The Laughing Salesman

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 named Moguro Fukuzou (喪黒 福造). 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.

Fujiko Fujio first created the manga as a one-shot called The Black Salesman (黒イせぇるすまん, Kuroi Sērusuman) in Shogakukan's Big Comic magazine in 1968. Later serialized in Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha's Manga Sunday magazine from 1969 to 1971. After the first anime adaptation's release, Fujiko Fujio A continued the series from 1990 to 1995 in Chuokoron-Shinsha's Chuokoron magazine, this time under the same title of the anime, The Laughing Salesman (笑ゥせぇるすまん, Warau Sērusuman), and later in Manga Sunday from 1996 to 2000 as The Salesman Returns (帰ッテキタせぇるすまん, Kaettekita Sērusuman), with a bilingual (Japanese and English) version released in 2013.^[3] The fourth sequel, The Dancing Salesman (踊ルせぇるすまん, Odoru Sērusuman), ran in Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha's Manga Sunday from 2001 to 2004. Both the Chuokoron-Shinsha version and The Salesman Returns have been published in both physical and digital formats, with volume 1 of the bunkobon edition of the former and volume 1 of the latter including the previously uncollected chapters from The Black Salesman.

An anime adaptation of the manga was produced by Shin-Ei Animation and aired as part of the 1989–1992 variety show Gimme a Break (ギミア・ぶれいく, Gimia・bureiku) 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 (孤独の唄, lit. Song of Loneliness) while the ending is titled Kokoro no Uta (ココロの唄, lit. Song of the Heart), both performed by Tomio Umezawa.

A DVD boxed 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.

A second anime adaptation titled New Laughing Salesman (Japanese: 笑ゥせぇるすまんNEW, Hepburn: Warau Sērusuman Nyū) was also produced by Shin-Ei Animation. It was directed by Hirofumi Ogura, with Naohiro Fukushima, Asami Ishikawa and Midori Natsu writing the scripts and Kohei Tanaka composing the music. Fujio Suzuki designed the characters and served as chief animation director. Minoru Nishida was the art director, with Akiko Inoue in charge of color design. The series aired on Tokyo MX from April 3, 2017, to June 19, 2017.^[4][5][6] It was streamed on Crunchyroll,^[7] making it first The Laughing Salesman material available online outside Japan.^[8] The opening song is titled "Don't" by NakamuraEmi while the ending theme is titled "Bam! The Time I Got Suckered" (ドーン！やられちゃった節, Dōn! Yararechatta setsu) by Junji Takada.^[9]

Compile 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, it features fully-voiced cutscenes with 2D artwork and as they progress through, they will go through some mini-games, related to the episode (e.g. following Moguro by choosing the correct path). 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.^[10]

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.

• The Laughing Salesman New anime website
• The Laughing Salesman stage play website
• The Laughing Salesman (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia