Midnight Secretary - Development

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.