- TOKYO (AP) -- Colors exploded on TV screens across Japan, a cartoon character
flashed his sparkling eyes -- and hundreds of young viewers were felled
by fits of spasms and nausea.
-
- More than 600 viewers of TV Tokyo's hit
cartoon ``Pokemon'' suffered epilepsy-like seizures about 20 minutes into
Tuesday night's show and were rushed to the hospital.
-
- The broadcaster said today that it is
canceling the segment on 30 other stations scheduled to show it. The bizarre
sickness has officials considering new programming guidelines and mothers
concerned that Japan's wildly popular cartoons could be harmful.
-
- ``I'm worried,'' said Keiko Murakami,
who watched the program with her three children at their suburban Tokyo
home, though none of them got sick. ``I have to warn my kids that the program
could be dangerous.''
-
- TV Tokyo would not say which scene in
the show sickened the children. But viewers and news reports said a vividly
colored explosion mixed with the strobe-light flashing of a character's
eyes seemed to trigger the illness.
-
- ``It gave me a headache. Lights kept
flickering in my eyes, then I felt sick,'' Hiroshi Kobari, 14, was quoted
by the national Mainichi newspaper as saying. ``It was like getting a carsick.''
-
- TV Tokyo said about 650 viewers ages
3 to 20 fell ill, including some who saw part of the show on a news program.
About 150 remained hospitalized today.
-
- The show, ``Pokemon,'' -- a Japanese
rendering of ``pocket monsters'' -- is based on characters in a game produced
by Nintendo Co. The weekly show has been broadcast on 37 TV stations nationwide
since April and has the highest ratings in the Tokyo area in its 6:30 p.m.
slot.
-
- It's not the first time kids have been
sickened by Japanese animation. Several years ago, a handful of teen-agers
suffered seizures while playing video games sold by Nintendo. The company
now attaches a warning of epilepsy-like symptoms triggered by the games'
optical stimuli.
-
- In the United States, a woman said in
1991 that she suffered seizures from the voice of `Entertainment Tonight''
co-host Mary Hart. Dianne Neale's doctors said Hart's electronically transmitted
voice was triggering the abnormal electrical discharges in her brain. Neale
suffered from a rare form of epilepsy called temporal lobe seizure.
-
- In Japan, a country where garishly illustrated
and often violent animation is so popular, some people are urging the government
to more closely monitor the images that children watch on TV.
-
- ``I hope broadcasters would investigate
it thoroughly and take precautions to avoid similar problems in the future,''
said Murakami, who complained that TV programs do not provide any warnings
about content.
-
- Kyoichi Sato, a spokesman for the Post
and Telecommunications Ministry, which oversees TV and radio broadcasting,
said officials are still investigating, but the case could lead to new
programming guidelines.
-
- Tuesday's ``Pokemon'' featured a child
and a monster who were inside a computer battling a program designed to
kill viruses. Program producer Takemoto Mori said he has used similar flashing
effects in most of the previous ``Pokemon'' shows, with slight variations
in color and background combinations.
-
- ``During editing, that particular portion
didn't call my attention or bother me,'' Mori said. ``I'm really sorry
that the kids got sick watching their favorite cartoon.''
-
- TV Tokyo spokesman Hiroshi Uramoto said
the station would investigate.
-
- ``We are shocked to hear many children
were taken to hospitals,'' he told reporters.
-
- Toshio Yamauchi, an epilepsy expert at
Saitama University of Medicine outside Tokyo, said the viewers' symptoms
suggest a one-time attack triggered by optical stimulus, which is different
from epilepsy, Kyodo News said.
-
- ``There have been many similar cartoon
programs in the past, and I don't understand why the program this time
caused so many attacks,'' Yamauchi was quoted as saying. ``It's a sign
that Japan will also have to set up guidelines for TV program production.''
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- The reports dominated today's television
and newspaper headlines. ```Pokemon' panic,'' screamed Mainichi.
-
-
- © Copyright 1997 The Associated
Press
-
- Cartoon Sickness Mystifies
Japan TV Network
By Janet Snyder
12-17-91
TOKYO (Reuters) - A television network on Wednesday called in doctors,
psychologists and animation experts to find out why a cartoon show based
on Nintendo's "Pocket Monsters" triggered convulsions among hundreds
of children nationwide.
-
- TV Tokyo programming division manager
Hironari Mori told reporters that at least 650 schoolchildren were rushed
to hospitals after watching the program on Tuesday night.
-
- Public broadcasting network NHK reported
that 729 children were taken to hospitals. About 120 children, aged from
three upward, were still in hospital more than 24 hours later.
-
- "We are investigating the cause
of the incident using outside experts," Mori said.
-
- The seizures began about 20 minutes into
the 30-minute program, which airs on Tuesdays at 6.30 p.m., and the Fire
Agency and TV Tokyo were inundated with emergency calls from concerned
parents all over Japan, Mori said.
-
- The blame was put on a scene depicting
an explosion followed by five seconds of flashing red lights from the eyes
of the most popular character, "Pikachu," a rat-like creature.
-
- Mori said the offending section passed
inspection before broadcast, but in hindsight "we believe there may
have been problems with presentation and production technique."
-
- TV Tokyo imposed a health warning on
future episodes, telling viewers that watching Tuesday's installment of
"Pocket Monsters" could cause fainting and nausea.
-
- "I must say that as an adult that
part made me blink, so for a child the effect must have been considerable,"
Mori said.
-
- The weekly cartoon, shown since April,
is the highest-rated program in its time slot on Tuesdays.
-
- The network plans to cancel next week's
show if the cause of the incident remains unclear.
-
- Some local affiliates have already shelved
the next episode.
-
- The Posts and Telecommunications Ministry,
which supervises TV stations, announced it also was investigating.
-
- A spokesman for Nintendo Co. said characters
were the only link between its game and the cartoon.
-
- The Yomiuri newspaper quoted a doctor
specializing in epileptic fits as saying the symptoms were similar to fits
that some children are susceptible to when they play video games.
-
- Doctors who treated the victims said
children went into a trance-like state, similar to hypnosis, complaining
of shortness of breath, nausea and bad vision when the rat-like creature's
eyes flashed.
-
- Other children were stricken when they
watched TV replays of the offending scene in news reports on the earlier
victims.
-
- Dr. Yukio Fukuyama, an expert on juvenile
epilepsy, said bright flashes of light and color from a television screen
could trigger a phenomenon known as "television epilepsy."
-
- Doctors have known that children are
susceptible to such seizures since even before the dawn of television,
but it has become more evident with the spread of TV, Fukuyama said.
-
- He said the seizures, albeit unpleasant,
were not dangerous and that spontaneous recovery was the norm.
-
- But parents should be aware of possible
side effects of watching programs featuring bright flashing lights.
-
- "The networks should definitely
think of issuing a health warning beforehand," Fukuyama said.
-
- Psychologist Rika Kayama said the phenomenon
appeared to be an epileptic effect induced by flashing light, known as
photosensitive epilepsy or group hysterics.
-
- "Given that they collapsed with
their eyes irritated, there is the possibility of photosensitive epilepsy
or group hysterics," said Kayama, author of a book on video games.
-
- "The children must have been totally
immersed in the program," she said.
-
- Doctors at the University of Tokyo Hospital,
where four children were hospitalized, said patients seemed to have been
affected by glaring light that stimulated their nerve cells.
-
- One child did not remember watching the
cartoon.
-
- Mori said so far there had been no demands
for damages from the parents, but added that the network was considering
compensation for the families.
-
- REUTERS
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