Review: THERMAE ROMAE

 This week has been one for the history books here in the States (to say the least), so let us have a month that's all about the many ways manga has explored world history!  And I know precisely where to start...

THERMAE ROMAE (Terumae Romae), by Mari Yamazaki.  First published in 2008 and first published in North America in 2012.

PLOT:

Centuries ago, during the reign of Roman emperor Hadrian, the engineer Lucius Modestus is struggling to come up with a new idea for his latest public bath project.  A freak accident sends him spiraling into modern-day Japan, where he is dazzled by their bathing technology and culture.  Lucius's new ideas are a success, but what will he do when the emperor himself demands his service?

STORY:

Thermae Romae is a manga that shouldn't work half as well as it does.  Yamazaki herself notes that it came from an idle observation on her part about the similarities between ancient Roman and traditional Japanese bathing practices.  It's a manga that revolves around one gag that should have gotten stale very fast...and yet somehow it never stops being amusing.  How did she pull it off?

Maybe it's because of Lucius's humility.  There's not a great deal to his character, but over the course of the book he sheds a lot of the cultural superiority complex that came with citizenship in Pax Romana-era Rome.  While he may not understand the language or fully grasp the technology of modern Japan, he does recognize and appreciate the comforts (both big and small) that Japanese bathing and bathrooms can bring.

There are a couple of themes going on here.  One of them is how bathing can foster a sense of community.  Across literal time and space, we see how bathing - not just the literal act, but also the structures and practices built around it - can foster a sense of community that crosses all barriers, even those of time and space.  It can soothe the mind, comfort the elderly and infirm, and foster a sense of community within a group.  Bathing is an act that nurtures not just cleanliness, but humanity in the broader sense of the word.

The other is how time and technology transforms that culture.  It's no accident that Lucius keeps finding himself in very rural places at baths with mostly elderly clientele.  Yamazaki is not just pointing out similarities and differences in these cultures, but how these largely traditional, communal bathing practices are fading into the past just as the Roman empire did.  Lucius's efforts are not just imitation but a form of preservation done not simply for tradition's sake but out of genuine appreciation and understanding.  She might express it through a sublimely silly and slightly convoluted premise, but Yamazaki clearly sees some value in it.

ART:

Yamazaki is a talented artist, but I wonder if people might not entirely get that from Thermae Romae.  She has noted that she purposefully designed the Roman characters to resemble actual Roman sculptures.  Thus, they tend to have the close-cut Caesar-style haircuts, square jaws, firm aquiline noses, and a sort of stiffness in their poses and expressions that reflects their classical inspiration.  Even the page structure seems as rigid and sturdy as an aqueduct.  

You can tell that it's purposeful once Lucius interacts with the modern Japanese people, though.  Their designs are more playful and unique, highlighting their age without straying too far into parody.  They feel homely in the most positive sense of the word - cozy, casual, and unfussy.  There's also a lot of nuance in the expressions and gestures, as well as a lot of care taken towards the historical details.  

PRESENTATION:

Yen Press went all out with this release.  I'm sure that not many people bought it at the time, but I appreciate the large print size, hard covers, and the mylar slip jacket which serves to censor the (appropriately) nude statue on the cover.

I also appreciate the inclusion of the chapter notes from Mari Yamazaki.  She's an interesting lady, having spent her college years in Italy, did a lot of travel across Europe, and currently resides in Chicago.  She recounts a lot of bathing-related encounters, most of them occurring as part of research for this very manga, and her writing here is just as witty as the manga itself.

RATING:

Thermae Romae has since become something of a cult classic thanks to its anime adaptation (to say nothing of the more recent and utterly delightful adaptation of the very similar Olympia Kyklos), but the source material deserves to be rediscovered by manga readers at large.  It manages to take a very quaint premise and make it work thanks to her love of the subject and her skillful art.

This series was published by Yen Press.  This series is complete in Japan with 6 volumes available.  All 6 were published in 2-in-1 omnibuses.  The physical volumes are out of print, but all are currently available digitally.