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The Laughing Salesman Manga Gets Stage Play
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
Nelke Planning announced on Friday that it is producing the first stage play of Fujiko Fujio A's (Motoo Abiko) Warau Salesman (The Laughing Salesman) manga for a spring debut. The play, titled Warau Salesman the Stage, will run at Shinagawa Prince Hotel's Stellar Ball in Tokyo from April 23 to May 3, followed by AiiA 2.5 Theater Kobe in Hyogo from May 7 to 10.
Actor and singer Ryūji Satō (Naruto, Touken Ranbu musicals) is starring as the main character Fukuzō Moguro. Kensaku Kobayashi (Patalliro!, Teiichi no Kuni stage plays) is directing the play.
The original manga's story revolves around Fukuzō Moguro, who appears before people who are struggling with life, and promises to grant them their desires for free. But his clients often disregard his advice or cheat during the process, whereupon he exacts a heavy price from their lives.
Fujiko Fujio A debuted the manga in Shogakukan's Big Comic magazine in 1968 with the title Kuroi Salesman (The Black Salesman), and it ran until 1971. The first television anime adaptation ran from 1989 to 1992. The franchise received a live-action television series in 1999. The Laughing Salesman NEW anime premiered in April 2017, and Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired.
Abiko, whose author pseudonym is Fujiko Fujio A, is perhaps best known as one half of the duo that created the iconic Doraemon manga. He created the manga alongside Hiroshi Fujimoto, and they worked under the pseudonym of Fujiko Fujio. When the duo split up, Abiko took the pseudonym Fujiko Fujio A, and Fujimoto took the pseudonym Fujiko Fujio (F), later renamed to Fujiko F. Fujio. Fujimoto passed away in 1996.
Sources: Nelke Planning, Anime Hack
