News

Live-Action Laughing Salesman Series Casts Ryuji Akiyama as Title Lead

The staff for the live-action series of Fujiko Fujio A's (Motoo Abiko) Warau Salesman (The Laughing Salesman) manga revealed in its main visual and 15-second teaser trailer on Wednesday that Ryūji Akiyama (Night is Short, Walk On Girl, live-action Detroit Metal City) of the comedy trio Robert will play the role of the protagonist Fukuzō Moguro.

The series will debut on Amazon Prime Video on July 18.

The show will have all original stories set in the current Reiwa era, and will have 12 episodes that will debut over three weeks. Directors on the show include: Masaaki Itō, Yōhei Osabe, Daisuke Yamamoto, and Shōta Sasaki. Scriptwriters include: Kankurō Kudō, Magy, Tōru Hosokawa, and Udai Iwasaki.

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.

Warau Salesman NEW, a new television anime adaptation of the manga, debuted in April 2017. Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired under the title The Laughing Salesman.

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.

Motoo 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: Laughing Salesman live-action series' X/Twitter account, Comic Natalie