Poison City Volume 1

Yūgai Toshi translates as "Harmful City." The story is semi-autobiographical: Tetsuya Tsutsui wrote it after his own manga Manhole was officially designated a "harmful book" by Nagasaki Prefecture. It went on to win the ACBD's Prix Asie in 2015 and an Excellence Award at the Japan Media Arts Festival in 2017.

The narrative is directly inspired by the author's personal experience when his previous work, Manhole, was labeled as harmful to minors by the Nagasaki Prefecture government. This real-world censorship battle served as the primary catalyst for the themes explored in this series.

The plot features a story within a story, as the protagonist is a manga artist attempting to publish his own horror series titled Dark Walker. The chapters of this fictional work are interspersed throughout the main narrative to illustrate the conflict between creative expression and government oversight.