Anime Impressions: The Duke of Death and His Maid

<p>The Duke of Death and His Maid tells a heartwarming yet tragic tale&period; The anime has quickly become one of the very few anime <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;anime-impressions-how-a-realist-hero-rebuilt-the-kingdom&sol;">this season<&sol;a> I&&num;8217&semi;ve found myself totally engrossed in due to its heartwarming yet thought-provoking storytelling&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;ytimg&period;com&sol;vi&sol;WsuFEzvCsGE&sol;maxresdefault&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The Duke of Death and His Maid" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center">Master and Servant<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>The anime follows a young duke who was cursed by a witch as a child to kill whatever living thing he touches&period; As such&comma; he’s been ostracized and isolated since childhood&comma; forced to live alone with an unwanted power&period; Luckily&comma; the duke receives his light at the end of this dark and solemn tunnel via Alice&comma; his loving and devoted maid&comma; who also happens to enjoy teasing and mildly sexually harassing him to get a reaction&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The pair&&num;8217&semi;s chemistry is something I really enjoy about the anime&period; These two characters have been together for a long time and have grown to love each other since&period; The duke has long been deserted by his family&comma; so Alice is someone who&&num;8217&semi;s invaluable to him&comma; and you can really tell that from the way he treats her&period; Whereas Alice has always been devoted to her young duke&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s currently not explained why she came to the duke&&num;8217&semi;s manor to serve him despite the dangers involved but the fact that she did this without complaint and has been with him since childhood is a testament to her fondness and devotion towards him&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I also find it satisfying that by episode two&comma; you already know that the two characters share mutual love and attraction&comma; which is great&comma; as it gets straight to the point and doesn’t dawdle as opposed to other anime in the genre that only implies or just beats around the bush&period; Additionally&comma; while the two are of the same age&comma; the way Alice teases and talks to the duke is more akin to a relationship between an older woman and younger man&comma; which I found odd but funny&comma; and Ayumi Mano&&num;8217&semi;s Oneesan voice greatly helps in fleshing out Alice’s demeanor&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;animecorner&period;me&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;07&sol;duke-of-death-episode-2-4&period;png&quest;ezimgfmt&equals;ng&colon;webp&sol;ngcb10" alt&equals;"The Duke of Death and His Maid Episode 2" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center">The Duke’s Duchy<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>While episode one focused on introducing the pair and their relationship&comma; episode two introduces characters like Rob&semi; the duke&&num;8217&semi;s devoted and aging butler&comma; and Violet&semi; his younger sister&period; Though the duke is unable to be around his family&comma; this proves that he isn&&num;8217&semi;t completely alone&comma; as he still has those who still care for him&comma; which really contributes to the anime&&num;8217&semi;s wholesomeness&period; The interactions between the duke and those who choose to stay close to him were very heartwarming&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; while there isn&&num;8217&semi;t much to criticize about the anime so far&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s hard to ignore some mysteries that require solving&period; For one&comma; we still don&&num;8217&semi;t know much about the duke or his family&comma; only that being a duke&comma; he most likely comes from a line of nobility&period; We also don&&num;8217&semi;t know how or why he was cursed&comma; which granted&comma; will most likely be a grand dramatic reveal at some point&comma; but the fact remains that we don&&num;8217&semi;t know how deep the anime&&num;8217&semi;s fantasy elements will go&period; So hopefully&comma; the series doesn&&num;8217&semi;t disappoint in that regard&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;animewat&period;ch&sol;content&sol;images&sol;2021&sol;07&sol;78776&lowbar;maxresdefault&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The Duke of Death 2" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center">Animation &amp&semi; Direction<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Direction-wise&comma; the anime follows the same structure as its manga source material&comma; whereby each episode contains two separate stories or events&comma; much like other similar &lpar;but not as good&rpar; anime such as <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;anime-impressions-dont-toy-with-me-miss-nagatoro&sol;">Nagatoro<&sol;a> or <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;anime-impressions-uzaki-chan-wants-to-hang-out&sol;">Uzaki-chan<&sol;a>&period; This structure not only allows the anime to cover enough content&comma; thereby keeping pace with the manga&comma; but it also prevents it from being too dull or stagnant&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As for the animation&comma; is hard not to notice that J&period;C&period; Staff makes use of CG animation throughout the anime&period; While I&&num;8217&semi;ve established multiple times that <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;cgi-in-anime-an-analysis&sol;">I abhor CG animation in anime and have outlined my reasons why<&sol;a>&comma; I can at least give credit to the studio for not making me suffer by viewing slow&comma; choppy animation and ugly character designs&period; Though this still doesn&&num;8217&semi;t change the fact that some scenes in The Duke of Death do&comma; in fact&comma; have slow and choppy animation&comma; an example of which can be seen in episode 2 during the dance scene between the duke and Alice&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;animecorner&period;me&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;07&sol;duke-of-death-episode-1&period;png" alt&equals;"The Duke of Death and His Maid Episode 1" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1008" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center">Final Thoughts<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Nevertheless&comma; The Duke of Death and His Maid is an anime to watch out for&period; Its comedic and wholesome moments are a breath of fresh air&comma; and its sad and mysterious undertones invoke my curiosity&comma; making it among the better titles to watch this summer season&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Duke of Death and His Maid is available to stream now on <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;funimation&period;com&sol;shows&sol;the-duke-of-death-and-his-maid" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank"><strong>Funimation<&sol;strong><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Have you seen The Duke of Death and His Maid&quest; Do you enjoy romance anime&quest; Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;