The character has been depicted in a variety of media, including films, manga, anime, and video games, and not just as the notorious Hanako-san but in some as Hanako-kun, the male version.
[1][2] The details of her physical appearance vary across different sources, but she is commonly described as having a bobbed haircut and as wearing a red skirt or dress.
[1] Michael Dylan Foster, author of The Book of Yōkai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore, has stated that Hanako-san "is well known because it is essentially an 'urban legend' associated with schools all over Japan.
She made her first cinematic appearance in the 1995 film Toire no Hanako-san, directed by Joji Matsuoka,[7] in which she is depicted as the benevolent spirit of a girl who committed suicide, and who haunts the toilet of a school.
[8] She was later depicted in the 1998 film Shinsei Toire no Hanako-san, directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi,[7] in which she is portrayed as a vengeful ghost who haunts the middle school that she attended before she died.
[7] Hanako-san appears in the manga series Hanako and the Terror of Allegory, written and illustrated by Sakae Esuno, as the roommate and friend of Daisuke Aso, a private detective who investigates urban legends.
[12][13] Other anime series which feature the Hanako-san character include Kyōkai no Rinne,[14] GeGeGe no Kitarō,[15] and Ghost Stories.