Overview [$OVR]
The phenomenon of the "Lavender Town Tone" is a legend that involves a
bizarre spate of medical cases and deaths from around the country that
have been connected to the "Pocket Monsters" (Pok?mon) series of games,
in particular the first two games of the series, "Red" and "Green".
Though the event is largely unheard of due to disclosure laws for
companies based in the Kyoto Prefecture, there is a large amount of
information that has been brought into the open by a number of dedicated
individuals, including 関 内直 (Seki Uchitada) 伊勢 満朝 (Ise Mitsutomo) and
佐藤 治情 (Satou Harue), to whom this page is dedicated. Thanks also go out
to 安藤 景忠 (Andou Kagetada) for providing images and animated .gifs of the
visual phenomena.
This analysis will discuss the other phenomena that is often confused
with the "Lavender Town Tone", known as "White Hand Sprite", "Ghost
Animation" and "buried alive model", as well as the semi-related
developer-tag that was inserted into the game, and how to safely perform
these "easter eggs" in post-first wave cartridges.
History of the Game [$HIG]
The first cases of the "Lavender Town Tone" and associated events were
reported a few months after the release of of "Pocket Monsters Red and
Green" for the handheld "Game Boy" videogame console. These videogames
were wildly popular with children between the ages of seven and twelve
(their core demographic), which was no doubt one of the reasons why the
"Lavender Town Tone" had the level of severity that it did. In the game,
the player takes on the role of a "Trainer", whose task it is to
capture, tame and train wild creatures called "Pocket Monsters" for
battle. These games, and the two newest additions to the series, "Pocket
Monsters Gold and Silver", an anime, manga, figurines, a collectible
card-game and home console games have resulted in Pocket Monsters
becoming a multi-billion dollar franchise.
In one part of the game, the Trainer comes to a small, out-of-the-way
place called "Lavender Town" (シオンタウン). This town is one of the smallest
hamlets in the game (aside from the Trainer's own home town), and
possesses very few of the services available to the Trainer in every
other city in the game - indeed, the location would be unremarkable were
it not for the "Pok?mon Tower" (ポケモンタワー) located there - a colossal
building that holds the graves of hundreds of deceased Pok?mon.
It is theorised that, because of this location in the game, at least two
hundred children lost their lives, and many more developed sudden
illnesses and afflictons - and this does not consider the vast waves of
unreported illnesses or deaths whose cause went unnoticed.
History of the Pathology [$HIP]
It was not until Spring/Summer of 1996 that the cases that would
eventually become linked to the Lavender Town Tone began to surface. The
earliest record of the acknowledgement of the effects of the Lavender
Town Town that the author could find came from an internal report made
in June 1996 by the company Game Freak Inc. (株式会社ゲームフリーク), which was
then leaked by one of its former employees, Ms. Satou Harue. In it, an
employee gives a list of names, dates and symptoms - records of children
between the ages of 7 and 12 who had suffered various medical problems
as a result of playing Pocket Monsters Red and Green versions. Some
records are listed below, with the full listing in Appendix A [
here].
(It should be noted that entries in the Appendix also include symptoms
borne not from the "Lavender Town Tone" [an audio phenomenon] but from
the so-called "White Hand Sprite", "Ghost Animation" and "buried alive
model", all of which were visual phenomena that provoked similar but
distinct symptoms. More details on Part Two [
here]).
- 京極 勝女; April 12 1996 (11). Obstructive sleep apnea, severe migraines, otorrhagia, tinnitus.
- 千葉 広幸: May 23 1996 (12). General irritability, insomnia,
addiction to videogame, nosebleeds. Developed into violent streaks
against others and eventually himself. [自殺]
- 桃井 久江: April 27 1996 (11). Cluster headaches, irritability. Eventually took mixed painkillers. [自殺]
- 吉長 為真: March 4 1996 (7). Migraines, sluggish and slow
behaviour, unresponsiveness. Developed into deafness, and went missing.
Body discovered beside road April 20 1996. [死出]
The document that was circulated internally was the first time that
these incidents had been connected with the Pocket Monsters videogames -
until then, the cause had not been discovered or diagnosed by medical
professionals. Indeed, it is uncertain how the company themselves
managed to find the cases related to the event without seeking advice
from health services.
Pathology Detail -- "Lavender Town Tone" [$PAT]
The predominant symptoms related to what would become known as the
"Lavender Town Town" included headaches and migraines, bleeding from
eyes and ears, mood swings and irritability, addiction to the games,
unprovoked violence, withdrawal and unresponsiveness, and in
approximately 67% of cases, suicidal tendencies. However, these symptoms
only manifested in children between the ages of 7 and 12 years old who
had reached the area in game known as "Lavender Town", most of whom were
revealed to have been wearing headphones or earphones while playing the
game (see Appendix A [
here]).
As it turns out, the developers of the Lavender Town area had sought to
make an area that would "leave an impression on the player", according
to Seki Uchitada, who was a member of the development team. Seki claimed
that at the time of development, a number of the team were interested
in making Lavender Town a little different to the rest of the game.
"The Pok?mon Tower is a visible result of that," Seki told
ゲームの次元 （"Game's Dimensions" Magazine) in an interview earlier this year.
"That, and the fact that Lavender Town is so different from all the
other cities in the game: it is smaller, it has fewer people occupying
it, it didn't have a gym... and, of course, the music was very, very
eerie. In fact, in the first version of the game, we were told to
slightly change the song played in the background of Lavender Town ...
because our manager told us it would make children upset. The music used
in subsequent versions is different."
Either Seki was unaware of the full impact of the Lavender Town Tone, or
was vastly underexaggerating how "upset" children would get - no more
is said of the music in the article, but there are mentions of Lavender
Town's other macabre features (see below).
What Seki failed to disclose to Game's Dimensions Magazine was that the
music used in the first-wave release of Pocket Monsters Red and Green
was formulated out of an experiment in "binaural beats": using slightly
different frequencies of sound, each frequency played in one ear through
earphones or headphones, various psychological effects can be induced
upon the listener. In most versions of the first wave releases, this
resulted in the player feeling uneasy, apprehensive, and mildly
disturbed. However, for upwards of two-hundred children, it provoked a
variety of disturbances in the brain that went undetected purely because
it was undetectable by fully developed human ears - instead, only
children fell victim to the tones , resulting in psychological and
physiological problems that in some cases led to death - many of which
were suicides.
However, the "Lavender Town Tone" only accounts for some of the problems
that afflicted those unlucky enough to get first wave cartridges.
Though they are not as well known, there are a variety of visual effects
used in Lavender Town that also brought about severe medical issues in
children, some of which are still capable of being produced in games
after the first wave.
Part 2
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