There are over 1,000 Pokémon episodes, but one has never been broadcast on television here. It features Porygon – the only time it has ever appeared in the entire anime. But why?
This is the infamous episode: The episode Dennō Senshi Porigon
first aired in December 1997 on Japanese television. It is part of the first season and is still known today – because of it, Pokémon was put on hiatus for several months.
What happens in the episode? The episode revolves around a journey into a computer, through which Ash and his friends want to get a malfunctioning Pokécenter running again. The digital Pokémon Porygon is also involved.
Towards the end of the episode, there is a scene in which Pikachu wants to fend off a rocket attack with Thunderbolt. In this scene, there is an extreme, flickering change of colors. And this is where the problem lay.
For this episode is said to have caused several children in Japan to suffer from epileptic seizures due to this scene. “PokéWiki” reports about 635 children being affected at that time. Others are said to have experienced headaches.
The Consequences of the Porygon Episode
On one hand, the episode Dennō Senshi Porigon
was never aired again. Not on Japanese television, and also not in the subsequent international versions of the series. Additionally, Pokémon was put on hold for several months: The Porygon episode aired on December 16, 1997, and it wasn’t until April 16, 1998 that the show continued.
For Porygon, it was the first and last appearance in the Pokémon anime. After the now infamous episode, neither the computer Pokémon, nor its evolutions Porygon2 or Porygon-Z were seen again in the anime.
While it is not officially known whether this problem was actually the cause for the ban, the correlation is noticeable. Curiously, it was not Porygon that was the “trigger” for the scene in question – but Pikachu with the Thunderbolt.
By the way: There are more “lost” Pokémon episodes, more about that here.
Even more examples: Porygon’s evolutions are among the most well-known examples of Pokémon that did not make it into the anime. However, there are still many other monsters that we have never seen in the anime. Which ones are they? We summarize them here for you! The 11 strangest Pokémon that did not appear in over 1,200 episodes of Pokémon
