4 out of 5

Yes, there’s much manga that delights in the weird and gory, trading in somewhat nonsense imagery that nonetheless strikes at some core sense of offness and thus quite effectively spooks.  But once you’ve gotten past your first dose of Grudges and whatnot, its just another genre, akin to slasher jump scares in American horror flicks.

I’ve admittedly jumped to a film comparison; PTSD Radio is, indeed, incredibly cinematic, but not in the sort of obnoxious way in which some comics arrange splash pages that are Michael Bay fantasies before they’re sequential art.  Rather: PTSD is cinematic in the sense that it’s gutsily visual, creator Masaaki Nakayama understanding the page and pacing and finding new ways of editing that ‘just another Grudge’ into something especially exciting, and disturbing.  Blurred panels and odd points of view are other boundary explorations used here, and again, it’s impressive – pushed just far enough to unnerve without upsetting the narrative.  Going back to film, a very close relative is Takashi Miike’s Audition: another traditional horror thriller brought to life by a master’s grasp of his art.

In PTSD Radio, the tale of some past wrong, and its resultant hauntings, is chopped up into rapid fire flashes of different characters, different times, indicated by individal radio frequencies introducing each section (e.g. 89.27NHz).  The style is admittedly so abstract that it takes some effort to dig in; it’s unclear until you’ve flipped through several vignettes as to whethr or not this is a story or just creepy imagery.  Thankfully, it seems to be the latter – and that imagery and the tone is so engaging that you’re willing to put up with the obliqueness – but the slow-to-reveal structure is, definitely, a barrier to entry.

PTSD Radio, if you’re tolerable of its reading learning curve, is an impressively involving effort from newbie (?) Masaaki Nakayama.  Willfully weird, precisely paced, and maybe most importantly… scary!