English Dub Review: The Duke of Death and His Maid “The Duke and Alice”

Overview:

Imagine never being able to touch the one you love. The Duke was cursed by a witch, and every living thing he touches dies. He lives in a villa with his maid and butler being the only people he has contact with. The maid Alice makes every day interesting however with her constant teasing. This is a story about a maid constantly teasing her beloved Duke.

Our Take:

This show got me thinking about the Duke’s curse. That really would be terrible and I couldn’t imagine not being able to touch anything living. No longer could I pet my dog, or hug my loved ones. Anyone who knew would be terrified of me and I couldn’t really blame them either.

Luckily this show isn’t all doom and gloom, I’m sure it will have its moments but it is primarily a comedy. If you’re familiar with shows like Teasing Master Tagi-san or Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro you will kind of get how this show is. Though this one is a bit more sexually charged than those two. Alice is constantly being suggestive to get a reaction out of the Duke, I think she does it because she cares about him and it distracts him from his curse.

The animation in this show is definitely interesting. It took a little getting used to but after a bit, you don’t really notice it and it’s charming in its own way. It uses CGI and it can be a little jagged at times but you can tell great care was taken in how the characters move and interact. I have said it before but I usually am not a fan of CGI but this show does it well, we will see if they can keep it up for the rest of the season.

We have a little bit of art imitating real life with this show. Clifford Chapin plays The Duke and Kristen McGuire plays Alice, and they are a couple in real life. They even recently got engaged and you can feel their chemistry through the character’s interactions. I’ll admit that when I heard about Kristen getting cast as Alice that wasn’t quite who I had in mind for the character but those concerns were alleviated pretty quickly. I am definitely looking forward to these two as the series progresses. Let’s hope the rest of the cast follows suit when they are introduced.