Kouishou Radio
PTSD Radio

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Gonna place all the cards on the table. I don't think I can continue reading this manga. Not because it's bad, far from it. Simply holding this manga feels like... a curse. It's like I'm not supposed to be reading it. Every page has a friggin' jumpscare, and every time I turn the page, I shiver in fear hoping the next page isn't gonna be another jumpscare. Of all the horror manga I've read, this has gotta be the only one that genuinely made me afraid of reading it. Sure, Junji Ito's stories are scary, but they're also mezmerizing to the point that you want ... to see more of it despite being unnerving. I am a hero had this interesting set of pages that flow as if you're watching a jumpscare unfold. But this manga... The very act of turning the page requires a lot of courage. I'm not lying when I say ptsd radio has the scariest pages you will ever see, and you need balls of steel to actually finish the entire thing. Seriously, I can't recommend it to anyone who can't handle scary stuff. And I'm not joking, the pages will keep you up at night. Heck, if even the author had to stop drawing this manga because he thought it was cursed, that should be an indication that you shouldn't pick up this manga unless you're fully prepared for what you're about to read.

Not too good. The arts really great in this manga, the creepy imagery is very nightmarish. Besides all the monsters, the backgrounds and people are attractive. A big problem is with the story.
This is a collection of short horror stories, but many are intertwined and some characters return. The longer chapters are stronger (a good example is chapter 93, which is probably the longest chapter and is both a subversion of expectations and heartwarming.
However, most of the chapters are pretty expendable. A good example is chapter 97. Only two pages, and the plot is “this random person is doing math homework and suddenly a ... scary thing appears in front of her.” The amount of short chapters that are pretty much just “person sees scary monster ” will probably reduce motivation to continue reading this manga.
Too many chapters are extremely short, which isn’t a good thing. Most of them also don’t have a satisfying conclusion, and maybe that makes it more creepy for some people, but it feels more lazy.
There should’ve been more of these disgusting little alien-bug things. From what’s been shown so far, they enter a humans body, then proceed to stay inside them and multiply, likely causing great pain to the human. Examples like this is way more horrifying than, say, seeing a random girl on the street with a creepy face.
It’s enjoyable, however. despite being hit-or-miss, it’ll probably still frighten you. And the best chapters are peak examples of horror manga.

PTSD Radio – Spoiler Free – Mixed Feelings

TLDR
Overall: 4/10

Disclaimer: due to the nature of this work – a collection of short stories –, my normal parameters of Story, Art, Characters and Enjoyment with a weighted average won’t be applied. Instead, a global overview will be offered.

PTSD Radio is but an excuse to draw creepy panels, as it lacks much of anything of horror.
PTSD Radio is a one-of-a-kind manga by Masaaki Nakayama. It is a compilation of short stories that are weakly connected by a common thread. The story, in general, is not coherent and does not make much sense as a whole, even though there ... are some attempts to connect the dispersed dots. The stories are incredibly short – mostly being 5-10 pages long – making any short story lacking in development in all senses. They look like ideas for certain panels rather than stories.
Designed as a horror manga, it features many elements of the genre, such as creepy panels that play with the uncanny valley effect, jumpscares, and an eerie atmosphere. However, it is extremely lacking in all other aspects: it is not scary, the jumpscares are foreseeable, and everything looks like a failed attempt to emulate Junji Ito’s Uzumaki.
One of the good things about the manga is the art, though. The art is of great quality and is the saving grace in all this. There are eerie panels – but not scary – that are truly memorable. There are also ideas in some stories that are worth developing for their horror value.
PTSD Radio simply doesn’t have characters. There are entities that participate in the story, more like figurines, but there aren’t any individual characters per se – entities with personalities, a name, and a sense of morals (or lack thereof) that play a genuine specific role in a story.
The author also claims that strange things started to happen to him when he began the serialisation of the manga, which helped to add another dimension of horror to the manga. Blurring the line between fiction and reality was also the great trump card in PTSD Radio, as some – I repeat, some – of the things that supposedly happened to the author are way scarier than the actual stories of the manga.
At six volumes and 97 chapters at the time of the review, it is nevertheless a quick read since there isn’t a lot of dialogue, and most of the stories are but visual experiences. It cannot, however, be recommended: aside from the visuals, PTSD Radio isn’t scary and does not add to the overall horror genre. For this reason, it deserves a mixed feelings stamp dangerously close to a not recommended.