DISCLAIMER: THE FOLLOWING PAGE MAY CONTAIN (MENTIONS OF) FLASHING LIGHTS, IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE TO THAT, CLICK HERE
a screenshot of the scene from the episode that eventually lead it to be cancelled.
Dennō Senshi Porygon (Also unofficially known as "Electric Soldier Porygon") was to be the 38th episode of the Brick Bronze Pokemon anime series. It was meant to be aired on December 16, 1997 and was written by Junki Takegami and directed by Kiyotaka Isako.
The episode is known for a scene where there are repetitive visual effects that would eventually cause a seizure and around 600 Neo-Japanese children that were around as during the episode's test screening were sent to the hospital; because of this, the episode was eventually cancelled and banned from airing anywhere (though it was still considered as Episode 38 of the series.)
However, it was rumored that there was a unproduced English dub for the episode. The rumor would later be debunked by the voice actor for James. It is also known and has been officially confirmed that most copies of the episode (except for ones that were released online) have been destroyed for good and the Brick Bronze Pokemon anime franchise would never feature Porygon again due to the controversy.
Premise
The episode's premise was that Ash, Misty, Brock and Pikachu discover that something is wrong with the PokeBall transmitting device at the local Pokemon Center. In order to find out what the hell is wrong, they must go inside the machine.
Trivia
- Because of the incident, television shows started the tradition to add flashing lights warnings to all media that could cause seizures.
- This episode (except for the seizure scene) was considered to be completely lost media for 21 years, until in 2018, when a Roternet user uploaded it to BloxTube under the title “Brick Bronze Pokemon Lost Episode!?!? (REAL, NO CLICKBAIT)”