Review: 後遺症ラジオ 1 [Kouishou Radio 1]

後遺症ラジオ 1 [Kouishou Radio 1] by Masaaki Nakayama
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

PTSD Radio, a horror manga where the circumstances surrounding its publication is arguably more interesting than the story itself. Not to mean that the story itself is necessarily bad. It doesn’t so much as scare you, as it creeps you out, with its eerie atmosphere, mysterious happenings, and a narrative which unfolds in piecemeal. Oftentimes, stories which began in one chapter are left unfinished, until another segment is added to its plot somewhere down the line, leaving you with crumbs which you have to assemble and make sense of.

Also, in line with the title, the chapters, and oftentimes themes of the story are notated with references to radio frequencies. As the older generations who used the old analog type radio are sure to remember, much like how stations at different frequencies go in and out of focus as you tune the device, just so we see every day glimpses of the insidious entities which lurk in between the fabrics of reality, like a trick of the light, only visible, only able to exert their influences, when you happen to tune into their presence.

But much like radio waves, even when you can’t see, hear or feel them, their malevolent presence still is able to wear down on the walls of your sanity, altering you ever so much, and turning you into someone unrecognizable.

And that is just the actual story. The circumstances surrounding its publication, writing, and the continued ill health of its mangaka, could make enough material for a separate story. From what I was able to gather, the writer Nakayama Masaaki and his team had taken residence in an old apartment where they came across a broken shrine of sorts. Afterwards, as he began writing this particular anthology, he and his team began to experience the same kind of symptoms as the characters which he was drawing.

Things turned from bad to worse when he began to experience hematoma and swelling of his face. At the hospital, he was diagnosed with ITC or idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, which led to extensive hospitalization.

At the point where even his assistants began to experience shadows and presences of the supernatural persuasion, a decision was made, perhaps out of desperation, to stop writing the story, one which seems to plague all associated with writing it with misfortune. This was back in 2018.

While one may only speculate as to the source of the misfortune afflicting the author, in the story it’s revealed as to how most of the happenings were connected to a vengeful deity of ‘Ogushi-Sama’, a sort of village guardian deity to whom the people had made offerings of human hair, for prosperity and fortune.

However, this practice was interrupted after the second world war, and now the people of the town and their descendants seem to be the objects suffering the rage of the entity.

This story definitely made for an interesting read, Moreso for its foreground, as well as narrative structuring. If I were as motivated a writer as Mr. King, I could probably make a story out of it.


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