In the 2010s, it gave rise to the "Lavender Town Syndrome" creepypasta, a fictional story about hundreds of Japanese children dying by suicide after listening to the track from high pitched tones that only they could hear.

Lavender Town is a village that can be visited in Pokémon Red, Green, Blue, Yellow,[1][2] sequels Gold, Silver, Crystal,[3] and the remakes thereof.

[6] During the story of Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow, the player utilises the item Silph Scope to deal with and view the Ghost-type Pokémon.

The village is haunted by the spirit of dead Marowak, murdered by the villainous Team Rocket, which is searching for its orphaned Cubone, a type of Pokémon that can be found at the tower.

[8]The chiptune background music of Lavender Town in Pokémon Red, Blue, Green and Yellow versions has garnered much interest due to some listeners finding it unsettling.

[14] Lavender Town's theme was later used in the song "Ghost Dive" by Polkadot Stingray as part of Project Voltage, a collaboration between Pokémon and Vocaloid that took place starting in 2023.

[15] In the early 2010s, an urban legend claimed that hundreds of Japanese children had committed suicide in the 1990s as a result of the music in the game, speculating that binaural beats and high-pitched tones only audible to children caused headaches and erratic behavior that led to their deaths,[11] with other "recorded" side effects including insomnia, violent behavior, and brain hemorrhaging.

[19] Other creepypastas gave varying fictitious accounts about the Syndrome, with one linking it to Satoshi Tajiri's childhood traumas, while another depicted a composer attempting to recreate the "original" Lavender Town melody and dying after completing it.

The episode resulted in many children across Japan suffering from seizures, and its correlation with Lavender Town Syndrome's events being considered to have provided "grounding" for the creepypasta.

She stated that while Lavender Town's various unique aspects— such as the burial grounds, possessed trainers, and the revelation that Pokémon could die— were unsettling and memorable on their own, she found that these aspects, in conjunction with the real-world feasibility of the creepypastas, allowed them to take on a strong following.

He stated that the shift in focus from horror to the storytelling helped make Cubone, normally considered a "scary" element of the franchise, have an investing and engaging storyline.