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| Features | Rumor Guide
Rumor:
The Japanese government banned the episode "Cyber Soldier Porygon"
Rumor Status: False
We all know that TV-Tokyo pulled "Cyber Soldier Porygon" off the air and hasn't aired it since, but rumor has it things were taken even further when the Japanese government actually stepped in and banned the episode altogether. Other claims state copies of the episode were seized by the Japanese government and then destroyed altogether in order to prevent anyone from ever releasing it to the public.
The thing is there doesn't seem to be any evidence to support this. While various government agencies did indeed get themselves involved with this incident -- the Diet, the Ministry of Health Labor and Welfare, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, and even Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto himself -- I haven't been able to find a single shred of evidence that anyone actually moved to have the episode officially banned on a national level.
And if the episode had been banned then they did a really lousy job of enforcing it. After the episode initially aired on December 16th we know it was getting freely passed around from TV station to TV station in Japan.
...and was even shipped overseas where people like Professor Graham Harding could review it.
For an episode supposedly "banned by the government," it sure did get passed around a lot.
Similarly, claims that the episode was ever destroyed seem to be without merit either. It would also be wholly ineffective as the episode would still remain freely available online regardless of what happened to the original film.
So there's really no evidence the episode was actually banned or destroyed on a government level. But at the same time does such a ban even need to be in place? We can be pretty sure neither OLM nor TV-Tokyo has absolutely zero interest in ever trying to air the episode ever again, and even if they did I doubt there's any TV network or streaming service willing to take the risk to do so. A government ban doesn't need to exist for the episode to never see the light of day; it's staying off the air regardless.
Rumor:
The Japanese government banned the episode "Cyber Soldier Porygon"
Rumor Status: False
We all know that TV-Tokyo pulled "Cyber Soldier Porygon" off the air and hasn't aired it since, but rumor has it things were taken even further when the Japanese government actually stepped in and banned the episode altogether. Other claims state copies of the episode were seized by the Japanese government and then destroyed altogether in order to prevent anyone from ever releasing it to the public.
The thing is there doesn't seem to be any evidence to support this. While various government agencies did indeed get themselves involved with this incident -- the Diet, the Ministry of Health Labor and Welfare, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, and even Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto himself -- I haven't been able to find a single shred of evidence that anyone actually moved to have the episode officially banned on a national level.
And if the episode had been banned then they did a really lousy job of enforcing it. After the episode initially aired on December 16th we know it was getting freely passed around from TV station to TV station in Japan.
 |
 |
| Reporters on the December 18th edition of "Nice Day" discuss watching the episode. | ...while
a reporter on the December 21st edition of "Sunday Morning" reacts to
watching the episode on-camera. |
...and was even shipped overseas where people like Professor Graham Harding could review it.
 |
 |
| From
"The 'Pocket Monsters' Animated Series Special Investigation" broadcast
on April 11th, 1998. |
|
For an episode supposedly "banned by the government," it sure did get passed around a lot.
Similarly, claims that the episode was ever destroyed seem to be without merit either. It would also be wholly ineffective as the episode would still remain freely available online regardless of what happened to the original film.
So there's really no evidence the episode was actually banned or destroyed on a government level. But at the same time does such a ban even need to be in place? We can be pretty sure neither OLM nor TV-Tokyo has absolutely zero interest in ever trying to air the episode ever again, and even if they did I doubt there's any TV network or streaming service willing to take the risk to do so. A government ban doesn't need to exist for the episode to never see the light of day; it's staying off the air regardless.
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