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Dogasu's Backpack
| Features
| Pokémon Shock
On December 16th, 1997, the 38th
episode of Pocket Monsters,
"Cyber Soldier Porygon," aired on TV-Tokyo. About 20 minutes into the
episode children started to fall ill, suffering from maladies such as
seizures and
convulsions, resulting in the show being put on hiatus while
investigations into the root cause of the incident took place.
This section aims to take a more in-depth look into the incident than
what you'll find in most other places. A lot of what you'll see below
includes brand new translations of material that had previously only
ever been made available in Japanese and so you're sure to come across
information you've never seen before.
Click on a link below to find out more.
Accounts
from the people who lived through it
|
What
was it like for the people who actually lived through the incident in
Japan? Click on the links below to find out.
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Pokémon
Story
"Pokémon Story" is a 543 page book released more than 20 years
ago
that tells the story of how Pocket
Monsters went from a simple idea to global phenomenon. The book
dedicates three whole chapters to the Pokémon Shock incident and
so I went ahead and translated them into English. Click on the link
above to
be taken to a page with that translation.
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Satoshi Tajiri Interview
The book "Pokémon Story" ends with a 33-page interview with
the creator of Pokémon himself, Satoshi Tajiri. Part five of the
eight part interview, "The TV Incident," is dedicated entirely to the
Pokémon Shock incident. Click on the link above to be taken to a
page with my translation of that part of the interview. |
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Japanese TV News Reports
What did the people in Japan see when they turned on the TV news shows
during that first week of the Pokémon Shock incident? To find
out, click on the link above to be taken to a page with links to
fansubbed versions of all the news reports I've been able to find
online.
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Takeshi Shudo Blogs
The series organizer for the Pocket
Monsters animated series, Takeshi Shudo, ran a blog back in the
early 2000s in which he talked about his life as a screenplay writer.
In the latter part of 2008, he focused a few of his entries on the
Pokémon Shock incident. Click on the link above to read
translations of all ten blog entries in which he talks about what it
was like to be on the staff of Pocket
Monsters during the latter half of December 1997.
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Fan
Response
How
did anime fans in Japan react to the incident and the way the show was
pulled from the air so abruptly? Click on the link below to read
translations of letters fans wrote in to the Japanese magazine Animedia
in late 1997 / early 1998. |
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Pocket Monsters: 1997 vs. 1998
After the Pokémon Shock incident, OLM went back and re-edited
the first 37 episodes to greatly reduce the amount of flashing and
bright lights that had been used up until then.
See a
sneak peek here
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Effects to the show's schedule
How was the rest of the show's schedule affected by the four- month
hiatus it unexpectedly took? Let's find out!
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Rumor
Guide
Did a "second wave" of seizures occur because the news carelessly
replayed portions of the episode on the air? Did the government really
destroy all copies of the episode?
Let's take a look at some of the more popular rumors about the incident.
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Does
an
English dub exist?
Some people involved with the show say the episode has been dubbed into English while
others say that no, it has not. So who do we believe?
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