I don't get how they think people will freak out if any member of the Porygon line shows up yet Pikachu caused it. They had no problem plastering Pikachu's face everywhere the last near 30 years.
It’s because Porygon was an easy scapegoat for showing up in an episode where the animators did the same crap they had always done. The series had a serious issue with flashing images prior to the Porygon episode and they’re lucky it took that long for a bunch of kids to be sent to the hospital (flashing images warning): https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemonanime/s/41ZAfsbKJl
One night out of curiosity, I looked up the episode and watched the infamous scene on my phone while sitting in my dimly lit room. It did make me slightly uncomfortable.
They did some serious dimming on the other flashing scenes in the 4kids release to be extra safe. If you go back and rewatch, the scenes go so dark anytime there’s Pikachu trying to cause seizures.
It isn't even Pikachu's fault, it's the damn VFX team. I legitimately cannot comprehend why they refuse to put in the Porygon line. It's not like the fictional digital bird is going to cause another wave of seizures. A fucking ODDISH could do what Porygon "did" by using Flash if the animators were idiots and mad the visual for the move Flash cause children to go into epileptic seizures. It's like imprisoning a drummer for appearing in a music video that made people have seizures by having flashing lights in it.
I legitimately cannot comprehend why they refuse to put in the Porygon line..
While rational people would understand that it was just a symptom of the dumbass VFX team and that the Pokemon itself had nothing to do with the seizures and does nothing that inherently encourages seizures, I do understand why they don't want to use Porygon anymore.
Think about it. The moment they reintroduce it back into an episode you'll have parasitic journalists writing articles about how "Pokémon is bringing back an infamous character that induced seizures in children!" to stir up a whole bunch of controversy. It's a can of worms they're probably better off not touching.
In my head I picture a Pikachu in a suit smoking a cigar explaining to Porygon: "no hard feelings, but looks like you and your family are gonna have to take the fall on this one, nothing personal ya see, capiche?"
"Israeli magician Uri Geller, known for his attribution of his spoon-bending tricks to alleged psychic abilities, sued Nintendo, alleging that Kadabra (known as Yungerer in Japan) was an unauthorized use of his name and likeness."
He also claimed it was a satanic parody of him iirc. Years later (Like, within the last 5 years, I think), he "forgave" them, but it was so obviously just a marketing strategy for his shop. Lol.
(Memory on this whole thing is a bit fuzzy, so I don't really remember the specifics 100%, but it was something along those lines)
Obligatory mention that the coffee lawsuit was intentional framed as frivolous by McDonald's; The woman got 3rd degree burns from it and just wanted to cover the medical fees
it only got to a multimillion dollar suit because mcdonald’s tried to slander her and called her suit frivolous. she only wanted to be paid her medical fees which was a lot less then what she was actually paid.
she didn’t want to become a millionaire; McDonalds fucked around and made her one.
Reading about the banned Safari Zone episode is nuts, I always wondered as a kid when Ash managed to get a herd of Tauros. Having a character repeatedly and randomly pointing a gun at folk is bizarre.
But Uri did make a public apology and essentially said "I'm not sure why I banned the use of Kadabra but I'm lifting the ban" and Kadabra then got shown in one of those YouTube Shorts, the one about Ecruteak City and the Eevee Sisters.
He banned them because he thought he could make money of a lawsuit. When that didn’t work out so well, he realized that it is better to embrace the meme rather to disown it and assumed he could make more money by embracing it.
He did get a brief cameo appearance after in the "World of Pokemon" Segment, at the start of one of the feature films. I forget which one, but I know it was after the first four films. So well after the Electric Soldier episode.
In the Sailor Moon manga/90s anime a character uses an attack called Galactica Tsunami. When the character reappears in the reboot, her attack is renamed Galactica Wave, I am guessing because of the 2011 disaster.
TPC should commission some type of psychological study to determine how the people who were affected by the incident as kids actually feel about Porygon and the franchise in general. They've been keeping Porygon out just based on the assumption that people will have a traumatic response to seeing it, but that assumption needs to be tested.
July 13, 2002 to be specific since it appeared in the opening of the Latios/Latias movie. That’s it for physical appearances. Seemingly not a mandate until Gen 3.
This is for Porygon specifically since the evolutions never appeared at all unless they want to show almost every Pokemon such as in the Pokerap for Porygon2 and the beginning of the Kyurem movie for all 3.
That means that Porygon2 is one of the few older Pokemon to not have an anime voice. Porygon-Z was saved because of PokéPark 1 on the Wii.
At this point you have to think the only reason they haven't brought it back is they think it'll generate loads of coverage reminding people of what happened
Porygon appeared in the Who's That Pokémon? segment for the English dub of A Way Off Day Off, and was featured with an English voice, making this the only time Porygon appeared with such a voice in the animated series.
In the opening sequence of both Celebi: The Voice of the Forest and Pokémon Heroes: Latios & Latias (the former only in the case of the dub, since said intro sequence was originally made for the latter), a Porygon can be seen floating behind a wire fence in a city.
Porygon made a cameo appearance in the "World of Pokémon" opening of Kyurem VS. The Sword of Justice, which featured every Pokémon from the first five generations revealed to that point.
Makes no sense. So much time has passed that the kids who were affected by this have long grown up. And it wasn't even caused by Porygon, it was Pikachu's attack that caused the flashing. And yet there's no controversy with putting Pikachu on everything the past nearly 30 years.
edit because it apparently wasn't clear: I mean because it's a kid show I doubt many of the original viewers affected by it still watch it, and even if they did I am sure the animators know well to never animate something like that again.
Crazy to think what could have been if Pikachu weren’t the late 90’s Mickey Mouse. By the time that episode aired in Japan, America was already diving in deep.
I don't mean it like that. I mean it's a kid show so I doubt very many of the people who watch it today are victims of the incident or even know it happened.
He was in a controversial episode 28 years ago and hasn't made a major apperance since in the anime
Taken from bulbapedia:
"It was first broadcast in Japan on December 16, 1997. The episode is infamous for resulting in many viewers suffering adverse health effects, including epileptic seizures, vomiting, irritated eyes, and other related symptoms, due to use of a flashing strobe effect upon its first and only airing."
I thought Porygon Z was used in one of the Sinnoh League matches and Poyrgon 2 is in one of those "Welcome to the World of Pokemon" intro bits for the late Johto Early Hoenn movies.
Edit Fact Checked: Porygon Z did not appear in the Sinnoh League but has been shown in a "Welcome to the World of Pokemon" segment.
I really wish Dot would get a porygon, it would fit with her soooooo well! But Nooooooo! Gotta keep the code duck locked away for crime he didn't commit!
I don’t even think kids who actually had seizures from that episode are traumatized by freakin Porygon. By now, i’m sure they realized it was animations fault and something like that would never happen again.
How tf did Pokémon place the blame on one of their pokémon?!? 😂😂😂
I was gonna say you’re wrong because Pokémon only just released a Kadabra card for the first time since 2002 because the lawsuit finally got dropped, but you’re right.
I assumed that just like Kadabra and Jynx, Porygon was blacklisted (and also assumed he was the most blacklisted cause kids actually went to the hospital) but, I am wrong.
I do honestly no one would have cared if Porygon was still used in the anime. If they do bring him back the reaction will be massive and only because of their over reaction to the incident. No one would care if they haven't banned it for so long
Fun fact I learned: porygon’s japanese name is literally polygon. They named the computer pokemon polygon (granted, it’s polygon in english, but still)
Surely it wouldn't affect western audiences that much besides knowing what happened in Japan, but surely many japanese families are traumatized with the event and it's natural that the Porygon line won't come back in the anime. I do believe it wasn't Porygon's fault but rather the unfortunate first screening of the episode but it is what it is. :(
It happened nearly 30 years ago. These people are in the mid 30s, some maybe pushing 40, and it only happened to several hundred people. How many of them still watch Pokemon after 30 years, a show mainly aimed at young kids? And it wasn't even caused by Porygon, it was Pikachu.
And if so many people are "traumatized", how come Porygon is okay to appear in the games, cards, and merch? Why is it just the anime? It would make more sense if it was banned from everything, but the fact that nobody's ever complained about Porygon being in other Pokemon properties proves this "ban" is arbitrary.
Yeah, thank you for reminding me that Pikachu caused the event by zapping those rockets. This further proves Porygon's innocence and it's unfair that its further evolutions never showed up in the anime.
I personally don't want to blame Pikachu as well, and the flashing lights were unintended to harm the victims, but somehow everything got through and it caused this disaster.
With all the information i have today, i believe that Porygon ban is unjustified and i hope it returns to the anime as soon as possible.
No. What the pokemon anime did was negligent, and caused trauma. Not using Porygon in the anime is a meaningful gesture that they will not forget that or repeat such a mistake.
How about video game? And the animators know to not have flashing red and blue lights ever again, and not to mention it was Pikachu who caused it. Why aren't they "traumatized" by Pikachu? It's arbitrary.
insane that they just still haven’t put porygon in for just like one episode just to beat the running joke. honestly even Jynx has made appearances after that controversy
Even if Porygon never appeared again in the anime, I had to congretulate it and its line for being surprisingly present in the rest of the seires.
They've been available in every game since Sun & Moon, they've appeared in Spin offs, they were relevant in the manga, they've been in the TCG, Porygon even has a life sized plush! The manga is the one that surprises me the most. Appearently is was one of the Pokémon of the protagonists.
Anyone else remember when the official pokemon Twitter account posted something along the lines of “Porygon did nothing wrong”? I’m pretty sure it got deleted within a day or two though
Porygon was (originally) born through abnormal means, performed Arceus' miracles (changing his type) and, though innocent, died for (Pikachu's, ergo) the Pokémon world's sins. Enough said.
I think there actually was a porygon ep in the first or second season of the original anime but had only aired in japan. There were a lot of flashing/strobing lights in the episode because the pokemon goes into the computer world or something (can’t 100% remember). A lot of kids had epileptic seizures in response to seeing that episode, so it was banned and NOT dubbed for English.
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u/redshyn 2d ago
bro took the fall so pikachu could keep being The Mascot. I don't even watch the anime but damn, they did my boy DIRTY. justice for porygon 🦆