Warau Salesman

Warau Salesman is an episodic show with no real plot, where each episode is its own little story. Every episode has a different protagonist, Moguro's client, whose life almost always is ruined in one way or another by the end.

One good aspect is how condensed the stories are, never being rushed. This anime does a very good job of presenting a different story in a short time every episode, usually the first 2 or 3 minutes, after which comes Moguro offering the miraculous, too good to be true, solution for his client's problems. The problems are realistic and mundane, with a big portion of the ... clients being salarymen. A big part of the enjoyment comes from the expectation, each time you begin watching another episode, of seeing in what fucked up way will Moguro ruin someone's life. I don't recommend this anime to people who get upset at "mean-spirited" characters of shows. This one's not about justice or retribution. Moguro doesn't care if his clients are bad or good people, weak or strong. Many times someone will suffer without having deserved it.

Moguro Fukuzou's voice acting is great at being both funny and creepy. The character, in appearance, is bizarre-looking compared to the rest, always having the same grinning expression, and his speech is equally distinct. He will always sound like an extremely polite salesman trying to sell something, even when he is angry at someone that broke his promise.

Overall, it's an anime about 10 minute episodes with independent stories about drama and/or dark humor with bizarre or gruesome endings.
Do not watch if you get upset at fictional characters suffering for no reason.

Warau Salesman is not only one of those "one of a kind anime" but is also heavily underrated and missunderstood.
First of all, Warau Salesman is a Horror-Comedy with pretty heavy social commentary. I don't know why people always deem it as something else. But lets start at the beginning.

The show is about a mysterious salesman, Moguro Fukuzou, who deals in human souls (the literal japanese translation is "kokorou" which means heart, but its symbolic for souls). He offers people a splendid deal that fits their deepest desires perfectly and that they won't possibly refuse. All free of charge of course. However, Moguro has always one ... condition that he makes clear to his clients. If the client breaks that condition, the whole deal is void and Moguro can collect his soul (visualized by basically fucking up his former clients life). Now here is where the whole horror and also social commentary comes in. Moguro himself is of course not a normal salesman yet alone a normal human being. His true origins are never made really clear throughout the whole series, but its safe to say that he is some sort of a devils advocat if not the devil himself. He always hangs in a bar called "Demon Nest" so that basically covers that. And just like some demons Moguro, in some way, has to be invited by the people. If the client is on the hook and agrees to Mogurus terms, from that point on Moguru is in his life for good watching him at all times without being noticed (except if he wants to be noticed). Now why would anybody break a good deal that last forever as long as one tiny condition won't get violated? Because human beings are selfish, ignorant and greedy scum who always want more! You give them the little pinky and they take the whole hand! And that is the premise of this show and Moguros transactions. He knows of that selfish nature and feasts upon it. He knows eventually every last one of his human clients will turn into a greedy and dishonest pig, so he can collect his souls in peace.

While the first episodes are very tame in regards of violence, some of the later episodes turn out to be quite gorey. But despite all the gore and deep commentary, Warau Salesman is still a funny comedy show with some great humor in it. Not least due to Moguros crazy monologues and self awareness. The events in each episode make up for great situation comedy as well.

If you want sophisticated and social critical, yet dark, crazy and unpredictable comedy this is the show for you. I definitely recommand it!

"The World is full of lonely men and women, both young and old. I'm here to fill the gaps of your lonely souls. Completely free of charge I might add. A satisfied costumer is the only compensation I desire."

-Warau Salesman opening line.

Warau Salesman is a work by the legendary duo Fujiko Fujio, creators of classics such as Doraemon and Ninja Hattori-kun. The series follows Fukuzo Moguro, a salesman with a permanent grim smile that offers his services to struggling citizens, with quite disastrous results. Like the aforementioned works, Warau is an episodic anime with each one being 10 min in duration.

... What makes this series stand out from Fujiko's catalog is the mature overtones of this work, deviating from the childlike nature of their most famous works, Warau Salesman's dark comedic elements come from the characters's misfortune and the unreal situations that they experience under Fukuzo's guidance, often ending up with their lives ruined.

Every episode is unrelated and they follow a very simple formula: There's a citizen with a problem, (work, family, love, boredom, etc...) Fukuzo approaches them, hands a business card and convinces them he has a solution, it turns out that solution is either quite extreme or Fukuzo himself sabotages the situation and the poor citizen gets screwed. All the development is done within those 10 minutes and that's it.
There isn't any kind of deep lesson to be learned other than the usual "be careful what you wish for", "greed is bad", that sort of thing, in fact, one of the things that surprised me the most is the fact that most of the people are quite innocent and end up traumatized for life. I personally advise not to question his methods as Fukuzo is inhumanly resourceful and preforms quite amazing feats sometimes so just assume he is some kind of demon and just go with the flow. Because of this, the best way to enjoy the series is to simply to go in with the mentality that you're going to get a laugh through someone else's misfortune. If this kind of comedy is not your thing or you don't enjoy episodic anime maybe this is not for you.

The art is fairly old school with very simple character designs and everyone seems fairly short in height as if they all suffer from Dwarfism, with some of them ending up looking the same. This is a problem that some old Anime/Manga have. Personally, I grew up watching Doreamon and Ninja Hattori and it's quite nostalgic seeing those designs again. Also, the character's names are quite often related to the theme of the episode as their names are written with the Kanji for "Clumsy" or "Unlucky" for example, this is something that a normal viewer would not notice unless they are fluent in Japanese or in my case, having the translators pointing it out on the subtitles.

The music is handled by Tanaka Kouhei who is well known for the One Piece soundtrack and it fits the mood quite well though don't expect to hear orchestral music of Wagnerian proportions. It is compromised mostly of Orchestral and Jazz pieces and some incidental music well arranged for the situations presented, the pieces that play during Fukuzo's opening lines are short but they set the mood for the anime very well, the Demon's Nest, a pub where Fukuzo takes some of his clients has a very good Cool Jazz piece that gives the scene that 1950's/60's warm and dirty feel.

Overall, I believe that your enjoyment of the series depends mostly on your personal taste and sensibility in regards to humor and plot, if you like old school anime and you are having a bad day, I'm sure you'll get a good laugh or two from this one, plus each episode is 10 minutes long so you can watch it even on lunch break. If you are looking for a new perspective on the universe and your own existence I believe you won't get that experience from this series.

I've kept Laughing Salesman (1989) with me for over a year now, because I'm really bad at finishing longer series. But also because I didn't want to give it up. I knew nothing about laughing salesman until 2017 when the Laughing Salesman 2017 short series came out. I loved the concept of exchanging one's desires to a geniee who would give you what you desired but at a price.

He never harms children and I've noticed throughout this series he rarely harms women. Its mostly men he targets. I don't know if that has any real relevance in anything but I thought it was pretty ... interesting.

This series reminds me of Jigoku Shouji in that these people are contracted to give up parts of themselves (aka souls) in order to recieve what they like. Mind you, they're not ushered to hell but time after time the punishment for their wish is much harsher than hell themself.

The Laughing Salesman is not an evil man. He is just doing exactly has it describes. He sales you whatever you want and laughs at your expense.

I truly love this series for its dark humor and still very relevant pokes at life. (Gay marriage, stresses on teen's testing, sexism, etc). And if anyone needs me to add more on why I'd recommend this to them I am always up for the challenge. I love this series, and if your looking for anything a bit dark this is for you. <3