PTSD Radio, Vol. 5

PTSD Radio #5

by Masaaki Nakayama

Hey……krrrICKek……hey……tchrt…sfff…haaah……plip…Ow!......snap……wooOOohhh……brrk…krak…mrrk……sksh sksh……rstl…DING♪DING♪……plip…plip………ght behi………will die……thud…thud…thud……THOOM…THOOM……Leave your message after the tone………This is AERN-BBC, PTSD Radio. No tuning…necessary.

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

160 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 9, 2016

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

[daph pink ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whether they were true or not, his description of the horrifying real-life instances left me speechless.

[☾❀Apple✩ Blossom⋆｡˚ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume has some chapters depicting true horror stories happening to the author. Just like he says in the manga, some of us will end up liking them more than the actual stories, some of us less. I am one of the latter, so I enjoyed this volume less than the previous ones. I still feel sorry for the author though, that sounds horrifying. Hope he's okay now.

[Javier Muñoz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tiene momentos terroríficos... la historia supuestamente real de los sucesos que le ocurrieron al autor ayuda a darle más morbo a la historia.

[penta · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't believe in any of this but it for sure builds the mood.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Anastasia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

The creepiest part: the real story about the author. Brr.

[Hadia · Rating 4 out of 5]

That ending with real-life stories creeped me outtt

[Doc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Masaaki Nakayama, this is your life.

While this volume was cut short so we can see some of the unfortunate events that happened to the mangaka Masaaki Nakayama and his crew as they created this series I found the randomness to be less interesting then a potentially real life portrayal of a possible haunting (whether you believe in ghosts, demons, monsters, or nothing at all do not let me tell you to believe otherwise) than the usual chaotic and creepy imagery the manga is normally known for.

As mentioned in volume 3 (I didn't bother to review 4 thanks to it being much the same as usual and no insight struck me there) it appears that Masaaki Nakayama gave up after the next volume of the series and it seems this is the volume explaining the beginning of his problems in the building he rented to create manga with his crew. Now whether the story is actually real (coincidence or not) or just a way for the mangaka to bow out from an incredibly difficult and random collection of stories (while also promoting what is made already due to be being cursed) is not provable without serious investigation which honestly I have little interest in looking into myself. What I do know is these covers are neat, the parts of stories are often gruesome, and at least for now after next volume there is no more series making the urge to figure out any meaning in the randomness less exciting.

[Michael Sorbello · Rating 4 out of 5]

A series of vaguely connected horror vignettes revolving around paranoia, urban legends and irrational fears coming to life in unexpected ways.

PTSD Radio is a unique horror manga that manages to be oddly captivating despite being vague and full of unanswered questions. It relies on primal fears and urban superstitions. Stuff like thinking you see a face in the shadows if you stare at the crack of a slightly closed door for long enough. Thinking someone is standing behind you when you close your eyes in the shower. Feeling like someone is hovering over you staring directly into your closed eyes when you’re trying to sleep in the middle of the night by yourself. The type of stuff that irrational anxiety and sleep paralysis demons are made of.

The artwork of the horror scenes always pop up right in your face with some really unnerving portrayals of paranoia-inducing oddities. It happens quite frequently as well, as the chapters are extremely short and always end with a bizarre twist. I wouldn’t say anything in here is truly terrifying, but it’s constantly eerie, atmospheric and visually uncomfortable.

There’s not really a conclusive end to the saga, just a series of loosely connected strange body-horror tales that last about 3-6 pages each. It’s good for a quick read with a lot of visual peculiarity.

My rating: 3.5/5

[Opal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume is not quite as good as the previous ones, though it's still creepy. The stories jump around even more than the others, and the tie between them with regards to the hair god feels much less prevalent, with a few exceptions. The stories here also leave less of an impact. Not because they're short, but because nothing actually happens to the characters. Mostly, something is just looking at them, which, although somewhat creepy, is rather repetitive and thus starts to feel less dangerous.

About a quarter of the book is about the author, and a horrifying experience he had with his health that MAY have been caused by supernatural forces. It's probably the most interesting part of this volume.

All in all, it's still a good manga, and I will continue to read the series.

[STEPH · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s funny how these characters straight up ignore the creepy faces right in front of them. I guess seeing these things is pretty much normal in Japan. The power of denial is strong here.

Running is not an option. Morbid curiosity outweighs everything, even survival. But what really creeped me out is that some of the things depicted in this book actually happened to the author. Now that’s real horror.

Hands down the best volume in the series.

[Soliloquail · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am thissss close to passing out reading this omg

[Joshua Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

this dude really hates hair huh

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

Damn, sensei’s true story is so creepy. I hope he’s living his best life now.

[Mal Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly I had more fun reading about what happened to the author than I did about the story. I think I'm just not a fan of all of this jumping around. The author even did it in his own personal story. I understand hiding certain parts of a story to review later to the reader. Even so, I am having a hard time keeping up when time jumps all over the place and so do the characters. It seems like there is a new character almost every chapter. It makes it hard for me to invest into the story when the characters are as flimsy as the time frame.

However, the author is a fantastic illustrator. I find the images very interesting. I also find some of the ideas to be unique. Those two things, and the authors own true horror story, is the only thing really keeping me coming back.

[Maija · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was a shorter book with extra material at the end about the mangaka's hospital stay and some eerie things that happened to him.

The story itself had a lot of different people getting nightly visitors, which leads me to believe the whole city is in big trouble.

[Elena · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

I really enjoyed the "real" story experienced by the author. It's better than the manga stories lol.

[Sandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Der erste Part des Mangas war wieder extrem gut - diesmal waren die Gruselgeschichten teilweise wirklich sehr kurz, 3 Seiten lang z.B., aber wieder creepy und unangenehm. Das Thema war gemischt, aber hatte einiges mit Schattenmenschen und Deformationen zu tun.
Der zweite Teil des Mangas war dann aber für mich persönlich ziemlich öde - es ist ein Special des Autors, der offenbar einige Monate im Krankenhaus lag wegen einer Krankheit und in der Zeit diese Story als Entschuldigung geschrieben hat. Da geht es um eine angebliche gruselige Begebenheit in seinem Mangastudio - fand ich persönlich ziemlich langweilig, daher auch diesmal nicht soviele Sterne.

[Alejandro Yrigoyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aquí entendemos porque el autor dejó de escribir este manga. Si está muy creepy lo que le pasó y aunque no da miedo como el manga, si te deja muy sacado de onda. El hecho que algo sucedió cuando limpiaba y no lo quiere contar por miedo, me tiene intrigado y espantado. Por otro lado la historia principal solo son otras manifestaciones creepys de la deidad con buenos jump scares.

[Kristin Katsuye · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one went on track to being more interesting again. Even though we didn’t get as much I still liked this one better than the last volume. This volume is a bit special though. It includes some short [true] stories by the author about his real life experiences while working on some projects. Whether you’re a skeptic of them or not, they are pretty entertaining.

[Glitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, that was certainly an unexpected turn of events. 0.o

I feel like it's a marketing strategy/just part of the story because if it were true, I feel like he would want to stop all his horror projects and not just this one.

It does add an interesting layer to the series though!

[Lilly S · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was a bit shorter but included some “real life” horrors which was interesting. I wasn’t brave enough to read the ending that may or may not be contagious. (Iykyk) I just can’t get over how crazy creepy these stories are and the art alongside them.

[Squilvia · Rating 5 out of 5]

That was some scary shit bruhhh 😭 did the author just pass his curse to everyone? If it's really true story, holy shit. Go to a shrine or a church, a mosque or a temple or whatever man. You need to get cleanse.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shorter than the previous volumes but the space is made up by what the author says are true horror stories from his own life. He has a real skill for making haunting work.

[skaska123 · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's creepy wtf. Is the author lieing about the ghost stuff in his life to sell manga or is it real? I'm scared 😂😭

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is there a plot here? More like a collection of weird sort formulaic stories with nothing really connecting them

[B0R3D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tbh, to me, this volume was creepier than the rest because the author had shown the true incidents from his life.

[Chibiscus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure whether what he described was real or not. Regardless it was kinda annoying which is why there will be only 4 stars instead of 5.

[pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

his real life experiences gave me the heebie jeebies

[flowers for vases · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. I don't really care about the author's ghost stories 😬