At first glance, Netflix’s anime series Love Through a Prism looks like comfort viewing: a lush period romance bathed in warm light, filled with gentle but confident performances and sweeping vistas that feel almost indulgent. Like many prestige romances, it emphasizes restraint and yearning rather than grand declarations. But its idyllic vision of early-20th-century London comes with a deadline.
World War I is approaching, whether its young artists know it or not. Though it takes place about a century after Bridgerton, Love Through a Prism feels remarkably similar as a romance that investigates social class and the English aristocracy. It follows Lili Ichijoin, a sprightly 20-year-old Japanese woman who ventures to London to attend the world-renowned Saint Thomas Art Academy.
Her overbearing mother has given her six months to become the school’s top student. Otherwise, Lili must return to Yokohama and work in the family’s kimono business. Enter the brilliant, bright-eyed blond Kit Church, the first person Lili meets in London as he sketches beside the Thames.
She’s immediately enchanted by his artistic ability but repulsed when he offers her a piece of bread blackened by charcoal. That’s their dynamic in a nutshell. Though he looks like Satoru Gojo from Jujutsu Kaisen and possesses a similar dazzling brilliance, Kit is withdrawn and more comfortable expressing himself through his canvas than through conversation.
Their relationship in the early episodes should feel instantly recognizable to romance anime fans, recalling shows like My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999, which pairs a tenacious, affable heroine with a male lead whom fans have read as neurodivergent. Their relationship is further complicated by the fact that Kit is the undisputed top student at Saint Thomas, making him Lili’s chief competition. If she doesn’t surpass him, her artistic career is over before it truly begins.
But that’s only the first story arc in this 20-episode series, which introduces a major twist or wrinkle roughly every five episodes. Without spoiling the specifics, Love Through a Prism evolves into something far more compelling than a coming-of-age school romance as we learn more about Kit and the world of these characters. At times, it will shock you.
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