Doraemon Co-Creator's Warau Salesman Manga Gets New TV Anime

A new television anime adaptation of Fujiko Fujio A's (Motoo Abiko) Warau Salesman (The Laughing Salesman) manga has been green-lit. The anime, titled Warau Salesman NEW, will premiere as the third anime in the "Anime no Me" programming block (after Sweetness and Lightning and Trickster). The anime will premiere on Tokyo MX, Yomiuri TV, and BS11 in spring 2017.

Tesshō Genda will play main character Fukuzō Moguro (seen above). Hirofumi Ogura (Shin ATASHIn'CHI, Black Butler II, The Knight in the Area) is directing the anime. Each episode will feature a guest voice actor.

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 original voice actor who played Fukuzō in the anime, Tooru Oohira, passed away in April.

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.​