequent, but so is some pretty graphic stuff [[Eye Scream|like Mukuro activating his evil eye.]]
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** For example: episode 193, where the characters would have coughed up blood in the manga, but are made to cough copious amounts of...spit? Or stomach acid?
** An especially noticeable example is how when Kira fights Abirama, he ''[[Off with His Head|cuts his head off]]'' yet his sword has no blood on it, despite flicking the blade around as if he was trying to get off some excess liquid.
*
* The survival game in ''[[School Rumble]]'' in the original manga. Justified because well, it's a game played with BB guns. The anime adaptation originally had a few scenes with blood shown, but the dub apparently decided to take it all the way and show a pool of blood for every "death".
* Averted in ''[[Windaria]]''. Even the English version clearly shows the death of the [[Red Shirt]]s on both sides; some of them are gruesome and all of them bloody.
* ''[[Toriko]]''{{'}}s anime suffers from this, becoming quite noticeable in the Ice Hell arc -- {{spoiler|Bogie Woods's sacrum being popped out}} is accompanied by a stream of ''sparkles''.
* Despite the amount of violence with in the show, in every series of ''[[Pretty Cure]]'' so far, no one bleeds, but you can tell if someone's hurt when their clothes are dirty.
* ''[[Chirin no Suzu]]'' is a pretty violent film -- however, it has almost no blood in it, and the protagonist suffers no visible injuries despite all the beatings he receives.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
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** Even one of the illustrators, Don Hudson, thought this was odd. In the first ''Tigerstar and Sasha'' volume, rabbits, squirrels, and frogs are killed onscreen without a drop of blood, but apparently the editors didn't even like a ''clean'' dead rabbit:
{{quote|I am working on the Cat book for Tokyopop and I am at an interesting point in the story. The story involves Feral cats and life in the wild. A Feral cat stops and kills a wild hare as described in the script. I drew the layout and it was approved, but at a certain point, the powers that be wanted a change. The dead rabbit looks too creepy. I understand that the pre-teen market may not be into dead rabbits, but why write it into the script? They wanted me to change the angle to obscure the hare, messing up the storytelling. My compromise was to turn the rabbit around, and closing his eyes. It's not dead, just sleeping! No trauma, just a sleepy, knocked out bunny. ([http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_s0GsnDo9fJI/R1mEOA3z2lI/AAAAAAAAAvg/wEE_Fyub6l4/s1600-h/cat+layout.jpg Comparison of original and revised sketches])}}
* [[Comics Code]]
** Or with Marvel Comics, where people would bleed black goo.
* [[DC Comics]] had [[Lobo]], where enemies, for a time, had a vested interest in ''not'' making him bleed. [[From a Single Cell|Because that only produced backup.]]
* The British Commmando Comics. In almost
* In a 1954 ''[[Mad Magazine|MAD]]'' feature about a [[Bowdlerise]]d [[Film of the Book]], a character being shot to death pleads, "Aim it where the bullet holes won't show!" Afterwards, the killer expects there to be blood all over everything (as in the book) but realizes that there's no blood at all since he's in a movie.
* Wolverine's claws would, when used on any
* While ''[[Nth Man: The
* This is a staple of the works of [[Sergio Aragones]], which help emphasize their cartoony nature. Even a title centered on wanton destruction and warfare like ''[[Groo the Wanderer]]'' will seldom show anything more than someone clutching their abdomen while (black) blood oozes between their fingers.
* ''[[Sonic the Comic]]'' was considerably more violent then most versions of the series, but it lacked any blood whatsoever.
== [[Eastern Animation]] ==
* The Soviet ''[[Jungle Book]]'' has an extreme example. [http://youtu.be/vYGjpILyI2U?t=4m26s The epic battle between the wolves and the red dogs] is animated as a several minutes long fight sequence with two whole canine armies and not a drop of blood in sight. The red dogs just get a bit shaggy or drop straight dead.
== [[Film]] ==
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* The ''[[Dark Knight Trilogy]]'' uses this to keep its PG-13 rating. It's not as much not being blood, as the worst injuries aren't shown in great detail and are only on-camera very briefly. This eventually gets rather ridiculous, since it's a brutal movie except for the bloodless part. The Joker even gives a ''Chelsea Grin'' to a guy, and there's no bleeding.
** Christopher Nolan's next movie, ''[[Inception]]'', also is almost entirely bloodless with the exception of a main character getting hit by a single bullet. Since his wound is of major importance for the following scenes, its examined closely, but even so it's very small with a relatively small amount of blood.
* ''[[
** In the BBC version of the movie, the ''entire screen'' turns red during Maugrim and Peter's fight. When Peter stabs him, there is no blood.
** This happens in the second movie too. A man gets his throat slit and not only does he die instantly rather than bleeding out, but no blood was involved at all. Perhaps it was because a mouse wielding a mouse-sized sword was the one that hit him.
** However, blood is shown outside of battle scenes such as Edmund's healing or Miraz being held at swordpoint.
* The slaughter of Frank Castle's entire extended family in the 2004 ''[[The Punisher|Punisher]]'' film is almost totally bloodless, the only exceptions being himself (though he obviously survives), his father and several goons. In the director's commentary, Jonathan Hensleigh explains that watching over two dozen innocent men, women and children being brutally gunned down would have been even harder to watch had blood packs and squibs also been used.
* One [[Egregious]] example in ''[[Elephant]]'', when a student, annoyed at all the noise outside in the hall and unaware that the commotion is because of two people shooting up the school, walks outside to tell them to be quiet. After he gets shot, there is a
* This trope is very common in the pre-1990s ''[[James Bond (film)|James Bond]]'' films. [[Mooks]] are always shot in the chest by Bond, die instantly, and go down cleanly with nothing more than a mild grunt.
** ''[[GoldenEye (film)|GoldenEye]]'' has bloodless deaths as well, most notably when Bond shoots all those guards in the Russian prison.
** There are rare exceptions. Bond headshots a Soviet soldier in ''[[Octopussy]]'', and the entry wound and trail of blood are very obvious. In a few instances, entry wounds and squibs can be seen (such as in the tanker battle in ''[[The Spy Who Loved Me]]''). The film ''[[Licence to Kill]]'' was notable in that it showed more graphic and realistic violence than the series had before.
** A particularly strong example of the trope in action is in ''[[Quantum of Solace]]'' where Bond murders a disabled bad
* Despite having one of the biggest body-counts in action movie history, ''[[Equilibrium]]'' is for the most part bloodless with its violence. In fact, it pulls off an unusual variation. Every bullet impact is shown, often in loving slow motion, but with black powder squibs. The only blood squib used in the film is for a particularly brutal broken arm. This gets slightly surreal when the main character slices a chunk off one of his opponents, which then slide off (again in slow motion) without a trace of the red stuff. Meanwhile, his sword is beaded by a single drop of white fluid.
* This was standard in old Japanese samurai films. Despite the horrific cutting power of the katana in skilled hands, there was never so much as a drop of blood, much the less missing limbs, spilled viscera or rolling heads that sword confrontations normally left.
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* Spoofed in ''[[Hot Shots Part Deux]]''—there was a scene where Charlie Sheen's character, a Rambo parody, shot up dozens and dozens of enemies while a body count was tallied. Not a single drop of blood was even seen onscreen during the faux carnage. But after the tally passed about 100, a caption called the movie "more violent than ''[[RoboCop]]''"; after more kills, "more violent than ''[[Total Recall]]''"; and after about 250, called it "the bloodiest movie ever". Not bad for PG-13.
** Topper does have a record number of kills in that movie. It's actually 103 according to body count lists, and the higher ones came out later.
* Also spoofed in ''[[UHF (film)|UHF]]''. During George's ''Rambo'' fantasy sequence, he sweeps an automatic rifle along a line of [[Mooks]] on a hillside. A moment later, they bloodlessly collapse
* While ''[[The Matrix]]'' has ''some'' blood, at the end of the first movie we see agent Smith pump Neo full of lead from his Desert Eagle. Now, maybe tiny .22 bullets would indeed cause the tiny wounds and minimal blood loss we see in the scene, but the smallest bullet a Desert Eagle can shoot is the .357 magnum, and a magazine's worth of those in the chest would practically tear a torso to shreds.
* In ''[[Star Wars]]'', there are many instances of people getting limbs or heads cut off during lightsaber duels, but there is never any blood. This is [[Justified Trope|justified]] in the [[Expanded Universe]], where it is explained that lightsabers cauterize any wounds that they make.
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'''Danson''': (relieved) Really?
'''Biff''': Sure... Laser fire cauterizes the wound. You'll be dead before ya have a chance to bleed. (Cue Danson feeling petrified instead of relieved) }}
** Moves into [[Fridge Horror]] in the case of decapitation. Cauterization of the wound by a lightsaber traps enough blood in the brain for a victim to survive up to
* Speaking of Lucas, the original ''[[Indiana Jones]]'' movies had a decent of blood for non-R Rated films, but as pointed out by Mr Plinkett of [[RedLetterMedia]], ''[[Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull]]'' hardly has any onscreen gun violence or death, and the few corpse shown on screen only have a small strand of blood on the back.
* Gunshots in the ''[[Death Note]]'' film are entirely bloodless, despite still killing people. Most [[Narm|noticeable]] when {{spoiler|Naomi}} commits suicide.
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** It's the killed humans' daemons that turn into golden sparks when killed, not the humans themselves. Ironically, this special effect probably allowed the filmmakers to embrace this trope more fully than usual, because they didn't even need to show anyone's body falling to the ground to confirm that a blow was lethal. If a daemon goes "poof", somebody bit it.
* ''[[The Black Hole]]'' offers an example even more [[Egregious]] than the ''Elephant'' example quoted above: Alex Durant is gored through the chest by Maximillian's high-speed saw-claw, and not a drop of blood is seen. Even Kate, who is ''standing right next to him as this happens'', comes out clean as a whistle.
* In ''[[Salt]]'', there is no blood in the movie, save for when Angelina Jolie's character gets punched in the nose. And then she's just gushing the stuff.
* In the ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' episode ''[[The Unearthly]]'', a man is shot point blank, with no blood. This is then lampshaded with, "Wound! We need a wound here!"
* At the beginning of [[Woody Allen]]'s early film ''[[Bananas]]'', El Presidente is shot several times, point blank, with a [[Hand Cannon|big gun]], and there's not a drop of blood.
* This happens at the end of ''[[Gran Torino]]'' when {{spoiler|Walt is by shot by a variety of pistols and sub-machine guns. All that is seen is trickle of blood running down his arm, which is odd considering the movie was going to be R-rated no matter what the content of that scene was.}}
* In ''[[Scotland, PA]]'', the one scene with blood is when {{spoiler|1=Joe McBeth gets [[Impaled with Extreme Prejudice]]}}. The rest of the violence occurs just off-screen, with nary a blood spatter.
* Despite being the movie adaptation of one of the [[Bloodier and Gorier]] games of its time, the ''[[Mortal Kombat
* Strangely inconsistent in ''[[High Noon]]'', where a fistfight halfway through leaves Kane covered in blood, but those killed in the gunfight at the end just fall over.
* In ''[[Iron Man (film)|Iron Man]]'', dozens are people are killed throughout the film, without any blood splatter whatsoever. Presumably this was to give it a lower rating.
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* In ''[[John Q]]'', the heart donor who's wheeled into the O.R. for organ harvest looks like she's fresh from the hair salon, not a highway collision sufficient to render anyone brain-dead.
* [[Lampshaded]] by director Stephen Sommers in his commentary on the huge gun battle in ''[[The Mummy Trilogy|The Mummy Returns.]]''
* The [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|''TMNT'' movies]]. Also true in the cartoon, but not so with the comics.
* ''[[Mystery Team]]''. Most of the carnage is implied, culminating in:
{{quote|{{spoiler|'''Police Officer''': Someone stole that man's face!}}}}
* ''[[Django]]'' was banned in several countries because of a scene where someone's ear is cut off in full, bloody detail. Despite this, the gun battles are completely bloodless, even when people are riddled with dozens of bullets. Only one person killed by a gun bleeds, and he bleeds out his ''mouth'' instead of from his wound.
* ''[[Harry Potter (film)|Harry Potter]]'': Played straight as spells don't leave
* In ''[[
* The [[Slasher Film]] ''Bloody Murder'', ironically enough.
== [[Live
* ''[[The Tomorrow People]]'': In "The Revenge of Jedekiah", John and Elizabeth are gunned down by soldiers with fully automatic assault rifles. Not only do they (barely) manage to survive their injuries, but when we see them sprawled on the floor, there isn't a trace of blood.
* An episode of ''[[Touched By an Angel]]'' featured several flashbacks to a blood-free crime scene. All the while, the character who was recalling it was whimpering, "There was so much blood!"
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* In an episode of ''[[Miami Vice]]'' entitled "Definitely Miami", Crockett and Zito open fire on Ted Nugent (that episode's [[Big Bad]]) after he attempts to lure Crockett to his death. Despite the fact that both of them are firing several rounds from two different angles, and with Crockett standing up and unloading his entire cartridge into Nugent, there are no bullet wounds or blood stains of any kind! Amazing!
* In ''[[Legend of the Seeker]]'', almost every episode includes Richard and Kahlan fighting and killing Darken Rahl's soldiers, but while blood is sometimes shown on the blades afterward, little if any blood seems to be gushing from wounds during battle. Then again, when people get their throats cut, there's plenty of blood gushing from the wounds.
* The episode "Trenches of Hell" from ''[[Young Indiana Jones
* ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' never depicts any blood. It either [[Gory Discretion Shot|cuts away]] or just plain doesn't show any, even in instances where there would logically BE blood (e.g. a sword fight).
** There are a few exceptions to this - in ''The Beginning of the End'', Mordred is shown bleeding after being wounded, and Arthur's blood has been shown every time he's been injured.
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* ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' - particularly after the arrival of Worf - featured bat'leth and mek'leth combat on a regular basis. Apparently, slamming the blade into the armoured belly of a charging Klingon bezerker is ''instantly'' fatal - but totally bloodless.
** Phaser-fire in the ''[[Star Trek]]'' universe in general. Stun leaves no marks, kill leaves a small burn at the point of impact, maximum setting leaves [[Disintegrator Ray|a second of glowiness and then nothing]]. No blood from the series' many shootouts. [[Explosive Instrumentation]] is much less likely to leave your [[Red Shirt]] looking like he's [[Big Sleep|just napping]], though.
== [[Video Games]] ==
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*** It really could just be down to the graphics. I mean, try rendering 3D blood in cut-scene with technology like that back then?
** It's especially jarring in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'''s Compilation, where, in the various depictions of the game's backstory, Cloud stabs Sephiroth straight through the back ''with a sword wider than his torso'' with no sign of blood or even a wound (!), and Sephiroth impales and hefts Cloud on his own sword, again with no blood. Cloud's many battles in ''[[Advent Children]]'' involve villains being clouted with his [[BFS]] repeatedly without any visible damage, despite said weaponry ''cutting off pieces of skyscrapers'', and the only blood in the entire film is a tiny trickle when Cloud is ''shot in the face at point blank'', which simply knocks off his sunglasses. [[Made of Iron]] indeed. Yet, ''[[Crisis Core]]'' ends with {{spoiler|Zack dying in an appropriately copious pool of blood after having been pumped full of enough lead to kill Godzilla.}} Despite the rest of the game unrepentantly embracing this trope. My head hurts now.
*** Not to mention that at the climax of ''[[Advent Children]]'', {{spoiler|Cloud ''gets shot through the stomach'', but all he does is <s>fall</
** ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'' too has largely bloodless carnage as well, except for the opening battle, where Squall gets a huge bloody scar ripped across the front of his face.
** ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'' doesn't feature bloodshed, even in the grim aftermath of the sacking of several cities in the first one-and-a-half discs. It's important to note that the Alexandrian soldiers involved mostly used fire, [[Justified Trope|so all the wounds would be cauterized as soon as they were made.]]
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** All ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' games do this, despite the massive melees between characters who almost all use edged weapons. Early games could accredit this to technical limitations. The later ones, however, were probably primarily to keep the rating down and maintain the tone of the game, which is not realistic at all in the first place.
*** Subverted in ''[[Fire Emblem Elibe|Fuuin No Tsurugi]]'' - {{spoiler|Hector}}'s portrait is shown with blood after {{spoiler|his fight with Narshen and Brenya}}.
* The ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' games frequently give you crime scene photos, and they are always a lot less bloody than you might expect. ''[[Apollo Justice:
** Bludgeoning wounds are one of the most common causes of death and one never sees a spot of blood or caved in skull.
* While the purposefully cartoonish and low-detail graphics may have something to do with it, the deaths in ''[[Ghost Trick]]'' are extremely clean. You never see any bleeding from gunshots or crushed bones from having something heavy fall on them. {{spoiler|Cabanela's death}} is particularly noteworthy, since {{spoiler|between the explosion that leaves him nearly incapacitated and being shot in the chest (or the [[Nonstandard Game Over]] if you swap the hard hat and smash in his face)}}, you'd think he'd at least get a stain or two on that white coat.
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* The ''[[Soul Calibur]]'' games are defined by a bunch of people hitting each other with really sharp/big/painful weapons, yet during battle, no one bleeds, bruises, or even gets cut. I guess people were stronger back in ye Olde Middle Ages.
** Although large amounts of shiny, fluorescent...energy does seem to explode out of a fighter when they get hit.
** ''Soul Calibur IV'' probably alleviates this issue a bit by letting the [[Clothing Damage|armor take the damage]] (though the intent was most likely for [[Fan Service]]).
* In ''[[City of Heroes]]'' and ''[[City of Villains]]'', no matter how much you sliced an enemy up, or punched, or shot, or made them catch on fire, or froze, they won't have any slashes, bruises, burns or have ice on their body.
** That's because no one is ever killed in COH
*** In fairness, the game never explicitly says what happens one way or the other, meaning you can decide if you have hero who just lets the medicom take over, (Or in the case of villains, one supposes just kidnaps them and uses them as hostages/leaves them in Bond-Villain deathtraps) or if they're... [[Darker and Edgier]], shall we say.
*** This might be allowable with the [[Super Strength]] or [[Hand Blast|Energy Blast]] powersets, but becomes particularly [[Egregious]] when one is using a [[Katanas Are Just Better|katanas]] or [[Kill It with Fire|fireballs]].
*** Starting with the ''Going Rogue'' expansion, though, there were missions where your goal was explicitly to ''kill'' someone (and others where you were instructed to [[Leave No Witnesses]]).
* Played straight in the original ''[[Dragon's Lair]]'', where most monsters just disappear upon being struck by Dirk's sword.
* Lampshaded hilariously in ''[[Mercenaries]]''. If a certain mission is failed (i.e. The building with the VIP inside is turned into smoldering rubble), the VIP will exclaim with his dying words: "I'm dying...not bleeding...stupid T rating."
* While ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild]]'' has more advanced graphics than most Zelda games, monsters tend to just dissolve into purple mist when slain.
* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' games there is the blood splash effect, but only when you're hit. Corpses won't have any wounds on them, and if you get shot with an arrow, you wouldn't bleed afterwards or really even notice it besides the health bar drop. You could run around town (at your normal pace) without anybody caring that you have an arrow in your gut, head, arms, legs, or any part of your body! Your Personality level wouldn't even go down if you engaged in conversation with an arrow stuck in your face!
** Going to third-person view after a battle against a few archers will reveal that your character is a walking pin cushion, with dozens of arrows protruding all over your body, none of which hamper movement in the slightest.
* Everybody of demonic origin (including the protagonist) in ''[[Devil May Cry]]'' officially has the power of "regenerates so fast wounds don't show up", although blood is seen on cutscenes. The regeneration is, of course, limited—possibly the only example of [[Hit Points]] explained in-world.
** Or is made of non organic materials. ''[[Onimusha]]'' is also somewhat guilty of this with the demons being mostly dark aura.
** Despite taking a bullet between the eyes at point-blank range in ''DMC 4'', {{spoiler|Sanctus}} really has nothing to show for it.
* Most Japanese light gun games are bloodless. Even the iconic ''[[The House of the Dead (series)|House of the Dead]] 4'' wasn't that bloody.
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** ''[[Ghost Squad]]'' is particularly guilty of this. In one part late in the game, a knife fight ensues. If the player wins, he is shown bloodlessly slitting his opponent's throat with gusto.
** Don't forget the headshot at the end of the second mission only causes [[Disney Villain Death]].
* Would you believe ''[[Mortal Kombat
** Interestingly, even in the ''goriest'' game of the series, ''[[Mortal Kombat 9]]'', the Story Mode not only doesn't allow finishing moves (since killing people would create quite a few paradoxes with the cutscenes immediately after) but the battle scars that fighters accumulate in the other modes do not appear. The fighters finish the fights as dapper as when the first round started (and yet the viciously brutal X-Ray attacks are still available to the challengers). The ''REST'' of the game, [[Gorn|on the other hand]]...
* In the N64 game ''[[Operation Winback]],'' hits on enemies were indicated by green flashes, or a red flash if you scored a headshot (which could kind of look like blood sometimes). Dead enemies would flash on and off and vanish after hitting the floor. It became especially ridiculous during cutscenes—in one you meet a dying member of your squad who claims to be "just resting." The main character replies "In a pool of blood!?" despite the surroundings being spotless. In another scene an unfortunate civilian, shot by the terrorists, dies after helping you...and flashes on and off and disappears, ''during the cutscene.''
* ''[[Gears of War
* Many games ported to the [[Nintendo Entertainment System|NES]] and [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System|SNES]] suffered from this in the pre-[[Media Classifications|ESRB]] days; ''[[Mortal Kombat (video game)|Mortal Kombat]]'' on the SNES is the most notorious example.
* Despite all the sharp weapons and other implements flying around in ''[[Tales of Symphonia]]'' and its sequel, the one time blood shows up in either game is {{spoiler|in Derris-Kharlan, at the scene of The Judged. Lloyd is invisible to two of the characters in the party, and must prove to them that he is not an illusion. He wounds himself, and his blood, now visible, proves he is there.}} The OVA, on the other hand, is quite violent.
** Well, let's say about every ''[[Tales (series)|Tales]]'' game ever. Only recent{{when}} titles started having blood, and even those who have only use it for very incredibly dramatic scenes. {{spoiler|[[Tales of the Abyss|Asch's]] death comes to mind}}.
* The ''[[Super Smash Bros.]].'' series has some characters that use swords, guns, and explosives, yet no visible signs of any kind of damage appear, as the characters are [[Living Toys]].
** The same goes for the ''[[Capcom vs. Whatever|Capcom vs.]]'' series. Gameplay-wise, fighting games tend to follow this trope. However, [[Mortal Kombat|there]] [[Samurai Shodown|are]] [[Guilty Gear|exceptions]].
* ''[[The Force Unleashed]]'', left and right. Your character has a lightsaber. No matter how hard you swing it, it doesn't even leave a mark on the ''wall'', much less actual enemies- particularly strange when one considers one of the selling points of the game on higher-end consoles was realistic physics and material simulation, such as, say... destructible environments. Maybe he just set his saber to stun.
** For fun, compare with the [[Star Wars: Dark Forces|''Jedi Knight'' series]] from ''Jedi Outcast'' onwards. Your lightsaber leaves a mark, even when idling and just scratching the wall. It disappears after a while though, but the effect lingers for longer than... oh say... the 2 seconds of what you get in TFU.
* ''[[Ace Combat]]'' series. Then again you are in a plane throwing missiles at other vehicles, not, say, pulping infantry.
* ''[[Airforce Delta]] Strike'' in the same vein.
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** They bleed because ''Warrior Within'' was [[Rated "M" for Money]].
* The [[Lego Adaptation Game]]s have characters breaking into Lego pieces upon death, and getting better immediately afterward.
* Maintained for the most part in the first two installments of the ''[[Time Splitters]]'' series, at least during gameplay, which makes the sudden aversion in the third game (which also introduced the [[Ludicrous Gibs|Inflator]]) all the more jarring.
* The ''[[Dynasty Warriors]]''/''[[Samurai Warriors]]''/''[[Warriors Orochi]]'' series use this trope very heavily, except in a handful of cutscenes. Which is just as well since Mooks die by the hundreds or thousands and the blood and [[Everything Fades|corpses]] would just get inconvenient after a while.
* Normally, ''[[Left 4 Dead
* Aversion with [[Lampshade Hanging]] in ''[[BloodRayne
{{quote|'''Rayne''': You saw the blades, what did you think was going to happen?}}
* ''[[Red Steel 2]]'' is made of this. You stab, slash, shoot, heck one move has you grab a downed enemy and smash their head into the ground ''killing them instantly.'' All without a drop of blood.
** There IS a liquid that pours out of them, particularly visible with the finishing move to the chest. It's yellowish, however, so it could be censored blood or something else entirely.
* In ''[[Tales of Monkey Island
** It gets even weirder in Chapter 4 of the same game, {{spoiler|when Guybrush finds Morgan fatally stabbed in the chest by her own Blade of Dragotta, and yet there's no blood on her body, inside or out, at all (even though he later claims that she was "coughing up a lot of blood at the time"). And after she dies, he sadly takes the blade from her chest; that blade, surprisingly, has no blood on it ''or anywhere else in De Singe's lab at all'' (even though De Singe later claims that "There was blood all over the floor instead of being packed neatly in vials where it belongs!")!}}
** And near the end of the same chapter, {{spoiler|1=when LeChuck fatally stabs Guybrush in the chest with the Cursed Cutlass of Kaflu, there's no blood on the cutlass' blade, or on either side of Guybrush's body or clothes, or anywhere else in the Flotsam Island Jungle, from his being tossed onto an encased wind idol up until his death.}}
* While the ''Zelda'' series frequently plays this trope straight, after the final battle of ''[[The Legend of Zelda:
** But only in the first releases of that game. In later versions, the blood is changed to green gooey stuff.
* ''[[Naval Ops
* The first villain in ''[[Tsukihime]]'' wiped out a whole hotel full of victims and left no trace behind. This is totally not for Bowdlerising purpose, said villain is literally so blood-thirsty to the point of decanting every last drop of blood and flesh in his reach.
** The bloodless carnage also served to provide a clue to another villain with a completely different conduct, which evidently, also falls into this trope: He sucks the victim completely dry of blood, but he leaves the corpse.
* This is the ''
* ''[[Destroy All Humans!]]'' usually [[Justified Trope|justifies]] this by restricting you to weaponry that destroys your enemies too thoroughly for there to be any blood, disintegrating or incinerating them outright. For the head
* In ''[[Dungeons]]'' nothing bleeds. You can have a hero mauled by monsters, run straight in a buzzsaw trap and get killed but still no blood.
* In ''[[Shadow the Hedgehog]]'' there is no blood OR gore. Sega planned on adding it in, but decided not to add it so the game would be rated T instead of M. You can't even actually KILL anyone besides the aliens (GUN soldiers just lie on the ground and call out for help.)
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** Most off-putting is when we see several badly wounded dwagons, damaged to the point that their ''muscles and bones are exposed''. And still they don't bleed.
** All of the terms in ''Erfworld'' are cuter and friendlier, and the physical rules of the universe actually censor swear words. The majority of the strip's comedy comes from the fact that it's a violent war waged in a world where [[War Has Never Been So Much Fun|everything is cuddly and (superficially) kid-friendly]]. To some it's comedy, to others it's [[Deconstruction|quite]] [[Crap Saccharine World|disturbing]].
* ''[[Rumors of War]]'', true to its inspiration (SNES-era [[Eastern RPG|JRPGs]], among others) contains no bloodshed. This despite one character [[Squick|having all his skin removed]], and another being the victim of [[Cold-Blooded Torture]]. No blood.
* Given that ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' is a stick figure comic, the trope is justified. Stabs and slashes leave red marks on the victim (so you can tell that the person was hit), but we never see blood splatters, and more serious wounds such as decapitations have no blood marks at all (maybe except {{spoiler|Miko}} being cut in half, but there is still just the wound mark, no blood splatter). [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0339.html This comic] is one of the most obvious ones.
* ''[[Omnitopia: The Playground]]'' uses an art style similar to the Order of the Stick. Within the first fifty strips, characters get hit on the head with a club, stabbed in the chest with a sword, and get their heads chopped up with little to no blood appearing aside from the occasional red mark showing when an attack hit.
== [[Web Original]] ==▼
▲== Web Original ==
* When Frank gets stabbed in ''[[Nyx Crossing]]'', the characters act like he's bleeding, but no blood is shown.
* The very first ''[[Madness Combat]]'' flash, in contrast to the rest of the series, has no blood at all despite Hank killing thirty characters.
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* Played straight with most of [http://www.youtube.com/user/TedCrusty TedCrusty's] videos, most of them consist of Joe being killed in ways that would be particularly gruesome [[Special Effect Failure|if they were made professionally]], [[So Bad It's Good|not that it's]] [[Stylistic Suck|a bad thing.]]
** Averted in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h70TO5rB2VA this video], [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall|but the video itself acknowledges how unrealistic the blood spray is.]]
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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*** ''After'' some of it sprays Lois' face. From a distance.
** One episode where this was cleverly used, however, was "The Enemy Below", where Aquaman cuts off his own hand to save his infant son. In order to avoid the amount of blood, what did the animators do? They had him wrap the stump with the baby's ''red'' cloth, which appears soaked when he shows up at the palace.
** In the "Splicers" episode of ''[[Batman Beyond]]'', Terry ''rips Ramrod's nosering off'' resulting in literally no ill effect to Ramrod. No blood, no nothing, he's perfectly fine.
** A woman tears out her earrings ([[It Makes Sense in Context]]) bloodlessly in an early ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' episode.
*** The pilot episode did show Terry with a bloody mouth during a battle with [[The Dragon]].
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** [[The Nostalgia Chick|"But Christian Bale is ever at the ready and manages to shoot Kocuam right in the, um... spirit?"]]
* Done bizarrely in a ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|Simpsons]]'' episode where a badger slashes Homer's torso open, [[Squick|exposing his internal organs but causing not a drop of blood to flow]].
* This is used straight in the first battle sequence in ''[[Dragonlance
** Of course, the ''[[Dragonlance]]''
* Disney's ''[[Tarzan (Disney film)|Tarzan]]'' features this twice, where {{spoiler|Clayton shoots Kerchak}}, and {{spoiler|shortly afterwards shoots Tarzan}}. In both instances, the areas where the wounds should be are shown, but are missing both blood and the wounds themselves.
* The ''[[Redwall]]'' series has Matthias cuts off Asmodeus' head onscreen, but nary a drop of blood appears.
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** [[Looney Tunes]], too.
* The first three seasons of ''[[Family Guy]]'' were mostly bloodless in their violence. A notable example is when Big Fat Paulie is assassinated by a rival gang and is pumped full of machine gun rounds with not a single drop of blood being spilled, although occasionally averted, like in the first chicken fight.
* In Disney's ''[[The Lion King]]'', Mufasa's dead body appears to be in perfect condition... even though he fell a considerable height from a cliff, and then got trampled by a herd of wildebeest, at most he appears to be just a bit beat up and his whiskers are bent.
* When Ben is killed in [[Barnyard]] he gets fatally wounded from a severe coyote mauling, like Mufasa aside from a bit of blood on his mouth and some brusing he is in otherwise seemingly good condition.
* In ''[[The Princess and the Frog]]'' {{spoiler|Ray's}} death is surprisingly clean considering he was slapped to the ground and then stepped on by Dr. Facilier, as when Louis finds him all the damage that seems to have been done is some brusing and a black eye. If someone would do this to one of his species in real life it would be quite messy.
* In ''[[Star Wars: Clone Wars]]'' anything except for the droids will fall over dead when killed, no wounds anywhere. This is probably because the droids don't have any blood in them so they can be sliced in two or ripped to pieces.
* As they are both [[Darker and Edgier]], both ''[[Ben 10:
* In ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' Robin spends all of the episode "Haunted" being beaten into a piece of raw hamburger by Slade. By the end he's got tons of bruises and scrapes, but still not an ounce of the red stuff to be seen. Though, to be fair, Robin's ''costume'' is red, so there might be some there that we just can't make out.
* In ''[[Tangled]]'', {{spoiler|Flynn is stabbed}} but there is no blood {{spoiler|on Mother Gothel's dagger.}} However, when {{spoiler|Rapunzel looks at the wound there ''is'' blood seeping over his shirt.}}
* Justified in ''[[Atlantis: The
* ''[[Invader Zim]]'' allows organs and the like to be fully exposed and other disturbing content, but not a drop of blood except for the Bloody Gir image.
** Averted in "Game Slave 2" where Gaz watches a promo for a video game which covers the entire screen with vampire piggy blood.
*** Danielle Koenig mentions this on the commentary, where they previously had to change the colour of the word
* ''[[Sym-Bionic Titan]]'' has a very noticeable example, as one character is ''[[Impaled with Extreme Prejudice|run through with a saber]]'' and despite it killing them there isn't any blood or even a wound in the next shot.
* Used to a ridiculous extent in ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' (2003) Particularly notable examples include the episode "Same as it Never Was", which features characters getting sliced, stomped on, and blown up on screen with nary a drop of blood on their corpses, and another where Leonardo loses his temper and {{spoiler|slices Splinter ''across the forehead'' during a spar. Splinter}} immediately grabs the spot and later is shown with bandages, but nothing, not even a ''red line'', can actually be seen.
*
* At the end of ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'', [[Big Bad|Judge]] [[Sinister Minister|Claude]] [[Complete Monster|Frollo]] actually falls off a balcony and to his death in the fire below, for some reason we do not see his charred remains on the ground once Quasimodo, Esmeralda, and Phoebus finally emerge out of the cathedral unharmed.
* Shockingly averted on, of all things, ''[[Dink the Little Dinosaur]]''. In the fourth episode of the series, entitled ''White Beauty''. A dinosaur [[Fantastic Racism|that has been outcast from society]] gets into a fight with Tyrannor, and Amber runs off to get help. When the gang comes back to the seen of the battle, there's a ''trail of blood'' that they follow to where the dinosaur is hiding out.
* Also surprisingly averted in ''[[The Land Before Time
* In ''[[Courage the Cowardly Dog]]'', no matter what horrible thing happened to Courage or Eustace they almost never bled.
* In
** During [[The Siege]] of Thundera. A sky full of arrows, Claudus cutting through a wave of [[Lizard Folk|Lizards]], even Claudus getting stabbed [[In the Back]] and falling into pool of water, not one drop of blood is found.
** [[Played With]] in "Song of the Petalars" the Cats cut and shoot through Lizard troops ''bloodlessly,'' but Tygra's shots are shown to ''pierce'' the Lizard's bodies.
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