Possibly the most famous of the Japanese toilet ghosts, Hanako is actually a relatively benign spirit. Basically, she's a scary thing Japanese kids dare each other to summon, by either knocking on the stall door or saying "Are you there, Hanako-san?" to which she will reply that she is. Occasionally she will be seen as well. While descriptions vary, generally she is described as having an old-fashioned bob haircut and wearing a red skirt. There are various origins for Hanako: some say she is the ghost of a child killed during a bomb raid in WWII, other legends variously claim she was killed by a deranged parent or stranger.
Hanako is a popular subject for Japanese pop culture. There is a series of horror movies based on a more sinister version of the legend, and she also pops up in several anime and manga. In the anime Haunted Junction, Hanako is portrayed as a sultry and busty teenager in a too small (and too tight) school uniform. The little toilet ghost fares a bit better as one of the stars in the mangaHanako and the Terror of Allegory; she's still a young girl, but she is given incredible supernatural hacking powers and the power to teleport between any two toilets in the world.
