The Pokémon Seizure Incident
(December 16, 1997 in Japan)
This page focuses on the day when 700+ Japanese TV veiwers experienced a phenominal and horrifying experience 20 minutes into the hit anime series "Pocket Monsters" (aka Pokemon). First I will give details on what happened, and what caused it to happen. Then I will explain what the US Pokemon production team (4 Kids Entertainment) has done from what I have seen of the series. Finally, links to articles about the incident, the controversy of anime, and the type of seizure that fell upon these viewers are posted at the bottom of the page.
====
The date is December 16, 1997, just a few days before Christmas was to be celebrated in the USA. The usual routine was played out. The show began, and it seemed all was well until the symptoms came around about 20 minutes into the show. (symptoms such as convulsions, sickness, ect.) Hundereds of worried parents rushed their kids to the hospitals. Then when the news came on soon after, even more people complained of feeling sick. In all, 700 + people, ranging from 3 to a 58 year old were sickened by what was, sadly, one of the most popular animes in Japan.
TV Tokyo (the Japanese TV station who ran the show) soon found out and went nuts, trying to figure out what happened to cause this phenomenon. It was soon discovered that an 8 second segment of the episode had a "wee bit" too much special FX done to it. (actually it was repetitious strobe light effects from Pikachu's eyes, that was to blame). Anyways, it was soon found out and fixed.......but not before cancelling the series for a good 4 months during investigations.
The news spread quickly worldwide of this problem. As we anime fans know, critics already weren't fond of "anime" in the US and Canada, and this seizure episode gave them more of a reason not to be.
The problem was eventually found and future episodes would not have that effect anymore. Thus the series returned in April of 1998 to Japan. It was soon learned that the series was to be renamed "Pokemon" and brought over to the U.S. for syndication. This REALLY got some people worried here. As I said before, anime, as a whole, recieves a bad rap from its critics here in America and Canada. It is seen as "violent" "dangerous" and the list goes on. So when "Pokemon" was announced, many questions about it, as well as anime, were asked of many people.
o.e
HOLY CRAP
THIS IS AMAZING.
