Things start hot and heavy in the very first episode of The Duke of Death and His Maid. Alice, the maid in question, lifts her skirt multiple times to tease her Duke, Bocchan. She leans into his space as often as she can, presenting her ample chest without concern, despite the fact that a single touch from Bocchan would kill her in an instant. Alice strikes with her naughty teasing when Bocchan least expects it! Her constant affections for him and his hilarious reactions make it hard not to laugh and keep us watching the whole way through!

The first shot of the anime features bats fluttering across the screen and our lead, Bocchan, playing a sad tune on the piano. If that doesn’t set the scene for this anime, we don’t know what does! Later, Bocchan reminisces about the way other children reacted to him in his youth, due to his deadly curse. This scene features a shot of young Alice being introduced to the young Duke for the first time, and you can see his feelings written plainly across his face: the boy is completely smitten! Even better, that shot sets the stage for one of the last lines of the first episode: “I’ll put a ring on your finger with my own hands.”

Romance anime can get very stale when it follows the same episodic formula over and over again. The reason The Duke of Death and His Maid stays fresh is its new take on classic tropes. Bocchan and Alice are childhood friends who clearly had a crush on each other, but by the time the Duke was five years old, he could not touch his would-be date (or anyone else). You’d think that would be the end of any romance possibilities for the young man, but no! Alice remained at his side, even when he was sent away to a lonely mansion deep within a forest. In fact, she’s the only maid still willing to work for him! Later, as the story progresses, they work on ideas to release Bocchan from his curse, learning more about the witch who placed it and secret plots that extend even further than just this one, sweet boy — all while falling more in love!