On December 16th 1997 Pokémon made international headlines when their latest episode, “Dennō Senshi Porygon”—now commonly translated as “Electric Soldier Porygon”— caused 685 children to be taken into hospital by ambulance due to seizures, blindness, and convulsions. The event was dubbed by the Japanese Press as “Pokémon Shock” (“Pokémon Shokku”), and launched an investigation by the Japanese Government into what had happened. When discussed the story usually ends there, just a fun way to conclude a listicle of banned anime episodes, or an explanation to fans as to why Porygon has never had a major role in the main anime since. But there is far more to the story of Pokémon’s banned episode: a story that includes a model train enthusiast from Birmingham, England, and a little mouse who got away scott free.
As an Epileptic, I’ve been very outspoken about my opinions on the increased use of strobe lighting effects in American cartoons. Even today with movies like The Incredibles II, the use of flashing lights and red lighting effects has made a lot of cinema not only inaccessible but potentially deadly for many viewers. Yet people have accused me of being a hypocrite: why do I continue to love Pokémon? Surely if I had conviction in my beliefs, I’d refuse to watch the show that caused all those children to be taken to hospital! My response often surprises people. That, in my personal opinion, morally speaking, the animators were not responsible for what happened. That Porygon was, in fact, innocent.
Electric Soldier Porygon and the Birth of the Harding Test
About 1 in 100 people have epilepsy, one of the most common neurological conditions. Epileptic Seizures occur when there is a sudden spike in the brain’s usual electrical activity, causing it to “short circuit” if you will. Despite common misconceptions, there are in fact six seizure types. These include Absence Seizures, when a person stops what they are doing altogether, loses awareness but does not collapse or have visible convulsions; Myoclonic Seizures, when a person’s limbs suddenly jerk uncontrollably but they remain conscious and aware; and Tonic Clonic Seizures where a person loses consciousness, collapses, and their whole body convulses.
Tonic Clonic Seizures are the type of seizures we are referring to when talking about those affected during the “Electric Soldier Porygon” incident. Triggers for seizures come in multiple forms. Common triggers include menstruation, stress, and sleep deprivation. In fact, only around 3% of people with epilepsy are triggered by flashing lights or patterns. However, photosensitivity is not just connected to seizures! Photosensitivity also affects those who are visually impaired, and those who have migraines, amongst other conditions.
Seizures do not automatically mean a person has epilepsy. According to the World Health Organisation, about 10% of people will have a seizure in their lifetime. And these non-epileptic seizures are exactly what occurred during “Electric Soldier Porygon.” 76% of those who had seizures during the event had never experienced a seizure before, and of those who had, most had never had a seizure provoked by TV before. This event is actually what helped confirm that people without any history of epilepsy can have seizures triggered by flashing lights. It is estimated that of the 7 million viewers, 10% had some sort of physical medical reaction but not all of these needed specific medical attention.
In the immediate aftermath of the event, the broadcaster (TV Tokyo) pulled the show completely from the air, putting it on a four-month hiatus whilst they worked out what had happened. The producers were questioned by the police, but found completely innocent of any deliberate wrongdoing.
The government directly flew in neurology expert Graham Harding, a research professor at Aster University, Birmingham, England, to help give them advice on the situation going forward and provide needed insight into what happened. Harding had previously conducted research into photosensitive seizures triggered by video screens, and the same guidelines he had recommended in the UK were immediately implemented by the Japanese government. For years afterwards episodes of anime would start with a warning telling people to make sure they were watching in a brightly lit room and not sitting too close to the TV.
Naturally, this was not the first time that photosensitive seizures had been observed. Seizures triggered by patterns have been recorded as far back as 4000 BCE. Yet it had never occurred on this scale before! While there had been much research on photosensitivity and video games, in terms of flashing lights on television triggering seizures there was little presidence, any blame being put down the general flickering of the TV screen itself. So whilst it was not exactly unknown that flashing lights on TV screens could cause seizures, it was definitely not the absolute common knowledge that it is today. In an ideal world, the animators in 1997 should absolutely have been aware of the risk using flashing lights could cause, but in reality, their ignorance is understandable.
Whilst it was known that seizures could be triggered by flashing lights, it was not known at the time the impact red lighting could have. The episode itself is a jaunt through cyberspace to defeat Team Rocket with the help of the newly developed computer pokémon Porygon. When confronting Team Rocket, Pikachu releases its usual thundershock attacks. Yet because they are not in the real world, the lighting is made to be red and blue! And it is this four-second shot of red light rapidly transitioning to blue, caused by Pikachu and not sweet dear Porygon, that caused this unprecedented event.
There had been no previous recording of the color of light having any significant impact on seizures. Yet research afterwards following this event, partly funded by the government and TV network themselves, showed that it was specifically the red colored light that was responsible. The animators at the time had no reason to believe that using red light could cause such a devastating catastrophe.
Researchers like Harding discovered that photosensitive seizures were usually triggered at a rate of 5 to 25 flashes per second, although some people can be triggered anywhere between three flashes per second and 60 per second. Therefore, Harding proposed that broadcasters go frame by frame on their media and check the exact rate the flashes of light occurred, along with the exact amount of screen space they took up. He recommended that oscillating patterns, and high contrast dark/light images should not take up more than 25% of the screen. These guidelines are still in place today in Japan and the UK.
Naturally, going frame by frame is incredibly time consuming. So Harding was asked by the UK and Japanese regulating committees if he could come up with a better, quicker method of testing if a piece of media was safe to show or not. Working together, Graham and Polly Harding created a computer program that would do the check for them. This is now known as “The Harding Test” and it is still a legal requirement for all broadcast media in the UK and Japan to be put through this program and given a “pass,” although it should be noted that the parameters for passing are stricter in Japan than in the UK.
In Japan, the stricter rules for passing the Harding Test have resulted in techniques known as “dimming” and “ghosting”. Dimming is when, in order to pass the test, footage will have a dark filter placed over the top that mutes the contrasting colors and reduces the amount of luminance contrast on the screen. It will also help to reduce the amount of red light that is used. “Ghosting” meanwhile, is when frames will be layered on top of one another to create a smoother transition. This method has been used in series such as My Hero Academia, and Attack on Titan. However, it does have an impact on the overall appearance of the series. This is something that Western anime fans have been incredibly vocal about, especially when Season 2 of Jujutsu Kaisen aired: many viewers were furious at how these safety techniques were used, claiming that they absolutely ruined the whole series for them. Over 2500 fans signed a change.org petition asking Crunchyroll to take down this edited, safe, version of the series and instead upload an unedited version that was true to the original vision—even if it had the potential to cause seizures.
Western Mockery of Basic Accessibility, or: “But I’m not Epileptic!”
I have seen many fans, in the face of being told the reason for these changes, say that it doesn’t matter because they aren’t personally epileptic. This is, as you might understand, incredibly personally frustrating, and yes, very ableist. In saying this, these fans claim that disabled people do not have a right to feel safe when watching their favorite series, and that their wellbeing doesn’t matter in comparison to a few brighter shots of teenagers using their magic powers to punch each other.
It also needs reminding, that Pokémon Shock scientifically proved that anybody regardless of their history with seizures can experience one if exposed to certain stimuli. In fact, the care that TV Tokyo and the Japanese Broadcast Industry as a whole have towards photosensitive viewers makes anime one of the safest things for photosensitive people to watch. (Though there are, of course, exceptions. For example, my mother suffers from photosensitive migraines and had one triggered by the opening of Spy X Family Season 2.)
Seizures are also incredibly serious and have a huge emotional and physical toll on a person. Many epileptics, even if not diagnosed with photosensitivity, will choose to stay away from strobe effects out of fear of it triggering a seizure. Seizures that occur after a long period of time are known as “breakthrough seizures,” and can happen unexpectedly even decades after your last. This is why many epileptics choose not to take part in any activity that might result in having a seizure or where a seizure would make a situation worse. In worst case scenarios, people can even die from Tonic Clonic seizures. This is known as “Sudden Death in Epilepsy” or “SUDEP,” and is something that many people with epilepsy must live with. That one day they could have a seizure and never wake up from it.
To all the Western fans who dismiss concerns about photosensitivity: I want to take you through my personal last Tonic Clonic Seizure. I woke up in a hospital room covered in wires, a cannula in each arm, absolutely no idea how I got there, and a back that made me understand what a 10 on the pain scale was. Whilst the doctors tried to work out why I had had a Tonic Clonic seizure after having been free of them since infancy—previously I’d only had absences and myoclonics—I learnt that I had managed to somehow fracture my back during my seizure. Whilst they were only stress fractures, not a full break, over a year later I am still unable to stand for more than five minutes without experiencing intense pain. Seizures are serious business.
The Current State of Photosensitivity in Animation
Sadly, this willful dismissal of the facts continues to happen in American animation and appears to be getting worse. In 2018 Pixar released their long awaited sequel to The Incredibles. The sequel included scenes where the villain uses strobe effects to hypnotise and mind control his victims. The scene lasted for 90 seconds, and also included a repetitive black and white hypnotic pattern. Reports soon came in of children having seizures in the cinema, although the number of those affected is unknown. After the first seizure reports came through, Disney released a request for cinemas to put up signs warning that the scene could trigger photosensitive people. Unlike with “Electric Soldier Porygon” the movie continued to be shown unedited in American cinemas throughout its entire run. Since the movie failed to pass the Harding Test, an alternative cut had to be shown in the UK, Ireland, and Japan. This meant that for at least two months of its theatrical run, Pixar had a safe cut they could show to English speaking American audiences and yet still chose to have the unsafe version in US cinemas.
Taking safety into consideration when animating does naturally lead to some difficult choices and challenges. Sometimes you have to remove certain things to pass through regulations but in the right hands this can be seen as a challenge to be risen to. Ufotable is one such company. Having seen that companies like MAPPA were opting for dimming and ghosting effects to let them pass the Harding Test, and then just removing them later for BluRay release (because apparently photosensitive folk don’t like owning shows on disc and only want to watch them on TV), Ufotable decided that they would not compromise their original vision at all. So when producing the TV cut of Demon Slayer: Mugen Train instead of lazily applying filters, they painstakingly went through frame by frame to alter the individual elements that had caused the problems to occur and change small elements that would make it safe for people to watch. It proves that you can create beautifully animated action sequences and not have to put a keep out sign on the door to prevent disabled people from watching.
In 2019, Disney’s Descendents actor Cameron Boyce died as a result of an epileptic seizure at just age 20. Another victim to SUDEP, his death was met with both mourning from fans… and a social media trend known as the “Cameron Boyce Challenge” where people pretended to have a seizure. Disability discrimination, and epileptic discrimination in particular, is still very much prevalent in every step of our society. Yet, if it is one thing that Porygon has shown us, it is that there are people out there who do care. There are those, like Graham and Polly Harding, who want to dedicate their lives to helping people with epilepsy have full and enriching lives. And yes, that does very much include being able to join in with the discussion of what happened on the latest episode of that thing you all love.
The fact that more people around the world are able to enjoy anime in a safe format, that this format is easily available on platforms like Crunchyroll as well as on broadcast TV, is a thing to be celebrated. As an Epileptic, I believe “Electric Soldier Porygon” has led to a net benefit to all photosensitive people around the world. Whilst the events of that day are horrific and should never be joked about, the positive change that occurred helped to protect the lives of far more people than those immediately affected. So I say, Porygon was innocent! He did nothing wrong at all! Let him back into the anime, and into our lives, as the icon for improvements in animation and a symbol for things getting better in the world.
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