Why did a bunch of anime, around 2008, include warnings about watching anime in a well-lit room?

[u/thewalkindude368]

I've been working my way through Gin Tama, and I'm in the 100s, episode-wise which were airing in 2008. And they all include on-screen warnings about watching TV in a well-lit room. The episodes before about number 100 didn't have that warning. In addition, the first season of Hayate No Gotoku included a similar warning, and that was airing between 2008 and 2009. I'm well aware of the Pokemon seizure incident, but that was in 1997, and there were plenty of anime that aired between then and 2008 that didn't have that warning.

[u/FetchFrosh]

Because you should watch your anime in a well lit room.

[u/TheBeatlesDude420]

Hey guys, ready for some more Fairy Tail? Just be sure that when you're watching, you turn the lights on in the room. And don't sit too close to the TV!

[u/Arekkusu1991 → u/TheBeatlesDude420]

Can't forget the big head Natsu frame they used

[u/Kadmos1 → u/TheBeatlesDude420]

To me, Lucy is the best part of FT.

[u/gsenjou]

That’s due to episode 38 of the original Pokémon series. Said episode featured a bunch of flashing lights that lead to some children experiencing epileptic seizures.

That lead to anime for the next decade+ to feature warnings about flashing lights or watching in a well lit room. These days, scenes like that just get dimmed down in the televised broadcast.

[u/timpkmn89 → u/gsenjou]

Did you miss:

I'm well aware of the Pokemon seizure incident, but that was in 1997, and there were plenty of anime that aired between then and 2008 that didn't have that warning.

[u/Roketsu86 → u/timpkmn89]

I know this may be hard to believe, but OP saying they're aware of the Pokemon incident doesn't somehow change the reality of how said incident impacted the industry...

[u/newier → u/timpkmn89]

It's not exclusive to that period. Many anime said it prior to that period and still say it to this day.

[u/gsenjou → u/timpkmn89]

Honestly, yeah. I only read the title and first sentence or so since I already had the answer.

[u/krackatowakid → u/gsenjou]

I never noticed it until it was pointed out to me. The example they showed me was the lightning from the transformations in attack on titan

[u/jacowab]

I'm pretty sure the network they aired on was doing a campaign about that.

[u/Hot-Win2571]

There has been a myth that watching TV in the dark causes permanent vision loss.
It doesn't. There sometimes can be some eye strain.

[u/nilghias → u/Hot-Win2571]

It’s not about vision, it’s related to flashing lights. So any anime with flashing light scenes will having the warning. Well lit rooms reduce the severity of how the flashing lights look

Even some anime you can see they lighten the screen or dim the overall look during the flashing lights so that the contrast isn’t so intense.

[u/threelayersofchinfat → u/nilghias]

I live in Asia and I believe we asian kids in the 90s were all told to not watch tv in the dark or else we'll lose our vision. Was it scientifically correct? Doesn't matter. Everyone said it's bad. Even the news and regular shows. They all would have a text banner that appears on the bottom every so often while airing.

[u/Kuramhan → u/nilghias]

Is there a reason TV would cased this, but a dark cinema would not?

[u/nilghias → u/Kuramhan]

Im sure it would, but most people with epilepsy or parents of children with it wouldn’t go to a movie without checking. Whereas with the tv you can tune in mid show and miss the warning.

[u/PaulCoddington → u/Kuramhan]

Guessing, but maybe because TVs are brighter and higher contrast than movie theater projection.

SDR TV standard was 100 nits peak at the time, cinema is 48 nits.

That and going to a cinema is a planned event, but TV can be accidentally tuned into without seeing any warnings.

Cinema can still be pretty intense though. The strobing end credits of the Lost in Space movie were very disturbing and disorientating in the theatre, even without having any issues with strobes (used to play about with them a bit at school and use them as lighting effects at school dances back in the 80's).

[u/melcarba]

Because the ones that you watched were from fansubs which were ripped from TV. Nowadays, where the source are streaming services, those things are cut.

[u/asianwaste → u/melcarba]

Some of them were overlaid over the show by broadcaster. But there were definitely some where it was hard coded into the show itself. School Rumble used that moment as a spot to place a gag.

Another trend was to leave a moment at the end of the OP to overlay the show's commercial sponsor in the late 90's and early 2000's. Example Inuyasha would end its first couple OPs with letting the music continue over a short looped animation. The sponsor overlay is gone but the slot with the looped animation would remain on the home media releases.

[u/thewalkindude368 → u/melcarba]

No, they're still there on CrunchyRoll. And I'm pretty sure the warning was on the Hayate DVDs that came out years ago. I was just watching Gin Tama 131 tonight, and the warning was there on screen and translated.

[u/Good_Nyborg]

And don't sit too close to the TV!

[u/iTiffany → u/Good_Nyborg]

I have that phrase ingrained into my mind due to so many Kaleido Star re-watches...

[u/PaulCoddington → u/Good_Nyborg]

5x the screen height was recommended to avoid seeing scanlines and/or phosphor dots.

People were also concerned about cumulative effect of CRTs emitting low dose X-rays (in the 1960's).

[u/timpkmn89]

I don't know what specifically triggered it, but the other poster who gave a clue about the TV channel was correct -- Hayate and Gintama both aired on TV Tokyo.

[u/Alarantalara]

Hikaru no Go had that warning too and it aired in 2001, so the 2008 might not be significant and that those two came to your attention and were from the same time is just a coincidence.

[u/the_card_guy]

Sounds like a couple of possibilities:

One possible thing is that you were watching from a source that just slapped on subtitles straight from the original source in Japan. Most other anime usually gets edited to cut the applicable-only-in-Japan stuff. I KNOW I've seen anime in the last couple years that STILL has this warning. Though these days, it's mostly limited to kids' shows.

The other possibility is due to the broadcasting station. I would have to check (or of course, you could), but if all this anime has the same broadcasting company, it may be a hard rule by said company to include in all shows (so they don't get any lawsuits)

[u/SaltAndABattery]

Kare Kano was one of the first shows I remember see start using that warning, and it's original airing was the year after the Pokemon seizure incident, so it might've been made mandatory by the government at some point at that time.

[u/SmurfRockRune]

Because staring at a bright light in a dark room is bad for your eyes.

[u/MegaManLegendsFan]

weird ....mine always came with a warning not to tell anyone in school or id get beat up ....XD

all jokes aside. its because of epilepsy. its not super well known how much of an effect anime in general has then other forms of flashing screens. but it is better known that if there is a flashing screen in the dark, its worse then if its in a well lit room.

at least thats what i heard from an episode of pokemon, that apparently made some kids seize out. i do believe that was before 2008 tho so. no idea why on the timing.

[u/yamete-kudasai]

Pikachu?

[u/wyn10 → u/yamete-kudasai]

Porygon. Flashed the whole screen red and blue.

[u/newier → u/wyn10]

No they're right. It's the Porygon episode, but it was Pikachu's attack that caused the flashing lights.

Early Pokemon anime loved using flashing lights for Pikachu's attacks, and in rereleases they're all super dimmed. The episodes after the Porygon episode are fascinating on a rewatch, as the first few episodes after they returned from their break following the incident, I remember noticing they actually avoided having Pikachu use electric attacks at all for a few episodes, before adjusting how they animated them from then on.

[u/RedmundJBeard]

Something about children's eyesight. May or may not have validity. I heard the same thing growing up in the USA.

[u/biggerwwright]

( I'm well aware of the Pokemon seizure incident, but that was in 1997,) well you know the reason

also maybe they stopped with the lit room thing

but TV version of anime still gets dimmed when bright "attacks" happen

[u/Donnie-G]

I'm not sure if its because of it, but like if you are watching older anime from that era - chances are it is fansubs on old TV broadcast raws.

Along with those warnings, you sometimes get local disaster warnings(earthquakes, typhoons) scroll over and of course there's the classic "Kono bangumi wa, goran no suponsaa no teikyou de okurishimasu."

[u/thewalkindude368 → u/Donnie-G]

The warnings are still there on CrunchyRoll. In the episodes of GinTama I was talking about, it's on-screen text supposedly from one of the characters and it's even been translated.

[u/user_15427]

How is Gintama? I watched the first two episodes and it felt too silly. I’ve heard it’s really good but didn’t feel like those two eps had anything to do with the main plot of the show.

Edit: lol why did someone downvote this question

[u/BloodAndTsundere → u/user_15427]

It is definitely silly (except when it's dead serious) but the first two episodes are generally considered to be best skipped as they are more fan service for the manga readers. The series really starts with episode 3.

As for how it is, I'd say it's among the best anime of all time. It's not really for everyone because there is crazy tonal whiplash but it's got great action, a Simpsons-level cast of recurring characters, good backstory and is uproariously funny except when it's being touching

[u/IceBlue → u/user_15427]

The first two eps were made for manga fans that have read it already. It’s best to start with ep 3

[u/Idzuna → u/user_15427]

It's really good, but it's INCREDIBLY meta. Like, I would only recommend it to people that watch a LOT of anime.

[u/thewalkindude368 → u/user_15427]

It's very silly, but that's what makes it fun. There's not a whole lot of main plot, the basic set up is, instead of America coming and opening up Japan at the end of the Edo era, it was aliens. And that's basically just a backdrop for wacky adventures, sometimes serious, but mostly wacky.

[u/JustAnswerAQuestion → u/user_15427]

Are you aware that you are that you are asking about if Gintama is any good or not in a thread about the photosensitive epilepsy warning in front of 1990s and 2000s anime?

[u/EconomyProcedure9]

Pretty sure that older shows also did this.

[u/lisahexbanshee]

a lot of it comes down to which network aired it. tv tokyo was the station that broadcast the pokemon episode, so their shows carried that notice the longest and most consistently. gintama and hayate were both tv tokyo.

[u/asianwaste]

Man, I haven't read Answerman in years but here he comes through: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/answerman/2017-06-21/.117773

[u/lumisweasel]

Inazuma Eleven also had segments suggesting to being in lit room. I would think daytime shows aimed towards a younger audience would have this as a recommendation from the tv channels and/or JP local governments.

[u/Panda_Kabob]

I think it's also partially due to when the anime aired. A lot of the primetime shows for kids would have the suggestion. Meanwhile the late night ecchi or seinen might not have that. With that said I was under the impression that they still had this for broadcast TV in Japan. It's just that we don't get that part in our anime subbed anymore.

[u/nightwishfan1]

It all has to do with eye strain and fatigue by reducing both since your eyes have muscles in them that affect it. For example if a series had a mix of dark scenes then light scenes mixed in one after another, that would cause your pupils to expand and contract continuously in a dark room. Those are the muscles affected. A lit room helps balance the visual contrast when scenes rapidly change like that. There's other things it helps with, but it largely depends on other factors.

[u/meneldal2]

It's hard to tell if the warning was present in earlier episodes on the original tv broadcast but the version you saw just doesn't have them for some reason.

I would say those kind of warnings on Japanese tv tend to be mostly for shows aimed at children, I haven't seen them much for shows aimed at a higher age.

[u/Ziazan]

Im betting its related to Porygon.

[u/Euphoric_Strategy923]

Kono ban no ni wa...

[u/proverbialbunny]

If you look closely at something (a book, computer, tv, ...) for long hours a day every day, it will make your eyesight worse, especially if you do this during childhood. It's why kids today are far more likely to need glasses than kids did in the 90s and earlier.

Back then they used to air PSAs about sitting right next to the TV. They don't air these PSAs any more about sitting close to a TV because today TVs are so big you can sit back at a distance and comfortably enjoy it. Back then TVs were 20 inches, smaller than your computer monitor, so of course kids would lay on the carpet and put their face right up to the TV.

If anyone is curious what these PSAs looked like here's an example: https://youtu.be/rbhHlYxKmgA?si=VCLyZKcPhFKowAkh&t=18

[u/SouekiSennoSTM]

The whole Porygon introductory episode of Pokemon was banned on that basis (well, removed from regular circulation and broadcast anyway).

You can find it online today and it's quite an entertaining episode and fills in some gaps, but wouldn't recommend getting overly close to the computer screen or if you have epilepsy.

[u/ItsyaboiIida]

Probably then new japanese broadcast standard changes. Fairy tail was the worst about it. Had a stupid looking chibi natsu telling you to keep away from your screen instead of the usual message at the bottom.

[u/bravetailor]

I think it was an industry joke. I'm pretty sure these shows you're citing were comedies, and this warning never really appeared in dramas or straight action series.

If you remember any anime from 2008 that weren't comedies that had this warning, I'd love to know them.