Bessatsu Friend (別冊フレンド, Bessatsu Furendo), formerly known as Bessatsu Shōjo Friend (別冊少女フレンド, Bessatsu Shōjo Furendo), is a Japanese shōjo manga magazine published by Kodansha. It was originally conceived as a bessatsu, or companion magazine, to Shōjo Friend, which is no longer published. Bessatsu Friend is commonly known by the abbreviated name Betsufure (別フレ) and is published on the 13th of each month.[3]
The magazine originally featured manga focused on romance; however, with the start of publications by manga artists like Keiko Suenobu, it began publishing such that moved away from that main focus. Betsufure publishes manga by many well known manga artists, such as Miwa Ueda, Satomi Ikezawa, Ayu Watanabe, Fuyumi Soryo, Nanba Atsuko, and Keiko Suenobu.
In October 2005, a manga serialized in Bessatsu Friend titled Flower of Eden was pulled from publication and recalled by both Kodansha and North American publisher Tokyopop, after it was revealed that the manga artist, Yuki Suetsugu, had copied art directly from Slam Dunk and Real by Takehiko Inoue.[4] After that, official imports of Bessatsu Friend publications became scarce.
