Here’s a number that may make your head spin: there are (as of this writing) 1,215 episodes ofPokemon have been produced. So for all of you who are complaining thatOne Pieceis too long…well, this may put some things into perspective. What’s even crazier is that there is no sign of the series ending anytime soon (despite Ash finally becoming a Master Champion in the latest season). Despite the various different episodes, there are many memorable episodes of the franchise that fans consider their favorite.
Likewise, there are also a fair amount of episode that are infamous, with several episodes being banned in America both proactively AND reactively! And if you are a truePokemonfan, you may be aware of one particular episode that caused quite a stir in Japan and led to a serious health crisis, ensuring that the episode would never air again. While it makes sense that this particular episode would never air in Japan again, there are conflicting reports on whether or not a dub was produced in America by both English producers AND actors! So what’s the story behind this potential piece of lost media?
RELATED:What Started the Dub vs. Sub Debate?
What is Electric Soldier Porygon?
Electric Soldier Porygonis the 38th episode of the very first season ofPokemon(how long ago that feels…). The episode involves Ash and his friends being sucked into a computer program to help fight a virus.
In the computer they meet up with Porygon, a computerPokemonwho assists them in helping not only fight the virus, but also protest Ash and his friends from accidently being killed by the computer’s very own software virus killer. Considering how many episodes aired after the fact, it is probably no spoiler to say that everything turns out fine in the end.
Why Was the Episode Banned?
Even if the nameElectric Soldier Porygondoesn’t sound familiar in and of itself, you likely heard of ‘Pokemon Shock.’ The term Pokemon Shock was coined by the media to describe an event in 1997 when a bunch of kids were hospitalized due to seizures after watching this particular episode ofPokemon. Hundreds of kids were hospitalized with seizures, headaches, and vomiting. When a news program re-aired the clip (probably not a wise idea in retrospect) more kids were hospitalized, leading the Japanese government to ban the episode forever.
The English Dub Rumors
At this moment you might be thinking that if the episode was banned in Japan then there is obviously no merit to the idea that there is an English dub of the episode, yet there have been conflicting reports from people at the top. Michael Haigney (a key producer on the dub) is one record saying that they never got the episode from Nintendo. Yet Eric Stuart and Rachel Lillis (the voices of Brock and Misty at the time) recalled dubbing the episode. Stuart wasn’t sure what happened to the episode or many of the details while Lillis claimed that she specially remembered dubbing that episode, however Nintendo nixed the episode altogether.
Finally, Maddie Blaustein (the voice of Meowth) claimed that the episode was never dubbed and that it was never going to be dubbed due to the health concerns of the Japanese government. So we havevarious different accountson whether the episode was dubbed from various people who worked on the show in high capacities. The question now is what is the truth?
Was there an English Dub Produced?
While we can’t for certain say whether a dub of this particular episode ofPokemonwas produced or not, there is some anecdotal evidence that no such dub was produced. The main evidence for this that we have is themaster videosthat 4Kids Entertainment received. When thePokemonseizure episode aired the cause of the seizures was determined to be a sequence in which Pikachu destroys two missals. The scene rapidly flashed red and blue long and fast enough to trigger the seizures in the kids who were sensitive to photo flashing lights.
To ensure a situation like this would never happen again, not only were futurePokemonepisodes mandated to tone down the flashing visuals, old episodes were retroactively edited to reduce the flashing animation as well (just to be on the safe side). It should also be stated that the anime producers knew the Porygon episode would never air again, so no attempt was made to alter that one. Well, whenPokemonaired in America the early episodes we received were of the toned down episodes. This means that Pokemon Shock had come, gone, and the new policies were in place before 4Kids received any masters.
More hints can be found in the PokeRap song. This was a sequence at the end of every episode that went through all the Pokemon. Every Pokemon used a clip from the episode they were featured in. Well, every Pokemon EXCEPT Porygon (who only has a still image)! Take this and the fact that 4Kids received the altered masters of the first few dozen episodes, it means the likelihood of them receiving the Porygon episode at allseems extremely unlikely. I know fans want to see a safe version of this episode dubbed, but for all intents and purposes this episode never existed in Nintendo’s eyes, and everyone involved in it just wants to move on.
MORE:How Pokemon: The First Movie Damaged the Reputation of the Franchise for Years
