Electric Soldier Porygon: The UNTOLD Stories
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- čas přidán 21. 06. 2024
- Anyone who knows about Pokemon in the news likely knows this story... or at least, they think they do. In more recent years, the truths surrounding "Electric Soldier Porygon" have been unveiled, and paint a completely different picture to what we've been saying and thinking the last 25 years. If someone wants to know the real story behind this insane event, look no further.
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Sources/Further Reading:
Dogasu's Backpack Pokemon Shock Feature:
dogasu.bulbagarden.net/featur...
web.archive.org/web/200810231...
www.awn.com/animationworld/na...
books.google.ca/books?id=40Ag...
Document Museum: home-aki.la.coocan.jp/soudou01...
web.archive.org/web/201306170...
Special Thanks to Dogasu's Backpack, Dr. Lava, and pocketmonsters.net for their help and research. - Hry
For the Sailor Moon YTV promo I brought up, it's very possible that promo was made as a joke among YTV staff members - there's another promo similar in nature (but way more offensive), and I can't imagine that one airing on TV. If you know, you know.
Also, here's a music list:
Kalos Power Plant - Pokemon X and Y
Kaminko's Manor - Pokemon XD
Ultra Plant - Pkmn Ultra Sun/Moon
Stereo Protect - Pulseman
Pewter City - Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee
To Be Continued - Pokemon Anime BGM
The Rockets Unveiled - Pokemon Anime BGM
Pokemon Gym - LGPE
Silph Co. - LGPE
Cycle Partition - Pulseman
Mt Moon - LGPE
Pokemon Tower - Pokemon Anime BGM
Mewtwo Battle - Pokemon Stadium
Pocket ni Fantasy - Pokemon Anime
Game Corner - LGPE
Voltage Algorism - Pulseman
Vermillion City - LGPE
Quiz - Stadium 2
Prime Cup Semifinal - Stadium
Options - Stadium 2
Gym Castle Battle - Stadium
Pkmn Selection - Stadium 2
Anyone remember a few years ago when the official English Pokemon Twitter made a tweet saying "Porygon did nothing wrong"?
R.I.P that social media intern, likely got the boot afterwards
@@TheEvilRayquaza Wrongly so. Stupid PC fartknockers.
Somehow the joke on The Simpsons about Elecrric Soldier Porygon is more tasteful than the YTV promo. I cannot believe that is a real thing.
thanks for mentioning dogasu, tons of youtubers just leach content from wikis and fansites without giving proper credits.
Poor Porygon got basically banished into obscurity because they couldn’t bear to place blame on Pikachu causing the strobe effects. Porygon and its line have gotten the shaft for too long from the Pokémon Company. Love the video and can’t wait for the rest of Poke-month!
It was Nurse Joys fault for sending those missiles.
Yeah but Porygon was the featured Pokémon. I guess the staff wanted no association with that episode and were probably worried that if they did do a new episode featuring the mon, people would go "oh no, Pokémon Shock 2!"
@@Kolbatsu still not fair they didn’t have to scrub the Pokémon from the anime for something that could’ve been fixed another way, like maybe not have strobe effects which is what they did, there was no reason to go any further than that
cause a big clash mess
i mean they could just blame the animators
would be the normal thing to do
Amazed and glad that you brought up the unaltered ep2-37 somehow slipping into Japanese Hulu. I was shocked when first learning about that. And since the first few rental VHS came out before ep38, the unaltered ep1 does still exist thanks to that release. Wonder how many versions of ep1 exist indeed.
Another consequence of the incident ofc is JP channels darkening the footage of broadcast anime whenever bright lights predominantly appear during action scenes, like in My Hero Academia for example. And older series' rereleases or restorations also had flashing lights slowed down or removed. Dragon Ball Kai had some of these changes in comparison to the original Z's effects iirc.
Shit man, you ever seen this awesome mech anime called Gaogaigar, the first half of the series was ALL strobing effects for the villians. Japan sure did love that effect for a min.
Oh wow, I didnt realize how much of a nightmare this became! Really good video, dude!
Thanks, Chris! Glad you enjoyed!
I mean, just looking at news footage should give you a clear idea as if a terrorist hijack the network and pretty much caused illness to viewers whom were watching TV at that time. You have to remember 1990s was a turbulent but very pivotal moment in much of media that would define how media consumption would go on into the new millennium at that time. And considering even the end of the world in 2000 was even coming, well, there were a ton of horrible and weird events that have occurred in the 1990s, it's no wonder the 1990s would be the last crazy decade before the 2000s came in and, 9/11 pretty much caused the whole world to go into depression goth mode for the rest of the decade until the late 2000s with the club scene and social media tides of the world.
My graduation thesis was on this topic, I spent about 8 months researching about it for work and it was difficult to find information in my language (Portuguese Brazilian), even more so that I am not even intermediate in Japanese. In the end I discovered so much that I had no idea, that it was amazing to see how a single episode has so many nuances and yielded more than 40 pages of analysis. (I studied Linguistics)
That's because unlike United Kingdom, that had research into epilepsy, and had the foresight to tell producers in that country to be weary of flashing lights and content that could cause people to get motion sickness and seizures, Japan unfortunately didn't have the same rules as UK did, which once it happened, well, it pretty much was in the same situation as Tiananmen Square did in China 8 years prior to this event. And considering it happened around Christmas time was pretty much akin to a "Black Christmas" type of horror incident.
It sucks that the Porygon line was pretty much left out of the anime after this incident. I can’t help but wonder what kind of stories we would have gotten if they made episodes based around Porygon-2 during the Gen 2 anime and Porygon-Z for Gen 4.
They’d probably go in a computer to solve a problem, haha.
I really hope Porygon comes back someday in the anime, it would be a neat addition to Dot's team in Horizons.
Why Dot specifically?
@TheCartoonGamer8000 Dot is the tech savvy one of the crew so I feel like it would make the most sense.
@@kodakazu8 Fair enough, I suppose.
Its so insane finally seeing the whole story could really shows how much power pokemon had in that time and even to this day if it was able to comeback and grow EVEN MORE thanks to us
I'll never forget that the entire Porygon line had to bite the bullet because of the strobe effect that the damn yellow rat did...
One of my favorite pokemon will never appear properly in the anime ever
december 16th 2022 was definitely my pokemon shock, and it doubling as a way to divert attention from the incident was certainly a bold move
26:34 The thumbnail for episode 12 made me laugh xD
Dogasu is a MVP in those regards 💪
I love the amount of research that went into this, you weave a really compelling narrative with info I really wish was more accessible ❤ that sailor moon promo is insane btw
Thanks, Jonii! Humbled that my word jumbling came out to be something compelling.
And I don’t know if you saw it, but it’s very possible that promo was only made for staff to have a laugh at. Still insane, though.
I was a (just turned) 11 year old Animation nerd when I saw a story about this on BBC1's evening news programme. Like most people outside of Japan at the time I had no idea what this "Pocket Monsters" show was, and I honestly didn't have much conception of Japanese animation outside of knowing there was always a shelf of Anime VHS tapes at every Game (the UK equivalent of GameStop). I always remembered the story but didn't remember the name of the show, and as Pokémon took over the world over the following 3 years or so, I didn't make the connection. I actually didn't find out this incident was due to a Pokémon episode until about 6 years ago.
“He called December 16th the worst day of his life”
That was my 5th birthday…
He wasn’t your dad, was he?
What's really interesting after this happened is that a law on January 7th, 1998 was passed that proposed laws regarding strobe lights or seizure content included on CRTs, Internet, and most of the media for the next 26 years to come into the future. I've heard about this event back in the early 2010s as well as looking into the wikipedia article talking about this. And it explains why I used to see many video games from the 2000s onward mentioning about "nausea, motion sickness, or seizures" in future video games to come. Nintendo wouldn't include it inside the games until 2003/2004, and since then has been part of the gaming landscape for quite some time.
So while Porygon was banished up until Pokemon 2023 (Pokemon Horizons), it was quite sad to see Porygon get the short end of the stick, when in reality it was the animators that didn't have the same foresight that United Kingdom did when checking media first before they went on the air, and even British TV companies would tell producers to keep an eye out of content that could get people epilepsy or seizures (considering Britain was one of the foundations for Seizure and Epilepsy research back in the 1880s).
But to be honest, here's the thing....I've seen bright lights at parties, including strobe lights...And believe it or not, they were bright. And considering I actually did a test to see how bright CRTs would go up to, just goes to show that CRTs at the time had a huge lightbulb inside of it. If this was an LCD or OLED screen, it wouldn't have much effect nor would computers/laptops would either, because the amount of light going into the screen wouldn't be as massively bright as the lightbulbs would. And on the other hand, if they weren't sure how the episode would have gone, they should have done an audience test of say ten children to watch it, and if something physically happened to them, they would have save so much time from having to get sued by the government themselves. And also, who did not notice that being exposed to strobe lights for 30 minutes straight would cause headaches in both adults and children's eyes???
@@SuperFlashDriver A few things to clarify: Nintendo introduced a “photoepilepsy warning” on their games a few years earlier at least (and other game companies took action even earlier than that).
The strobe effect only took place for a few seconds, not an entire half-hour. And Porygon still hasn’t appeared in the anime - what you’re referring to is a fake screenshot drawn by a fan.
@@TheCartoonGamer8000 Well that's interesting, I thought it was occuring in the 2000s, but I didn't know it was done years prior to that.
When it came to the strobe lights, I think I was talking about all of the strobe lights int the entire episode, not really how long they lasted (so my bad on that part for not explaining it).
Wait, that part of the episode was fake??? Interesting. Considering I haven't watched Pokemon Horizons/Pokemon 2023 in a while, it can be quite deceiving to see something that was thought to be real, but turned out it didn't (oh well).
Poké-Month is back, baby!!! What a way to start this year's Poké-Month off.
The letters, faxes, and fan art from the kids at the time (even from some of those who were affected!) was honestly really sweet to see. Even this early on, Pokémon had captured the hearts of thousands of people.
This is probably one of your best Poké-Month videos, at least in my eyes. Big ups to you, Dogasu, and everyone else who shared their experiences with the Pokémon Shock.
Thanks, dude! I'm glad you liked it - genuinely!
I genuinely said "The fuck, guys?" at that YTV promo.
I've heard so much about this over the years, and now I'm gonna see the full story. Thanks bro, you and dogasu are the real MVPs!
It's interesting to hear all these details regarding such an infamous event in Pokémon's early history. Nice work on the video!
Also, that Sailor Moon promo is, uh... pretty distasteful.
Has there ever been an official word on Porygon's absence from the anime? I feel like I would've heard it if there was.
@@NitroIndigo Nope, not a word.
I'm kind of curious how far along Pokemon Yellow was in terms of debugging. the Porygon episode shuffled episodes around in development, like there's an episode that involved a trainer with a Farfetch'd stealing Pokeballs, yet Jessie had one more pokeball than she should've had (Lickitung), which is highly curious, espcially since Pokemon had a few episodes that alligns with real life holidays in Japan (being March 3rd, despite airing in July). there's also a low chance of baiting a Dragonair in the Safari Zone. it begs to question if the game went gold, but the anime writers backed out of their plan with the Princess episode and slotted in Lickitung instead. Farfetch'd episode aired a few months before Lickitung's. the introduction of Togepi probably also hampered things, presumably the movie and anime teams were isolated from eachover before its egg appeared.
Pokemon Snap came out long after the Aerodactyl episode, and Game Freak was still open to the idea of spinoffs at the time, so the development of that game doesn't mean Todd Snap's appearence/Togepi's egg was a pre-development jumping off point.
Pokemon Picross was also revealed and in-development to the extent that the furthest episode it referenced was episode 69 (Nov 1998). though concurrent anime references either extends as far as the Pikachu short from the second movie (July 1999), or to the unannounced Snow Way Out episode (october 1998). it only appeared twice in issues April and May 1999 issues of Corocoro. there is an unused Togepi stage which probably alludes how far along they were, at least before the Porygon episode happened. the unpredicted pushback of GS's development, gameboy camera sprite comparisons and the gameboy color's lack of enhancement for JP-Yellow might hint stuff too.
Honestly, it's weird how they omit TR's pokemon from the wild roster in the game, yet sticks more in-line with Ash's journey in general. like Weedle was one of the first pokemon he attempted to capture but ran off, and there are lots of Kakuna/Beedrill in an episode.
dogasu.bulbagarden.net/features/pokemon_shock/effects_on_scheduling.html
The first episode of Poké-Month has finally arrived. Been waiting for this episode about Electric Soldier Porygon.
I'm glad I have a VHS copy of the original Japanese airing of the episode with the commercials intact.
30:19 Funny Mike Lazzo said this and Toonami started shortly after with Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, and the other early animes on Cartoon Network. Toonami even aired on Kids' WB for a while.
That would be cool to see!
@@rawr51919 It definitely is. I've shown a few pictures of it to my friends before, but would love to upload the whole episode and commercials somewhere if I had something to transition the stuff from the VHS with.
Who remembers that one wrestling promo in 2017 when Jinder Mahal referenced the Porygon episode against Shinsuke Nakamura?
28:04 Sounds like those kids were singing a line from Pokémon Ierukana, which serves as Japanese Pokérap so one can make the argument that they were singing the Pocket Monsters song...at least the song with all the Pocket Monsters?
Anyways, it's a shame that the episode caused such a ruckus, because having seen the episode I do feel that it was a very good episode with a fun premise and entertaining action.
Good ear - I didn't know that myself, though I'm sure they didn't know what the song was either, haha. It's certainly a Pokemon song, but when you hear "the Pocket Monsters song", that's usually not the first thing to come to mind, especially as an English speaker.
Great video man!
Imagine if the Pokémon franchise ended like, how would the world be? Not one I want to live in that's for sure
Great entertaining video! Cant wait for the Tara Sand interview coming up?!
Glad to see more context to the story
Oooooh I knew this story though the back of my mind
I feel sorry to all of those kids who seen it back in 1997
WHAT WAS THAT PORYGON Z VOICE?! It sounds like a confused Tim "The Toolman" Taylor lol
Ha! I totally hear it now.
Aeeuuugggh?
Oh we are so back to Poké-Month!!
Never knew how much more lively those visual effects were. Like you, I thought it was just a cost-cutting measure.
I've heard of this from long ago but this beings it in new light
I'm a big pokemon anime fan and even did a paper where this was part of the paper and did so many other reads on this, and there's a lot that I didn't know which is cool.
22:10 That's not a 4 that's the Jupiter symbol what's with that Sailor Moon ad
I mentioned it in the comments, but it's likely it was made as a joke among YTV staff, not meant for public viewing.
@@TheCartoonGamer8000 Ah I see thank you
😮
PORYGON SPOTTED !!!
I understand they don’t want to be reminded of the episode, but given the technology we have today (which is much more advance) wouldn’t it be best to edit out the epilepsy scene nowadays?
I mean they did it back then, but I’m guessing they’re just overly cautious.
So if they did create an edited version… Does that mean that 4kids did in fact get a tape? I wonder if Eric Stuart or any of the others have that in their own personal collection since they never got around to putting it on the air here. Hopefully one of them are lucky enough to have that tape.
No, no one has the tape. This was never dubbed.
@@TheCartoonGamer8000 I was talking about the one with the edited flashing lights. I know it wasn't dubbed. But I wonder if they were sent to the tape to be dubbed, but then it never happened.
@@blueberrypitbull87 Who knows, but until we hear something from somebody, it doesn't seem likely at this point.
Way back when the series first debuted in America, I remember reading a magazine article that claimed 4kids had dubbed an edited version of the episode, but weren't sure if they should air it.
@@Morgil27 That's a lot of money wasted on something they weren't sure they'd air. It's seems more likely they didn't touch it at all.
I have this porygon episode on vhs. But it’s the kids wb edit
This was never dubbed. Show me some video proof or it didn't happen.
I was generally surprise that both Ash's Departure and Pokemon Horizon's announcement was on the same day Electric Soldier Porygon aired in Japan.
I wonder in the future, could we see retrospective for Pokemon Horizons, once all the episodes is released, either in japan or the english dub? I want to know more about the creation and making of the show because it's one of my favorite shows.
17:36 wait what? i never heard that before
16:04 it is ironic do you think it's just like rain
22:40 that is so touching especially that 22:42
Looks like I'm early
23:26 This story is oddly funny to me
I thought I was the only one who felt sick watching spiderverse.
Okay you're just getting started and you're already wrong about something just to let you know. This wasn't something that was unknown to the japanese. Intense flashing lights had always been a thing in Japanese media. The real crucial difference was that so many people were watching because of how popular Pokemon was
I didn't say they weren't aware of this - I'm pretty sure I just said it was unlike anything seen on TV before, due to the choice of colours they used. I'm aware of the "paka-paka" technique and how often it was used as well.
@@TheCartoonGamer8000 The colors aren't important and I would really need to see a source that red and blue flashing was unique
@@orsonzedd The Pokemon Inspection Report goes into further detail - a mix of the colours chosen and the length of when it was onscreen:
czcams.com/video/Qj-Ykg64ff4/video.html
Damn Japanese blamed a harmless anime instead of the 700+ cases of undiagnosed photosensitive epilepsy.
15:28 She IS Ash and Misty’s kid.
Source?
@@TheCartoonGamer8000My source is I made it the F Up! 😂
0:51 or you were born more than a few years ago, when that was in the news...
I first learned about the incident in 2007 - no way I would’ve learned about it in the news when I was an infant.
@@TheCartoonGamer8000 i was born in 1990 and definitely heard of it before the anime aired here, one year after being aired in japan.
Excaliburfansubs did nothing wrong