Audience reviews
16 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Ju360
Something worth watching with an open mind for knowledge and entertainment.
This is not the typical anime, it is more educational. There is no action or main goal for the story and there were moments that had me thinking "ok, this is kinda ridiculous".
But, personally, it was refreshing.
It is an easy watch, it is not over- nor under-whelming, it is straight to the point, kinda silly and educational.
Worth watching if you like learning about Architecture, cultures, history or just fun facts.
The animation and soundtracks are alright, nothing too flashy. The characters arent deep or worth discussing.
It is an episodic show.
Read at the sourceGameboon
Thermae Romae Novae is an unusual series that I can’t quite recommend despite enjoying it to some extent. I watched it with my partner and we enjoyed it enough to finish it, at least.
In this series our main character is a bathhouse architect named Lucius Modestus. Every episode, he finds himself stuck on a certain aspect of his work, like writer’s block but for architects. Without fail, he manages to fall into a bath, moat, pond or similar and gets transported to a bath in Japan. Upon his arrival he does some exploration and examines everything that is foreign to him. With this fresh inspiration he returns home and manages to overcome his architect’s block, resulting in a job well done. The episodes make bathing seem so relaxing that I wish we had bathhouses like those in my country as w…
Read at the sourcewhiteflame55
An ancient Roman man who designs baths for a living falls into a bath and ends up in modern day Japan. He proceeds to learn from their bath structure and brings those learnings back with him to become a success in ancient Rome. This happens every episode with him going to different points in time and different locations in Japan to find the thing he needs to solve a problem back in ancient Rome.
It's a series that probably shouldn't work, but it somehow does. The MC can't speak Japanese and no on in Japan can speak Latin, so miscommunications do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to humor. The basic structure of each episode doesn't yield any real surprises down the line, so it gets repetitive and the humor really doesn't last, but I learned a lot about baths and every episode ends…
Read at the sourceOmelettea
Mari Yamazaki sensei. I have fallen for her.
I decided to watch this anime on a whim after finishing a Netflix series. I was expecting to learn about architecture and hot springs, and european influence. And I got what I expected. But I didn't know I'd enjoy it so much especially the small skits at the end of the anime on Mari Yamazaki sensei's take on hot springs; rediscovering Hot Spings ♨️
I thought it'd be a bore to watch an (11 episodes) anime all about hot springs, but not at all. It was quite enjoyable. Quite a great depiction of what living in Ancient Rome would have been like. You'd see Lucius (the main character) traveling through time from Ancient Rome to the early or late period of Japan; all in the sake to educate himself (and us the viewers) of how Hot Springs are in develo…
Read at the sourcerobert788
Thermae Romae Novae (2022)
Honestly a good show with some fantastic live actions footage with the author and various spas across Japan and the inspiration of the show.
Firstly the ending segments with the live actions tours are absolutely fascinating and really made for some knowledge of where I need to go when I am in Japan.
The show itself is pretty fun, you skip the process of building that happens and essentially it is episodes of a problem, foreign solutions and then the results and reception. Artistically speaking it is pretty good and nice to watch. It never needed to be crazy detailed so this is fine. The sound is average, nothing special but does it need to be? Characters outside of the main guy and his friend and the emperor, perhaps who cares? Finally, the show itself is goo…
Read at the sourceaislinnhanako27
I didn't think there would ever be a show that would bridge my interests in ancient Rome and Japan, and I certainly didn't think it would be an anime, but then Thermae Romae Novae came into my life. For context, I am a Classics and Japanese double major at university. I've been studying Latin for years, I am half-Japanese, and I love onsen.
Story 7
Thermae were public baths in Rome, and were popular places to relax, get clean, and talk to others. Lucius Modestus, the main character, is an architect and thermae designer. In each episode, he faces a variety of challenges: demanding clients, impossible requests, or rude visitors. He finds the solution to each of these problems in a surprising place: by accident (usually by falling or slipping) he can sink to the bottom of a bath in ancient…
Read at the sourceSasori_Nagashi
A wonderfully eccentric series. Something out of the ordinary and not just another trope stuffed carbon copy of another series. The art is mostly quite good, minus points for some ugly CGI at times but it's not very prevalent. Reasonably funny and obviously a love-letter to Japanese bathing culture... Feels like it could have had a little more focus on Roman culture in it though.
The part I enjoyed the most in watching this were the wonderful educational segments with the author at the end of each episode. I learned a lot of cool things watching them and it encouraged me to try to mimic some of the food I saw in it which was quite enjoyable.
Read at the sourcelFrogs
You'd never expect a show about an ancient roman architect making bathtubs to be this entertaining, no, seriously, that's what the show is about, a roman emperor sporadically being teleported into the future after falling into water over the course of his life and finding himself among bath related situations in modern day Japan, where he learns their culture, and hastily rips them off when he randomly returns back to his original time period with his architectural skills.
Now I'm not a comedy fan, alright, but this show is fucking funny. During my torturous bus rides to and from school I get a time span enough to watch an episode of whatever show I want to watch each trip, normally I just pick a show with no serious connotations to it so that I don't have any episodes during the bus and…
Read at the sourceKoadToad
I never expected this show to be this enjoyable (for me that is). I thought it was going to be eh with how the synopsis is, but I guess having the centerpiece being Rome, not Japan, makes things more interesting.
I can understand viewers saying it is quite annoying with how many times he goes back and forth, but the main character does make it relatable by questioning everything with his brain and reworking it with what he has.
Also, I love the detail that they actually let him speak Roman when confronting people that don't speak his tongue, but it is also weird because in Rome he speaks Japanese, which is so weird.
In the Netflix version at the very end, there's a little addition to the show, which I like a lot.
Overall, this isn't for everyone but give it at least 3 episodes.
Read at the sourcerogerlmthomas
Watching Thermae Romae Novae was an experience that I haven't felt since when I first watched The Way of the Househusband. It's such a fun show to get into whenever your bored. The characters are great, the story is fun, and it's overall a really fun watch. To top it all off, the author of the series included clips from her adventures in discovering bathhouses in Japan, which is just so fun to watch as well!
My only issue is the animation continuity, or lack thereof. While the majority of the animation is great, some parts of the animation is 3D animated. 3D animation in anime can be awesome (look at Beastars for example), but here it looks like it was just a way to cut cost and time. It's really only applied to background characters, but it is noticeable and a little jarring at times.…
Read at the sourcemicsss
I find it especially brilliant to manage to come up with such an original idea: an architect of the Ancient Roman Empire who travels to modern Japan and learns how to build better thermal baths.
The idea is terrific, and the realization kept up with it, that's why Thermae Romae Novae is a breath of fresh air in the isekai/time travel sphere.
I am particularly enthusiastic about this series, since I am not just Italian, but also Roman; although the main focus of the series is to explore and celebrate japanese thermal traditions rather than Ancient Rome, I couldn't help but rejoice watching a job well done: I was very happy to see that both the author of the manga and the people who worked to the series were meticulously precise in recreating roman traditions, society, and history.
In part…
Read at the sourcePixelB
Netflix does it again: another terrible show. And as true Netflix style, this show is animated quite horrendously, to say the least. That, however, is one of the many host of flaws that this show has.
Sure, the CGI that's ubiquitous, the lack of fluid movement, scenes of walking or monologuing dragging just a bit too long is bad, but how about adding a 3-5 minute live action sequence about baths in Japan? I don't really care about how the author of the manga is the host, or how "informative" it is. It's just lazy, and of course, more importantly, makes it so that the show does not need to animate that much more. Hey, better package this live-action sequence as a unique "feature," rather than cutting corners.
Okay sure, the animation and live action sequences are bad, but that's not all. T…
Read at the sourcealgoPotaku
The anime is about time travel in hot springs, that is, a Roman who travels to Japan and copies the things he sees to improve his hot spring facilities. At the end of each chapter you can see the author of the work in a hot spring, doing tourism, that is to say that the anime was created so that there is more tourism in the hot springs, I guess. The animation is good, the soundtrack is very good, the character design is curious and the development is good. I love how the Roman from hating the Japanese begins to admire them. I recommend it. It's very entertaining and fun to watch. I like how they communicate without knowing each other's language.
En español:
El anime de es de viajes temporales en termas, o sea un romano que viaja a japon y copia las cosas que ve para mejorar sus instalacion…
Read at the sourceRehaanc
Very basic comedy with like an isekai type twist with honestly barely any link to roman civilization like you could substitute any old civilization and wouldn't change much at all. At the end of each episode we get a clip of the manga artist visiting the hotsprings that inspired her to make it. very basic story but i liked the art. there was some use of cgi it was quite out of place but its wasn't totally disorientating.
SPOILERS!!!
Basically MC gets isekaied then steals aspects of function and design from modern Japanese bathhouses, has a funny interaction with the Japanese, solves the problem of the episode with said stolen idea.
Read at the sourcelukyknhas
Thermae Romae Novae could be literally be described as the "Thermas Isekai". If you take the exact formula from "Isekai Izakaya: Koto Aitheria no Izakaya Nobu" and change the subject from Restaurant to Thermas, this is the result you will get.
It's very simplistic, the story only exist to justify the job being done, its not deep, but also not bad, being followed with a nice "overeaction" style of comedy, with each episode making things a little bit more elaborated.
In the same way as Izakaya Nobu, at the end of each episode you also have a short documentary telling interesting things about Thermas and its story, what inspired the author.
The only criticism i have towards this show are the following:
-> The mix between 2D and 3D art style, that as always, it's just ugly. The 2D art st…
Read at the sourceissa_labshat
Bathtub, onsen, hot springs, Thermae.
"Thermae" - a public bathing establishment of the ancient Greeks or Romans.
This series is about that.
This show was really big on the cultural appreciation of Japanese bath culture. You get to explore how sophisticated and wonderful culture. Lucius, our MC, sure did have a great time appreciating every bit.
Every episode, you get to learn some rules and quirks about Public Bathing (like drinking Fruit Milk after a bath as an unspoken rule and maintaining etiquette inside the bath). You get to see Lucius explore and get inspiration from these modern-day inventions to bring to his fellow Romans. It's beautiful.
There are no "hateable" characters here. There was no actual "villain" in this series. If anything, Lucius' enemy was "art block." So don't…
Read at the source