Danica Davidson
September 9, 2013 
Lots of people say they have the boss from hell, but for Kaya, that might literally be the case. Her boss is a vampire.
Kyohei is the managing director of Tohma Corp., and he has a large turnover rate with his secretaries. His father is the head of the company, but Kyohei got to where he is from his hard work. Everyone keeps going on about what a great secretary Kaya is, and eventually she’s assigned to be his executive secretary.
Kyohei is handsome, smoldering and bursting with sex appeal, but he has one major problem that seems to plague romantic heroes: he’s a jerk. For example, he makes inappropriate comments about how he wants a secretary easier on the eyes than Kaya. He shuts up when he realizes she’s competent at her job, which serves him right, and he does seem to be easing up on his jerky-ness throughout the manga.
Kyohei doesn’t go around announcing to people that he’s a vampire, but Kaya is a diligent secretary who keeps close eyes on him, so she figures out his secret before too long. All vampire books decide which legends work or don’t work for them, and Midnight Secretary is no exception. Kyohei can stand crosses, but he can’t be around devoutness for too long. He can eat human food, but he prefers not to. And of course he needs blood…
He never has to kill anyone for blood. He just needs a little taste to keep him going. Naturally, we reach a point in the manga where Kyohei is in need of blood pronto and only Kaya is around, so she becomes the blood donor. She finds the experience highly exciting, and her feelings for Kyohei continue to deepen. He, meanwhile, becomes increasingly more impressed with Kaya’s work ethic, skills and personality.
Midnight Secretary is rated “M,” but there’s really nothing in this first volume that warrants a rating like that. The artwork has a clean, sensual, gothic feel to it, very appropriate for the story (and it’s fun this is coming out prior to Halloween). My only real complaint with the book is Kyohei’s personality, because no matter how sexy a man is, a bad personality is a relationship ender. However, it’s manga, it’s fantasy, so odds are he’ll shape up. (And if he doesn’t get nicer, he’ll still have his fangirls… but I won’t be one of them.) Midnight Secretary has a fairly simple premise, but with its attractive art and escapist-read feeling, it’s an enjoyable manga to pass the time. I do want to read more to see how it will go from here, and so long as Kyohei gets a better personality, this looks like it could be a rather fun light series.
Publisher: VIZ Media
Story & Art: Tomu Ohmi
