The Maid is a Vampire: The Complete Omnibus Review
Alfred Saionji is the 15-year-old heir to a prestigious family and much is expected of him: good manners, excellent grades, musical brilliance – an all-round gentleman. Luckily his maid, Magley, is devoted to making sure he excels and doesn’t get distracted…unless it’s by her. Behind closed doors, the pair have a very close relationship, as Magley is a vampire who likes to suck blood and can’t always control herself around her master Alfred. But can a human male and a horny vampire female co-exist?
Yasushige is a relatively new mangaka on the scene, with only five credits under their name, mostly one shots, with this series being one of two that’s been serialised, and the only one translated into English. The whole series comes in a thick omnibus book, and it has a satisfying conclusion overall, so if you’re worried about diving into series that have been cut short with poor endings, this one may tick your boxes.
You’ll notice on the cover, however, the ‘explicit content’ warning, as well as the Mature rating on the back, and the content does live up to that warning. Whilst there’s no full-on penetrative sex, there are lots of naked vampires on display, and a titillating story to enjoy from the ‘body pillow’ spread on the opening glossy page, all the way to the final chapters. The book starts off in quite a repetitive way, using Magley’s big boobs as a constant source of arousal for Alfred, and also blood sucking as a metaphor for ‘climaxing’ for both parties, including them being fulfilled and lightheaded afterwards. But towards the second half of the book the contents gets raunchier from nipple licking, to exchanging saliva in a very unusual way. There are also panty shots and full displays of naked bodies from not just Magley and Alfred, but other characters as well. The variety is nice to have in the second half, and it’s a fun read if you’re looking for sexy stories to enjoy of the comedy variety.
However, there are three major issues that ended up pulling me out of the story, rather than keeping me engaged. One is that inconsistent tone: a good three-quarters of this book are sexy comedy antics, with Alfred doing something to arouse Magley (such as accidentally getting a paper-cut and bleeding, or smelling good while washing his hands) and that’s where the story is at its best. But then the last quarter does a swerve in tone, having a dramatic, darker, more emotional tale of a vampire ready to die and eventually coming to accept her deep, loving feelings for Alfred. The vampire in the flashbacks (where we learn how Alfred met Magley) and the present-day vampire maid are meant to be the same person, but they feel like two separate characters as they act so differently from each other and the tone is so dissimilar, like they’re from two completely separate tales. It’s quite a whiplash going from a chapter where Alfred licks Magley’s feet, both being very horny as hell, to a backstory of a stoic, serious Magley dealing with her deep-rooted angst, and whether she truly belongs in his mansion. This will likely divide readers, as some will just want the sexy vampire fun time, and may find the sudden mood shifts annoying, or the ones who like the vampire story, and would rather stick with that than read more repetitive fan-service chapters.
Secondly, there’s the consistent use of the ‘in medias res’ trope in every other chapter, where we start with Alfred and/or Magley in a compromising position, only to immediately go back in time and reveal how they got there in the first place. I get why it was used, to show some of the fan service at the top of the chapter, and then build up to it once more, but it was the constant use of it that I got tired of, and many chapters I felt could have benefited from not having it to not only make it flow better, but make the jokes land better as well.
And lastly, there’s the main character himself, which will likely make or break the readers: the main character is 15, and (to me anyways) often looks and acts younger than he is, and who’s engaging in sex acts with a vampire who’s not given an age but is hinted at being way older than she looks. Age-gap relationships in vampire fiction is nothing new, I’m not worried about that, but the fact that one of the characters is underaged gives an ‘ick’ factor that I just couldn’t shake off, despite this series aiming to be a comedy. If you can turn your brain off, you’ll probably have a fun read and enjoy the variety of blood lust and…regular lust, but if you can’t, then this book is probably not for you.
Art for the series is quite inconsistent; not just because Magley’s chest size keeps jumping all over the place, but I felt that in some chapters less effort was put into it than others. For example, one chapter has a cat jumping onto Magley from the front, however she somehow ends up falling forwards into Alfred, with her chest in his face, so the series of events just does not connect at all. But there are a few good moments however, like when Magley looks at Alfred’s penis, but we actually see it censored in her pupils which is subtle but funny.
Translation by Christine Dashiell is a fun, easy read, with a few translation notes at the end as well.
The Maid is a Vampire has a lot of erotic comedy and variety that readers may enjoy, as well as the fun costumes and changing for forms these vampires do in this series. But the age of the main character, jarring tone change and poor writing choices might be a turn-off for some. It’s a heavy, fun book for the right reader, but a tiring tome for the rest.
Read a preview of the manga on Yen Press’ website.
Our review copy was supplied by Yen Press.
Copyright © 2025 Yasushige/Yen Press
