English Dub Season Review: Thermae Romae

In the early 2010’s, animation in general was heavy on Flash and Japan made a point to move right in on that bitch. For that matter, may I argue that the last decade that American animation practices have been just as influential on Japan, i.e. CG, Flash, 2.5D/RWBY, as Japan’s style has been on American animation.

In any event, the Flash-animated Thermae Romae, looks every bit as it did in 2012. While American television featured the likes of Archer, Aqua Teen, and Metalocalypse, Japan’s answer was a tale following Romans transported to Japanese bath houses and being taken aback by all of the cultural differences of Ancient Rome and Modern Japan. It’s a one-note joke that goes on for five 30-minute episodes that quickly loses it’s luster sooner rather than later.

Thermae Romae is like a run-of-the-mill isekai, though, one of the rare ones nowadays with males in the lead role. In this instance, it’s the always reliable David Wald as Roman architect “Lucius Modestus” who does his best to put on a smile on what is a poorly written and not very funny script. In fact, during the course of the entire season’s series, I could count on one hand where I was able to let out a slight chuckle, and I’m not even convinced it wasn’t just a cough.

The production quality is obviously very dated and hasn’t aged well at all. But, if this series was unfunny eight years ago, it doesn’t mean Thermae Romae will all of a sudden grow jokes on it’s own. Go ahead and let this one sit and rot like the accidental bowel movement in the gym showers.