Anime series
The Pokémon anime series and
films are a meta-series of adventures separate from the canon that most of the
Pokémon video games follow (with the exception of Pokémon Yellow, a game based
loosely on the anime storyline). The anime follows the quest of the main
character, Ash Ketchum (known as Satoshi in Japan) a Pokémon Master in
training, as he and a small group of friends travel around the fictitious world
of Pokémon along with their Pokémon partners. The original series, titled
Pocket Monsters, or simply Pokémon in western countries (often referred to as
Pokémon: Gotta Catch 'Em All to distinguish it from the later series), begins
with Ash's first day as a Pokémon trainer. His first (and signature) Pokémon is
a Pikachu, differing from the games, where only Bulbasaur, Charmander, or
Squirtle could be chosen.The series follows the storyline of the original
games, Pokémon Red and Blue, in the region of Kanto. Accompanying Ash on his
journeys are Brock, the Pewter City Gym Leader, and Misty, the youngest of the
Gym Leader sisters from Cerulean City. Pokémon: Adventures in the Orange
Islands follows Ash's adventures in the Orange Islands, a place unique to the
anime, and replaces Brock with Tracey Sketchit, an artist and "Pokémon
watcher". The next series, based on the second generation of games,
include Pokémon: Johto Journeys, Pokémon: Johto League Champions, and Pokémon:
Master Quest, following the original trio of Ash, Brock, and Misty in the
western Johto region.
The saga continues in Pokémon:
Advanced Battle, based on the third generation games. Ash and company travel to
Hoenn, a southern region in the Pokémon World. Ash takes on the role of a
teacher and mentor for a novice Pokémon trainer named May. Her brother Max
accompanies them, and though he isn't a trainer, he knows large amounts of
handy information. Brock (from the original series) soon catches up with Ash,
but Misty has returned to Cerulean City to tend to her duties as a gym leader
(Misty, along with other recurring characters, appears in the spin-off series
Pokémon Chronicles). The Advanced Battle series concludes with the Battle
Frontier saga, based on the Emerald version and including aspects of FireRed
and LeafGreen. The Advanced Generation series ended with Max leaving to pick
his starter Pokémon, and May going to the Grand Festival in Johto.
In the Diamond and Pearl series,
based on the fourth generation games, Ash, Brock, and a new companion, an
aspiring Pokémon coordinator named Dawn traveled through the region of Sinnoh.
In the end of the series, Ash and Brock returned to their home region where
Brock started to follow his newfound dream of becoming a Pokémon doctor
himself.
Pocket Monsters: Best Wishes!,
based on the fifth generation games, Pokémon Black and White, is the newest
installment of the Pokémon anime series being broadcast only Japan and the
United States. It features Ash and Pikachu traveling through the new region of
Unova (Isshu in Japan) along two new companions, Iris and Cilan (Dent in
Japan).
In addition to the TV series, thirteen
Pokémon films have been made, with a pair of films in the making. Collectible
bonuses, such as promotional trading cards, have been available with some of
the films.
Films
Given release dates are the
original Japanese release dates.
Pokémon: The First Movie—Mewtwo
Strikes Back (1998)
Pokémon: The Movie 2000—The Power
of One (1999)
Pokémon 3: The Movie—Spell of the
Unown (2000)
Pokémon 4Ever—Celebi: Voice of
the Forest (2001)
Pokémon Heroes (2002)
Pokémon: Jirachi Wish Maker
(2003)
Pokémon: Destiny Deoxys (2004)
Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery
of Mew (2005)
Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of
the Sea (2006)
Pokémon: The Rise of Darkrai
(2007)
Pokémon: Giratina and the Sky
Warrior (2008)
Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of
Life (2009)
Pokémon: Zoroark: Master of
Illusions (2010)
Pokémon the Movie: Black—Victini
and Reshiram and
Pokémon the Movie: White—Victini
and Zekrom (2011)
Soundtracks
There have been several Pokémon
CDs that have been released in North America, most of them in conjunction with
the theatrical releases of the first three Pokémon films. These releases were
commonplace until late 2001. On March 27, 2007, a tenth anniversary CD was
released containing 18 tracks from the English dub; this was the first
English-language release in over five years. Soundtracks of the Pokémon feature
films have been released in Japan each year in conjunction with the theatrical
releases.
Year Title
June 29, 1999 Pokémon 2.B.A. Master
November 9, 1999 Pokémon: The First Movie
February 8, 2000 Pokémon World
May 9, 2000 Pokémon: The First Movie Original Motion
Picture Score
July 18, 2000 Pokémon: The Movie 2000
2001 Pokémon: The Movie 2000 Original Motion Picture Score
January 23, 2001 Totally Pokémon
April 3, 2001 Pokémon 3: The Ultimate Soundtrack
October 9, 2001 Pokémon Christmas Bash
March 27, 2007 Pokémon X
Criticism and controversy
Morality
Pokémon has been criticized by
some Christians, and Jews. Christian concerns over Pokémon have primarily
addressed perceived occult and violent themes and the concept of "Pokémon
evolution" (although evolution in Pokémon is more akin to metamorphosis,
the ChildCare Action Project related it to the theory of evolution), which they
claim goes against the Biblical creation account in Genesis, which the majority
of Japanese, not adhering to Christianity, do not believe in. The Vatican,
however, has countered that the Pokémon trading card game and video games are
"full of inventive imagination" and have no "harmful moral side
effects". In the United Kingdom, the "Christian Power Cards"
game was introduced in 1999 by David Tate who stated, "Some people aren't
happy with Pokémon and want an alternative, others just want Christian
games." The game was similar to the Pokémon TCG but used Biblical figures.
In 1999, Nintendo stopped
manufacturing the Japanese version of the "Koga's Ninja Trick"
trading card because it depicted a manji, a traditionally Buddhist symbol with
no negative connotations.The Jewish civil rights group Anti-Defamation League
complained because the symbol is the reverse of a swastika, which is considered
offensive to Jewish people. The cards were intended for sale in Japan only, but
the popularity of Pokémon led to importation in to the United States with
approval from Nintendo. The Anti-Defamation League understood that the issue
symbol was not intended to offend and acknowledged the sensitivity that
Nintendo showed by removing the product.
In 2001, Saudi Arabia banned
Pokémon games and cards, alleging that the franchise promoted Zionism by
displaying the Star of David in the trading cards, and involved gambling, which
is in violation of Muslim doctrine.Pokémon has been accused of promoting
materialism.
In 1999, two nine-year-old boys
sued Nintendo because they claimed the Pokémon Trading Card Game caused their problematic
gambling.
Health
Dennō Senshi Porygon" (でんのうせんしポリゴン Dennō Senshi Porigon?, literally "Computer Soldier Porygon",
although most commonly mistranslated as "Electric Soldier Porygon")
is the thirty-eighth episode of the Pokémon anime's first season. Its only
broadcast was in Japan on December 16, 1997. In the episode, Ash and his
friends find at the local Pokémon Center that there is something wrong with the
Poké Ball transmitting device. To find out what's wrong, they must go inside the
machine.
The episode is infamous for
using visual effects that caused seizures in a substantial number of Japanese
viewers, an incident referred to as the "Pokémon Shock" (ポケモンショック Pokémon Shokku?) by the Japanese press. Six hundred and eighty-five viewers
were taken to hospitals; two people remained hospitalized for more than two
weeks. Due to this, the episode has not been rebroadcast worldwide. After the
shock, the Pokémon anime went into a four month hiatus, and it returned on TV
Tokyo in April 1998. Since then, the episode has been parodied and referenced
in cultural media, including episodes of South Park and The Simpsons.
On December 16, 1997, more than
635 Japanese children were admitted to hospitals with epileptic seizures. It
was determined the seizures were caused by watching an episode of Pokémon
"Dennō Senshi Porygon", (most commonly translated "Electric
Soldier Porygon", season 1, episode 38); as a result, this episode has not
been aired since. In this particular episode, there were bright explosions with
rapidly alternating blue and red color patterns. It was determined in
subsequent research that these strobing light effects cause some individuals to
have epileptic seizures, even if the person had no previous history of
epilepsy. This incident is the most common focus of Pokémon-related parodies in
other media, and was lampooned by the Simpsons episode "Thirty Minutes
over Tokyo" and the South Park episode "Chinpokomon", among
others.
Monster in My Pocket
In March 2000, Morrison
Entertainment Group, a small toy developer based at Manhattan Beach, California,
sued Nintendo over claims that Pokémon infringed on its own "Monster in My
Pocket" characters. A judge ruled there was no infringement so Morrison
appealed the ruling in November 2001.
Plot
Ash, Misty, Brock, and Pikachu discover that the system used to transfer
Pokémon from one Pokémon Center to the other is malfunctioning. On Nurse Joy's
request, they go to Professor Akihabara, the one who created the Poké Ball
transfer system. He tells them that Team Rocket stole his prototype Porygon, a
digital Pokémon that can exist in cyberspace, and is using it to steal
trainers' Pokémon from inside the computer system.
Akihabara sends Ash, Misty, Brock, Pikachu, and his second Porygon into
the system to stop Team Rocket, whom they learn have set up a blockade that
stops Pokéballs from traveling the network. Porygon is able to defeat Team
Rocket's Porygon, but Nurse Joy, monitoring the situation, has sent an
anti-virus program into the system to combat what she thinks is a computer
virus. Pikachu uses a Thunderbolt attack on the program, which manifests as
"vaccine missiles", which causes an explosion. The group and Team Rocket
successfully escape the computer, and with Team Rocket's blockade removed, the
system returns to normal.
Reception and controversy
"Dennō Senshi Porygon" aired in Japan on December
16, 1997 at 6:30 PM Japan Standard Time.The episode, which was broadcast over
thirty-seven TV stations that Tuesday night, held the highest ratings for its
time slot, and was watched by approximately 26.9 million households.
Twenty minutes into the episode, there is a scene in which
Pikachu stops vaccine missiles with its Thunderbolt attack, resulting in a huge
explosion that flashes red and blue lights. Although there were similar parts
in the episode with red and blue flashes, an anime technique called "paka
paka" made this scene extremely intense, for these flashes were extremely
bright strobe lights, with blinks at a rate of about 12 Hz for approximately
four seconds in almost fullscreen, and then for two seconds outright
fullscreen.
At this point, viewers started to complain of blurred
vision, headaches, dizziness and nausea.Some experienced seizures, blindness,
convulsions and loss of consciousness. Japan's Fire Defense Agency reported
that a total of 685 viewers - 310 boys and 375 girls - were taken to hospitals
by ambulances. Although many victims recovered during the ambulance trip, more
than 150 of them were admitted to hospitals. Two people remained hospitalized
for more than two weeks. Some other people had seizures when parts of the scene
were rebroadcast during news reports on the seizures. Only a small fraction of
the 685 children treated were diagnosed with photosensitive epilepsy.
Later studies showed that 5-10% of the viewers had mild
symptoms that did not need hospital treatment. 12,000 children who did not get
sent to hospital by ambulance reported mild symptoms of illness; however, their
symptoms more closely resembled mass hysteria than a grand mal seizure.A study
following 103 patients over three years after the event found that most of them
had no further seizures. Scientists believe that the flashing lights triggered
photosensitive seizures in which visual stimuli such as flashing lights can
cause altered consciousness. Although approximately 1 in 4,000 people is
susceptible to these types of seizures, the number of people affected by this
Pokémon episode was unprecedented.
An article attacking the entire Japanese animation industry
soon appeared in USA Today. Written by Jefferson Graham and Tim Friend, it
confidently contended that "American children aren't likely to suffer
seizures provoked by TV cartoons", mainly because U.S. networks do not air
the "graphic Japanese cartoons known as anime". Ron Morris at
Cityrain.com stated, however, that "there was nothing graphic about the
scene or the show – the effect was caused by an unlucky combination of factors".
The incident, which was referred to as the "Pokémon Shock" (ポケモンショック
Pokemon Shokku?) by the Japanese press, was included in the 2004 edition and
the 2008 Gamers Edition of the Guinness World Records book, with the dubious
honor of holding the record for "Most Photosensitive Epileptic Seizures
Caused by a Television Show".
Aftermath
The news of the incident spread quickly through Japan. The
following day the television station that had aired the episode, TV Tokyo,
issued an apology to the Japanese people, suspended the program, and said it
would investigate the cause of the seizures. Officers from Atago Police Station
were ordered by the National Police Agency to question the anime's producers
about the show's contents and production process. An emergency meeting was held
by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, in which the case was discussed
with experts and information collected from hospitals. Video retailers all over
Japan removed the Pokémon anime from their rental shelves.
Reaction was swift on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and
Nintendo's shares went down 400 yen (almost 5%) the following morning to 12,200
yen as news of the incident spread.Nintendo produces the game upon which the
Pokémon anime series is based. Then-president of Nintendo, Hiroshi Yamauchi,
said at a press conference the day after the episode had aired that the video
game company was not responsible since the original Pokémon game for its Game
Boy product was presented in black and white.
After the airing of "Dennō Senshi Porygon", the
Pokémon anime went into a four month hiatus until it returned in April 1998.After
the hiatus, the time slot changed from Tuesday to Thursday. The opening theme
was also redone, and black screens showing various Pokémon in spotlights were
broken up into four images per screen. Before the seizure incident, the opening
was originally one Pokémon image per screen. Before the resumption of
broadcast, "Problem Inspection Report on Pocket Monster Animated
Series" (アニメ ポケットモンスター問題検証報告
Anime Poketto Monsutā Mondai Kenshō Hōkoku?) was shown. Broadcast in Japan on
April 16, 1998, a woman named Miyuki Yadama went over the circumstances of the
program format and the on-screen advisories at the beginning of animated
programs. Many Japanese television broadcasters and medical officials got
together to find ways to make sure the incident was not repeated. They
established a series of guidelines for future animated programs, including:
Flashing images, especially those with red, should not
flicker faster than three times per second. If the image does not have red, it
still should not flicker faster than five times per second.
Flashing images should not be displayed for a total duration
of more than two seconds.
Stripes, whirls and concentric circles should not take up a
large part of the television screen.
The episode itself has never been broadcast again in any
country. The episode was dubbed and altered in the United States by 4Kids
Entertainment to slow down the flashing lights, but was never broadcast.
Coincidentally, the episode aired around the same time Pokémon was being
adapted for American audiences. 4Kids Entertainment took extra precaution in
bright and flashing lights in the show, and altered lighting, and speed of
lights for earlier episodes of their American release. In an effort to put the
event out of the public's minds and prevent trauma, the anime has not featured
Porygon in any subsequent episodes. Its second-generation evolution, Porygon2,
is the only second-generation Pokémon to never make an appearance in the
anime.[22] Its fourth-generation evolution, Porygon-Z, has not appeared in the
anime either.
Cultural impact
The "Pokémon Shock" incident has been referenced
many times in popular culture, including an episode of The Simpsons entitled
"Thirty Minutes over Tokyo". In the episode, the Simpson family
travels to Japan. When they arrive in Japan, Bart is seen watching a cartoon
featuring robots with flashing eye lasers, and asks, "Isn't this that
cartoon that causes seizures?" The on-screen character's flashing eyes
proceed to give him a seizure, and soon everyone in the room is having a
seizure (though initially Homer spasms on the floor willingly because everyone
else was doing it). The name of the cartoon is revealed to be Battling Seizure
Robots. The end credits sequence of the episode consist entirely of the usual
credits superimposed over a fullscreen image of the robot's eyes flashing.
An episode of South Park that first aired in November 1999,
called "Chinpokomon", revolves around a Pokémon-like phenomenon,
called Chinpokomon, which the children of South Park become obsessed with.
Chinpokomon toys and video games are sold to American children in South Park by
a Japanese company. The company's president, Mr. Hirohito, uses the toys to
brainwash the American children, making them into his own army to topple the
American government. These toys included a video game in which the player
attempts to bomb Pearl Harbor. While playing this game, Kenny has an epileptic
seizure and later dies, in reference to the Pokémon seizure incident.
In the pilot episode of Drawn Together, Ling-Ling, who is a
parody of the Pokémon Pikachu, states that his goal in the Drawn Together house
is to "destroy all, and give children seizures". There follows a
scene with flashing lights, a direct reference to this episode. In So
Yesterday, a novel by Scott Westerfeld, this episode is mentioned and shown to
three of the characters, one of which ends up having a seizure as a result. The
flashing red light that caused the seizure is also used in the story telling
elements.
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