The Porygon Incident: 20 Years Later

[Alyce: Old Media Enthusiast]

One of the most infamous incidents in television history went down on December 16th, 1997 when the Pokemon episode "Electric Soldier Porygon" aired on Japanese television. During one scene, a flashing strobe effect of blue and red was shown on screen. This would result in over 600 children suffering from headaches, dizziness, convulsions, and at worst, seizures. An incident later dubbed "Pokemon Shock". The footage of the offending clip is out there, but I won't post it for obvious reasons. Instead I'll use this image here.

An episode of the Pokémon anime broadcast in December 1997 on Japanese television induced photosensitive epileptic seizures in a substantial number of Japanese viewers, many of which required medical assistance. As a result, the episode was not broadcast overseas and never shown in Japan again, and the incident caused the anime to go into a temporary hiatus. Every Pokémon episode that aired up until this episode, including the opening, was edited by lighting certain scenes, removing or changing fast-flashing scenes and more. The original version of the episodes have never been shown again, except by mistake on Hulu Japan.

[andrew8798]

If I remember right this Pokemon has never showed up in a episode of the US Version

[Mozenrath]

A very interesting incident. Unfortunate, too, outside of for the obvious reasons, because if I recall, it also led to Porygon not appearing in the anime again after that. I'd love an episode with it now, if only because Porygon has one of the oddest storylines that seems to be continuous in the games. That is, since it doesn't need to eat or breathe, scientists want to use it to explore space, but they have technical difficulties or issues like Porygon being unable to remember its mission details.

[Alyce: Old Media Enthusiast]

Dec 16, 2017 1:06:17 GMT -5 andrew8798 said:

If I remember right this Pokemon has never showed up in a episode of the US Version

Neither Porygon, or its evolutions have appeared in any Pokemon anime since.

[Alice Syndrome]

Dec 16, 2017 1:09:17 GMT -5 Alyce: Old Media Enthusiast said:

Dec 16, 2017 1:06:17 GMT -5 andrew8798 said:

If I remember right this Pokemon has never showed up in a episode of the US Version

Neither Porygon, or its evolutions have appeared in any Pokemon anime since.

In fact, they're the ONLY pokemon who've never shown up in the anime.

[Malcolm]

And the worst part of it all was that it was PIKACHU'S fault for the seizures, not Porygon.

[Deleted]

I'll never remotely understand banning Porygon from the anime outside of stray cameos. Put it on ice for a bit, whatever, but I really doubt anyone would ever freak out just from having the thing in a completely unrelated plot of the day.

Then again no one ever accused the Pokemon anime of making smart decisions.

[andrew8798]

I remember thinking it was Wizard magazine or maybe EGM and they talked about the banned episodes. Was some interesting stuff.

Also witch first this episode or when the Simpsons went to Japan

[andrew8798]

So has anyone actually tried to watch the video?

Also don't even think Porygon was even in the Snap game

[Deleted]

Dec 16, 2017 3:49:43 GMT -5 andrew8798 said:

So has anyone actually tried to watch the video?

Also don't even think Porygon was even in the Snap game

Porygon is in Snap.

[Glitch]

Since it happened before the show went overseas, this incident really introduced the pokemon anime to the world.