Are you dissatisfied with your life? Is the stress of the daily grind getting you down? Do you want a little adventure, or perhaps a full blown romance with a gorgeous, sympathetic other?
Or perhaps you just want to pass the driving test, after failing so many times? Or get rid of a problematic lover who threatens your career? Or simply stop backing losers at the race-track?
Anyway, you don’t want the hand that fate has dealt you. You want something better.
In that case, there is a man who is willing to help you out. He has the unusual name of Fukuzo Moguro, which means something like “Luck Maker Mourning Black”.
Moguro is known as “the laughing salesman” because he chortles when he meets you for the first time and chortles even louder when he’s finished with you.
Quite likely, he’ll take you to his regular bar, called The Enchanted Nest. There are never any other customers, just an aged barman who doesn’t say a word, even if addressed.
What kind of salesman is Moguro? As he explains while handing you his name card, the articles that he deals with are human hearts, particularly those that have an empty space inside waiting to be filled.
He’s a life-counsellor, a matchmaker, a fountain of wisdom – and accepts no money for his services. As he puts it, he is a kind of “volunteer.”
Naturally, there are conditions that have to be observed for his work to be effective. If his customers violate those conditions, as they generally do, they come to a sticky end. Jail, bankruptcy and humiliation awaits – and that’s for the lucky ones.
Moguro-san never lies or tricks them. He never needs to. They do it all to themselves.
The man who created The Laughing Salesman series passed away on April 7th at the age of 88. His real name was Motoo Abiko, but he was known to everyone by his pen name, Fujiko A. Fujio.
To add some enjoyable confusion, his childhood friend and long-time collaborator, Hiroshi Fujimoto, used the pen name Fujiko F. Fujio.
Together, they were responsible for some of the best known children’s manga in Japanese history, inventing much-loved characters such as Doraemon and Little Ghost Q-Taro. The partnership broke up in the mid-80s, reflecting diverging artistic approaches, and Fujiko F. died in 1996.
The Laughing Salesman is solely the work of Fujiko A. and is totally different from the children’s entertainments. Essentially a variation on the Faust story set in the world of office workers and hostess bars, it is definitely for adults.
We witness sexual fetishes, peeping Toms, schoolgirl gangs, prostitution, disfigurement, gangsters, cynical power games at the top of large corporations and backbiting and envy amongst the lower ranks.
The original manga series appeared between 1968 and 1971, and the first anime TV series began in 1989, consisting of 124 episodes of 10 minutes. It doesn’t feel dated at all. Why would it? The technology may have changed, but human nature has not.
The moral is age-old and dark. Don’t try to be the person you are not. Weak people can be as greedy and nasty as the powerful when they get their chance. Your deepest desires can destroy you.
You can watch the Japanese anime on Amazon Prime Japan. Episodes with English subtitles are available on Netflix and Crunchyroll, depending on location, and in various nooks and crannies of the internet.
In the outpouring of tributes to Fujiko A. Fujio, there were many mentions of his sociability. In an interview, he declared that “to create interesting manga, you have to understand people.” He certainly succeeded with The Laughing Salesman, producing a dark masterpiece which is also very funny.
Meanwhile, if you feel that nothing is going right and everyone else is happier, more successful and popular than you are, Mogura-san will be delighted to buy you a drink at his favourite bar and offer you some free advice.
But be careful what you wish for…