Released in 2012 by Kodansha in Japan this is a manga that has been out for a fair while now, the English translation followed in 2017 but Masaaki Nakayama and PTSD Radio have only entered my peripherals very recently.
Having finished Mail & The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (or at least up to date with what’s released on Apple Books, English manga hard to find and crazy expensive physically here in Thailand) there was space in my life for a new supernatural manga.
If you are familiar with these works then you will feel right at home with PTSD Radio. If not they can be confusing at first, taking a non-linear approach to storytelling. PTSD Radio takes this one step further by having stories only a few pages long and focus on different people and time periods, however as you read on you come to find commonalities and a narrative emerges. Similar to many of the stories by Eiji Otsuka, (without revealing too much) a lot of what happens is centred around the rapid urbanisation of Japan, Tokyo in particular and the loss of customs left unpractised by current generations. For those familiar with Junji Ito and Kazuo Umezu (to which most horror manga is ignorantly compared) please know this is a different flavour if you will, more of a supernatural mystery.
The line work resembles that of the period but art style polished enough that the distinct time periods can be easily told, from hairstyles, clothing to the setting itself, but is not the main draw. If you like Japanese myths and urban legends along with non-linear storytelling I would recommend this, but not before Mail or The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service.
Images © Kodansha
Used under fair use for review purposes