Special update 12/29/97: USA Today has FINALLY published something that remotely acknowledges the upset of hundreds of otaku over their article. More commentary on this is available in the Updates page now (as of 12/30/97).
One real fast note: I appreciate copies of the letters that you send to USA Today; they're all wonderful.. but I would like to remind everyone that I am no longer archiving them- if they arrived after the 21st, I haven't saved them. Also, neither USA Today nor I are forwarding letters to each other. We kinda don't like each other. :)
Page updated 01/06/98; to return to my main homepage, click here to return to my main homepage and here to return to the Otaku Response page
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Some background on this situation:
A 'photoinduced epileptic' attack that affected hundreds of Japanese
schoolchildren followed a scene in the 38th episode of the #1 children's
anime "Pokemon", or "Pocket Monsters." which aired on December 17th, 1997.
(For reference in the US, imagine sitting down to watch "The Simpsons")
The first wave of casualties, reported to be 300-400 children, were
followed by an additional 300 to 500 more who rented videotapes of the
episode, or saw the scene when confused Japanese broadcasters reaired
it on the evening news the same day.
Although the episode was prescreened by its broadcast station
TV Tokyo before release (a common practice), several factors led to the
accident. The scene that caused the problem depicted the show's mascot
character "Pikachu" recovering from a bright yellow explosion and showed
its eyes flashing in an 8-second sequence of flickering blue, red and
yellow lights. The sequence was not particularly unusual, and many other
anime have used similar effects, so it was overlooked as harmless.
The difference in this case appears to be several technical factors: The
sequence's sheer length, several seconds longer than normal, increased
the danger. The sequence was also inadvertently timed in such a manner
that it matched the 'firing rate' of common television picture tubes, thus
intensifying the effect upon the optic nerve. (here
is an article that helps explain the phenomenon)
In addition, photoinduced epileptic attacks can be caused by exhaustion,
stress, and sitting too close to the television. All of the above are
facts in most Japanese schoolchildren'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,
literally 'glued to the set' when the scene went off like a bomb in their
faces.
As a result, Angry Japanese parents, scientists, specialists in epilepsy,
and the broadcasting stations of Japan are now in a turmoil attempting to
figure out exactly what went wrong and what to do about it. New
legislation on anime broadcasting is being called for as the artform of
anime goes 'under the magnifying glass'.
The US media has responded with sensationalist articles about the
"Pokemon" accident- many seeming to hearken back to 'Japan-bashing'
of the 80's. Many articles have slandered anime, citing it as
'violent', 'plotless' and even implying that it's unhealthy to watch.
The mass media is doing only minimal research on these articles, citing
irrelevant sources such as VP of Programming Mike Lazzo from Time-Warner's
Cartoon Network.
By contrast, articles such as this excellent piece from the anime e-zine
EX entitled "The New
Stereotypes of Anime and Manga" are ignored...
This page is intended as a rebuttal to negative articles and
misstatements that are being promoted by the US media. Alongside are
several links of interest relating to this situation.
(Please note these are parodies: I had nothing to do with writing them, either.. I'm not that clever. ^_-)
The spamfic: J. Andrews sent a top-rate MST of the article using the FY characters.. hit that here.. and a filksong parody is new 12/22/97. Lee Thompson sent in this cute parody.. Shana Farris sent in a great quote: "USA Today is to journalism what John Hughes is to the film arts."
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Outraged Otaku Strike Back at "USA Today"!
USA Today printed a truly dangerous, xenophobic and unresearched article
about the Pokemon incident. Here is a link to
the article via USA Today's webpage. This short piece has outraged and
united anime fandom- I've started a letter campaign to inform them that
they are WRONG. Below are links to several dozen otaku's letters to the
editor- these come from a wide variety of sources and backgrounds. I
would deeply hope that USA Today at least issues a public apology, if not
a full retraction of this piece. The link to Joe Feese's ABC News counterarticle is here. If you want to send an e-mail to USA today, please do! Mail them at: editor@usatoday.com. Please make sure that your letters don't use netaliases, are free of profanity, and include an RL name and daytime phone number so that they can verify your comments. I urge everyone to write not only e-mail but to back their words up with snailmail letters and action. USA Today is unfriendly to otaku and has, so far, refused to acknowledge us. Snail-mail 'em at: USA Today, 1000 Wilson Blvd., 22nd Flr, Arlington, VA, 22229
To learn more about the authors of USA Today's article:
A company called Lacey Entertainment put together a package of anime programs called Sushi TV for syndication- cleared in 75% of the US total market. If anime is so horrible and unhealthy and hard to follow, why are these companies investing serious time and money in their distribution? Why would anyone want to unless there's more to it than that which has been represented to date in the US mass media? Jussi Nikander has sent me an intriguing letter from Finland. It proves that the perception of anime has been affected in more than just Japan and the US by this incident.. More information has also come in from giofil@geocities.com: "News paper and TV articles like this appeared also in Italy (same reason.. epileptic crisis of many japanese children watching this cartoon) saying it was all done because of the profit, not thinking about the children's health, and that japanese cartoons are bad because they do not show the true reality, and make the chidren think wrong.. etc.."
Kenneth Denson, "Wow, that's the most pretentious and pompous piece
of journalism I have ever seen. And I thought "Hard Copy" was bad..." |