What a view | A Netflix anime’s time-travelling ancient Roman heads to modern-day Japan, while MI5 rejects band together in Slow Horses on Apple TV+
- Netflix’s surreal anime adaptation Thermae Romae Novae sees a bath-builder in ancient Rome travel through time to modern-day Japan – yes, really
- Slow Horses on Apple TV+ sees a group of sorry spooks, led by Gary Oldman, on desk duty unexpectedly face off against extreme right-wing kidnappers
Finding yourself in hot water isn’t always a bad thing. Just ask Lucius Modestus, bath-builder extraordinaire of ancient Rome and the hero of Thermae Romae Novae (Netflix), the anime adaptation of the manga series by writer and illustrator Mari Yamazaki.
Here, Japanese studio Naz reimagines the Roman Empire in 11 episodes, updating Hideki Takeuchi’s 2012 movie Thermae Romae and its 2014 sequel with additional storylines. When architect Lucius loses his job because he can’t meet the demands of his fellow citizens, he repairs in a funk to the bathhouse.
This is where the surreal element of the series makes its big splash, because Lucius is sucked into a drain and flushed out in … modern-day Japan.
He is now a time-travelling bath builder, marvelling at the oddball society in which he has landed and fascinated by the accessories and bathroom design we now take for granted.
His astonishing discoveries and “original” ideas make him a “starchitect” when he finds his way home – which he continues to do, somehow, after each bewildering excursion to the future.