Title: Thermae Romae
Encompasses: Complete Series
Published by: Siren Visual (Australia/New Zealand)
Based on: The manga series by Mari Yamazaki
Genre: Comedy
Audio: Japanese Dub
Subtitles: English
Runtime: 80 Minutes
Classification: PG for Mild Sexual References and Infrequent Coarse Language
Cost: $34.95 on DVD
Special Thanks: Siren Visual for kindly providing me with a copy of this title for review
Lucius is a public bathhouse architect in ancient Rome who is serious about his work, nearly to a fault, but loses his job after refusing to change with the times. At the invitation of a friend, the depressed Roman stops by a bathhouse where he’s suddenly catapulted through time and space to a public bath in modern day Japan.
Lucius is shocked by the bath culture of the “flat faced tribe” (Japanese), but upon returning to ancient Rome he causes a great stir by employing their ideas. The architect becomes quite good at time-travelling back and forth, and before long achieves fame in Rome as a bathhouse engineer… but…
While they are not the only company in Australia to release noitaminA titles, Siren Visual have been behind the release of many of the more unique titles from Welcome to Irabu’s Office to their recent release of Black Rock Shooter – both of which remain Australian exclusive releases to this day.
As with most of the releases, these are not titles that every fan of anime will enjoy, often featuring storylines and design features which are more unique – but most of the time come off as memorable in my book. At five episodes in total, Thermae Romae is Siren Visual’s latest noitaminA release and proves to be a short but entertaining series which exceeded my original expectations.
Storyline
Thermae Romae focuses on a man by the name of Lucius living in ancient Rome, who upon getting dragged through a crack in the bottom of a bathhouse finds himself being flung between then and modern-day Japan. In modern-day Japan he stumbles across new technology, tools and innovations in bathing which inspire him as a bathhouse architect to bring them to his people under the guise they are from a different location and not a different time zone. Eventually he builds a name for himself, and after several random trips into the future he drags more concepts and ideas into the mix.
The show makes for comical watching, especially when it comes to Lucius’ reactions to even the most simple modern concept or food item and the dialogue in general. Each episode or sub-episode focused on a different concept both in Ancient Rome and Modern-Day times – from bathhouses to normal household baths – and the core plot behind them were creative. However, I left feeling it was a smart idea for the series to consist of only five episodes as while they had just enough concepts to build upon – anymore and I think they would have been overused. After a few episodes there were moments where the plot felt predictable and relied on the same over-the-top comical reactions.
Overall, Thermae Romae features an average storyline that is enjoyable to watch the first time but doesn’t really have much impact afterwards. In terms of Siren Visual’s other noitaminA releases, there are others that are longer and provide a more fulfilling watch experience but if you are a fan of the manga series due for release by Yen Press this month it might be one to consider watching.
Design
As with several other noitaminA titles, Thermae Romae features its own… different animation and visual style. In terms of this series I felt less was best, with minimalistic animation of the characters – with animation supposedly being done in Flash. For the most part this means that delivery of dialogue gives a similar impression to visual novels as characters move linearly across the screen.
When it came to delivery of comedy this also works in the series favor and was coupled with varied character designs (From detailed to rather crudely drawn) dependent on the character role, purpose in the show and assumingly what they thought would have the most impact. Given the character designs, the environment designs were appropriately detailed and of a solid quality overall.
Music / Voice Acting
Thermae Romae only features an ending theme which does by the title ‘Thermae Roman’ by Chatmonchy. The theme is simple but is coupled with some solid animation. Quite a few tracks in this series are based on tracks that are public domain but otherwise are quite suitable from the Ride of the Valkyries to Symphony No. 9. The voice acting is also of a solid quality and goes well with the series comical intent and the setting.
Extra Content
Siren Visual’s release contained no on-disc extras. In addition, unlike quite a few of their releases it features no slipcase to store the DVD case in.
Final Score
Storyline / Character Development: C
Design: B
Music/Voice Acting: B
Extra Content: D
Personal Preference: C
Overall Score: C
