This month marks the 25th anniversary of Pokémon Shock, an unexpected phenomenon in Japan that has caught the attention of doctors, scientists, and researchers around the world.
In the early evening of December 16, 1997, 685 children suffered an epileptic seizure while watching the 38th episode of the Japanese animated series Pokémon. A few days later, the number of children with some kind of illness increased to 12,000 dizziness, vomiting and headache caused by the same anime episode.
The phenomenon known as “Pokémon Shock” was triggered after the character Pikachu launched a lightning attack, followed by six seconds of red and blue flashing lights at a frequency of 12 Hz an animation technique known as Paka Paka. At first it was thought that only children sensitive to light could be affected.
Back then, Pokémon producers were being questioned by the police, and the Japanese authorities held several emergency meetings to investigate the case. Nintendo, the company behind the franchise, tumbled 3.2%
The medical mystery fell into oblivion as I could not find a plausible explanation, for example as a result of an organic disease.
By four years later, writer Benjamin Radford—then a researcher for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry in the United States and host of a podcast about investigations—along with medical sociologist Robert Bartholomew decided to look into the case.
Because what really happened?
In evaluating the evolution over time of a phenomenon that affected thousands of children over consecutive days, the Radfords and Bartholomews concluded that there was indeed a “collective outbreak,” scientifically termed mass psychogenic illness when multiple people, mostly children and adolescents are affected by symptoms without a defined organic cause.
It’s more or less like an “emotional virus” that affects a group of people from the same group — that is, consuming the same type of content or being exposed to the same situation, manifesting itself through real physical symptoms, and spreading quickly within that group.
Scientists also use the term “mass hysteria” for the phenomenon. “People can’t get sick of anything but an idea,” Benjamin explained at the time.
To justify their conclusions, the experts stated that most of the affected children became ill after hearing about the effects of the anime and not watching the episode closely.
In fact, as of December 16, 1997, 685 children had seizures during the cartoon’s airing, but the number only rose to 12,000 affected children after comments about the episode in Japan became a national furor.
More often than you might think
Although there are some taboos regarding mass psychogenic illnesses and their symptoms are poorly understood, there is already a large body of scientific literature on the subject. There are several cases in history, one of the most famous being the episode of the radio magazine “War of the Worlds” by Orson Welles, which caused mass panic in the United States.
In April this year, 26 students at a public school in Recife (PE) fell ill with a collective anxiety crisis allegedly caused by the exam period.
The young people suffered from shortness of breath, tremors and crying fits and had to be rescued by a mobile medical unit. At the time, the medical team found the students were sweating, had low satiety and tachycardia, and some even passed out.