Pokemon-Inspired Seizure Gun

Never thought this would be a news title.

As most people know, when Electric Soldier Porygon aired in Japan during Pokemon’s first season, many children experienced seizure-like symptoms because of a quick succession of flashing red and blue explosions in the episode. This incident knocked Pokemon off the air for several months. In fact, Pikachu’s Goodbye was created in the interim and aired when the show came back to help brainwash remind children how much Pokemon meant to them. The animators also went back and lowered the frame rate of some scenes in previous episodes as a precaution (if you ever wondered why Pikachu’s lightning zaps at like one frame a second in the first episode, there you go).

Well, it seems the incident also inspired the army to come up with an idea for a weapon that could “blast [enemies] with electromagnetic energy until their brains overload and they start to convulse.” This according to a new Wired article that explains how the weapon would affect 100% of the population. It’s a rather interesting read, if not absolutely terrifying. Luckily such a weapon is only theoretical!