Infamous Internet - Lavender Town Syndrome

In February of 1996, the world was introduced for the first time to a game world that would go on to be part of one of the biggest global media franchises in existence… Pokémon! The release of Pokémon Red and Green brought hours of fun and entertainment to Japanese children everywhere and it wouldn’t take long for the hype to spread past the country’s borders.

But it wasn’t all wholesome fun, as it rarely ever is. In fact, within days of the games’ release, a devastating spate of illnesses and suicides swept across the children of Japan. These children were all roughly between the ages of 7 and 12 years old, and they each had one thing in common. Their symptoms had begun shortly after reaching Lavender Town in their copies of Pokémon Red or Green. This tragic cluster of events became known as Lavender Town Syndrome.

It was believed that the cause of it all was down to the music that played in the background as the player explores the eponymous town. The extremely high frequencies used have been shown to only be audible to those of a certain age due to children’s highly sensitive ears. Because of this, reports claim that upwards of 200 children committed suicide by either hanging themselves or jumping from a high place. On top of that, countless others fell ill, developing severe headaches and increasingly irrational behaviours.

Mass hysteria broke out, which led to the programmers making official changes to the theme so that it was played at a lower frequency. As you can imagine though, many people out there still claim to have ways to listen to the original piece of music.

In 2010, a video appeared on YouTube claiming to have analysed the Lavender Town theme by running it through “special software”. No further information was given about this software, but it supposedly generated images of the Pokémon Unown towards the end of the audio. Unown resemble the alphabet in obscure ways, and are therefore often used to deliver messages and codes in universe. In the case of Lavender Town, it appears that they are spelling out “LEAVE NOW”. As chilling as that may be, Unown actually did not come into creation until the second generation of the franchise, Pokémon Silver, Gold and Crystal. So the odds of this hidden code being legitimate seem slim to none.

Still, there is something undoubtedly eerie about the Lavender Town theme, even to this day. Many modern listeners still report of severe headaches following listening. So should you wish to seek out the Lavender Town’s song… be warned. It may be the last thing you do…