Kaya gives in to her carnal pleasure while trying to get to the bottom of Kyohei’s real feelings towards her.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Tomu Ohmi
Translation/Adaptation: JN Productions
What They Say
Kaya thinks she’s come to terms with being a vampire’s secretary, until she overhears Kyohei call her “just food.” She’s shocked at how betrayed she feels, and the emotional blow causes her to make a mistake. To keep her work from suffering any more, Kyohei’s older brother arranges a long-term transfer for Kaya. Will working at another company let time heal her wounds? Or will her feelings for Kyohei continue to burn in her heart no matter where she is?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Kaya, the consummate professional, finds herself at a crossroad between duty and her emotions when it comes to her boss. Her feelings toward Kyohei have gone from simple duty straight into hot and bothered, but he’s emotionally cold toward all of his sexual partners. Why would Kaya be anything different?
Once Kaya realizes she can’t distance herself emotionally like he can, she starts making small mistakes. So the world’s greatest secretary isn’t perfect after all! Kyohei’s brother Tohma comes to Kaya’s rescue and sets her up with a department transfer and a project for a partner company to set up their secretarial team.
Except it’s just as they say, distance makes the heart grow fonder, and it’s driving Kyohei mad with desire for his departed secretary.
There’s an interesting part at the beginning of this volume where we find out a bit more about vampires and how they work. Kyohei’s mother is a vampire who left her clan because she fell in love with the man who bore her children, something unusual for a vampire. Kyohei feels like he’s been stripped of his birthright and forced to live among mortals. An immature attitude for him to have, especially as a twenty-six year old man. In fact he’s pretty immature all around, and even Kaya questions what it is she sees in him. I’m glad she does, because his brother is a better catch in almost every way.
Kaya isn’t an idiot, but she does some pretty idiotic things in the process of trying to convince Kyohei to acknowledge her feelings and his feelings. Slitting her wrists? Really? I know he probably has some sort of clotting agent in his saliva, but what in the world was she thinking? I was hoping this series would be devoid of overwrought gestures like that. No one just shrugs off a major self inflicted wound.
While the first volume of Midnight Secretary was relatively tame, the action breaks free from shoujo levels of intimacy and straight into josei territory. The sex scene that makes up the final chunk of the last chapter in this volume leaves little to the imagination. Well, at least from the top up, anything below the waist is still obscured because this is a romance title, not hentai. I have to say it’s nice seeing that our heroine isn’t stacked up top.
I have to duck a few points on the text this time around because I spotted two typos, and the dialog is starting to creep into badly written fanfiction territory. Maybe the translation team is forcing themselves to stick to the script, because the ‘story thus far’ section at the front is way more creative with terminology then the story is. If someone says ‘fragrance of their blood’ one more time I’m going to run screaming from the book, the room, and possibly my house.
In Summary
Things are starting to get hot and heavy in here, and workplace decorum is getting thrown out the window in the process. Kaya and Kyohei should know not to mix business and pleasure, but at least someone has the good sense to change departments when things become too awkward to take. Kyohei is still obnoxiously childish and immature when it comes to dealing with Kaya, and while Kaya can see through him I still don’t understand what she sees in him… besides really great sex. Of course, if it wasn’t just the lust factor then I guess there wouldn’t be much drama to be had, right?
Content Grade: B –
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: November 5th, 2013
MSRP: $9.99
