Nakayoshi (なかよし) is a monthly shōjo manga magazine published by Kodansha in Japan. First issued in December 1954, it is a long-running magazine with over 60 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.

Serializations

Current

Past

1954–1979

1980–1989

1990–1999

2000–2009

2010–2019

2020–

Circulation

International versions

An Indonesian language version, Nakayoshi: Gress!, is published monthly by Elex Media Komputindo in Indonesia. The series has been canceled effectively in January 2017.

Related magazines

Video games

There have been multiple video games based on various manga series running in Nakayoshi, in addition to games based on individual titles themselves.