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 hospitals.The broadcaster said Wednesday 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 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 Wednesday.
"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 teenagers 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 Japan, a country where garishly illustrated and often violent animation is very 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.
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.
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.