This is truly a first impression, as I’ve only watched the first episode of Prism Rondo despite all 20 being available. And since all 20 are available you know it’s a Netflix series – not just a stream, but a production. There’s no point in rehashing the reasons why Netflix’ stubborn insistent on dump releases for anime is counter-productive – they’re obviously not going to change. As always with these shows it’s also largely counter-productive to blog it, but it’s a major production so it still behooves me to at least weigh in.

In the first place, Love Through a Prism is every bit as gorgeous in terms of art direction as you’d expect a Wit series to be. They’re one of Netflix’ contracted partners for these productions (Bones is another) and clearly, these shows operate on a different budget from mortal anime in terms of both money and time. It’s set in London around the turn of the last century and probably the most notable thing about it is that it was created by Kamio Youko, one of the titans of shoujo manga. Director Nakazawa Kazuto is more a low-key stalwart than a standout director, but he’s got the experience to make sure things run smoothly.

For story we have a teenager named Ichijouin Lily who travels from Japan to London to attend St. Thomas Art College, surely a rare thing in those days. There the top dog is a guy named Kit Church, who Lily runs into without realizing it as she’s foundering about looking for the coach to the school. Lily has been told by her tiger mom that she must become the undisputed top dog at St. Thomas or else her stay will be cut off after six months. It’s not hard to see where this is headed.

If I’m honest, I found the first episode to be kind of cliched and bland (apart from the visuals). The thing with the note blowing away was telegraphed a mile away and the characters are all pretty much archetypes. I’m also a bit annoyed at the fact that there’s no acknowledgement of the whole language thing. Is Lily speaking English? Do her colleagues and teachers miraculously speak Japanese? For a series that’s nominally trying to be realistic – as Rondo seems to be – that’s a bit lazy.

I mean, this is all perfectly pleasant. It looks great and the cast is full of polished actors, and the London college setting certainly has potential. Prism Rondo may very well grow on me after a few episodes but the premiere itself didn’t make too much of an impression. I have a pretty high bar with these batch released anime as far as actually covering them, but hopefully I’ll become invested enough at least to watch.