Why was Pokemon Episode banned outside of Japan?

There are so many great and unforgettable episodes (And movies!) from the classic anime series “Pokémon,” which follows the adventures of Young Pokemon trainer Ash Ketchum and his friends Brock and Misty, but unfortunately, there’s one episode that’s memorable for all the wrong reasons. Early in the series’ initial run in its native Japan, just as the show was already becoming very popular, one episode caused a mass medical event for the children watching it, resulting in the episode being banned forever.

Episode 38 of the first season, “Dennō Senshi Porygon”, was broadcast only once, on December 16, 1997, because it contained flashing red and blue lights that caused hundreds of children to have strong immediate physical reactions, including seizures. According to the retrospective on the event before The Guardian685 children were transported by ambulance to hospitals, and about 12,000 symptomatic cases were reported over the next few days. While epileptic seizures triggered by bright lights contributed to that number, it was only a small percentage, and the collective reaction has baffled doctors and scientists for years. But in the immediate aftermath, the main goal was to prevent anything like it from happening again. So what really happened, and how did the world react?

In the episode, the Electric-type Pokémon Pikachu uses a computer virus attack within a digital world that causes red and blue colors to flash. Although Pokémon has used alternating flashes before, it has never caused this kind of mass reaction. The day after the program aired, the station issued an apology and suspended production and broadcasting until an investigation was conducted. The series was pulled from rental shelves and Japan’s Ministry of Health and Welfare held an emergency meeting to discuss what to do. Since the colors, length and specific type of flash appeared to be at least partly to blame, it was safe to put the show back on the air about four months later. TV Tokyo will place warning labels on all episodes, similar to the photosensitivity warnings that appeared (and continue to appear) before many video games. Episode 38 will never air again It won’t even be dubbed into English for a truncated version when the show began airing in syndication in the United States a year later.

When the show returned to Japan after its hiatus, an explanation was broadcast to children at the beginning of the episode to help them understand what happened and reassure them that it would not happen again. The “Pokémon panic,” as it came to be called, still has no official explanation, although many believe it was a combination of a small number of children having seizures while many others suffered the effects of mass hysteria. Although there have been limited other cases of people having seizures due to sensitivity to light, there has never been anything quite like “Pokémon Panic” before or since.