Dennō Senshi Porigon

Episode of the series Pokémon
Original title	で ん の う せ ん し ポ リ ゴ ン
transcription	Dennō Senshi Porigon
Country of production	Japan
original language	Japanese
classification	Season 1, Episode 38 ( List )
First broadcast	December 16, 1997

Dennō Senshi Porigon or Dennō Senshi Porygon ( Japanese で ん の う せ ん し ポ リ ゴ ン , German: "Cyber-Soldier Porygon") is the Japanese original title for the 38th episode of the anime series Pokémon . The title was never officially translated into English or German . The most unofficial English title is Electric Soldier Porygon . The first and so far only broadcast took place on December 16, 1997 in the country of the first broadcast, Japan .

The episode achieved fame through a series of triggered epileptic seizures . The reason was a scene in which the Pokémon Pikachu with a thunderbolt destroys two rockets with an explosion, which is represented by a fast flicker of about four seconds (about 12 Hertz ) between red and blue over a large area. While many people in Japan who saw this scene had nothing or just headaches or the like. felt, several hundred children had to be hospitalized with seizure symptoms .

The exact number of hospital victims varies. Some sources speak of 635, others of 685, 700 or even 800. These numbers are also only information about the seizures during the broadcast of the episode. More people suffered seizures when the scene that was blamed for triggering the seizures was later re-broadcast in reports. Of deaths , however, are unknown.

The episode is considered the most famous of the limited or non-broadcast Pokémon episodes.

Table of contents

Ash and his friends are still on their journey. Since Pikachu is not doing well, they go to a Pokémon Center to have it cured. However, there are problems there: The transport system for the Poké Balls seems to be malfunctioning. Brock suspects a computer virus, which Professor Akihabara, who invented the system, refuses to admit.

The friends follow the professor into his house, where after some difficulties they learn that Team Rocket has entered the system via a transporter that can move humans and Pokémon into computer systems and has started to steal the Pokémon being transported. Since the professor wants to avoid fighting them with a "vaccine" - which would mean their death - Ash and the others are more or less involuntarily put into the computer by means of an invention, together with the computer Pokémon Porygon.

After their arrival, they soon come across Team Rocket, which is just about to get rid of the stolen Pokémon. With the help of their porygon, they can knock it back and begin repairing the main line of the computer. However, the danger is not over yet: a computer expert commissioned by the Pokémon Center installs a control program into the system, which in the form of a combat ship immediately begins to attack those present with rockets. When this does not succeed immediately, the computer expert triggers a special command, which, however, generates a program error in which Team Rocket is caught.

Ash decides not to flee immediately to the computer exit and wait for Team Rocket, despite the impending danger of the "vaccination program". In fact, the expert can quickly fix the error, which frees Team Rocket again. Together they all flee to the exit on the Porygon.

Shortly before the troops reached the exit, the "vaccine" fired four more missiles at them. Pikachu leaps forward and attacks the projectiles with his thunderbolt attack. The attack destroyed two of the missiles in a flickering explosion. Ash and the others make it through the exit at the last second before the remaining missiles hit the gate, which also destroys Akihabara's real home, along with his invention. However, the friends were successful: The Pokémon transporter in the Pokémon Center is working again, and Pikachu can finally be examined too.

consequences

• After the seizures became known, the Pokémon series stopped broadcasting in Japan for several months before it finally resumed on April 16, 1998.
• Because of this incident, the episode was not broadcast in other countries and has not been broadcast again worldwide to this day.

The American television company 4Kids Entertainment is said to have dubbed the episode and slowed down the lighting effects, but it has not yet been broadcast in the USA either. Of the episode, especially the "flickering scene", there are several videos, some of which are subtitled, on YouTube and other platforms, with the quality and speed of the color change varying. The episode is not available on DVD.

• As a result, the Japanese broadcaster TV Tokyo set guidelines for anime series to prevent such incidents from happening again.

Trivia

• In the following there are several sequences in which a rapid flickering of the above. Colors is shown. Usually, however, the scene in which the rockets are destroyed is named as the trigger, since the color change can be seen here for the longest and over the largest area.
• The episode holds the world record Most Seizures Caused by an Animated Television Program ("animation show with the most seizures caused").
• Since this incident, neither the Pokémon Porygon nor its development stages Porygon2 and Porygon-Z have ever appeared again as (main) pokémon in the series. An official connection with this event has not yet been published.
• In several other series, this Pokémon episode was alluded to in individual episodes, including as a parody in The Simpsons and South Park .

Web links

Dennō Senshi Porygon on pokewiki.de

References

1. ↑ Dennō Senshi Porygon on bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net
2. ↑ Dennō Senshi Porygon on pokewiki.de ( Memento of the original from March 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ Further mention in the Pokéwiki
4. ↑ ^{a b} Dennō Senshi Porygon on pokefans.net
5. ↑ [1]
6. ↑ [2]
7. ↑ [3]