Completely unrelated picture by TCB.
Thermae Romae’s fifth volume will be released on the 22th of January. I read Thermae Romae for a while now and I have to say it’s great, it’s well done both on the historical side and comedy. You can tell the author, Yamazaki Mari did some research. There’s even photos of ruins of ancient bathouses in Greece at the end of chapters. Thermae Romae has been released in France for around 8 months now. It was even advertised in a popular newspaper with the line “Mangas aren’t only violence and big eyes”. Though a poor choice of words, it was still nice to see some love for it.
There’s also a live action film with Abe Hiroshi as the main character, my favorite Japanese actor (and the only one I know the name of) and I hope I get to see it someday. There was also an anime adaptation of it, though I haven’t seen it. it’s a shame that it’s a short episode format thing because a more conventional adaptation would have been great to make it more famous.
I also watch Hyouge Mono, however I do not read the manga. I still haven’t finished watching all of Hyouge Mono even though it’s been a while it aired, as it is subbed very slowly. The dialogue can get very complicated sometimes, unlike in Pretty Rhythm, plus I also lack the required knowledge of Japanese History so I cannot watch it raw. I often think about the two together, Thermae Romae & Hyouge Mono because not only they both have great historical settings, both stories have pretty much the same type of humor: the characters’ reaction to the situations they’re confronted to. Notably their facial expressions which are hilarious. I can understand that old Japanese men drinking tea and Ancient Greece men bathing doesn’t appeal to everyone but it’s a shame that those stories are dismissed because of that.
Nekketsu Nikki 