A striking image for a striking... strike.
In visual media, it's important to make hits feel impactful. Through techniques like the Written Sound Effect, Hit Flash, and Hit Spark, emphasis is drawn to the collision. Alongside these methods, sparing use of Deliberately Monochrome can go the extra mile to have a scene stand out. If a normally fully colored work drops down to a single hue, that will leave a lasting image.
Compare Shadow Discretion Shot, which uses the existing scenery's shadows rather than changing the scenery altogether. May overlap with Gory Discretion Shot, as the silhouettes can hide the worst of the grossness. The Red Filter of Doom is also related. Dramatic Red Samurai Background is a specific sub-trope.
Examples:
Anime & Manga
- Fist of the North Star: Because the manga revolves around martial arts that cause opponents to die in extremely graphic ways (usually by exploding into Ludicrous Gibs), the 1984 anime adaptation relied heavily on this trope in order to make the content more suitable for daytime television. Consequently, many deaths in the show feature characters suddenly shifting to monochrome palettes or becoming silhouettes as the background changes to a solid red or white.
- Healin' Good♡Pretty Cure: When Daruizen stabs Cure Grace with a mega part, the scene is depicted with a black on red shot.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency: During the death of George Joestar II at the hands of DIO's last zombie, the camera pans away from him at the last second to a red background, before it is splattered with black blood as we hear him screaming.
- Pokémon: The Series: During Ash and Alain's final match, a lucky strike of Guillotine from Alain's Bisharp on Ash’s Goodra is met with a black and red effect.
- In the first episode of the anime adaptation of Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon one of these is use to highlight the moment of the protagonist dying after crashing into a vending machine he was trying to save and going over a cliff with it, which sets up his plot inciting reincarnation of him in a fantasy world as a sapient vending machine himself.
- YuYu Hakusho: The final hit Yusuke delivers to Bakken (from Team Masho) during the quarterfinals of the Dark Tournament is visualized in a black font where Bakken's bones (colored bright red) break, leading to a strong knockback that pushes his now-lifeless body out of the fight platform.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!
- Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light has Peten the Dark Clown stab Yami Yugi through the heart, which is done as a black-on-red silhouette.
- Episode 7 of Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V, when Sylvio takes damage from Yuto's Phantom Spear, the impact is a black silhouette on a red background. This is used to make it seem like he was impaled, with the following full color shot showing that the spear only went through his coat.
Live-Action TV
- In Kamen Rider Geats, the screen becomes grayscale when Niramu is shot dead, in order to emphasize the realism of his death.
Video Games
- In Blasphemous, when defeating a boss it shows the red silhouette of the Penitent One dealing the final bow on a black background.
- Brutal Orchestra: Every boss has a special attack which breaks away from the battle to show a quick, brutal, black-and-white animation of the move. For example, Trigger Fingers' Headshot shows a hand pressing a gun to the back of a skull, shooting the entire upper face off, then pulling it down for a second shot that fires at the same time the animation ends.
- Fire Emblem: Lethality is a skill available to the assassin class (or equivalent). Occurring less often than a standard Critical Hit, this skill invokes a One-Hit Kill, complete with the screen going red and black in Awakening and Fates.
- Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity: Sooga's special attack causes everything onscreen to be shown in grayscale, save for the red slashes of his blades.
- Paper Mario: The Origami King: Whenever Scissors slices anybody up, a Persona 5-esque black on red impact shot is used.
- Patapon: The very last shot in a level turns the screen black and white, with your patapons and whatever they just killed in black silhouetted against the black background as the "Mission complete!" jingle plays.
- In Persona 5, defeating Shadows with All-Out Attacks causes them to be shown in a monochrome wash while the triumphant Phantom Thief stands in the foreground, which inspired the Smash Bros example.
- Street Fighter V: The red-on-black variant of this is used when Kage performs either of his Critical Arts, his brutal strikes causing blackened blood to paint the red background.
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate:
- In the reveal trailer for Ridley, he kills both Mario and Mega Man, with the visceral impacts highlighted by a two-color, red-on-black depiction.
- Joker's Final Smash turns the screen red when it lands, leaving the background red, and the characters take the opponent (and subsequently, the opponent) black until Joker reappears at the end of the move. This was inspired by the effect that sometimes plays in his source game.
- Happens in WET anytime Rubi goes into Rage Mode. Enemies killed while this is happening are vaporized as a result.
- Zelda II: The Adventure of Link: Running out of health results in Link turning into a silhouette as the screen is filled with Epileptic Flashing Lights; re-releases of the game since the 2000s change the flashes to different shades of red to reduce possible health risks among epileptic or otherwise photosensitive players.
Webcomics
- Gravity Falls fan-comic Deal: One scene features a gory death that kicks off a chain of events culminating in the titular Deal with the Devil. In the frame of the fatal blow, the scene is depicted as a black silhouette on a red background.
- In Homestuck, when Kanaya chainsaws Eridan in half
, it's shown in only black and white colors, except for the purple coming from Kanaya's belt (formerly Eridan's cape).
Western Animation
- Amphibia:
- The scene from "Olivia & Yunan" where Marcy is possessed by the Core is punctuated with a blood-curdling scream over a 2-frame animation of her recoiling in pain. Said animation switches between Marcy being all black against a red background and vice versa.
- When Sasha lands a decisive blow on the Core in "All In", the moment of impact is displayed in high contrast black and white before showing the effect in full color. The same effect is used earlier when Darcy cuts off Grime's arm, with the amputated limb landing in the foreground while Grime and Sasha are shown in silhouette in the background.
- Final Space: In "Forgiveness", there are a few split-second, black-and-white hit renderings when Gary and Avocato come to blows after the latter confesses to killing Little Cato's real parents.
