Pikachu tries to attack the colorful Porygon. But what has the Porygon's flashing done to so many of those little kids?

A P R I L 1 5 — Like a tamagotchi given an emergency injection of cyber-nutrients, the visually potent Pocket Monsters have returned from the dead.

You remember Pokemon, or Pocket Monsters, the phenomenally popular Japanese animation series yanked from the air in December after it gave at least 700 people in that country TV-induced seizures? On Thursday, the series goes back on the air in Japan.

And, come Sept. 7, just when American children are putting down their Game Boys to head back to the classroom, the show will flash on to American television, appearing five days a week in about 90 percent of the country, its distributors hope.

Do parents need to be concerned about Pokemon? Does the visceral Japanese animation called anime, which has found quite a following in American subculture, prompt violence in viewers? And has television and film ever made anyone physically sick before? Join us for a look at art-induced epilepsy, flickering light and Japanese animation—and how Pokemon became the flash point for all three topics.

MARKETING, FLICKERS AND SEIZURES
Have A Pokemon Christmas The marketing whiz behind the Cabbage Patch Kids hopes to unseat Beanie Babies next Christmas by bringing Pokemon to America.

THE SCIENCE OF SEIZURES
How does flickering light affect the brain? Experts are skeptical that the Pokemon phenomenon was actually epilepsy induced by flickering TVs, but it’s not out of the question.