Episode Stats:

Japanese Episode 38: "Dennou Senshi Porigon"

(Electric Soldier Porigon)

Pokemon Dare Da? Porigon
Japanese Air Date:  December 16th, 1997
American Air Date:  Never aired

Satoshi-tachi go to a Pokemon Center in order to revive a tired Pikachu when they see a distressed Joi.  There's a problem with the Monster Ball transporter--the pokemon she sends arrives at another Pokemon Center as a different pokemon!  Akihabara-Hakase, the inventor of the Pokemon Transport System, explains that some thieves have intruded into the system and are causing havoc.  He sends the reluctant Satoshi-tachi into the computer world, where the Rocket-Dan have set up barricades.  Just as the barricades are destroyed, a flying jet-like machine enters with missiles aimed at our heros!  It seems that Joi hired a technician to put an anti-virus program into the computer, and it indiscriminately targets the Rocket-Dan AND Satoshi-tachi.  After a hectic chase and a strong electric blast from Pikachu, the program is destroyed.  Satoshi-tachi emerge in the real world, and now the system is restored to normal. 

---

Thoughts
You can find a more detailed synopsis here.

I really like this episode.  I really do.  It presents something from the game (the transport system) and weaves a story around it that's a lot more interesting than any episode of Reboot I've ever seen.  Unfortunately, most people will never see it. 

Well, you probably know this by now, but this episode is banned because it's the infamous "seizure" episode.  According to whatever reports you read, between 600 and 700 children went into seizures after a sequence in which Pikachu electrocutes the anti-virus program (the same zap of electricity that destorys Akihabara-Hakase's house).  It was the first glimpse of the show that Americans got, and unfortunately that first glimpse was a bad one.  TV Guide featured the incident in its Cheers & Jeers column:

JEERS to truly dangerous TV.  Close to 700 viewers were rushed to hospitals in Japan after watching a popuar cartoon show, Pokemon (Pocket Monsters).  When the action series, based on a Nintendo video game, aired a scene with an explosion accompanied by a rapid succession of flashing, colored strobe lights, young viewers across the country were suddenly afflicted with seizures.  (Medical experts have theorized that the children may have shared a particular sensitivity to light.)  Remember the good old days when we used to worry about subliminal messages?  Who ever thought TV could hit us on a neurological level? 

Yeah, that's really a great way to introduce a show to the American public, isn't it?  It was a big incident, and the media responded with tons of replies:

• Associated Press Article
• Animerica Vol 6 #3:  Anime Memories
• Animerica Vol 6 #3:  From the Forest
• Offended Otaku Strike Back at "USA Today!"
• CNN Coverage:  Cartoon-based illness mystifies Japan
• CNN Coverage:  Japanese cartoon triggers seizures in hundreds of children
• Urban Legends Reference Pages
The site says it's a false legend (as indicated by the "False" status at the top of the page) yet doesn't really explain why.
• In the final episode of The Simpsons' tenth season, "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo," a reference is made to the incident when Bart, watching the popular anime "Battle Seizure Robots," starts going into seizures.  The rest of the family go into seizures too when they catch a glimpse of it.

• The tenth episode of the third season of South Park, "Chinpokomon," is almost entirely based on the Pokémon fad.  One of the gags in the episode involves Kenny going into a seizure while playing the Chinpokomon video game, a reference to the episode of Pocket Monsters that did the same thing to children across the nation.

Click on the picture above for the full-sized version.

After the incident (and the resulting media frenzy), TV-Tokyo decided to put the show on a four-month hiatus.  In the meantime, TV-Tokyo went back to the previous 37 episodes and re-edited them to dim down and slow down the existing footage of flashing lights.  Even though these hadn't been harmful in the past, TV-Tokyo decided to play it safe.  It was the work of the original anime producers, not 4Kids.  The show's hiatus screwed up the airing of the Christmas special, set to air the following week, so "Ruujura's no KURISUMASU" was postponed until October of the next year. 

Pocket Fantasy replaces Nyasu no Uta as the ending theme as of this episode in Japan.  Too bad fans didn't get to see the new ending again for four more months.  And here's a fun fact--Akihabara (as in the name of the professor in this episode) is the name of a district in Tokyo where many famous electronics stores are located.  Is it a coincidence that the inventor of the Pokemon Transport System is named after a district known for its electronics???

Nowadays, the show has to follow strict guidelines and posts warnings on the videotaped versions of the show to prevent the incident from repeating itself.

Previous Episode

Next Episode (041)

The screencap for this episode was taken from the Ultimate Pokemon Anime Site.
Special thanks to the Simpsons Showcase for the pictures from the Simpsons screencaps.
Special thanks to South Park Studios for the South Park picture.