The story starts off seemingly complicated with Bocchan having a curse and Alice being in love with him. While there is also some comedy involved from the very first episode, it overall set the tone as the tragic story of lovers who cannot touch each other no matter what. This gives purpose to the characters to try to overcome the curse but that purpose is never really resolved in the show. Instead, all we get are fluffy moments of romantic comedy of Alice constantly teasing Bocchan to elicit great reactions from him. While this was really heartwarming to watch, we do wish that the anime established its motive to be a romantic comedy without the heart-wrenching turns that it takes every now and then.

While the classical music and the oil painting-like background of the anime paired really well with the overall theme of this fantastical story, there were some times that our feelings were conflicted and confused about what this anime really was about. While The Duke of Death and His Maid starts off as a tragic love story of the Duke who is cursed and the maid he is in love with, there are also moments of comedy that really distract the anime watcher from the established tone of the anime. This inconsistency keeps messing up the feelings of the person watching it and we really wish that the anime decided on one theme and stuck with it till the very end.

Alice and Bocchan are beautifully fleshed-out characters. There are many flashback scenes that add depth to Alice and Bocchan as more than typical anime characters. Instead, it makes them human. It gives them life because we see that they truly love each other, comedy and fun moments aside, and want to simply live a happy life together. But with the curse situation unresolved and Alice’s flirtatious teases, the anime often derails into its romantic comedy moments and we ultimately feel like Alice and Bocchan aren’t given the chance to be their own people, instead of merely typical anime characters that the anime forced them to be.