Midnight Secretary by Ohmi Tomu: Of Midnight Cravings

This is the story of a secretary and her boss. A vampire and a woman. Expect office romance and typical swoon-worthy moments.

Native Title: ミッドナイト・セクレタリ
Genre: Drama, Josei, Romance, Smut, Supernatural
Status: Completed | Volumes: 7 | Chapters: 35

Kaya Satozuka is a brilliant secretary who excels at her job, which is why she doesn’t bat an eye when she’s assigned to be personal secretary to Kyohei Touma, the very difficult managing director of Touma Foods. It doesn’t faze her when her new boss seems determined to make her fail, and she even manages to take it in stride when she discovers the secret behind his prickly behavior…he’s a vampire! 

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I swear I don’t have one major thing to complain about this series. I keep going back to read this because I love something supernatural mixed with romance and I haven’t found another one like this. With endearing female character instead of an annoying clingy, whiny brat; arrogant and prideful boss but not to the point that he is unlikable all throughout because he has those moments of vulnerabilities too. Not to mention they also managed to develop as characters over the course of the series but still managed to retain their core traits.

Kaya reminds me of a librarian with her tight bun and glasses most of the time, and she maintains that facade because she wants to be taken seriously in the office and in the adult world. She’s hard working to the point of perfection and though she doesn’t display any weaknesses at the start — except for her baby face which is not really a weakness in my opinion — but eventually it’ll be her feelings for her boss that would crack her perfect secretary mask. She’s also independent, headstrong, responsible, beautiful, witty, funny and a really brave heroine. She is not without her own insecurities but she makes up for it by being one hell of a secretary. Kyohei who is Kaya’s boss, a vampire with his pride so high he considers human women as just meals. But of course, that slowly changed when Kaya efficiently glided into his life.

The president does have his moments especially when he becomes all romantic but at the same time retaining his high and mighty persona. Seriously, I liked Kyohei even when he was a rude bastard to Kaya because afterward there are moments that displays his inner conflict. It is also a credit to Kaya and her headstrong character that we never truly hate Kyohei because she never lets him get away with anything. She gets hurt too sometimes but she won’t sulk and wallow and wait, she would take charge of the situation with her secretary mask only infuriating his boss more. Now, who’s the real boss here?

Exasperating. I know!

Interestingly, the vampires in this story are your typical sun-avoiding and dark-loving creatures that they are but they don’t sparkle. There’s also the existence of their very own society and its rules, though not heavily emphasized we are given enough context to understand why Kyohei would be conflicted regarding his feeling towards mere humans or why certain characters would poke their noses in both of our main characters’ lives.

There is also the hierarchy among vampires and how those who bring wealth and opportunity to the vampire clan through their chosen partner or ability to bear a vampire offspring (because their numbers are dwindling) are highly favored as opposed to ones who don’t. Moreover, the vampires here apparently can only drink the blood of a human of the opposite sex, and the taste of the blood is best when said a human is in the throes of pleasure. Oh, well… there goes that smut part of the story. Not to worry about those scenes they were tastefully done and really well-drawn.

The other characters in the story were introduced slowly and I think it worked well in favor of the plot. It was not rushed at all. Kaya and Kyohei were given the time to process their complicated feelings for each other. Especially Kyohei with his pride and his inability to admit to himself what he really feels. We call it man-trum by the way. The problems and obstacles that the two encountered were there but they overcame it wonderfully and it only brought the two of them closer to each other.

That’s the leader of the vampire clan by the way. He looks like a Volturi..

Another thing I also loved about this story is that every time I go back to read it, it still feels the same. It gives me that same satisfaction when you’re visiting old friends and know that they haven’t changed. Kaya is still the level-headed secretary devoted to her boss and Kyohei is still the prideful vampire that he is.

The art style in the manga was drawn well, though simple it’s really eye catching at times. It didn’t hinder my understanding of the story and I especially love how they’ve drawn Kyohei’s vampire gorgeous appearance (and the tiny details in his expressions), and Kaya’s several (annoyed) faces but especially her cute side. The drawings also improved over the chapters though it really didn’t matter to me because I was hooked into the story.

Damn, I swooned!

This one’s for you if you love reading romance and vampires, but I wish the vampire’s special abilities were emphasized more as much as their blood drinking trait (or maybe those special abilities only applies to their leader or the powerful ones). There’s also the smut part which you might enjoy or be cautious of, though they are something I would say quite is essential to the story because we- I mean, Kyohei needs the best quality of blood, and his ever-perfect secretary will go above and beyond to perform.

In conclusion, even preoccupied with all this vampire romance going on, the quote hoarder never disappoints because there are some truly marvelous quotes to share:

Hear my girl say:

“Of course I do not wholly belong to you. But at least as a woman I’m completely yours.”

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“No matter what I say or do, I’m still me. The things I feel, the things I do, being a vampire, being a man … when all those things come together they make up “me.” But I’m none of these things taken separately.”

If that doesn’t scream great character development for you-know-who then what does?

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Have you read this manga yet? If not then (go crazy!) I hope you enjoy it slowly because it’s only 35 chapters and I wish there was more towards the end though I’m quite satisfied with the ending. That extra chapter for another character at the end could also be another series but a one-shot is better than none so yeah we’re good.

Anyway, that’s it for this vampire review. Thanks for reading!