Cartoon characters who suffered nosebleeds after a visit to the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant are turning into a headache for manga publisher Shogakukan.

Locals are apparently angry about the ¡°misleading¡± depictions in an episode of the popular manga series ¡°Oishinbo¡± published Monday in the weekly Big Comic Spirits magazine.

Visiting the stricken plant two years after the 2011 nuclear catastrophe, a group of characters, all newspaper journalists, are momentarily exposed to hourly radiation levels of 1,680 microsieverts. After their tour, which takes them near the plant¡¯s six reactors, lead character Shiro Yamaoka begins to complain of ¡°extreme exhaustion¡± as well as sudden nosebleeds that span days. His colleagues confess to suffering similar symptoms.