Banned episodes: Difference between revisions

: Known as the "seizure episode," this episode has been banned worldwide after airing only once in Japan. One particular scene of this episode had a series of flashing lights, which caused a total of approximately 685 Japanese children, 375 girls and 310 boys to be sent to the hospital with symptoms of epilepsy. The show went on hiatus for almost a year, delayed the episodes ''[[Holiday Hi-Jynx]]'' and ''[[Snow Way Out!]]'', and cancelled the airing of the [[Unaired New Year's Eve Special|New Years Eve episode]]. The episode also forced the producers to go back through the previous episodes and dim the lighting on them so as not to cause an accident of this magnitude again. Because this episode is prohibited from airing, {{p|Porygon}} has not had any appearances in the anime since, and its evolutions, {{p|Porygon2}} and {{p|Porygon-Z}}, have never made any appearances in the anime at all, even though it was Pikachu who caused the seizure-inducing lights.

: This episode was scheduled to be broadcast on November 4, 2004. However, not long before, a devastating {{wp|2004 Chūetsu earthquake|earthquake}} struck Japan. Believing it would have been insensitive to air an episode about earthquakes mere weeks after the disaster, it was pulled from the air. The episode and the moves {{m|Earthquake}}, {{m|Fissure}} and {{m|Magnitude}} were subsequently banned. Because the episode never aired, {{p|Barboach}} instead debuted in ''[[AG110|The Great Eight Fate!]]'', but not in a major role.

: This two-part saga of [[Team Rocket]] facing off with [[Team Plasma]] was postponed due to the {{wp|2011 Sendai earthquake and tsunami|earthquake and tsunami}} that devastated Japan almost a week before the first half was supposed to air. They were expected to air at a later date because of their significance to the series and TV Tokyo's word on the matter. As the episodes have yet to air in Japan, dubs of the episode have yet to be shown around the world. While the episodes were simply skipped in Japan, the Pokémon Company International edited the dubbed version of ''[[BW022|A Venipede Stampede!]]'' to remove the cliffhanger ending that set up the story, and all regions aired ''[[BW023|Battling for the Love of Bug-Types!]]'' followed by ''[[BW024|Emolga the Irresistible!]]'' instead. As of ''[[BW112|Team Plasma's Pokémon Power Plot!]]'', it appears these episodes have been retconned out of continuity, making it unlikely that they will ever air or be shown in a normal manner.