High schooler Mai Taniyama accepts a job offer from the Shibuya Psychic Research Center as an assistant to its leader enigmatic 17yearold Kazuya Naru Shibuya. The firm investigates various strange phenomena at the behest of its clients joined by a spirit medium a shrine maiden an exorcist and a monk. Look this is my jam. A combination of mystery and the supernatural creepy but rarely reaching horror levels my biggest problem with this series is that it has 25 episodes and I WANT MORE. Youve got your everygirl protagonist: Mai Taniyami. Roped into helping when the assistant to the guy called in to investigate a possible haunting at her school gets injured she proves to have a talent for sussing things out and accepts a job offer. Mai? Is great. She can be impulsive and might yell at her boss for not doing the right thing in a moral sense but in a way that felt fairly realistic to me. Plunge into danger to save someone? Sure I can believe that Ask questions that people seem to be ignoring? Also reasonable She is our proxy hoping for the best and caring for people when the Experts particularly her boss seem to be callous. THIS ASSHOLE ON THE OTHER HAND To be clear Narus whole thing is that hes stuckup. He gets the nickname Naru because Mai thinks hes narcissistic. Hes 17 and the head of a paranormal research agency blunt and rude and clearly hiding some secrets. Hes not so bad that you probably hate him but hes Mais opposite. He ALSO has a communication problem and we all know how much I want to reach into my screen and strangle people who dont communicate. The problem is along the lines of I let you think this thing wed do would hurt people and so you got very upset and yelled at me in front of everyone but it turns out were doing the thing in a way that WONT hurt people but still its an asshole move because I cant think of a single instance where he couldnt at least have said I dont have time to explain but were being careful. The side characters are what really make the show great. Youve got your Catholic exorcist a young priest with a disposition as sunny as his hair a teenage spirit medium who dresses in traditional kimono and has a crush on Naru a shrine maiden unattached to a shrine Ayako gets the short stick as far as character development and doesnt get a chance to shine until the last case of the series I am bitter and a monkonhiatus whos part of a rock band. Monk is one of the best parts of the series: besides being just a fun and competent character he also takes the role of big brother/uncle to Mai and they have a very sweet relationship. https://youtu.be/XrluW0CAKWI While the characters are the heart of the show we do actually have stories: the things theyre called in to deal with. These range from minor nuisance in the park to evil entity actively murdering people. The story spends time with them too I think there was only one case in the entire series that was wrapped up in one episode. Everything else ranges from 24 episodes so it can really take its time focusing on their investigations and drama. Most stories are what youd expect from ghost stories: spirits dark and creepy atmosphere etc. but one 4episode arc near the end of the series did feature an old hospital and murders and shots of blood spatters though no shots of actively bleeding people or bodies. The manga its based on was never fully released in the USA 11/12 volumes came out before its publisher imploded and it was never picked up again by anyone else and is now out of print so the anime is really your only chance to legally enjoy it in any form. Verdict English dub? Yes and Mais English voice is one of my favoritesshe actually sounds like a teenage girl Tonally in her indignation everything Everyone else is fine: Ayako the shrine maidens voice almost perfectly matches her Japanese one and both capture that slightlysnobbylady vibe. Catholic exorcist Johns given an Australian accent I think in the original he speaks Japanese with a Kansai accent so this is trying to convey the different dialect idea older assistant Lin sounds exactly like a serious man in his twenties and Monk sounds not just realistic but perfectly captures his ability to switch from casual to serious joking to caring. Narus voice stands out the most as someone trying to match the Japanese voice because his has elements of trying to lower the voice not trying to make it deep butif youve watched a lot of anime dubs you know what I meansometimes male characters in Japanese have a lowpitched semisoftness quality that we really dont hear in American English voices so its always obvious to me when someone is trying to do that in a dub. Visuals: I mean its from 2006 so its not going to blow you away but its not ugly. Worth watching? YES. PLEASE. Ive watched the entire thing through thrice now. I mean there are flaws. Often the female characters are relegated to watching and guarding while the males actively attack or defend. Naru should be nicer to the teenager he employs. The anime came out while the manga was still being produced so we dont get to delve into characters backstories but the series does at least end happily.