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A horror manga called PTSD Radio by mangaka Masaaki Nakayama has recently gotten attention from many manga readers. The manga is a horror anthology series, with each chapter and volume going back and forth between stories.
PTSD Radio isn't just scary for its visuals, but also its subject matter and the author's inspiration to write it. However, most people fail to see the metanarrative the author himself inserts into the story.
It's safe to say that this kind of manga is not for the faint of heart. Much like any Junji Ito manga, this has some excellent horror material. The volume synopsis on Kondansha's website gets creepier with each volume, and Nakayama even quit to keep his sanity intact, according to several sources.
Disclaimer: Like many horror series, this will contain depictions of graphic violence, among other triggering aspects like body horror. Viewer discretion is advised. It will also contain spoilers.
PTSD Radio: The story is inspired by true events experienced by the mangaka
Manga synopsis
PTSD Radio is a horror manga anthology surrounding an ancient legend of a being known as Ogushi, or "the God of Hair." Similar to Juji Ito's Uzumaki or Shiver, PTSD Radio focuses on an unexpected source of horror: human hair. Unlike the previous work, Fuan no Tane, many of the stories intertwine at different points.
It's also unique for chapters to have radio frequencies accompany them. It's akin to a radio signal fading in and out, with some frequencies being revisited in order to pick up where that story left off. Some are in WWII, some in the modern day.
All deal with various horrifying material surrounding a hair god named Ogushi, whose curse ritual was interrupted in WWII.
This is about as much summary as the audience gets from looking it up on Kodansha's website. The summaries for each volume even cut out words and seemed to be stuttering like a bad radio signal before ending with the catchphrase: "This is AERN-BBC, PTSD Radio. No tuning…necessary."
That's not to mention the body horror covers for the manga, which have human eyes, mouths, and skin in places where radio dials are normally placed. The opening page of volume 1 even has a sink faucet and knobs that look like a face crying or bleeding.
The horror comes in many forms in this manga unlike the giant monsters of Attack on Titan.
Horror from everyday objects
The chapters are short vignettes, with each tuning in and out like a radio signal to different shorter stories. For example, a man out for a stroll on a pitch-black night has a visitor from the dark as he lights up a cigarette. A woman sees a pitch-black figure jump on the rails of a subway and get into a train.
Two men have a seemingly normal conversation on a rooftop and suddenly hands sprout up to grab them from the street. A man tries to smash a ritual totem with a hammer and ends up with his head smashed in. A woman breaks up with her boyfriend over her hair being stolen from her, and her face contorts.
The horror just escalates from there, as the nightmare faces, horrific deaths, and just plain weirdness continues to plague the town. Even random everyday objects like streetlights, mirrors, bathtubs, and other things seem to contain some nightmare creature or thing to terrorize someone.
Chapters have radio frequencies attached to them that abruptly end, only to bounce back to that particular story and have recurring elements. One of these are crows who followed a man after he hit one of them with a rock, turned out to be smaller demons, cursed after they ate a bit of hair from the cursed shrine on frequency starting at volume 2, chapter 22: 52.71nhz.
An intertwined narrative
These stories may seem random, but they all begin making sense once the hair totem and Ogushi myth begin to take shape. Long story short, a town in Japan had a shrine to Ogushi that was paid tribute to with human hair. A curse seemed to befall the town after World War II, wherein a Japanese soldier failed to bring one of his deceased comrades' hair to the shrine.
Since then, many supernatural and horrific things have happened in the town. From demonic possessions to nightmares, to the aforementioned crows coming in and being turned into demons. It is all intertwined with the ritual doll and Ogushi's presence throughout.
An early story involves a girl that had her hair cut by her grandma in PTSD Radio Volume 1, chapter 1: 89.27nhz. It continues in Volume 1: chapter 3 and 5 and doesn't pick up again until Volume 2: chapter 28 with an increasing frequency as the girl is haunted by apparent baldness.
The woman eventually cuts her hair, as she can't stand it anymore, and her face resembles the haunting one she sees in reflections.
As PTSD Radio progresses, it becomes clear that Ogushi is stalking and dragging people away such as the two men that were talking about a coworker's suicide being done by Ogushi.
Ogushi appears represented in shadowy arms grabbing people, rooting them to the spot before taking them...elsewhere. The manga relies on some jumpscares, nightmare faces, and fear of what comes next to keep readers hooked.
Weird accidents following a shrine discovery
One must then wonder exactly where all of this comes from, and Volumes 5 and 6 of the manga include short extras explaining Nakayama's inspiration for it. The story goes that PTSD Radio's creator rented a building as an office space eight years prior to volume 5s release. One day, he heard scratching around the ceiling and attic.
Checking the space, he discovered a broken shrine. At first, he paid it no mind. Then odd things began happening, like scritching around the ceiling, lights going out unexpectedly, and the smell of raw sewage coming from the front of the building.
One of the inspirations for the twisted faces is how the landlord's face is contorted in anger after a misunderstanding on a rent payment after six years without a problem.
When they moved spaces, Nakayama developed an inexplicable hematoma around his mouth and was diagnosed with Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP) right after he drew up a similar scene of someone throwing up blood and having demons spawn from it.
He was forced to stay in the hospital for a few months for treatment for this rare disorder in which platelets are destroyed and prevent blood from clotting.
But one of the creepiest and arguably horrific stories that inspired PTSD Radio was the assistants seeing shadowy figures around the office. Whether full-blown people or just crows at windows that were closed, everyone that came into contact with those things either suddenly quit or fell ill.
This included Nakayama himself, as one side of his face suddenly swelled up like a balloon and his temperature dropped...yet when he rewrote his idea to say no more, he suddenly felt fine.
To be continued...?
A cliffhanger along with the "to be continued" postscript at the end of Volume 6. It states it will continue as of Volume 7. Here's the problem, that was well over four years ago in 2018. The other problem is that the original magazine it got published in, Nemesis, is now defunct and it wasn't a particularly popular series.
Since there's no official word as to whether or not it will continue from the official mangaka, many readers have considered PTSD Radio concluded as of now. Though research has shown that Nakayama continues as a mangaka on Fuan no Tane, an older horror anthology series, there has been no word on PTSD Radio.
Until anyone hears anything from Nakayama, PTSD Radio ends with the extra creepy bit of a mysterious ghostly voice breaking the fourth wall in a jumpscare to not talk about the story. It does well to let sleeping dogs lie sometimes, after all. Especially if someone starts hallucinating.
After all, when one gets so paranoid they start hearing voices or seeing shadows where none exist. That's a pretty good indicator to stop whatever you're doing. This may include reading an article profiling the series or just not reading horror manga at 2 am. Especially not this one, as it has given many readers fears of dark spaces.
