Figured I'd do some josei for a change, so this time I bring you a series that may just be a Japanese version of Twilight, but with slightly more developed characters and a much smuttier plot!
Japanese title: ミッドナイト·セクレタリ
Author: OHMI Tomu
Genres: drama, josei, romance, slice of life, smut, supernatural
Length // Status: 7 volumes // complete
Warnings: nipples and sex scenes, but no exposed genitalia
Synopsis
Kaya Satozuka's life is hard: because of her "baby face", people won't take her seriously, so she has to disguise herself with glasses and a more mature hairdo. She's happy to become the secretary of managing director Kyouhei Touma and finally have a chance to prove her skills.
That is, until she catches him with a woman in his office and he starts picking on her for being too austere. Nevertheless, she trudges forward, determined to do her job as well as she can. But she's not out of the woods yet. By accident, Kaya discovers Kyouhei's deep secret: the director of the company is a vampire!
Kaya, Kyouhei and Masaki.
Plot and character development
A fairly annoying technical point is the repetitiveness of some ideas (probably a result of the series initially being published as chapters). Consequently, about 2-3 pages of each chapter are devoted to describing Kaya as "the perfect secretary" and her boss as an insufferable, egotistic vampire. Later on, the "superior/special" quality of Kaya's blood and Kaya's unrequited feelings towards Kyouhei are added to this list. Needless to say, this can become a bit boring if you read the volumes back-to-back.
The plot's pretty much what I described up there, so let's get to the characters.
As the lead female, Kaya gets the most "screen time". She's the young woman who wants to show that there's more to her than her pretty face. After initially thinking she's a slightly more developed Mary Sue, that impression was thrown away and I grew to like her: she's smart and capable - after all, she becomes the managing director's secretary at only 22 - and knows her way around people, with a poker face to die for (most of the humor early on is based on snippets of what she actually feels or thinks about Kyouhei).
She's devoted to her job to the point of letting her vampire boss feed on her anytime and constantly being willing to abandon whatever she's doing to rush to his side (though of course her job isn't the only reason). I guess that would count as her weakness - being weak to ~love~. Well, that and chasing after the jer- I mean male lead after being pushed away numerous times for numerous reasons.
As for Kyouhei, Kaya puts it best: "He's an egoistic, arrogant SLUT! [...] Sweet-talking is his only personal virtue!"
Typical playboy with a DARK secret. Kyouhei has a sleazy grin plastered all over his face at all times and constantly berates Kaya for, well, being human: showing emotions, looking too austere/"unattractive", continuing to pursue him like an idiot (actually, I kind of agree with him on this one) - the works. Of course, being a vampire, his pride is at sky-high levels and he doesn't give in to "human" emotions (or at least that's what he likes to think).
Unlike Kyouhei, his older brother Masaki is human and much friendlier towards others, including Kaya - which pisses Kyouhei off (because of course he's jealous of other people messing with his property <- not even joking, he really says that). It doesn't help that Kaya tends to blush around him, though that's mostly because she respects him (although it IS hinted that she could have developed romantic feelings towards him). However, after coming into contact with Kyouhei for so long, Masaki comes across as boring most of the time since he's more mellow. His relationship with his little brother is strained but it's revealed later that Kyouhei prefers to dirty his own hands rather than have his brother (who occupies a higher position in the company) make questionable decisions and endanger himself.
So yes, Kyouhei is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. And probably more interesting to follow than Kaya.
Erde's* president, Takasu, serves as the third point of a love triangle later in the story. He's a nice guy and displays a genuine interest in Kaya, which sends Kyouhei into multiple badly-disguised jealousy fits. And then there's Marika, Kyouhei's childhood friend who comes to pester them after Takasu's arc is over (because we need to balance out someone chasing after Kaya with someone chasing after Kyouhei!). Like him, she's an arrogant vampiress, perceptive and sly; the two share the "humans are tools for our kind" mentality, which is one of the reasons why they get along so well.
* Erde is a company under Touma Corporation, that Kaya is transferred to temporarily.
The other characters can pretty much be left in the background since they're only there for a short while to move the plot along. Kyouhei's vampire mother appears a few times to give some backstory about Kyouhei's family and Kyouhei himself, but most of the manga revolves around Kaya and Kyouhei's relationship, with heavy focus on Kaya's thoughts. Kaya's mother appears early in the beginning but plays a more significant role near the end; since she also works for Touma Corporation, Kyouhei threatens Kaya with firing her mother to determine her to stay as his secretary.
Minor complaint: at one point, when Kaya is transferred to Erde to help out, she continues working with Kyouhei at night as his secretary at the same time. How in the world can a woman handle two high-level secretarial positions in one day and still have time to eat and sleep?! Not to mention that Kyouhei screws the life out of her almost every night.
Spoiler about the ending, if you're curious: Midnight Secretary is a josei feel-good manga, so it's a happy one. Submissives rejoice. No one dies, lol.
Art style
Kaya has possibly the most shoujo face I've ever seen: watery and glistening eyes with huge eyelashes and a tiny mouth and nouse. Even with her glasses and her hair tied up in a bun, she could still pass as a high schooler. This is toned down a bit after the first few chapters, though, and there aren't as many close-ups throughout the rest of the manga.
Kyouhei has sharp eyes and, yes, the all-knowing smug grin that you're probably imagining right now.
Final verdict
Meh, I can't say Midnight Secretary is a vehicle for smut, since that comes up fairly later on, but it's not a deep, complex story either. Then again, there's a LOT of smut later on. It's not bad per se (Lord knows it could've been much worse), but you have to be in the right mindset to read it, otherwise you'll just bore yourself even more at the repetitiveness of Kaya's whining and "I'm a secretary!" catchphrase.
...And yet I still love it. The early chapters have humorous stuff sprinkled in, like Kaya's chibified reactions to Kyouhei's debauchery and their constant race to find out the other's weaknesses. Kyouhei himself is so far along on the asshole spectrum that he becomes almost endearing in his rudeness. Must read if you're a fan of josei, office romances and/or vampires!
Characters: 1.5 / 2 points - Kaya is overall fun but she can be annoying when she gets mopey. Kyouhei's an asshole.
Realism/believability: 0.5 / 1 points - urgh, I'll give the secretary aspect some credit.
Art: 1.7 / 2 points - pretty clean and nice, but I can't get over Kaya's heavy eyelashes.
Flow: 1 / 1 points - linear and easy to understand. That's about it.
How much I enjoyed it: 2.5 / 3 - it's a guilty pleasure and I like vampires. Cut me some slack.
My final rating: 
Where to read it: AnimeA | MangaFox, MangaHere
Where to download it: MangaTraders
