Japanese: ミッドナイト·セクレタリ
Artist: Ohmi Tomu
Status: Complete
Span: 2006-2009
Volume #: 7
Wiki page: here
Series can be read: here
Unlike movies, I will probably not review comics that I don't like because that would simply take up too much time. This series is considered josei (adult female), with a lot of romantic and sexy vibes. Quite different from other things I read, but somehow I got interested. And no, just because I like some vampire-themed manga doesn't mean I like Twilight.
Plot: Kaya is trying her best to be professional. She has to hide behind glasses and a tight hairbun to conceal her baby face. She works at the secretary department of a large corporation. (Secretaries in Japan take on much bigger roles... kind of like personal assistants). One day, she's dispatched to worked for Director Touma, notorious for his pickiness and his numerous affairs with various women. He sends Kaya away upon their first meeting because she's not "sexy" enough. Kaya's not intimidated and still does her best to be the perfect secretary, especially after she discovers Director Touma is... a vampire. He dates the women so he can suck their blood when they are immersed in pleasure.
Of course Kaya and Touma develop a rocky love story. There's a whole set of rules that goes with the vampire lore in this story, like vampires can only reproduce with a human, and the baby is either fully vampire or fully human, not half-and-half. Or that vampires are fine with garlic and religious symbols, provided the symbols don't hold real faith (aka used for secular purposes).
Riding on the wave of vampire fanfare, the series is much like Twilight or True Blood, with modern, semi-normal vampires who are a part of human society and are the mature, reliable men girls are looking for.
Art: Typical art style for girls/women, with tall, handsome, muscular men with slanted eyes and petit, slender, long-legged women with huge child-like eyes and perfect figures. The artist, Ohmi, is apparently known for the elaborate laces she draws on the bras and other undergarments for the female characters.
Storytelling: Hmm... your typical swooning maiden story with the (vampire) prince sweeping her off her feet. With the extra moody Asian-ness thrown in there. Don't analyze too deep into it. It's basically soft porn for girls. Not unlike Twilight.
I do like Kaya as a character, but sometimes the men in the story are meant to be handsome but just... turn out a bit weird looking. That's only on occasions though. For a light read, this is pretty great.
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