Midnight Secretary
"Midnight Secretary" follows the relationship between Kaya Satozuka, a private secretary, and her boss, Director Kyouhei Touma of the Touma Company, who is a vampire. Plot. Considered to be the "perfect secretary" yet constantly criticized for her ultra-conservative dress style by her boss, Director Kyouhei Touma of the Touma Company, Kaya lives a normal life until she finds out that her employer is actually a vampire. Despite uncovering his identity, she dedicates herself to serving the Director to the best of her abilities. The early part of the story focuses on the trials and tribulations of Kaya 's increasingly hectic workload, then shifts to the developing personal relationship between her and the Director. Development. "Midnight Secretary" is the third series by author and artist Ohmi Tomu that has a theme centered around vampires. The basic romantic storyline along with the vampiric theme was borrowed from her original debut manga "Kindan no Koi wo Shiyou". Several backstory concepts - such as vampires only being able to bear children with humans and the resulting offspring being completely one or the other - was also taken from her earlier works. Tomu stayed away from traditional folklore about vampires and instead portrayed them  as upper-class with widespread societal influence. Although common associations with vampires were avoided or altered, bats were still used as a motif but not employed in the actual storyline. Though not intended by the author, the series resulted into becoming a sort of cinderella complex caused by the building mental and emotional conflict between the main characters. When drawing the main character Kaya Satozuka, author Ohmi Tomu used actress Hiromi Nagasaku and her own sister-in-law as references for Kaya's appearance. She also used her sister-in-law as a basic model for Kaya's personality because  of her firm and resolute nature. Kaya's undergarments were given a certain degree of attention because of Tomu's penchant for lace underwear. The amount of exposure was increased in later chapters as the story progressed. For Kyouhei Touma, she was careful to note various details of his appearance depending on the setting of the scene. In particular, his hair was the most difficult to draw. Manga. "Midnight Secretary" is written and illustrated by Ohmi Tomu. It was serialized by Shogakukan in the "josei" (aimed at younger adult women) manga magazine "Petit Comic" from 2006 to May 2009. Serial  chapters were collected in seven "shinsōban" volumes under the Flower Comics imprint. Volume one was Tomu's sixteenth published volume. Reception. Volume 5 reached #8 on the Oricon/Tohan manga sales chart for 11–17 November 2008, and volume 6 reached #18. The Romance novel review site "Smart Bitches, Trashy Books" called the series addictive, describing it as "like Harlequin: Presents crossed with manga and vampire romance." Rebecca Silverman, of Anime News Network, gave volume 1 an overall grade of B+.