Nakayoshi

"Good Friend"}} is a monthly ''shōjo'' manga magazine published by Kodansha in Japan. First issued in December 1954, it is a long-running magazine with over 70 years of manga publication history. Notable titles serialized in ''Nakayoshi include'' ''Princess Knight'', ''Candy Candy'', ''Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon'', ''Cardcaptor Sakura'' and ''Pretty Cure''. Roughly the size of a phone book (hence the term "phone book manga"), the magazine generally comes with ''furoku'', or small gifts, such as pop-out figures, games, small bags, posters, stickers, and so on. The ''furoku'' is an attempt to encourage girls to buy their own copies of the magazine rather than just share with a friend.

It is one of the best-selling ''shōjo'' manga magazines, having sold over 400million copies since 1978. In the mid-1990s, ''Nakayoshi'' retailed for 400 yen and had an average of 448 pages. The estimated average circulation of ''Nakayoshi'' at this time was 1,800,000. Its circulation peaked at 2,100,000 in 1993. In 2007, its circulation was 400,000. During the 1990s, then editor-in-chief, Yoshio Irie attempted to move the magazine away from "first love" stories and introduced several fantasy manga such as ''Sailor Moon''. During that period, ''Nakayoshi'' pursued a "media-mix" campaign, which involved close coordination of the magazine, anime productions based on the manga, and character merchandising. ''Nakayoshi'' is also published on the 3rd of each month. Provided by Wikipedia