Follow the world of manga long enough and you’ll start to hear about titles purely on the basis of how outlandish their premises are. For example, Saint Young Men, a story about Jesus and Buddha vacationing together in Tokyo. Or Blaster Knuckle (reviewed here), where a black cowboy hunts the monstrous vampire beasts that run the Ku Klux Klan.
Thermae Romae is one of those kinds of manga. Ongoing since 2008, it’s about an ancient Roman named Lucius who’s inconveniently transported back and forth from modern-day Japan, where he learns about Japan’s rich culture of bathhouses and bathing, and seeks to incorporate some of that culture back home.
A few weeks ago, Thermae Romae was finally turned into an anime, albeit in an unconventional format. Thermae Romae is a no-frills production running only three episodes long. It’s about as barebones as animation can get, having the appearance of a Flash cartoon, and a rapidly put together one at that.
But I dig it!
In Thermae Romae, Richard Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries plays as Lucius realizes he has diarrhea and can’t find a toilet. Shortly after, you witness the ecstasy he feels at experiencing a bidet for the very first time. A supporting character is the spitting image of Steve Buscemi for no clear reason. It’s an anime both restrained and indulgent in its execution. Never graphic, but frequently juvenile. People will say it has a limited bag of tricks, and they get tired quickly. I say there’s not enough time in these episodes for that to happen, and if you want to talk about exhausted bags of tricks, look no further than the rest of the anime airing in Japan right now.
Also, that’s definitely NOT Golgo 13.
Thermae Romae is only made up of six twelve-minute segments, so there isn’t much more I can tell you without spoiling the entire thing. Entertaining as it may be, it feels less like an adaptation and more like a preview of the manga version, similar to the Mudazumo Naki Kaikaku anime. But we’ll save that discussion for another day.
