Furoku - 付録 Part 5: Modern Furoku

In past articles, I've written about the history of furoku, furoku in girls' magazines, a close-up look at furoku manga, and a super close-up on a Henshin Ninja Arashi manga given away with a magazine. Now I'd like to take a look at modern furoku.

Freebies continue to be widely given away with all sorts of magazines, and the bundled gifts have become diverse and extravagant over the years. I've even read that women's magazines are using the tactic of giveaways as a way to boost plummeting sales.

Clearly the strategy has traction, as you're seeing everything from anime to sports card to fashion mags wrapped in shrink wrap with one or more alluring prizes.

Some bookstores even have display areas filled with samples of what you can get in new publications.


More after the jump:

Furoku - 付録 Part 4: Henshin Ninja Arashi Furoku - A Close-Up Look

Most of the furoku I've talked about in past posts have been about manga or the games and prizes given away with magazines. Recently I came across a really interesting hybrid furoku featuring one of the most bizarre and compelling tokusatsu heroes of the 1970s: Henshin Ninja Arashi.

This furuoku came with the October 1972 issue of Boken O (Adventure King). At roughly 18 cm x 26 cm (7.1" x 10.2") long, it's larger than the manga usually given out with magazines. The book is 58 pages long and is part four-color (which makes it interesting in its own right for a vintage furoku), part single-color.

The front inside cover has a cool guide to Arashi villains.

There are also two cross-section "X-Ray" illustrations of Arashi villains, so you can know what their internal organs and skeletal structures look like!

 More after the jump:

Furoku - 付録 Part 3: Furoku Manga - A Closer Look

In this segment of my continuing series on furoku, I'd like to take a closer look at several vintage manga furoku. Let's start with a Tetsuwan Atom (Astro Boy) manga. It's one of the most widely collected of all furoku series.

The mange is 48 pages long and measures 11.5 cm x 17 cm (4.5" x 6.7").

Typically these manga were just one color - in this case, purple.

 More after the jump: