Pokémon "Pokémon! I Choose You!" (found original Japanese airing of anime series pilot; 1997): Difference between revisions

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On December 16, 1997, "Dennou Senshi Porygon", an infamous episode of the popular anime, Pok<span style="color:rgb(84,84,84);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small;line-height:18.200000762939453px;">é</span>mon aired in Japan. The episode was about Ash, Misty, and Brock trying to fix a nearby Pokemon Center's malfunctioning transfer system, which transports Pokemon from one Pokemon Center to another, and also save Professor Akihabara's prototype of the Pokemon, Porygon which was stolen by Team Rocket, with the help of another Porygon. While Ash and his friends were inside the system, Nurse Joy decided to send in an Anti-Virus to destroy the cause of the malfunction, which she thought was a computer virus, not knowing that it really was Team Rocket causing the malfunction, and there was some Pokemon battles occuring inside between Ash & Co. and Team Rocket. In one scene of the episode, the Anti-Virus fires missiles at them while they are attempting to escape. In response to one of these missiles, Pikachu shocks it, which blew it up, and triggered a flashing scene so irritating to the eyes that it caused over 700 japanese children to have epileptic seizures and motion sickness. Pok<span style="color:rgb(84,84,84);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small;line-height:18.200000762939453px;">é</span>mon was taken off of the air for four months so the Japanese Government could investigate, and officially banned "Dennou Senshi Porygon" from airing .
{{InfoboxFound
|title=<center>"Pokémon! I Choose You!" (1997 airing)</center>
|image=Pokemon I choose you jpn.JPG
|imagecaption=Screenshot of the original 1997 airing.
|status=<span style="color:green;">'''Found'''</span>
|datefound=02 May 2015
|foundby=[https://www.facebook.com/PokemonPE/ Pokémon Peru]
}}
When ''Pokémon'' finally went back on air in April 1998, four months after the infamous "Electric Soldier Porygon" incident, OLM edited the previous 37 episodes, slowed down the flashing lights, and never aired the original versions again despite no previous reports of the episodes causing seizures for anyone.<ref>[https://www.ranker.com/list/pokemon-episode-that-caused-seizures/anna-lindwasser Ranker article on the "Electric Soldier Porygon" incident.] Retrieved 16 Feb '20</ref>


Once the show finally came back to the air in April of 1998, OLM edited the previous 37 Pok<span style="color:rgb(84,84,84);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:small;line-height:18.200000762939453px;">é</span>mon episodes and slowed down the flashing lights, despite no reports of the episode causing anyone harm. The original cuts were never aired again and were a mystery for years. Eventually, the episodes from their original airings were shown on Hulu in Japan, which were taken by a subbing group #pokemon-originals on April 2, 2013. Since then, the sub group seems to have disbanded. Episode 1 was not uploaded because Hulu replaced the original version with the new one to include advertisements for the Wii U before the episodes were put on the #pokemon-originals website.</span>
On August 1st 2012, "Pocket Monsters" was available on Hulu Japan through an exclusive streaming deal, along with a few of the other main Pokémon series. The versions of the episodes given to Hulu were the original broadcast versions that originally aired in 1997, prior to the "Electric Solider Porygon" incident. These were first made publicly available by the now-defunct group "#Pokemon-Originals" or "[P-O]", originally as an April Fools joke on April 1st, 2013. Episodes 2-37 were all available in their original broadcast format, even including the original NEP (Next Episode Preview) for 038 (which has omitted from future re-broadcasts since the incident). Hulu's copy of Episode 1, however, remained the edited version that has been seen on DVD's and other streaming platforms, both in and outside of Japan since 2004.  
<span style="line-height:18.200000762939453px;">As a result, several people are still looking for a copy of Episode 1 from its original airing, before the flashing lights were edited. </span><span style="line-height:18.200000762939453px;">There is some information about the original cuts, however, since a remastered version of Episode 1 containing some of the special effects from the original airing was aired on the anime's 15th anniversary. Also, a scene from Episodes 2 and 4 recapping Episode 1 shows a scene from late within it. How flashy the part is can be seen in the Hulu version.</span>


Despite popular belief, Episode 1's original broadcast was never lost or missing, and has been available commercially to the public since 1997. On November 27th, 1997, Shogakukan released "Pocket Monsters Volume 1" and "Pocket Monsters Volume 2" as the first in the rental-only VHS line. These tapes were available to rent for just under a month before the "Electric Soldier Porygon" incident took place, and thus, contains the original broadcasted versions of the first 6 episodes. As these rental-only VHS tapes are widely forgotten or not known about, this likely caused the spread of misinformation that the original broadcast versions only existed on Hulu outside of there original airings and that Episode 1 had been lost to time. While later replaced with updated tapes to include the newly edited video, copies of these original tapes can still be found as ex-rentals on sites like Yahoo! Auctions Japan, albeit rather hard to find. Currently, there are no known identifying factors to indicate whether or not Volume 1 or Volume 2 are the original tapes or updated tapes as they all use the same catalogue numbers.


The most commonly shared copy of Episode 1's "original broadcast" was created by the "Pokémon Peru" Facebook group. This version of the episode splices together a mix of footage from the released Hulu rips and splices in the edited scenes taken from a real recording of the original broadcast. It's not known why the group chose to do this and not release the actual original recording in full, despite doing it with the "Fall Special". In January 2019, the group released a high bitrate VHS rip of the unedited version of the episode on MEGA, linked in a post on their Facebook page. The same rip had made its way onto Nyaa in 2018.


<span style="line-height:18.200000762939453px;">[[File:Flash comparison|thumb|right|335px|The first part of the video is from the edited Episode 1. The second part is from the recap in the original airing of Episode 2 (lacks audio).]]</span>
==Gallery==
The Pokémon! I Choose You! (Original 1997 Airing) video content is no longer available. Please upload a different video.
 
==See Also==
*[[Pokémon "Computer Warrior Porygon" (lost unaired English dub of anime episode; 1998)]]
*[[Pokémon "The Legend of Dratini" (non-existent unaired English dub of anime episode; 1997)]]
*[[Pokémon "Battle Aboard the St. Anne" (found first American broadcast version of anime episode; 1998)]]
*[[Pokémon "Battle of the Quaking Island! Barboach VS Whiscash!!" (partially found unaired episode of anime; 2004)]]
*[[Pokémon "Cream of the Croagunk Crop" (found original "Hiroki version" of anime episode; 2008)]]
*[[Pokémon "Rocket-dan VS Plasma-dan!" (partially found unaired two-part episode of anime; 2011)]]
*[[Pokémon 3: The Movie (lost first draft of script of anime film; late 1990s)]]
*[[Pokémon 3D Adventure: Mew o Sagase! (lost 3D short of anime; 2005)]]
*[[Pokémon 4D: Pikachu's Ocean Adventure (partially found 4D short of anime; 2006)]]
*[[Pokémon "It's New Year's Eve! Pocket Monsters Encore" (lost unaired special of anime series; 1997)]]
*[[Pokémon "Pocket Monsters, Fall Special!" (found "clip show" episode of anime series; 1997)]]
*[[Pokémon "Pocket Monsters, Winter Special!" (lost unaired "clip show" episode of anime series; 1998)]]
*[[Pokémon Live! (partially found professional recording footage of musical; 2000-2001)]]
 
==External Links==
*[https://www.facebook.com/PokemonPE/videos/1063931976953662/ PokemonPE upload of the 1997 airing of "Pokémon! I Choose You!" (part 1/2).]
*[https://www.facebook.com/PokemonPE/videos/1063951126951747/ PokemonPE upload of the 1997 airing of "Pokémon! I Choose You!" (part 2/2).]
*[https://www.facebook.com/PokemonPE/posts/2436568276356685 PokemonPE post with the MEGA download link for the raw VHS rip of "Pokémon! I Choose You!".]
*[https://nyaa.si/?f=0&c=0_0&q=Pocket+Monsters+-+001+-+Pokemon%21+Kimi+ni+kimeta%21 The raw VHS rip of "Pokémon! I Choose You!" on Nyaa.]
 
==Reference==
{{reflist}}
 
[[Category:Found media]]

Revision as of 14:13, 30 April 2022

Pokemon I choose you jpn.JPG

Screenshot of the original 1997 airing.

Status: Found

Date found: 02 May 2015

Found by: Pokémon Peru

When Pokémon finally went back on air in April 1998, four months after the infamous "Electric Soldier Porygon" incident, OLM edited the previous 37 episodes, slowed down the flashing lights, and never aired the original versions again despite no previous reports of the episodes causing seizures for anyone.[1]

On August 1st 2012, "Pocket Monsters" was available on Hulu Japan through an exclusive streaming deal, along with a few of the other main Pokémon series. The versions of the episodes given to Hulu were the original broadcast versions that originally aired in 1997, prior to the "Electric Solider Porygon" incident. These were first made publicly available by the now-defunct group "#Pokemon-Originals" or "[P-O]", originally as an April Fools joke on April 1st, 2013. Episodes 2-37 were all available in their original broadcast format, even including the original NEP (Next Episode Preview) for 038 (which has omitted from future re-broadcasts since the incident). Hulu's copy of Episode 1, however, remained the edited version that has been seen on DVD's and other streaming platforms, both in and outside of Japan since 2004.

Despite popular belief, Episode 1's original broadcast was never lost or missing, and has been available commercially to the public since 1997. On November 27th, 1997, Shogakukan released "Pocket Monsters Volume 1" and "Pocket Monsters Volume 2" as the first in the rental-only VHS line. These tapes were available to rent for just under a month before the "Electric Soldier Porygon" incident took place, and thus, contains the original broadcasted versions of the first 6 episodes. As these rental-only VHS tapes are widely forgotten or not known about, this likely caused the spread of misinformation that the original broadcast versions only existed on Hulu outside of there original airings and that Episode 1 had been lost to time. While later replaced with updated tapes to include the newly edited video, copies of these original tapes can still be found as ex-rentals on sites like Yahoo! Auctions Japan, albeit rather hard to find. Currently, there are no known identifying factors to indicate whether or not Volume 1 or Volume 2 are the original tapes or updated tapes as they all use the same catalogue numbers.

The most commonly shared copy of Episode 1's "original broadcast" was created by the "Pokémon Peru" Facebook group. This version of the episode splices together a mix of footage from the released Hulu rips and splices in the edited scenes taken from a real recording of the original broadcast. It's not known why the group chose to do this and not release the actual original recording in full, despite doing it with the "Fall Special". In January 2019, the group released a high bitrate VHS rip of the unedited version of the episode on MEGA, linked in a post on their Facebook page. The same rip had made its way onto Nyaa in 2018.

Gallery

The Pokémon! I Choose You! (Original 1997 Airing) video content is no longer available. Please upload a different video.

See Also

External Links

Reference