Bond, My name is James Bond.

I saw the play two days in a row, and I thought.

The story itself is interesting and cool. A spy from the Cold War era is cool. A man who is actually serious about world peace is cool. A womanizer British gentleman, suit, tuxedo, spy suit, baccarat, martini, shaken instead of stirred. I'm out of breath from the wave of coolness.

But.

The song (or rather the lyrics...) is the most ridiculous. It's amazing that a song that starts with "Dolphins know, dolphins have intelligence" exists on this earth. Lol. We were all grinning at the various lines that seemed to be paying homage, but were blinded by Masaki's male acting, and that song made us understand the strangeness of the situation. That's how it felt.

I was half wondering why, when they could have done it so coolly from start to finish, and half thinking it's fine if it makes you grin.

I think there are some retirement performances that are hard to watch. For me, that is.

For example, NOBUNAGA, which was a familiar historical piece but was hard because I didn't understand how the story unfolded. Representative Gustav III, which I only just recently learned that that kind of work is called a Kamishibai. fff, which left me mysteriously disappointed because my expectations were too high. And Sakura Ran-ki, which made me cry so much that it was painful. (However, those were accompanied by amazing shows, so I was able to make up for the missing tears with the show/it was healing for my body and mind that were tired from crying.)

Compared to those, the story flow → understandable. Development and transitions → smooth. Coolness → as expected. No tears, but some laughter. That's it. ...I'm starting to think that this might have been a great piece for a retirement performance, but what should I do...? At the very least, I would like to see it again soon to see how strange that situation was (and to see how cool the male actors, including Makaze, were, and how beautiful and cute the female actors were, and the odd but friendly Romanov family's every move), and it may just be that Koike-sensei's plan is playing out, and thanks to a friend of mine, I have a ticket for the performance before the final show, so I will clutch it tightly and board the Shinkansen. That's a bit down the road, though.

Until then, I will have thoroughly read the opera roundtable discussions, watched the rehearsal reports (I had been trying not to watch them until I saw the performance), watched Now On and read the original work, and acted like there was no point in studying the original work!

Anyway, up next is the Hanagumi troupe!