PTSD Radio, Vol. 1

PTSD Radio #1

by Masaaki Nakayama

...ha...ir......hand hand and.. ..an..d......fire..... ....be...hin...d......blood......u... ...sh...shadow.........ahh......ow......ow...w......co.... ..bo...box......chil...dren... ...straw.........shears......s...sss.. ....sever...GROooOHH.... ..rah......O...gu...shi...sa..... ..........This is AERN-BBC, PTSD Radio. No tuning...necessary.

Genres: Manga, Horror, Graphic Novels, Comics, Fiction, Comics Manga, Seinen

162 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 19, 2012

About the author

Masaaki Nakayama (中山昌亮) is a horror manga artist, and author of the series Fuan no Tane (Seeds of Anxiety).

Reviews

[Brandon Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure what happened but it was weird and eerie!

[☾❀Apple✩ Blossom⋆｡˚ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has Junji Ito vibes and I LOVE IT

[daph pink ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure about the structure because it is told in a series of randomly placed short stories, but I am curious because Japanese horror is unique. I'll read the following volume, then.

[Georgia Purple · Rating 5 out of 5]

People often forget that similar to how humour is subjective; horror is too. I’ve heard people complain that Massaki’s work is soo simplistic, lacking a plot, and just simply, ‘empty’. Ironically it is those three things that make this series, PTSD Radio, absolutely terrifying to me. This is the first horror manga to make me hesitate when turning my lights off to go to bed, putting down my window blinds the second the sun began to set in fear that I’d see a scary figure staring back at me from the darkness, not wanting to stumble towards the bathroom at 3am in the dark because one of the monsters from this manga might be waiting for me. What PTSD Radio does best is set off your ‘fight or flight’ instinct; the ‘threat’ isn’t obvious (all we know is it has something to do with hair) and because of this even after I closed the manga my brain continued to search for a potential threat, making it hard to sleep that night. The first story in this series is only two pages long; a grandmother telling her grand daughter she has to cut her hair for her. This two page story of nothingness made me freeze up. There’s something off, something not right, something I should be seeing, but where is it? Instantaneously, I was afraid. I would recommend this series to people who’s brains work in the way mine does in regard to horror; feeling uncertainty and creepiness in things that sit a little too close to normality (like a figure in the distance or a tiny noise in a quiet house). I can understand that if you’re someone that wants horror with a clear plot and characters who have development, this may not be for you, but if you only need a certain trigger to be so scared you can’t sleep? Try this one out.

[sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

hair bad. bald good.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

What the crap did I just read? Japanese horror is great at turning mundane objects into horror subjects. I mean, yes, in certain contexts, hair can be creepy, but this pushes the notion into all new terrain. The artwork is brilliantly creepy, by the way. Americans haven't figured out how to make good comic horror quite like this yet. I feel like I need to read volume 2 immediately or something bad will happen to me.

[Kirk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disjointed “stories” so short they barely make any sense. They seem more like three-second jump scares you see at the end of Llama Arts videos on YouTube than actual stories. Part of that is because the earlier stories take a Hitchcock approach, leaving the frightening parts to the imagination.

About 3/4 of the way through you get a bit of context as to why things are happening, a unifying strand of sorts. It still felt a bit disoriented and frustrating.

Also for 5.99 this book is an insanely quick read. Like 20 minutes or so.

Atmosphere is a redeeming factor. It isn’t 5.99 redeeming though.

[greta · Rating 3 out of 5]

i've wanted to read this manga for quite some time now, so since it's october, i thought this would be a perfect time because this one's a horror! sadly, i didn't like it as much as i thought i would, but it was still a decent read.

the hair concept wasn't really doing anything for me, but some other parts with the way people looked really worked! some of them were mad creepy. 😭

i also don't like pitch darkness and when you don't see anything unless you have a light on and then you end up actually seeing something, that's like my biggest fear. 😳

i still do recommend reading this if you're in the mood for a quick manga horror because i did see this working out for a lot of people! i thought it was decent, just not my favourite.

[Keiko, the manga enthusiast ♒︎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A word to describe this series would be: stress-inducing.

I loved how the plot structure is not sequential and takes handful of time for big revelations that’s why you might be confused at first and think it’s just a collection of unrelated horror one shots. It’s a box of presents full of shocking surprises every time I move on to another chapter. The jump-scare is real with this one, sometimes I hold my phone at arms length when trying to move on to the next page. That’s how panic-inducing this one is. I’m excited to read the rest though!!

[John Wiswell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you read Junji Ito for the art?

Are you creeped out by clogs of hair? And mouths? And mouths that transform into eyes?

Then this is your jam. What a creepy batch of urban legends.

[Mal Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The reason I am giving this book 3/5 stars is because of how little of a plot there is. This almost seems to be like a collection of scary stories but all happening within the same town, possibly? It is very confusing but it is creepy. It's a book I would tell a few people to read of they want to read something horrifying, but interesting. I will read the next issue to see if more of a plot comes up. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone under the age of 16. This book has images that can disturb some people underneath that age. (It's still disturbing even to adults)

[Caro the Helmet Lady · Rating 2 out of 5]

OK, not that impressive as a horror as I expected it to be.
Also I think that story being non linear can confuse the reader a lot.
But at the same time it's kind of impressive, it would be quite interesting to know what happens next. Alas, the scare is not there, so to say, so I guess I'm abandoning the series for now.

[Cristina · Rating 2 out of 5]

My ratings: 2.5/5 | 5/10

This graphic novel will appear in my video "Small reviews - April" at the end of this month so keep an eye out if you're interested :))))

[maddie ✨ hendrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

horror manga is probably my fave genre. This is cool and I love the art style but I was maddddddd confused for like 90% of this lmao

[Janny Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story are all over the place but its not too bad. Hope the next volume is good!

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun series of seemingly unrelated horror vignettes that start to connect as you continue reading. I like that some chapters will only last 4 or 5 pages while others can go on for a more standard length. Makes it feel like you’re actually scanning through a radio trying to find something to listen to.

I’m glad US publishers have started to bring over more horror manga than just Ito’s stuff. I love the guy but it’s nice to have some variety.

[Stef · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another horror manga, kalau yang ini lebih ke kumpulan cerita horror-mistik yang meneror di satu kota yang sama. Art style nya mayan bagus dan ngga gitu distrubing, tapi ada bagian seorang perempuan berambut panjang di tarik dari belakang ntah kenapa aku baca nya jadi merinding. Bakalan lanjutin ke buku kedua.

[Curious Madra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Art is nice but it’s not really that scary or gutwrenching. Idk why the stories have to be short like honestly….

[Violet ♡]

Yes, I enjoyed the jump scares here. 😱

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ein richtig guter Horror-Manga, der vorallem über Psycho/Supernatural-Horror Grusel erzeugt.
Die Geschichten sind immer sehr kurz, sind aber immer alle irgendwie miteinander verbunden. Hauptthema sind (typischerweise) Haare und Schatten.
Einige der Kurzgeschichten waren richtig unangehm :D es hat mich sehr an Junji Ito erinnert, nur ohne den ganzen Gore-Kram. Auch The Ring und Sadako sind mir dabei eingefallen.
Gezeichnet ist es auch sehr gut.

Einzig der Titel ist ein wenig ??? Ich hätte dabei nämlich null an Horror gedacht, sondern eher an irgendeinen Kriegs-Psychotrauma-Stuff, der mich nicht interessiert. Ist aber überhaupt nicht so.

Wer also auf Junji Ito und/oder typischen japanischen Horror steht, der wird hier seine Freude haben.

[Miriam]

Ich kann noch keine Sterne vergeben, da ich noch nicht weiß, wie ich es finde. Dazu muss ich erst weitere Bände lesen und sehen, wie die losen Fäden zusammengeführt werden.

[Skela Gravens · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun bunch of horror stories with really great art!

Think my favorite was the weird thing standing in the train tracks. Nnnnno thanks man.

I enjoyed the little writing in the corner of each page, as vague as it was. The face changing for each chapter was also just exciting to see - is it gonna get worse or better??

Defs give it a go!!

[Balerion · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was kinda hard to follow along with this because the stories almost feel like they were mixed up and placed in a random order. It’s not until near the end where I started to piece things together. But rather than it being mysterious I was just more so confused for most of the volume.

The stories are almost too short, one is over before you could really get into it. Also most of the stories seemed to lead up to one frightening image that was on the last page. Granted those images were really freaky so they got me there lol but I was just hoping for more I guess.

[Javier Muñoz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este es un manga de terror desasosegante, pero entretenido y adictivo, al inicio parece compuesto por microrelatos sin mucho fuste, pero pronto empezamos a darnos cuenta de que las historias continúan en las páginas posteriores, según pasan las páginas vamos viendo que en realidad hay puntos en común entre las distintas historias y que hay mucho que rascar debajo de la superficie.

[Rylei B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was hooked by the first chapter. The artwork is absolutely amazing and this book exceeded all my expectations. The page turning jump-scares are always got me and never felt repetitive or expected and it was always something different.

[Javi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perturbación pura y dura

[Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really good short manga for horror/thriller pips!!
Im ready for round 2!

[Niki · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I definitely liked this less than the author's Fuan no Tane (and FnT Plus) It's still good, but a bit disjointed for now, and not as creepy as I expected.

[Victor The Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

PTSD Radio, Vol. 1 (My Kindle Review)

“PTSD” is a very different type of horror manga that I’ve haven’t read in ages. It’s told in small but different stories that seem connected together as they all have their own terrifying moments centering on hair cutting, a talisman and a strange statue.

For now, it’s a fine horror manga that has its own way of storytelling. While it didn’t really scare me, I really like its horror feels and how it connects the stories together. I still hope there’s a main story connected to all this. B (75%/Good)

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm usually a fan of horror manga, but sometimes it can get too weird. This feels like one of those times. However, there is enough of a plot here that things may clear up in later volumes so I'll keep reading for now.