Boxed Special Edition of No. 5, Vol. 1 (Japanese Science Fiction Manga)

No. 5 Is a Science fiction political drama by mangaka Taiyō Matsumoto's (松本大洋) that ran in Japanese publisher Shogakukan's Monthly Ikki Magazine from 2000 to 2005. The first edition of volume 1 was released in a special box edition and was published in January 2002. The box contains 1 figure, 1 book and 1 double-sided poster. It is designed by book designer Takahashi Junzi (孝橋淳二) with art from the author.

The box contains a small figure of the main character No. 5 central and visible to the viewer. Above it is a large red calligraphic kanji number five (五) with the kanji for the authors name and the volume number one arcing underneath . Inside the box a Red frame surrounds the figure with a lady clad in a red shawl to the printed to the side. The manga itself is solid white with several kanji characters lined up centrally top to bottom. They are stamped with a rainbow foil and 五 placed dead center. The included poster mimics a newspaper including articles with several fonts, fake ads and even a 4 panel comic.

Some additional promotional content from the book's release is also included in the images.

Taiyō Matsumoto (松本大洋) is one of Japan's forefront mangaka. Since debuting in 1989 with the series Straight Matsumoto has successfully juggled genres from sports to sci-fi garnering prestigious awards from all around the globe. He's received two Eisner Awards (Tekkonkinkreet, 2008 and Cats of the Louvre, 2020), the Shogakukan Manga award (Sunny, 2016) and had his work adapted into animated form. (Tekkonkinkreet, 2006 dir. Michael Arias, Ping Pong the Animation, 2014 dir. Masaaki Yuasa 湯浅政明) His works are typically styled with fine lined loose pen inking giving them sketchy appearance, alongside his strong sense of fashion and little use of screentone. In July 2016 Matsumoto was one of eleven comic artists who's work was picked to be shown in the Louvre during their Louvre No. 9 – Manga, The Ninth Art Exhibition

Takahashi Junzi (孝橋淳二) is a Japanese book designer and has done cover design for the manga publisher shogakukan since the early 90s. His covers have been used for several famous mangaka and their works including Hideo Yamamoto (Homunculus, Ichi the Killer), Taiyō Matsumoto (Ping Pong, Blue Spring, Takemitsuzamurai) and Hideki Arai (My Beloved Irene).

ISBN 4099411915