The last few years have seen a growing trend for older series getting new adaptations. From action classics like JoJo's Bizarre Adventures to children's shorts like Bono Bono, an ever growing number of titles are being given new prequels, sequels, remakes, reboots or simply getting an adaptation years after the source material finished publication. This goes double for The Laughing Salesman, adapting a manga by Fujiko Fuko A that ran from 1969-1971 & was previously adapted into anime from 1989-1992, another period when adapting older titles was in vogue.
At its simplest, The Laughing Salesman can be summed up as a series of morality tales that follow an almost identical structure. We're introduced to a character who, perhaps despite outward appearances, is missing something in their life & is open to ways of finding it. This leads them to encounter Fukuzou Moguro, a sinister looking figure who offers them a solution on condition that they promise not to ignore his instructions. Of course they inevitably do, so each story ends with an ironic punishment.
This structure has led to criticism that The Laughing Salesman is mean spirited. No matter how good or deserving the client seems, or understandable their reasons for breaking their end of the bargain; all of them do it & all are punished for doing so. This criticism I think is based at least partly on the false assumption that you're supposed to agree with what happens to them. The Laughing Salesman is no saint. Indeed, he's not unlike the Devil in Western folklore, seeking out those who might be susceptible to his charms & offering them a deal that seems fair but is designed to encourage his client to break it.
A simple reading would be that the moral of each story is be careful of what your wish for or be weary of offers that seem too good to be true, but it goes beyond that. Many characters start out sympathetic & clearly wronged, but reveal themselves to be hypocrites, liars or just as bad as those who wrong them. As Moguro says to one client toiling at a black company, “who knew you were rather black yourself?” Arguably not all characters really deserve their fate, but then you have to ask where the story is really laying the blame. For example, who's at fault: The old man who breaks his promise not to try to find the fake, online grandson Moguro provides him; or the society that allows the elderly to become so isolated that they would need such a service to begin with?
Ultimately, The Laughing Salesman simply presents his clients with a deal & punishes them for breaking it. The right & wrong of the situation is for the viewer to decide. Having said that, there is undoubtedly meant to be humour in the irony of how things turn out. So while it's debatable what the stance the series takes on events, it is a series that expects the audience to see the funny side in what happens, if perhaps in a "if you can't laugh, what can you do?" way.
That's not to say the execution is flawless. For one thing, there is an annoying reliance on fat &/or old hags being either the punishment or cause of a character taking Moguro's deal. While often used in the context of showing the shallowness of a client's professed love of something or someone, it does get tiresome seeing yet another man be tempted by a beautiful woman & punished with an ugly one. The stories with female clients are also arguably the weakest, with the final one ending with the the very unpleasant implication that her punishment is to be raped by a foreigner.
The Laughing Salesman also has a similar issue that a somewhat similar series (at least at first), Hell Girl, had. Because it follows the same formula for each episode, the result is that very different situations are treated with the same gravity despite clearly not being on the same level. It feels incongruent to see someone punished for wanting to cheat on their wife, only for the next story to be about a guy who just really wants to ride on a favourite train a second time.
The age & occupation of many characters also stands out. Most of Moguro's clients are middle aged salarymen or office workers, with the youngest being a 22 year old university student. While there has been an effort to modernise the setting, a number of characters feel the product of past decades, as well as raising the same questions about how, for instance, nobody would have heard of this very unique looking Salesman that dogged Parasyte's modernisation. There are some, such as the aforementioned old man & a chat room nerd, who feel like appropriately modern takes on the shows formula. But many of the stories use quite familiar stock characters & settings, which can leave The Laughing Salesman feeling its age.
But it doesn't look old. While retaining the artstyle of manga & anime from the 1960s-1970s, this production by Shin-Ei Animation (who also did the previous adaptation) still feels quite modern. While fairly limited overall, the animation for Moguro's “Boom!” sequences, the point where he punishes the client, are all well done & there is good use of switching from the simple art style to more detailed & full of action line stills to emphasise a character's reaction. It all contributes to maintaining a suitably ominous & darkly comic tone, with one notable exception being when a possessed girl is dancing in front of oncoming traffic - the sequence being funny for the wrong reasons.
Most notable is of course the Salesman himself, appearing like a besuited Laughing Buddha with a Cheshire Cat smile that often emerges menacingly from the shadows. His design alone gives him a commanding presence, though commendation goes to the director for often picking just the right angle to amplify the sense of menace he exudes. Credit also to the performance by Tessyo Genda (Violence Jack!) who gives Moguro an unnerving laugh & a voice that can make your skin crawl. But with all that said, it seems likely that some will be put off just by the apparent juxtaposition of an art style now mostly associated with old kids shows with the darker tone of the stories.
Beyond the content of the show itself, though, there is one nagging question: why was this made? What about 2017 made the producers think now is the time to bring The Laughing Salesman back? As mentioned before, the series feels old, not really fitting in even among all the reboots etc being released. It made sense for the manga to be written when it was, when gekiga comics were booming & many mangaka were looking to cater to an audiencve eager for darker, edgier stories. The previous anime adaptation fits in with the transition in anime from space opera optimism to cyberpunk & post apocalyptic pessimism that occurred during the very peak of the bubble economy & the crash that in some ways Japan still hasn't fully recovered from.
But there is no economic crash in 2017. No Japanese New Wave driving artists to challenge the post-war consensus on what is an appropriate subject for media. There is certainly a growing unease about inequality & the failing social contract in Japan, & as mentioned some of the characters do seem to address that. But too many feel like stock characters that could have existed at any time in post or even pre-WW2 media. Office women having to put up with their co-workers talking behind their backs & salarymen cheating on their wives, while still no doubt a feature of Japanese society, just don't feel particularly modern.
There really needed to be more done to make this adaptation stand out as more than just a well done rehash of old ideas; though when viewed purely in the context of today's anime, it still manages to seem different. Even so, fans of series like Paranoia Agent that explore the darker side of people's characters which they'd rather keep hidden should enjoy The Laughing Salesman. Those who expect good things to happen to good people, however, should stay away.
