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About 20 minutes into the episode, there was a scene in which Pikachu stops some rockets with its Thunderbolt attack, resulting in a huge explosion that flashed red and blue lights. Although there were similar parts in the episode with red and blue flashes, an anime technique called "paki paki", this scene was extremely intense, for these flashes were extremely bright strobe lights, with blinks at a rate of about 12 Hz for approximately 4 seconds in almost fullscreen, and then for 2 seconds outright fullscreen. At this point, viewers started to complain of blurred vision, headaches, dizziness and nausea; in a sense, this might be considered a striking occurrence in actual reality of the literary trope known as the motif of harmful sensation. A few people even had seizures, blindness, convulsions and lost consciousness. Japan's Fire Defense Agency reported that a total of 685 viewers (310 boys, 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 over 3 weeks. Some other people had seizures when parts of the scene were rebroadcast during news reports on the seizures.

Scientists believe that the flashing lights triggered photosensitive seizures in which visual stimuli such as flashing lights can cause altered consciousness. Although scientists know that approximately 1 in 4,000 people (0.5–0.8% of children between 5–13 years old) are susceptible to these types of seizures, the number of people affected by this Pokémon episode was unprecedented.

A Pokémon website, Pokémon Press Battle, made the following observation:

photo induced epileptic attacks can be caused by exhaustion, stress, and sitting too close to the television. All of the above are facts in most Japanese school children's lives, who live under constant academic and social pressure in small homes. Experts have speculated that the children were intensely focused and involved with the show, figuratively 'glued to the set' when the scene went off like a bomb in their faces.

This event was briefly mentioned in a Ripley's Believe it or Not! book and a Guinness World Records book.

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When will it end?

Note to Self: Read Ripley's Believe it or Not! book and Guinness World Records book

At last! I'm finally a Twilight Town Denizen
I'm off to find Roxas here!