Urban Legends – Pokemon’s Crazy City: Lavender Town

As legends gradually begin to farge in our Urban Legends series, we now turn our eyes to the stories that the foreigners call “creepypasta”. But in order not to disturb the setting of the series, we will combine it with the traditional Urban Legends dynamic. That’s why this weekend we’re going to share the legend of Lavender Town in Pokemon Red and Green.

Pokemon, which sold 47.5 million units worldwide and became the 7th best-selling game in the world, is natural to appear on the list more than once. The original game, in which we previously shared the legend of Mew, will be with us this time with a much scarier story.

If you’re ready, let’s take a look at the story of Lavender Town.

This time we’re going back to the times when humanity was still afraid of the Internet. Pokemon Red and Green, which debuted when the calendars show February 27, 1996, are setting sales records, especially in Japan, the brand’s home base. But during this time, it is alleged that another very interesting event is being observed on Japanese territory. Many children, ages 7 to 12, attempt suicide after playing the game.

It’s not known if this incident, known as Lavender Town Suicides, is true, but we have a place where we can start the investigation. However, before we mention these sources, let’s make an introduction to the root of what triggers this phenomenon.

Lavender Smells in the Air

Pokemon Red and Green, a fury that the late 90s generation of children could not escape, at one point housed a city called Lavender Town. By the time you enter this city, the game is quite calm and moving at a certain pace, and when you set foot in Lavender Town, you can tell something is wrong. The NPCs in the city are scared when they tell you about the events here, and the atmosphere of the game changes in an instant. Although the city has a rather surprising story in itself, I’m sure you remember that hair-raising ton. But for those of you who don’t remember, I’ll leave this music downstairs.

It is said that all the problems stem from this music. The allegations are made by Satou Harue, a former Game Freak employee. Harue suggests that the high notes of the music playing in Lavender Town, located in Pokemon Red and Green, are not heard by adults, but that young people are influenced by this sound. In fact, according to Harue, the problem was noticed after the game was released and Game Freak had to recall most of the games.

This erroneous version allegedly caused the lives of 200 children and the loss of mental health of many more.

But how much of these allegations are true?

As The Silence Shuts Up, It’s Your Turn

First, let’s talk about Satou Harue, the main source of these allegations. In fact, it is possible to find out through a short internet search that such a name does not work for the producer Game Freak or even exists in the world. But let’s check his claims, thinking he doesn’t want to give his name.

First of all, none of the resources we have reached have seen an increase in child suicides in Japan during these periods. In fact, the claim that “games have been recalled” is not true. During these periods, Game Freak did not make any recalls to Japanese copies of the games.

Still, lavender town’s music certainly gives you goosebumps. In fact, in this part of the business, we can say that the Game Freak team agrees with these claims. Because Junichi Masuda, the composer of the play, simplified lavender town’s music by drawing it to more easily understood tones in later plays.

Smoke From Where There’s No Fire

Years later, the mystery of Lavender Town remains unsolved. Until the calendars showed 2010. Some players studying music using a spectrometer discovered that the game emits sound at frequencies that are not really audible. The players who turned these frequencies into images with a spectrometer were expecting an interesting surprise.

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As you can see in the video you can watch above, Pokemon called Unown can be seen at these frequencies. This is interesting because the Unowns are not in the first generation Pokemon family. So that’s another controversial part of the video. But the real problem is that the resulting Unowns are sending a “get out of here now” message.

(The Unowns that appear in the second generation have their own way of communicating)

Boredom

For now, that’s all we have on lavender town’s original story. It’s also interesting that this story, which started out as a creepypasta, has now become quite mysterious. In addition, neither Game Freak nor the Pokemon family responded to these allegations.

Let’s see if the legend of Lavender Town lasts any longer.

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