The culture of food, sports, love relationships, and business provide the themes for its featured series, which often question conventional values. In 1996 Frederik Schodt characterized the typical reader as a twenty-eight-year-old systems engineer who works at a finance company, eats at ramen noodle shops and is seriously considering using a matchmaking service.[3] The magazine is printed every Monday and is available at a price of ¥280. Circulation in 2008 averaged over 300,000 copies, but by 2015 had dropped to 168,250.[4] In 2009 Shogakukan launched a new companion magazine, Monthly Big Comic Spirits.