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Photo by Brianna Fox-Priest For a performance to produce goose-bumps is a rarity. The ones that do, leave a lasting impression for a long-time. I was lucky enough to witness a goose-bump inducing show recently when I watched the live performance of Demon Slayer: The Stage . Based on the manga, Demon Slayer: The Stage is a 2.5 Dimensional theatrical presentation of the series. This type of performance blends the 2D artform of manga, anime, and games with the 3D realm of theater. While in recent years more live-action films based on anime have made their way to audiences outside of Japan, 2.5 musical adaptations sadly have not. Related: Who Are the Hashira in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba? As someone who appreciates theater arts and participated in musicals as a student, when I learned some of the Demon Slayer: The Stage cast flew all the way from Tokyo to New...

There’s nothing particularly new about Tatsuro Manno’s “Storage Man” in its comment on global economic crises and the gig economy. Both are subjects tackled – and handled well – before, in works such as Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s “Tokyo Sonata” (2008) and Ken Loach’s “Sorry We Missed You” (2019), to name just a couple of examples. Manno’s piece, however, very much has Covid in mind, destroying more than just health, but entire lives.

“Storage Man” is screening at Skip City International D-Cinema Festival

Takashi (Hirotaka Renge) has lost his job as his company struggles to cope with the financial impact of Covid. As such, he spends his days at home looking for work online, downing beers as he does. His wife Akiko (Kaho Seto) is far from pleased, as are her parents who demand their divorce, leaving Takashi out on the street, without a wife, daughter, income or home. Walking past a storage space rental,...