REVIEW: ‘Love Through A Prism’ Delivers An Artistic Look At Love

Love Through A Prism (Purizumu Rondo), a romantic drama from WIT Studio, follows Lili Ichijouin (Atsumi Tenezaki, NieR Automata ver1.1a) as she travels to London in the early 20th century to pursue her passion for art. But along the way, she learns far more than she expected about life, love, friendship, and what it means to pursue your dreams. 

There is a tendency in love stories to over-emphasize the importance of romance in one’s life. Since it stands at the heart of the narrative, there is an inclination to set aside everything else until the pursuit of a committed relationship is the key to life. However, relationships do not exist within a vacuum in our lives. And showcasing the balancing act between love and the other important passions we carry with us brings a special kind of authenticity to a story. 

Love Through A Prism fully embraces this wider approach to life and love. As Lili and her fellow art students pursue their dreams, these goals are never relegated to second place to the desires for romance that crop up between some of them. The balance between personal passion, love, and other duties forms a complex painting that the narrative fills in with precision and skill. 

Romance is important, but Love Through A Prism never ignroes the characters’ lives as students.

Standing at the center of this narrative are Lili and Kit (Kôki Uchiyama, My Hero Academia). Kit is the star pupil at the Saint Thomas Art Academy, where Lili has traveled to hone her craft. A high-ranking member of the aristocracy, Kit creates an avenue to many of the series’ most complex issues, beyond his awkwardly growing affection for Lili. 

The paths that Love Through A Prism takes its star couple on are nuanced and enlightening. The choices they make can be frustrating, but frequently understandable. Knee-jerk reactions to unexpected developments often led the characters to make harmful choices that feel reasonable in the moment. Many of the struggles the two must overcome are also born of Kit’s indifference to social expectations. 

As the son of a high-ranking and well-loved aristocrat, it seems natural that Kit would be fairly well-versed in the social graces. However, this is far from the case. Whether it pertains to proper etiquette at a ball or simply speaking to a friend over beers, Kit seems incapable of fully appreciating how his actions will impact others. This can cause his frequent good-intentioned deeds to create problems for those around him, particularly Lili. 

Love Through A Prism is a Netflix Anime that offers a look at class and status closely. 

But while Kit can be a handful, Lili also brings her fair share of hiccups to the proceedings as well. Habitually incapable of speaking her true feelings, she often chooses to lash out verbally, rather than expose her vulnerability to someone who may hurt her. This can create significant hurdles for her when dealing with someone whose awareness of others’ feelings can be incredibly low.

Love Through A Prism uses the pair’s uniquely aligned flaws to create surprisingly powerful moments. Despite being capable of drawing frustration from the audience, the way the personalities clash at the worst of times makes the choices made by the characters understandable from each’s point of view. Kit doesn’t know how Lili feels because she won’t tell him. Lili can’t tell him because he’s so closed off most of the time, she doesn’t feel welcome to.

Further fleshing out the series is an ensemble cast that provides lots of support for the stars, as well as creating narratives all their own. From the strict but supportive Professor Brant (Hôchû Ôtsuka, Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance) to Lili’s enthusiastic best friend Dorothy (Megumi Han, Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers), each personality evolves and comes to play an important role in the unfolding narrative. This is particularly true for Dorothy.

Romance and friendship are nuanced in Love Through A Prism.

Dorothy’s presence in Lili’s life creates a practical grounding rod for the story. As Lili gets swept up in the rush of romance, Dorothy provides a reasonable voice where love and passion are concerned. Through her observations and choices, it often feels like the character is speaking as much to the audience as her friend, reminding us that attraction and interest are not always the only things necessary to make love work. 

Providing a backdrop for this story of love and art is a suitably gorgeous visual presentation. WIT Studio delivers fluid, eye-catching animation at every turn. The level of detail present in the most casual of scenes can be truly surprising. The movement of fabrics is fully realized, and harsh sunlight frequently reveals dust particles lazily floating through rooms, creating a lived-in feeling to the world. 

Even more impressive than the animation, though, are the gorgeous backdrops that represent the English countryside. Taking the art theme beyond the canvases of its characters, Love Through A Prism turns the very world into a canvas, making every skyline and rolling pasture a breathtaking masterpiece. 

Love Through A Prism’s unique animation style creates an artistic dream when it works.

While this artistic approach does work wonders for the background, the ambition to weave art into the world does occasionally overreach. There are moments where the stylized backgrounds are brought into the foreground as well, seeing characters walk through areas where they don’t fit in. 

The one space where Love Through A Prism‘s attempts to pull the cast into its artistic choices work splendidly is in the choice to have a portion of the series done in black and white. Coinciding with a low point in Lili’s life, the visual choice to sap the color from the world draws the viewer into her perceptions, making the emotional miasma she is wading through feel all the more omnipresent. 

Trying to bring these elements into direct contact with the story often creates the feeling that the characters are walking in front of a green screen. One that has had no effort put into making sure that concepts like depth and lighting match between subjects and the environment. This can create a jarring effect that ruins a couple of moments. 

Still, sometimes the differences between traditional animation and a painterly hand can be jarring.

The only other stumbling point that Love Through A Prism trips over is some poorly paced storytelling in the final few episodes of the series. A major plot beat is brought up following a time skip, which is instantly undone, making its existence feel poorly implemented. It makes sense for it to be there; it’s just a shame it couldn’t have been given more room to breathe before it is addressed. 

This abrupt shift stands out even more in comparison to the stronger, steadier pacing of the majority of the series. Like a painting coming together, the various elements of the narrative are drawn into each other through measured beats, rather than this rushed approach. This restricts this mistake to an unfortunate anomaly within the tale. 

Love Through A Prism delivers a satisfying love story that balances romantic pursuits with the other passions that make life worth living. Memorable characters and gorgeous visuals make the strong narrative shine even brighter, showcasing how plot, personality, and presentation can come together to make a fantastically crafted piece.

Love Through A Prism will be streaming on Netflix on January 15th.