On December 16th, 1997, DennÅ Senshi Porygon, more commonly referred to as Cyber Solider Porygon, was broadcasted in Japan. The episode was infamous for its repetitive visual effects, giving kids around Japan photosensitive seizures.
Twenty minutes into the episode, there is a scene in which Pikachu stops “vaccine” missiles with his Thunderbolt attack, resulting in a huge explosion that flashes red and blue lights. Although there were similar parts in the episode with red and blue flashes, two anime techniques, “paka paka” and “flash” made this scene extremely intense. These flashes were bright strobe lights, with blinks at a rate of about 12 Hz for approximately six seconds. At this point, viewers started to complain of blurred vision, headaches, dizziness and nausea. Some experienced seizures, blindness, convulsions and loss of consciousness. Japan’s Fire Defense Agency reported that a total of 685 viewers – 310 boys and 375 girls – were taken to hospitals by ambulances. Although many victims recovered during the ambulance trip, more than 150 of them were admitted to hospitals. Two people remained hospitalized for more than two weeks. Some other people had seizures when parts of the scene were rebroadcast during news reports on the seizures. Only a small fraction of the 685 children treated were diagnosed with photosensitive epilepsy. This phenomenon was later called “Pokémon Shock”. – Source: Wikipedia.
After the episode, the television series was suspended for a month. Investigations occurred across Japan trying figure out what exactly happened. After the investigation was over, the series resumed like nothing happened. The episode was never released in the US.
What fascinates me is not the episode itself, but rather what happened to the kids who had the seizures.
You won’t find much information floating on the web on the 685 kids who had seizures that day. The Nintendo Company paid lots of money to the right people to keep the information hidden. I’m likely risking my life divulging these facts, but they need to be told.
I first found out about the 685 when I was messing around on the dark web. I’m not sure how I came to the page. I’m not sure why I clicked on that link. I wish I never had. My life hasn’t been the same since.
I came across a page on the dark web called Pokémon Shock. I was around ten years old when the Porygon episode came out. It was a big deal back then. All my friends at school talked about it. We said that we’d never have seizures if we watched it. That it was bullshit it was banned from being aired in the US. We wanted to see it. We would search all over the internet for that episode with no luck.
When I saw the page on the dark web it excited me. I was finally about to see the episode for the first time. I went to click on the link and it brought me to a page that had a big disclaimer. The background of the website was black, and the disclaimer was written in white in an eerie font. It went something like this:
What you are about to see will shock you. It will change your life. Nothing will ever be the same for you if you click on the link. We suggest you close your computer. Erase your hard drive. Forget about this page. Don’t tell anyone you found it. Go outside. You will thank us.
Naturally, I thought the disclaimer was a joke and clicked on the button that said, “Don’t click here”.
At first, I was disappointed. I looked around the website and I didn’t see the video that gave the 685 seizures. The only thing on the page was a link that said, “Case Studies – The 685”.
I was about to close out of my computer but decided to check out the link for the case studies. That is when things got weird.
The link led me to a website with a huge document called, “The 685”. At the top of the website were ten Japanese men in suits standing outside of a TV station. On the front door of the TV station were the words, “Nintendo Testing Center”.
There was a folder with pictures in it that I checked out first. Most of the pictures were of these ten men. They stood around weird broadcasting equipment that looked like it was from the future, smiling and shaking hands. The Nintendo Testing Center was built like a lab. Men in whitecoats and goggles worked in the background while the ten men in suits had their pictures taken around the testing center.
After going through the pictures, I began to read the document called, “The 685”.
According to the document, the whole Porygon episode was a social experiment. The episode was built to give kids seizures. Only a small group of kids with the right brainwaves would have the seizures. They would then get hauled off to the hospital with their parents and the social experiment would go into full effect.
The hypothesis of the social experiment was to test what happens to kids over a lifetime when shown high repetitive blinks and flashes at a rate of 12hz for a few seconds.
The documents had each kids file in it. There was a photo of each kid every year from the date of the seizure, with notes under each photo.
The first few years after the seizure the 685 looked like normal kids. However, when you got to year five there were drastic changes. The physical deterioration each kid exhibited was almost identical. Five years in, the 685 were losing their hair. They were beginning to miss teeth. All of them had deep bags under their eyes. Footnotes from the lead researcher said most of the kids had trouble sleeping. They would wake up from vicious nightmares – howling and screaming bloody murder.
The physical and mental deterioration got worse throughout the years. By year seven the 685 had no teeth. Only a few long strands of hair laid on their scratched-up heads. The boys and the girls looked the same. I couldn’t tell them apart by looking at their pictures. They all had a type of delusional look in their eyes. Like they were not present. Most of the parents reported a lack of empathy with each kid. Some said their kid stopped talking to them all together. The nightmares continued as well. They were more violent. More vivid.
By high school all the kids were in some type of mental institution. Their pictures didn’t look like them at all. They looked like old folks. Deep wrinkles lined their foreheads, around their eyes. What scared me was the fright they all exhibited in their eyes. It looked like they seen something that couldn’t be unseen. Medical records state in the footnotes that they talk about a man they see in their dreams. The man hides in the shadows. They haven’t seen his face. They think he is hunting them. They know something that he doesn’t want the world knowing. The nightmares continue. More vivid that ever before.
The year the kids would have graduated high school they were dead. All 685 of them. Interestingly, they all died the same month. Ten years after they had seizures they were dead.
Leading up to the death they all stopped sleeping. They were afraid to go to sleep. Said the man in the shadows was close. All 685 gave almost identical descriptions of the man. But from reading the footnotes it doesn’t seem like a man at all. It sounded like some sort of monster that lives within shadows.
The descriptions describe the shadow monster at tall. Extremely tall. Sometimes it was taller than buildings. Other times it was taller than mountains. Then other times it was taller than a lamppost on the street.
The shadow monster was also edgy. Edgy like a sharp knife. The shadows outlining the monster were jagged. Sharp to the touch.
And the monster had a distinct smell. The smell of something rancid. They all knew the monster was close when they smelled the distinct rancid smell that filled their dreams.
Every member of the 685 died the same way. When the medical professional taking care of the individual went to check on them in the morning, they were dead, smelling of something rancid. A smell that can’t be forgotten. They also all had a weird dark mark on their necks. It was a black circle that wrapped around their necks. The dark marks could easily be wiped off with a towel but once wiped off it was gone. There was no way to test to see what it was.
There are a few theories out there explaining what happened to the 685. Only one is believable. Most are far-fetched tales or lies Nintendo created – trying to cover up what really happened.
The dark website that complied all this data on the 685 thinks that when those kids had a seizure, they saw something they were not supposed to see. They saw a secret that was supposed to be kept a secret. A secret that has been locked away for a very long time.
The man or shadow monster knew they had the secret. Nintendo knew they had the secret. Nintendo’s intentions were to get the secret before the shadow monster killed the kids. The mental facilities were set up by Nintendo. If you look up the mental facilities each kid was at, they all closed shortly after the kid died. Nintendo wanted that secret. The shadow monster didn’t want Nintendo to have it. It was a race against time. Nintendo needed to get the secrets the 685 had before they were killed off at year ten.
Some people smarter than me think that Nintendo extracted the secret from one of the boys. They think that Nintendo is developing something powerful in the backwoods of Japan faraway from civilization. Further, that Nintendo is a front to a secret military government complex which has been planning this for decades. Once they figure out the powers that kid had in his brain the world will change.
Others think the shadow monster killed off all the kids before Nintendo extracted the secret those poor kids had. However, they think that Nintendo is creating a new television series to give kids the same type of seizure in the U.S. These people have sworn off all anime in fears they will end up like the deteriorating 685.
I’m not sure what to believe. What I saw on that website changed me. I live in fear and skepticism. Every time I see a cartoon I think of the 685. I think what if that was my son who watched that episode? What if it was me who watched it? I don’t know if the kids were all killed before Nintendo extracted whatever they were holding in their brains. I do know that what I believed before learned about the 685, is not the truth. The truth is out there. But I don’t want to find it.
