The Laughing Salesman is a Japanese manga series created by Fujiko A. Fujio. The manga began as a one-shot series serialized in Shogakukan's Big Comic magazine on 1968, later becoming a full-fledged series published by Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha's Manga Sunday magazine from 1969 to 1971. The manga tells the story of a salesman named Moguro Fukuzou, whose job is to help people fill gaps in their soul. In reality, he often ruins the lives of his clients if they do not follow his strict instructions or if they betray his trust. It is notable in Japan as the only series by the duo, Hiroshi Fujimoto and Motoo Abiko, to be darker and more mature in its themes than their previous works. An anime adaptation was produced by Shin-Ei Animation, directed by Toshirō Kuni and written by Yasuo Tanami. It aired on TBS from October 10, 1989 to December 28, 1993 with a total of 127 episodes. A second anime adaptation was announced and aired on Tokyo MX from April 3, 2017 to June 19, 2017.
Plot
Society is filled with people who struggle through their lives or never achieved their goals. The stories in the series focus on individuals who meet a shadowy and ominous salesman called Moguro Fukuzou. Moguro promises to "fill your empty soul" and give them a better life, if they follow his advice or agree to his conditions. However, once Moguro's clients begin to enjoy the fruits of their new life, they often breach their conditions, betray his trust, or deny that they received assistance at all. When this invariably happens due to their avarice, greed or selfishness, Moguro punishes his clients by using their reliance on his aid against them. With their lives ruined, he believes that they have been justly rewarded and he looks for more potential clients that he can help in a similar way. The names of Moguro's clients are often puns on their situation or predicament, or refer to aspects of Japanese culture or history. For example in Episode 18, the name of the client, Urashima Taichi, alludes to the legend of Urashima Tarō, a type of Japanese Rip Van Winkle.
Media
Manga
Co-creator Motoo Abiko first created the manga as a one-shot called The Black Salesman in Shogakukan's Big Comic magazine in 1968. However the manga was deemed too scary for the publisher, and he ended up publishing the work in Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha's Manga Sunday magazine from 1969 to 1971. A bilingual volume has been released as The Salesman Returns. It is published by Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha, Ltd.
Anime
An anime adaptation of the manga was produced by Shin-Ei Animation and aired as part of the 1989 – 1992 Gimme a Break variety show on TBS from October 10, 1989 to September 29, 1992 and later continued as 2 hour specials which aired from December 26, 1992 to December 28, 1993. It was directed by Toshirō Kuni and written by Yasuo Tanami, while Kōhei Tanaka composed the music. The opening song is titled Kodoku no Uta while the ending is titled Kokoro no Uta, both performed by Tomio Umezawa. A DVDboxed set of the series was released by Pony Canyon on March 20, 2013. The anime has also been digitally remastered and released on various video on demand streaming services in Japan.
Video games
released the first video game based on the series for the MSX2 in Japan in 1991. A Visual Novel of the series was released on the Sega CD in Japan on September 17, 1993. It was also developed by Compile and published by Sega, adapting three episodes of the anime. In the game, the player can change the outcome of the events of the customer. If the player makes the right choices, the customer can have a happy ending. However, if the player makes the wrong choices, the customer will get the bad ending just like in the anime. Fukuzou Moguro makes an appearance as a guest character in the 2012 game Girls RPG Cinderelife developed by Level-5 for the Nintendo 3DS.
Live-Action Drama
A live action adaptation was produced by TV Asahi, which stars Shirō Itō as Moguro Fukuzou. It aired from June 26 to September 18, 1999.
Reception
In June 1999, the manga sold more than 3.5 million copies in Japan alone.
