() is the 38th episode of the ''Pokémon'' anime's first season. During its sole broadcast in Japan on December 16, 1997, a scene with flashing lights induced photosensitive epileptic

seizure A seizure is a sudden, brief disruption of brain activity caused by abnormal, excessive, or synchronous neuronal firing. Depending on the regions of the brain involved, seizures can lead to changes in movement, sensation, behavior, awareness, o ...

s in children across the country. Over 600 children were taken to hospitals. The incident is referred to in Japan as the . The episode was written by Junki Takegami and directed by Kiyotaka Itani, and was broadcast on

TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as is a Japanese television station that serves as the flagship of the TX Network.Ash and his friends find that there is something wrong with the Poké Ball transmitting device at the local Pokémon Center. To find out what is wrong, they must go inside the machine. Towards the end of the episode, Pikachu stops a wave of missiles with an attack, resulting in an explosion that is depicted by rapid flashing lights that fill the screen. After the incident, the ''Pokémon'' anime went into a four-month hiatus. The episode was pulled from rotation and was never aired in any other country. The incident complicated plans for an American localization of the series, and resulted in new broadcasting standards in Japan to ensure future incidents would be avoided.

Plot

Ash,

Misty In cryptography, MISTY1 (or MISTY-1) is a block cipher designed in 1995 by Mitsuru Matsui and others for Mitsubishi Electric. MISTY1 is one of the selected algorithms in the European NESSIE project, and has been among the cryptographic tech ...

, Brock make their way to the nearest Pokémon Center to heal Pikachu's exhaustion, where they discover that the Poké Ball transmitting device is malfunctioning. On Nurse Joy's request, they go to Professor Akihabara, the one who created the Poké Ball transfer system. He tells them that Team Rocket stole his prototype Porygon, a digital Pokémon that can exist in

cyberspace Cyberspace is an interconnected digital environment. It is a type of virtual world popularized with the rise of the Internet. The term entered popular culture from science fiction and the arts but is now used by technology strategists, security ...

, and is using it to steal trainers' Pokémon from inside the computer system. Akihabara sends Ash, Misty, Brock, Pikachu and his second Porygon into the cyberspace system using his Dimension Transporter. They realise that Team Rocket has set up a blockade that stops Poké Balls from completing their journey through the network. In an ensuing battle, Porygon is able to defeat Team Rocket's Porygon; unfortunately, Nurse Joy, monitoring the situation and unaware that Ash and the others are inside, approves the use of an antivirus program to resolve the problem. The program manifests as cyber missiles and momentarily incapacitates Team Rocket before they are rescued by Porygon. As Porygon flees with everyone hanging on to its back, more missiles are fired at the group. Pikachu uses a Thunderbolt attack on the missiles, causing a large explosion. Two of the missiles enter the portal, completely destroying Akihabara's house and the Dimension Transporter, though everyone escapes safely. Team Rocket thanks Ash and his friends for rescuing them before fleeing, after which Ash returns to Nurse Joy to finally request for Pikachu to be healed.

Broadcast

"Dennō Senshi Porygon" had its sole broadcast in Japan on Tuesday, December 16, 1997, at 6:30 PM

Japan Standard Time , or , is the standard time zone in Japan, 9 hours ahead of UTC (UTC+09:00). Japan does not observe daylight saving time, though its introduction has been debated on several occasions. During World War II, the time zone was often referred to a ...

(09:30 UTC). It held the highest ratings for its time slot, and was watched by approximately 4.6 million households.

Incident

Twenty minutes into the episode, Pikachu stops missiles with his Thunderbolt attack, resulting in an explosion that rapidly flashes red and blue lights. The exact scene that triggered the seizures aired at 6:51:34pm, towards the end of the episode. It was broadcast over 37 TV stations that Tuesday night. Although there were similar parts in the episode with red and blue flashes, two anime techniques, called ''paka-paka'' and "flash", made the scene particularly intense. These flashes were bright

strobe light A strobe light or stroboscopic lamp, commonly called a strobe, is a device used to produce regular flashes of light. It is one of a number of devices that can be used as a stroboscope. The word originated from the Ancient Greek ('), meaning ...

s, with blinks at a rate of about 12 Hz for approximately six seconds. At this point, some of the viewers experienced

blurred vision Blurred vision is an ocular symptom where vision becomes less precise and there is added difficulty to resolve fine details. Temporary blurred vision may involve dry eyes, eye infections, alcohol poisoning, hypoglycemia, or low blood pressur ...

headache A headache, also known as cephalalgia, is the symptom of pain in the face, head, or neck. It can occur as a migraine, tension-type headache, or cluster headache. There is an increased risk of Depression (mood), depression in those with severe ...

dizziness Dizziness is an imprecise term that can refer to a sense of disorientation in space, vertigo, or lightheadedness. It can also refer to Balance disorder, disequilibrium or a non-specific feeling, such as giddiness or foolishness. Dizziness is a ...

and

nausea Nausea is a diffuse sensation of unease and discomfort, sometimes perceived as an urge to vomit. It can be a debilitating symptom if prolonged and has been described as placing discomfort on the chest, abdomen, or back of the throat. Over 30 d ...

. Some suffered

blindness Visual or vision impairment (VI or VIP) is the partial or total inability of visual perception. In the absence of treatment such as corrective eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment, visual impairment may cause the individual difficul ...

convulsion A convulsion is a medical condition where the body muscles contract and relax rapidly and repeatedly, resulting in uncontrolled shaking. Because epileptic seizures typically include convulsions, the term ''convulsion'' is often used as a synony ...

s and

unconsciousness Unconsciousness is a state in which a living individual exhibits a complete, or near-complete, inability to maintain an awareness of self and environment or to respond to any human or environmental stimulus. Unconsciousness may occur as the r ...

. The Japanese press referred to this incident as .

Affected people

According to a survey by Japan's Fire and Disaster Management Agency, 685 viewers – 310 male and 375 female – were taken to hospitals by ambulances. Of these, 208 were admitted to hospitals, including three who were admitted while unconscious. There was a higher incidence in the 11 to 15-year old demographic, with over 90% of the affected being from middle and high school age ranges; the oldest victim was a 58-year old from

Kanagawa Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...

. TV Tokyo had a limited terrestrial coverage area, but there were some victims from outside of the network's range who received one of its stations either by terrestrial or cable overspill who were affected. Although approximately 1 in 5000 people are susceptible to these types of seizures, the number of people affected by the ''Pokémon'' episode was unprecedented. Later studies showed that 5–10% of the viewers had mild symptoms that did not need hospital treatment. Twelve thousand children who were not sent to hospitals reported mild symptoms of illness; however, their symptoms more closely resembled

mass hysteria Mass psychogenic illness (MPI), also called mass sociogenic illness, mass psychogenic disorder, epidemic hysteria or mass hysteria, involves the spread of illness symptoms through a population where there is no infectious agent responsible for c ...

than a seizure. A study following 103 patients over three years after the event found that only 22% were reported to have had seizures after the incident. 15 of these patients were determined to have had visually induced seizures, while 56% of the patients who did have more seizures following the incident also having

epilepsy Epilepsy is a group of Non-communicable disease, non-communicable Neurological disorder, neurological disorders characterized by a tendency for recurrent, unprovoked Seizure, seizures. A seizure is a sudden burst of abnormal electrical activit ...

. The three-year study of 103 surveyed patients also found that only 25 (24%) of them were determined to have had seizures before the incident took place.

By prefecture

The following is a breakdown of the number of people taken to hospital in each prefecture, totaling to 685.

Aftermath

Immediate response

More than three hours after the controversial scene was broadcast,

NHK General TV , abbreviated on-screen as NHK G, is the main television service of NHK, the Japanese public broadcaster. Its programming includes news, drama, quiz/variety shows, music, sports, anime, and specials which compete directly with the output of its co ...

became the first channel to report on the seizures at 9:59pm that evening during a news bulletin, followed by FNN's News JAPAN later that evening. The topic was heavily discussed on the next day's news programs, but with the footage frozen in order to prevent further damage. To prevent any similar incidents from occurring, the episode was pulled from rotation, and it has not aired since in any country. The following day, the television station that had originated the lone broadcast of that episode, TV Tokyo, issued an apology to the Japanese public, suspended the program, and said it would investigate the cause of the seizures. Numerous video retailers across Japan removed the ''Pokémon'' anime from their rental shelves in response to the incidents. Officers from Atago police stations were ordered by Japan's

National Police Agency National Police may refer to the national police forces of several countries: *Afghanistan: Afghan National Police *Haiti: Haitian National Police *Canada: Royal Canadian Mounted Police *Colombia: National Police of Colombia *Cuba: National Revolut ...

to question the anime's producers about the show's contents and production process. On the

Tokyo Stock Exchange The , abbreviated as Tosho () or TSE/TYO, is a stock exchange located in Tokyo, Japan. The exchange is owned by Japan Exchange Group (JPX), a holding company that it also lists (), and operated by Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc., a wholly owned sub ...

, shares in

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

(the company that publishes the games that the anime is based on) fell by 400

yen The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the euro. T ...

the following morning to 12,200 yen (almost 3.2%). The president of Nintendo,

Hiroshi Yamauchi Hiroshi Yamauchi (; 7 November 192719 September 2013) was a Japanese businessman and the third president of Nintendo, joining the company on 25 April 1949 until stepping down on 24 May 2002, being succeeded by Satoru Iwata. During his 53-year t ...

, said at a press conference the day after the episode had aired that the video game company was not responsible since the original ''Pokémon'' game for its

Game Boy The is a handheld game console developed by Nintendo, launched in the Japanese home market on April 21, 1989, followed by North America later that year and other territories from 1990 onwards. Following the success of the Game & Watch single-ga ...

product was presented in black and white.

Effect on the Pokémon anime

After the airing of "Dennō Senshi Porygon", the ''Pokémon'' anime went into a nearly four-month hiatus. The episode "Holiday Hi-Jynx", which would have aired the following week, December 23, 1997, was pulled following the incident, and would not air until October 5, 1998. Airing out of order caused confusion to viewers because Ash still had a Charmander instead of

Charizard Charizard ( ), known in Japan as , is a Pokémon in Nintendo and Game Freak's ''Pokémon'' franchise. Created by Atsuko Nishida, Charizard first appeared in the video games ''Pokémon Red'' and ''Blue'' ( ''Pokémon Red'' and ''Green'' in Ja ...

, and Misty did not have Togepi yet, but Starmie and Horsea. All 37 episodes of ''Pokémon: Indigo League'' were rerun on Kids Station in Tokyo leading up to the show's return on April 16, 1998, with airing of "Pikachu's Goodbye" and "The Battling Eevee Brothers". After the hiatus, the time slot changed from Tuesday to Thursday. Before broadcasting resumed, the special program was shown. Broadcast in Japan on April 16, 1998, host Miyuki Yadama went over the circumstances of the program format and the on-screen advisories at the beginning of animated programs, as well as showing letters and fan drawings sent in by viewers, most of whom were concerned that the incident would lead to the anime being cancelled. "Dennō Senshi Porygon" itself has never been aired again, in any country. The ''Pokémon'' anime has not featured Porygon or its evolutions, Porygon2 and Porygon-Z, in any subsequent episodes outside of brief cameos, despite Pikachu being the one to cause the seizure-inducing strobe effect.

By station

The series was and still is syndicated to stations outside of the direct coverage area of the six stations of the

TX Network TXN Network (TXN) is a commercial television network in Japan owned by TV Tokyo Corporation, a subsidiary of TV Tokyo Holdings, which itself is majority controlled by Nikkei, Inc. The "TX" is taken from the callsign of its flagship station ...

. The following table lists the final episode of the Pokémon anime that aired on the station before the hiatus and the title of the program that initially replaced its timeslot.

Effect on localization

When the episode aired, ''Pokémon'' was only distributed in Japan. Shortly after the incident, speaking to ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...

'',

Mike Lazzo Michael Allen Lazzo (born April 10, 1958) is a retired American television producer and the former executive vice president in charge of the Adult Swim programming block of Cartoon Network, and its production arm, Williams Street. Life and caree ...

, vice president of programming for

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...

, reassured parents that American children were unlikely to suffer seizures provoked by cartoons as U.S. networks at the time rarely aired anime, which he argued was substantially different to animation aired on Cartoon Network. According to then-president of

Nintendo of America is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi founded the company to p ...

Minoru Arakawa is a Japanese businessman best known as the founder and former president of Nintendo of America, and the co-founder of Tetris Online, Inc. Biography Minoru Arakawa was born on 3 September 1946 in Kyoto, Japan, the second son of Waichiro Araka ...

, he had first raised the possibility of bringing ''Pokémon'' to the US market three weeks before this episode aired. The incident occurred while Nintendo of America was in negotiations with ShoPro to localize ''Pokémon'' for an American audience. However, Arakawa believed that the coverage of the incident in the US was fairly calm compared to Japan, as the US had previously reported on cases of epilepsy being induced by video games so the concept was already well-known—instead, he argued that it only increased the series' name recognition. In his book ''Pokémon Story'', Masakazu Kubo of ShoPro notes that initially the incident increased the reluctance to bring the series to the US market, but due to concerns that the entire ''Pokémon'' TV show could end up being banned from Japanese TV, instead it was decided that pursuing an American release was essential to repairing the series' reputation in Japan. Kubo argues that once it became accepted in Japan that the incident was due to technical problems with how the show was broadcast rather than the show itself, there was no longer a need for a US release to restore the series' reputation in Japan, but the negotiations continued regardless. Starting on January 4, 1998, ShoPro conducted in-person negotiations with Nintendo of America for licensing the ''Pokémon'' anime for the US market. In early January 1998,

4Kids Entertainment 4Kids Entertainment, Inc. (formerly known as Leisure Concepts, Inc. and later known as 4Licensing Corporation; stylized as 4K!DS ENTERTAINMENT) was an American licensing company. The company was previously also a film and television production ...

announced that they intended to air ''Pokémon'' in the U.S., albeit ensuring that the flashing effects were removed. ''Pokémon'' successfully premiered in the U.S. (without this episode) in September 1998.

Changes to television standards

Many Japanese television broadcasters and medical officials (along with the United Kingdom's

Independent Television Commission The Independent Television Commission (ITC) licensed and regulated commercial television services in the United Kingdom (except S4C in Wales) between 1 January 1991 and 28 December 2003. History The creation of ITC, by the Broadcasting Act ...

) came together to find ways to make sure the incident was not repeated. They established a series of guidelines for future animated programs, including that flashing images, especially those with red, should not flicker faster than three times per second; if the image does not have red, it still should not flicker faster than five times per second; flashing images should not be displayed for a total duration of more than two seconds; and stripes, whirls and concentric circles should not take up a large part of the television screen. The Harding test for content that now airs on Japanese TV and streaming sites ensures no more than one flashing light occurs every 10 frames, reproduced at 29.97 FPS, where "flashing lights" are classified as extreme changes in colors from one frame to the next. Footage may either clear or fail checks, or "pass with a warning" in which case the video's

luminance Luminance is a photometric measure of the luminous intensity per unit area of light travelling in a given direction. It describes the amount of light that passes through, is emitted from, or is reflected from a particular area, and falls wit ...

is automatically adjusted to mitigate potential effects. After the incident, TV broadcasters voluntarily added on-screen warnings to shows targeted at young children encouraging viewers to watch anime in a well-lit room and to sit far away from the television set.

In popular culture

The "Pokémon Shock" incident has been parodied many times in

popular culture Popular culture (also called pop culture or mass culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of cultural practice, practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as popular art

f. pop art F is the sixth letter of the Latin alphabet. F may also refer to: Science and technology Mathematics * F or f, the number 15 (number), 15 in hexadecimal and higher positional systems * ''p'F'q'', the hypergeometric function * F-distributi ...

or mass art, sometimes contraste ...

, including a 1999 episode of ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...

'', " Thirty Minutes over Tokyo". In the episode,

Bart Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves List of Bay Area Rapid Transit stations, 50 stations along six routes and of track, including eBART, a spur line running t ...

watches an anime entitled ''Battling Seizure Robots'' featuring robots with flashing eye lasers, and asks: "Isn't this that cartoon that causes seizures?" The flashing eyes cause him,

Marge Marge is a feminine given name, a shortened form of Marjorie, Margot or Margaret. Notable Marges include: People * Marge (cartoonist) (1904–1993), pen name of Marjorie Henderson Buell, American cartoonist * Marge Anderson (1932–2013), Ojibwe ...

Lisa Lisa or LISA may refer to: People People with the mononym * Lisa (Japanese musician, born 1974), stylized "LISA" * Lisa, stagename of Japanese singer Lisa Komine (born 1978) * Lisa (South Korean singer) (born 1980) * Lisa (Japanese musician, b ...

, and

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

to have seizures. The same scene is seen again in the episode's end credits, this time covering the entire screen. An episode of ''

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand the ...

'', " Chinpokomon", revolves around a ''Pokémon''-like phenomenon, called ''Chinpokomon''. ''Chinpokomon'' toys and video games are sold to children in South Park by a Japanese company. The company's president, Mr. Hirohito, uses the toys to brainwash the American children, making them into his own army to topple the "evil" American "empire". These toys included a video game in which the player attempts to bomb Pearl Harbor. While playing this game,

Kenny Kenny is a surname, a given name, and a diminutive of several different given names. In Ireland, the surname is an Anglicisation of the Irish ''Ó Cionnaith'', also spelt ''Ó Cionnaoith'' and ''Ó Cionaodha'', meaning "descendant of Cionnaith". ...

has an epileptic seizure and later dies. The incident was included in the 2004 edition and the 2008 Gamer's Edition of the

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, list ...

book, holding the record for "Most Photosensitive Epileptic Seizures Caused by a Television Show". In '' So Yesterday'', a 2004 novel by

Scott Westerfeld Scott David Westerfeld (born May 5, 1963) is an American writer of young adult fiction, best known as the author of the ''Uglies series, Uglies'' and the ''Leviathan (Westerfeld novel), Leviathan'' series. Early life Westerfeld was born in Dal ...

, this episode is mentioned and shown to one of the characters. The flashing red light that caused the seizure is also used in the storytelling elements. On September 19, 2020, the official Pokémon Twitter account referenced the episode, saying "Porygon did nothing wrong," in reference to the resulting explosion from Pikachu's Thunderbolt attack being the in-universe cause of the flashing lights, not Porygon. The tweet was deleted shortly thereafter, speculated to be because of the taboo subject matter. In spite of being absent from the anime, The Pokémon Company continues to feature Porygon in all other aspects of its branding. Porygon remains obtainable in the video game series, is featured in manga adaptations, included in merchandising, and referenced in advertising thereof.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Denno Senshi Porygon 1997 anime 1997 controversies 1997 in Japanese television 1997 television episodes Anime and manga controversies Articles containing video clips December 1997 in Japan Mass psychogenic illness in Asia Pokémon episodes Television controversies in Japan Television episodes pulled from general rotation