Aka Manto

Aka Manto (red cloak) meets victims when they are most vulnerable: on the toilet. He wears a white mask and a long red cape. There are many variations to the legend. He holds red and blue toilet paper in some stories, but he’s only in his cape in others. However, he always asks the victim to choose a color: red or blue?

Like Japan’s slit-faced woman asking, “Am I pretty?” it doesn’t matter what you answer because Aka Manto kills you regardless—choosing red rewards you with a stabbing, spilling your blood all over the stall. If you answer blue, Aka Manto either suffocates you or sucks out your blood, leaving you blue-faced and dead on the floor. So your best bet is to either ignore the fiend or run away.

This legend is popular enough to appear in numerous films, video games and the 2015 American TV series Scream Queens. Some believe Aka Manto is based on a real-life murderer named ao getto (blue blanket) in Fukui Prefecture from 1906, but that is yet another urban legend.

Aka Manto’s origins are a mystery but are likely inspired by the Japanese school toilets where the grisly murders occur. In Japan, every English teacher can attest to being in an eerily large yet empty school with a bathroom furthest away from the others—old and unkempt. Moreover, who wants to answer questions while trying to take a number-two?