Unknown or never aired
138
Ash and friends find at the local Pokémon Center that there is something wrong the Pokéball transmitting devise. To find out what's wrong, everyone must go inside the machine.
Write a Recap »December 16 1997, a day that anime fans will remember forever. hide show
Everyone knows the plot to this episode, they go inside a computer and theres a scene which caused Japanese people to suffer seizures and other acts.
Everyone who has downloaded this episode or watched it on YouTube or wherever keep saying \"How could this have caused seizures? I\'m fine.\" Unless you get a taped version from the day it aired in Japan (December 16th 1997) and it hasn\'t been tampered with, then you won\'t get a seizure because they slow down the strobe effect and you won\'t find the episode on YouTube anymore because they take them off because if someone has a seizure they can get sued. Most videos show the flashing scenes at about 2-3 flashes a second, on the uncut version it was 12 flashes a second, I think the scenes with flashing that didn\'t cause seizures was because only one rocket exploded at those times while with the seizure scene two rockets exploded so they doubled the flashes. That also made me think because four rockets were sent out but two were hit at a time so what would have happened if all four were hit at the same time? It would have flashed at about 24 times a second, probably would have killed someone. I saw the episode on YouTube with subtitles and I skipped the scene which caused the seizures because I was still too scared to watch because there were similar scenes during the show but not as intense and even those freaked me out.
If you get past the fact this caused seizures or if they animated the explosion differently (an example is if it was just red, not flashing red and blue or something) this was actually a very good episode.
I also have a feeling that if it didn\'t cause seizures and was going to air in other countries that it would be banned from airing because it had rockets being shot at people and it showed target marks on Ash, Misty Brock and Team Rocket and you know how 4Kids feel about guns and kids ect, even though there is a roumor that 4Kids dubbed the episode but didn\'t show it, that would explain how everyone downloads the episode and its all slowed down.
I gave it 8.8 because of the seizure incident, if that never happened I would have given this about 9.8.
I saw the whole episode on the internet... This episode is very well plotted, it was funny too, like pikachu blowing out the candle, and ash thinking about the sick computer. I do feel really sad because many people got sick from this episode... if they ever do air it on T.V. (which is VERY unlikely). I hope they edit/ replace the Brightness of the explosion scene. It was relly sad. :<
weird i downloaded this episode off limewire and i watched it and i am fine, how it could cause seizures to japanese kids i dont understand at all. period. ive watched the part with the lights hundreds of times and im fine completely.
maybe it had something to do with the japanese tv screens, perhaps they were sitting too close to it or maybe which is the most probably reason as it has been said the lights had a reaction to the brain causing fatigue, it has been known to happen but not that often, all i can really say is that im perfectly fine after watching it.
Good episode, minus the seizures. hide show
I only found out recently of the banned epiodes and I have been researching this and apparently the children who were afflicted were glued to the TV, and extremly fatigued due to school work and lights were off. As many know, children in Japan are stretched to the breaking point academically, and have the simptoms mentioned above. The effects were slowed down, but the episode is still banned in every country. It has been said that the TV Literally "went off like a bomb in their faces" because of the effects. Although it was parodied, it remains a serious issue.
The reason that hundreds for viewers in Japan had seizures was because of a part in the episode when Pikachu begins to shock the missiles with his lightbolt, causing the screen to flash blue and red lights repeatedly. hide show
But even though i have never seen this episode (and i never will) but i still think the episode is special in its own way. I agree with coolrapper that american should show it, but as long as they totally dim down the lights, im ok with it. But overall the story is good because of how they introduce porygon into the show but because of what had happened, i dun think anyone will ever get the chance to see this episode ever again, and that's what horrible the most-to me.
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