I am a big fan of mystery stories, particularly those with an esoteric or supernatural element. Unfortunately it's not a genre that seem's to produce a particularly large body of material. So when one comes across an enjoyable example of the genre it is cause for celebration. I have to say I really enjoyed this show, the titular character Ryoko Yakushiji is extremely well realised and is certainly one of the main draws for the show as I see it. As a slight tangent I find that anime and manga adapted from novel's (light or otherwise) is often of superior quality. I imagine this is becausethe pre-existing material makes for an excellent frame around which to construct a suitable representation in another medium. However, wankery aside, this series is well worth a watch if you enjoy mysteries. Most of the cases are presented as one-off encounters. But as the series progresses the over-arching background plot is revealed and most of the plot threads from earlier episodes are fully resolved. The animation quality is also quite nice, perhaps not as stunning as some big budget shows but it’s certainly above the "average" standard of animation one see's. The series is also (regrettably) only thirteen episodes long, so it’s not a huge investment in time to check it out.

Unfortunately for those wanting more Ryoko neither the light novel's or the manga has been translated. It's actually surprising how few light novels’ get translated into English considering how big they appear to be in Japan. And it’s not as if they're something like visual novels (which would appear to be sales kryptonite to the average western consumer). There are some fan translation projects going for the bigger light novel series such as Shakugan no Shana. But to be honest reading said fan translations too often feel's like rubbing sandpaper across one's eyes. I suppose prose is much harder for fan translators than dialogue.