In this Japanese animation series, an ancient Roman bathhouse architect is magically transported to a modern-day Japanese bathhouse. When he returns to ancient Rome, an hour or so later, he begins adapting some of the ideas he learned to his own bathhouse designs.
The juxtaposition of time and place between these two cultures is quite interesting and enjoyable to watch. When the Roman first arrives in the modern Japanese bathhouse, he assumes he has somehow been pulled into the bathhouse of the slaves. He refers to the modern Japanese he meets as the “flat-faced slaves”. When he runs outside, he is confronted by modern automobiles. Without fully understanding what has happened, he then gets magically transported back to Ancient Rome, and adopts things he learned from the Japanese bathhouse.
In each episode, he magically and randomly transports to modern, or early-modern, Japan to visit a bathhouse. He then takes ideas back from his short trips. In one episode, he even assists a modern Japanese bathhouse architect who happens to be building a Roman-style bathhouse. (He humorously assumes these “flat-faced people” must have been recently conquered by Rome and are now building in the Roman style, as he never fully comprehends that he is time-traveling.)
This sort of dramatic Japanese animation that doesn’t involve martial arts or giant robots really appeals to me. It’s the sort of serious, adult-oriented animation that only the Japanese seem capable of writing.
