The Duke of Death and His Maid’s second season trailer is frustrating

The Duke of Death is – perhaps was – on my to-watch list, but the trailer for the second season riles me up in the wrong way.

I’ll start with how Seven Seas >describe the manga;

When the duke was a young boy, a witch made it so that any living thing he touched died. Unable to cope with such a cursed child, his family sent him away to live in an old mansion. Now a young man, his only companions are an elderly butler and his childhood friend, a buxom, blonde maid named Alice. Despite the fact that touching the duke means instant death, Alice is constantly teasing him, getting close and flirting mercilessly. But even though Alice loves to make the duke blush, her affection for him is the real deal. Can the two figure out a way to break the witch’s spell?

What’s my beef? Mindful that I’ve not seen the first season, I will still make the case that there’s a gothic promise here. There’s a young wealthy person who can’t be touched.

There might be plenty of sexual tension with the busty new maid, but the season two trailer doesn’t reference the angst and makes it a far more mundane and adolescent drama of stolen glances and proximity to bodies.

Perhaps I’m overreacting. Perhaps season one and the trailer for season two of the Duke of Death are a perfect match. I note that Crunchyroll happily calls it a romance anime.

So, The Duke of Death and His Maid’s season two trailer is frustrating for me due to the lack of Poe-esq drama, but perhaps it’s frustrating for the “will they / can they?” lovers to be as well.

That first season ran in Japan in July last year, and Funimation streamed it simultaneously. The text version has been going for longer as the web manga started in October 2017 and ended this May.

Via Crunchyroll.