August 9th, 2011 
AstroNerdBoy “Don’t let your child watch any ‘Japanimation’.” (‘Cause Pokemon is bad for your health!)
Sometimes, I see things that prompt me to put fingers to keyboard and spew. This time, Deb Aoki retweeted something on Twitter that made me sit up and go, “What?!”
Well, you can see why I would sit up and take notice.
For those who may not be in the know, episode 38 of Pocket Monsters (aka: Pokemon), entitled Dennou Senshi Porygon, contained scenes where there were blue and red flashing going on as the characters were all within a computer system and doing battle. This caused some children in Japan to have seizures (though apparently far less than the 618 originally reported), which in turn caused mass hysteria in Japan, which then spread thanks to the Internet. Since then, shows like The Simpsons and South Park have parodied the whole seizure incident. I’ve watched this episode and well, I suppose I should blog about it, eh? ^_^;
So, I decided to check out @PeanutFreeMom and see what else she had written. I saw these postings amongst some of her other Tweets of the day.
Say what?!
There’s a certain smarmy nature to the posts that smacks of a new breed of parent that has been cropping up of late, like the parents that are raising their children to be “gender-free” (because yeah, that’ll change biology). As such, the posts, though irritating, felt real. But, then there were these three posts.
I decided to check and found this L.A. Times piece about @PeanutFreeMom. Totally fake and not even a woman (which didn’t surprise me since I’ve known a guy who for whatever whacked reason decided to take a female persona online).
Still, there are people who actually believe the sentiments posted by @PeanutFreeMom. Indeed, the guy that makes these “PeanutFreeMom” tweets states that the parenting tips he posts are things he’s heard parents say. Add to this, the fact that episode 38 of Pokemon will never be shown in the U.S. and never be shown again in Japan, just adds fuel to the whole hysterical thinking that some people erroneously have of anime (or manga for that matter). I’m thankful that someone in Japan had the good sense to record this episode and save it for the rest of us. ^_^
Let me see if I can take a moment to rewatch the episode in question and blog about it. In the meantime, I’m glad to know that the tweet about anime and Pokemon was just a joke. ^_^
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that jus made me want 2 go watch the episode, but really there are some crazy trolls out there
Oh these trolls that stalk our internets. These are the worst kinds. The kind of people that pretend to be the most annoying kind of people. Maybe my scale of remembrance is a little small but I don’t really think parents like that are that recent of an occurence. I’m 21 years old right now and I remember back when I was in elementary school, when Pokemon was first blowing up, I had friends that said their parents wouldn’t let them watch it because it was a demonic show about monsters. Their parents told them that if they watched it then it wouldn’t be too long until they were worshiping “the devil.”
Then there’s other classic stories of ignorance you hear around the web. I’ve seen a screen capture of a woman complaining on the comments section of a books selling site stating that when she got her sons copy of Zelda: Ocarina of Time manga, the book came “backwards” and defective. She sent it back and demanded an exchange for a “fixed copy” and ended up sending that one back because it was the same…..
Not to nitpick, but that’s Senshi not Sensehi and frankly Porygon is an idiotic bastardization that should be written either as Polygon or Porigon for consistency. I think you probably copied it from Wikipedia so I’m not blaming you but that doesn’t mean it’s right.
@Anonymous
Since when do crappy localizations care about consistency?
I am a Pokemon fan and still follow it.
And because of that incident, not only that episode has ever been aired again in Japan or the rest of the world, but since that incident Porygon and its evolutions have never appeared in the anime episodes until now (not even as a side characters pokemon).
As for the “@PeanutFreeMom” comments, well i have seen something like that is the Pokemon community a few months back.
On the forums of “Serebii” (which is one of the leading Pokemon Community sites, and i am a member of it), someone using a username with ‘mother’ and ‘mom’ added in it was saying things similar to those things (even that person created a thread about it there). The person got banned the very day, but i think that “@PeanutFreeMom” and that person on the forums may have been the same person.
Well, i don’t get why people do things like that. If someone doesn’t like something, there isn’t any need to create hatred about it among other people as well.
@Ultimaniac
So what’s your point? Is there a problem with me pointing out it’s wrong?
if only joseph lieberman was fake
@Anonymous
My point is that localizations are not great. Why get so defensive? Are you looking for an argument or something? That would explain the rest of your comment.
@Ultimaniac
The way you put your question sounded to me like I shouldn’t have said it was wrong because it’s a common practice. I pointed it out to AstroNerdBoy because I know he cares about proper translations just like I do and I thought he probably wouldn’t want to have a bastardized version of the name in his article. Suddenly you pop in with your dismissive question. I don’t think it’s defensive to ask why you thought I shouldn’t have pointed out the problem.
True that Pokemon has been linked w/ seizures in the past… but some totally naive person was blabbing about nonsense. Anime (or Japanimation) is not all bad for you if you do it in moderation, just like anything else. Someone who has their facts correct on only one episode will BARELY be true (MOSTLY FALSE) on “Truth-o-meter” on politifact.
Whoever made the statement had the fact skewed quite a bit for turning against Anime. It’s mostly a political statement (with some people tho think in their mind the health issue) for these kind of crazy people to talk about.
Sorry for the delays in getting responses. ^_^;;;
that jus made me want 2 go watch the episode, but really there are some crazy trolls out there
Ditto…and I did. ^_~
I’m 21 years old right now and I remember back when I was in elementary school, when Pokemon was first blowing up, I had friends that said their parents wouldn’t let them watch it because it was a demonic show about monsters. Their parents told them that if they watched it then it wouldn’t be too long until they were worshiping “the devil.”
Well, when I was a kid, it wasn’t evil Pokemon. It was evil D&D, which would lead to witchcraft and then worshiping the Devil. *_* If it isn’t one thing, it is something else. :-/
Not to nitpick, but that’s Senshi not Sensehi and frankly Porygon is an idiotic bastardization that should be written either as Polygon or Porigon for consistency. I think you probably copied it from Wikipedia so I’m not blaming you but that doesn’t mean it’s right.
Thanks. I was in a hurry and looked for the Romaji to copy-paste.
The “Porygon” for some reason shows up in a lot of places. I thought it should be “Polygon,” but as far as I knew, maybe the official spelling was “Porygon.”
Well, i don’t get why people do things like that. If someone doesn’t like something, there isn’t any need to create hatred about it among other people as well.
And yet there are small but vocal groups of Tenchi fans who continue to fuel their hatred of OVA 3 years after the bloody thing has been over.
Whoever made the statement had the fact skewed quite a bit for turning against Anime. It’s mostly a political statement (with some people tho think in their mind the health issue) for these kind of crazy people to talk about.
Well, its pretty old talk, but used to be more common regarding anime several years ago. I think the poster basically figured to draw some fire because of this and giggled. It worked. ^_^
[…] that supposedly triggered the seizures of Japanese children and started an hysteria that still has residue today. I can see how this could have happened, but that’s why your friendly anime companies […]