The Winter 2026 Anime Preview Guide

Love Through a Prism

In early 1900s London, a young Japanese woman enrolls in a famous art school, only to be surprised when a rivalry with a gifted classmate becomes romance.

Love Through a Prism is an original anime series by director Kazuto Nakazawa (B: The Beginning) and writers Saki Fujii (Fena: Pirate Princess) and Yōko Kamio (Boys Over Flowers mangaka) at Wit Studio. The anime series is streaming on Netflix.

I'm not sure anyone creates overbearing, obnoxious mothers quite like Yōko Kamio. If you've read or watched her most famous series, Boys Over Flowers (Hana Yori Dango), you'll be familiar with her work in that area – both Tsukushi's and Tsukasa's mothers are…I'm going to go with “harridans” because it's the closest single word that works. Lili's mom in Love Through a Prism is no different: she's allowing her daughter to study oil painting in England, but is only giving her six months to prove herself the top student at the prestigious St. Thomas Art Academy, and if she can't do that, she has to return to Japan. There's a strong implication that Lili will also have to marry the second son of her mother's choice, take over the family kimono shop, and produce babies in the order of boy, girl, boy. Apparently, Lili's mother is a god who can make those things happen.

Naturally, nothing will be that easy. Within moments of arriving at St. Thomas, Lili learns that the school already has a top student in the form of Kit Church, a talented charcoal artist. He's also an oddball who eats the bread he uses as an eraser and goes through people's suitcases when they fall asleep…and judging by the very nice shoes Lili notices he's wearing despite his otherwise disheveled appearance, he's probably from a wealthy family. This opening episode sets them up as rivals and likely love interests, from their uninspiring first meeting on a bridge, where Kit offers Lili some of his gross charcoal bread, to their second encounter, in which he clutches a personal piece of her clothing to draw the unusual fabric. If you know your romance fiction, it looks like love, eventually.

Despite this relatively pat setup, Love Through a Prism is oozing with potential. One of my favorite scenes is when Dorothy Brown, one of Lili's new classmates, starts talking about how she knows that all Japanese people are samurai who carry hidden shuriken on their persons and have to commit hari-kiri if found out. It's the 1911 equivalent of westerners assuming all Japanese people watch anime and love maids, and the scene is brilliantly done – you don't know whether to laugh or cringe, and neither does Lili. But Dorothy also makes comments that suggest she's interested in suffrage, a movement I could see appealing to Lili quite a bit as a way to counter her mother. Add a professor who doesn't even notice his students have left once he gets going, along with a lot of gorgeous period detail in the backgrounds, and this looks promising.

That said, I wouldn't be me if I didn't mention that the costuming isn't quite right. While a few women are dressed appropriately for the period, many of the dresses are too short (the hems should brush the tops of shoes) and too wide. Waistlines are also a bit too defined for the period, since things were moving away from the S-curve of the Gibson Girl look. Also, twin ponytails were not a fashion at this point – two braids, yes, but not two ponytails. And while some of the animation is glorious – Lili's ponytail moves with a life of its own – scenes of Lili walking around London show the same models, recolored to surround her.

Still, I think this is worth giving one or two more episodes. I'm not sure it can end the way I'd like, but it should be a good ride along the way.

All I can say is thanks to the anime gods that I didn't have to end this season's Preview Guide with the five-car-pileup that is Oedo Fire Slayer. Instead, Netflix has seen fit to grace us with a brand-new Studio Wit production that marries the studio's gorgeous craftsmanship with a story that flaunts the picturesque beauty of its early 20th-century London setting. We even have an English dub produced by authentic Brits for the second time this winter, which is pretty neat. At first, I was a bit distracted by the fact that our fish-out-of-water Japanese heroine also speaks just as fluent Lobsterback as any of the natives she runs into in this premiere, but then I realized that Lili is voiced by Leader Looi, aka Nozomi from The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, Kazutaka Kodaka and Kōtarō Uchikoshi's underappreciated video-game opus. Did this immediately cause me to adore Lili and cheer enthusiastically for her success in every avenue of life? Yes, absolutely. It's also just a great dub and localization, plain and simple, and probably the ideal way to enjoy this charming show.

And I really cannot emphasize that “charming” compliment enough. Every single thing about the first episode of Love Through a Prism is just so effortlessly likeable, so brimming with personality and the sheer joy of creation, and I defy anyone who appreciates good television to besmirch Lili Ichijoin and her adventures in the land of fine art, freshly-brewed tea, and charcoal-stained urchins with flowing golden locks. This is one of those cozy, heartwarming romances that basically have everything you could ask for: Our leading lady has a lot of personality and a compelling personal quest to be the best student at St. Vincent's academy and escape life as a housewife; the supporting cast is filled with lively friends and intimidating antagonists for Lili to navigate as she pursues her dream; the stylized vision of 1900s Europe is fanciful and utterly gorgeous to behold; and Kit, Lili's love interest…I mean, just look at him. He's an insufferably beautiful artist who also likely has some deep personal wounds that only true love can heal.

On the one hand, I lament that Netflix still insists on this model of throwing an entire season of a show out into the ether instead of letting the weekly model do what it is meant to and build an organic fanbase and generate enthusiastic word-of-mouth. On the other hand, my greedy, shriveled dopamine receptors will be glad to devour this entire story over the course of a single week or two, so I can experience Lili's story and discover if she will find the love and success that she deserves. If nothing else, I can find solace in the fact that Love Through a Prism seems destined to become a perfect gateway anime to show off to bemused parents or curious normies who don't know a jutsu from a Dragon Ball. I know that this season is sinfully stacked with top-tier romance to revel in, but no matter how much you've gorged yourself on the winter's bounty of kira-kiras and doki-dokis, I urge you to make room for one more indulgence. Love Through a Prism is the kind of anime that deserves to become a hit.