is a Japanese manga series created by . The manga "The Black Salesman" began as a one-shot manga in

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of comics, magazines, light novels, dictionaries, literature, non-fiction, home media, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but ...

's ''

Big Comic is a semimonthly ''seinen'' manga magazine published since 18 February 1968 by Shogakukan in Japan. Publication history It was originally launched as a monthly magazine, but switched to twice monthly on the 10th and 25th beginning in April 1 ...

'' magazine on 1968, later serialized in

Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha is a Japanese publishing company founded on June 10, 1897. Magazines Monthly *''Body+'' *''Comic Candoll'' *''GarrRV'' *''Garuru'' *''Misty'' *''Monthly Bijutsu'' *''Monthly J-novel'' *''Waggle'' Quarterly *''Kabuka Yohō'' *''NAIL VENUS'' Def ...

'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. An anime "The Laughing Salesman" adaptation was produced by

Shin-Ei Animation is a Japanese animation studio owned by TV Asahi and founded in Tokyo in 1965 as A Production by Daikichirō Kusube, who was previously an animator for Toei Animation. History Shin-Ei Animation's history begins in December 1965 as by Daiki ...

, directed by Toshirō Kuni and written by Yasuo Tanami. It aired on TBS from 1989 to 1993 with a total of 127 episodes. The manga "The Laughing Salesman" was serialized in ''Chuokoron'' from 1990 to 1995. A second anime adaptation aired on

Tokyo MX JOMX-DTV (channel 9), branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an independent station, independent television station in Tokyo, Japan, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city and parts ...

in 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 named . 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

pun A pun, also known as a paronomasia in the context of linguistics, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from t ...

s 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 is the protagonist of a Japanese fairy tale (''otogi banashi''), who, in a typical modern version, is a fishermen, fisherman rewarded for rescuing a sea turtle, and carried on its back to the Dragon Palace (Ryūgū-jō) beneath the sea. There, ...

, a type of Japanese

Rip Van Winkle "Rip Van Winkle" () is a short story by the American author Washington Irving, first published in 1819. It follows a Dutch-American villager in Colonial history of the United States, colonial America named Rip Van Winkle who meets mysterious Du ...

Media

Manga

Fujiko Fujio first created the manga as a one-shot called in

's ''

'' magazine in 1968. Later serialized in

'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 is a Japanese publisher. It was established in 1886, under the name . In 1999, it was acquired by The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, and its name was subsequently changed to Chūōkōron-shinsha. Profile The company publishes a wide variety of mater ...

's ''Chuokoron'' magazine, this time under the same title of the anime, , and later in ''Manga Sunday'' from 1996 to 2000 as , with a bilingual (Japanese and English) version released in 2013. The fourth sequel, , 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 In Japan, are small-format paperback books, designed to be affordable and space-saving. The great majority of ''bunkobon'' are A6 (105×148mm or 4.1"×5.8") in size. They are sometimes illustrated and like other Japanese paperbacks usually ...

edition of the former and volume 1 of the latter including the previously uncollected chapters from ''The Black Salesman''.

Anime

An anime adaptation of the manga was produced by

and aired as part of the 1989–1992 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 while the ending is titled , both performed by Tomio Umezawa. A

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

boxed set of the series was released by

Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese company, established on October 1, 1966, which distributes music, films, home video, and video games. It is affiliated with the Japanese media group Fujisankei Communications Group. Pony Canyo ...

on March 20, 2013. The anime has also been digitally remastered and released on various

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films Digital distribution, digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typica ...

streaming services in Japan. A second anime adaptation titled was also produced by

. 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

from April 3, 2017, to June 19, 2017. It was streamed on

Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation. The service primarily distributes fi ...

, making it first ''The Laughing Salesman'' material available online outside Japan. The opening song is titled "Don't" by NakamuraEmi while the ending theme is titled by

Junji Takada , also known by the nicknames , and "TJ", is a Japanese actor and comedian. Takada was born in Chōfu, Tokyo. He is known for the variety show ''Tensai, Takeshi no Genki ga Deru Terebi'' that was hosted by Takeshi Kitano and premiered on NTV f ...

Video games

Compile In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs that ...

released the first video game based on the series for the

MSX2 MSX is a standardized home computer architecture, announced by ASCII Corporation on June 16, 1983. It was initially conceived by Microsoft as a product for the Eastern sector, and jointly marketed by Kazuhiko Nishi, the director at ASCII Cor ...

in Japan in 1991. A

visual novel A visual novel (VN) is a form of digital interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with static or animated illustratio ...

of the series was released on the

Sega CD The Sega CD, known as in most regions outside North America and Brazil, is a CD-ROM accessory and format for the Sega Genesis produced by Sega as part of the fourth generation of video game consoles. Originally released in November 1991, it ca ...

in Japan on September 17, 1993. It was also developed by Compile and published by

Sega is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...

, 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-game A minigame (also spelled mini game and mini-game, sometimes called a subgame or microgame) is a short game often contained within another video game. A minigame contains different gameplay elements and is often smaller or more simplistic than th ...

s, 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 The is a foldable dual-screen handheld game console produced by Nintendo. Announced in March 2010 as the successor to the Nintendo DS, the console was released originally on February 26, 2011 and went through various revisions in its lifetime, ...

Live-action drama

A live-action adaptation was produced by

TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as , and better known as , is a Japanese television station serving the Kanto region as the flagship station of the All-Nippon News Network. It is owned-and-operated by the a subsidiary of , itself controlled by ...

, which stars

Shirō Itō is a Japanese actor, comedian and television presenter. Filmography Film * ''Zatoichi and the One-Armed Swordsman'' (1971) * '' Lupin III: Strange Psychokinetic Strategy'' (1974) * '' Princess from the Moon'' (1987) * '' A Taxing Woman'' (1987 ...

as Moguro Fukuzou. It aired from June 26 to September 18, 1999.

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Laughing Salesman, The 1971 comics endings 1990s Japanese television series 2017 anime television series debuts Anime reboots Anime series based on manga Crunchyroll anime Dark comedy anime and manga Fujiko Fujio A Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha manga Manga adapted into television series Psychological thriller anime and manga Seinen manga Shin-Ei Animation TBS Television (Japan) original programming Tokyo MX original programming TV Asahi original programming TV Asahi television dramas Works featuring villain protagonists Works about salespeople