Shinigami Bocchan to Kuro Maid ( The Duke of Death and His Black Maid ) is the first title for its author, Koharu Inoue-sensei, showing a great talent in writing an unconventional romance story.

The tale revolves around around the main character, simply called Bocchan, or Duke, cursed by a witch for apparently unknow reasons, and Alice, the duke maid, that loves wearing black clothes.

The curse that the duke has receveid is indeed a terrible one, anything that he touches simply dies, even if there are clothes in between the duke and the other party. Because of this the noble duke was isolated in a villa deep in the forest by his family, living only with his loyal mature butler, Rob, passing his days in the agony caused by his solitude.

One day, a young maid, Alice, comes to the villa to serve the duke, and it’s soon revelad that Alice is the daughter of the head maid of the main family and a childhood friend of the duke, with a particular feature: she’s deeply in love with the young noble.

The duke doesn’t remember her, and guided by the fear for its curse tries to drive away Alice from him, but the willpower of the young maid, fueled by the love for her dear duke prevents her from going away, making the young lord quickly reminiscing about her and falling madly in love with the young maid.

This is the premise that works as starting point for the story of Shinigami Bocchan to Kuro Maid, a story about a love that even such a strong curse can’t stop, about witches and their relationship with the human world, a story about a noble family that refuses, but still love the cursed firstborn, a story about much more too.

All of this sounds like a sad and tragic story...but it’s in fact not! Sure, serious and touching moments aren’t lacking, but Shinigami Bocchan to Kuro Maid is ultimately a comic manga, with a nice humor that will make you grin and sometimes wholeheartly laugh. The pretty perverseness of Alice in sexually teasing the “poor” duke, that can’t touch her, makes use of the tragic premise to create funny situations that will make feel simpathy for the young and loving duke, that can’t make his love bloom in a more...”carnal” way.

The duke and Alice aren’t the only characters in the story, other than Rob the butler others will make their ingress in the story: Viola, the young sister of duke, that adores Alice and is crazy in love with Rob, Zain and Caph two witches that learn about the duke circumstances and become friends with him and Alice; there are other very interesting characters that comes into play, but that comes later when the story starts to deeply develop.

The art Koharu Inoue-sensei simply works, making cute characters like Viola appear very charming too, Caph design is very sexy, but the star is the main character, Alice. The author manages to make her cute, charming and sexy at the same time, giving her some “thicc features” too, resulting together with, her black clothing, in a charming character.
The art for the scenarios and background is fine, nothing worth of big praises, but still solid enough.

So, would i recommend Shinigami Bocchan to Kuro Maid? As the time of writing we are at chapter 138, and considering that each chapter is composed of 10 or 11 pages my answer is definitely yes. If you are in the mood for some funny, and touching at the right moments romantic story, with some surprisingly narrative twist and nice world building then The Duke of Death and His Black Maid is an easy read.