Mari Yamazaki’s Zoku Thermae Romae is finally moving again. The sequel manga, also known as Thermae Romae Redux, resumed serialization on Monday with a fresh chapter on Shueisha’s Shonen Jump+ platform.
For fans keeping track, this ends an eight-month break. The manga had gone quiet after chapter 13, which was released on September 2. This is not the first pause for the sequel either — Zoku Thermae Romae previously took a break in April 2024 before returning in July that same year.
The sequel originally launched in February 2024 on Shonen Jump+. Shueisha later published the manga’s second compiled volume in March 2025. The core hook is still very Thermae Romae: Lucius, now close to 60 years old, continues bouncing between ancient Rome and modern Japan, somehow turning bath culture into a genuinely funny time-travel setup.
That premise sounds weird if you explain it out loud, but that has always been the magic of Thermae Romae. It is not your usual power-scaling shonen or fantasy isekai. Instead, it is a comedy built around cultural clashes, history, architecture, and Japan’s obsession with bathing. Very niche, yes — but also exactly the kind of niche that anime and manga fans in Malaysia and SEA tend to discover through streaming, memes, or that one friend with taste gila specific.
The franchise already has a decent footprint outside Japan. Yamazaki’s original Thermae Romae manga ran in Kadokawa’s Comic Beam magazine from 2008 until March 2013. It later inspired a three-episode anime in 2012, two live-action films starring Hiroshi Abe and Aya Ueto, and the newer Netflix anime Thermae Romae Novae, which premiered in March 2022.
For Malaysian viewers, the Netflix connection matters. A lot of older or more unusual anime titles only become easy to recommend locally once they land on a mainstream platform. Thermae Romae Novae helped introduce the series to people who might never browse classic manga shelves or Japanese comedy adaptations. If you watched the Netflix anime and wondered whether the manga side was still alive, this sequel’s return is the update you wanted.
It is also a nice reminder that not every manga comeback needs to be a massive battle arc announcement. Sometimes, the interesting news is a creator returning to a very specific world that only they could make work. Lucius being older in Zoku Thermae Romae gives the sequel a slightly different flavour too — less fresh-faced discovery, more seasoned Roman architect still getting humbled by modern Japanese bath tech.
No major new anime or overseas release announcement was included with this serialization update. For now, the key news is simple: the manga is back, and readers following Zoku Thermae Romae can finally continue after months of waiting.
Source: Anime News Network