DESCRIPTION

CAST

NOVEL ActionYour Forma: Densa Kukan Echika to Kikai Shikake no Aibou
MANGA ActionYour Forma
ONA MysteryPetit Forma: Denpa Kyoku Nisshi

REVIEWS

• 

  marioink508

  75/100
  A Nightmare of a Start

  _This review contains __MODERATE SPOILERS__ for __YOUR FORMA__._ ‎‎ [__A Nightmare of a Start__](https://anilist.co/user/marioink508/) __An intriguing humanoid partnership at the heart of its best cases__ — _but the series’ vague lore and sluggish setup keep the first half under a cloud of confusion._ --- ‎‎ [__Story - 7/10__](https://anilist.co/user/marioink508/) ‎‎ 'YOUR FORMA' is another entry into the crime investigation space, and while it does have a good structure and engaging arc towards the end of the season, the initial episodes fall flat due to the mediocre execution regarding the introduction into the world. This series follows this decently complex humanoid 'amicus' system which is vaguely explained in the initial episodes, which makes for a hard time into solving the functions by yourself. The investigation aspect sort of things is less convoluted, yet still not explained and left for interpretation for the most part of the first half. That is by far the issue that had the most amount of confusion... this world uses many technologies as well as complex concepts that lack an introduction, as well as words that just don't have a real meaning in the initial episodes due to the show's introductory where it feels like you are trying to decipher a foreign language, while also trying to piece together the world for a better understanding. Structure wise the series is decently simple, it follows multiple cases across a single season, which is fine, yet the initial crime investigations feel cluttered as well as underwhelming. That's because of the previous issue regarding the convoluted introduction as well as the basis of those cases being simple and predictable with no redeeming moments. I did assume this was a choice to make the world introduction at first, and that might be the case, yet even so, it does not manage to achieve much outside of an important character element regarding Harold. The second half is where this series manages to pick up the pace and expand the complexity of the investigations, with the world being figures out by this point, the series becomes more legible and a lot easier to follow. This half presents two major cases, which cut into each other really well and also make for a rewarding experience compared to the previous ones. These investigations cover important moments that tie in with Harold's past as well as Bigga's. Mostly focusing on Harold's side of things, it manages to connect the previous important elements we learned about during the initial episodes, making for a great arc that has both complexion and an unexpected factor. The emotional depth around this 'final' investigation is really well done and achieves what the rest of the series couldn't... ‎‎ #####_Episode 11 'Replay of the Nightmare'_

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  Characters - 7.7/10
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  Echika and Harold are the leads in this series, a gifted female investigator that has previous bad experiences around 'amicus' robots as well as a slight dislike towards them, and Harold, a specific specially crafted humanoid 'amicus', a character that I found really impressive across the board. Starting of with his JP VA, it is perfect... he portrayed really well the feeling of a robot, with the short pauses, the slightly robotize voice while still having that human touch, and also the moments where he does lose his temper and slips into a more human behavior, everything regarding his voicing during this series was genuinely well executed. Outside of this voice, this character has real depth behind, depth that is heavily explored during the second half of the season, a traumatic background which builds greatly into the emotional depth that this show provides in the later times. He is a really intelligent humanoid, as most 'amicus' are, yet his human side of things brought out an impressive amount of detail that elevated his character to becoming something special for this series.

  On the other side there is Echika, while I did enjoy seeing through her eyes around this series, she is a lot less defined as a character. She is a lot simpler as a person, not having many great qualities to get her into a higher position. She is a gifted individual, making for the appearance of the 'dive' sequences, which are great, but when it comes to being an investigator she never really gets that good... most of the times Harold is already two steps ahead and she falls behind really easily. There is also the fact that she just is not anywhere near as intelligent which is fair, yet what purpose does she actually serve in the end? she is mostly a bystander accompanying Harold.

  There are also some side characters worth mentioning, like Bigga, who was a decent person overall, she made for a pivotal moment in the series but that's about it, her personality is sweet but that's not really anything to drag by in this series. And there is Sozon, the person that had the most implications in Harold's flashbacks, a human that realistically shaped most of Harold and an great investigator from what we got to see of him.
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  Episode 1 'Mechanical Friends: Amicus Robots'

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  Visuals - 7.2/10
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  The visuals for 'YOUR FORMA' are not one of the main priorities from what it seems. For an investigation series, it does fit the vibe to have a more dull color palette and keep the animation more discrete. But I feel like this series doesn't really try to make it's animation look good either. They do make the gore scenes look damn good, but I feel like that might be more on the way the direction for the series is. A lot of buildings and environment feel quite simple. In this series we do switch from a country to another multiple times, which I feel like should be shown better, many times if it wasn't for the context, I would not be able to realize that the city was changed. And that is on the lack of environmental detail. But outside of that the animation is fine. It works and it's not bad to the point that it hinders my experience, I just wish it focused more on backgrounds that matter, and didn't have such a monochromatic palette.

  The only exception to this dull world, would be the 'dive' sequences, which don't happen often, but when they do the abstract art around looks really good and fluid. It also uses more vibrant colors making for some stunning visuals. Unfortunately, there are not many of those moments which does make this quite an old / lost in time looking series, despite it's sci-fi world elements, like it's holograms and futuristic technology, making for a disjointed art style in comparison with the narrative.
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  Episode 1 'Mechanical Friends: Amicus Robots'

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  Closing Notes
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  This series was a pretty decent entry into the mystery genre, it made for some good investigations towards the end, achieving both emotional depth and complexity, but as a whole series, the introduction does hinder the core values of this show quite a lot, making for a convoluted experience overfilled with complexity. And while this does clear up after some time, it does irreparable damage to the series. The characters are for the most parts decent with some standout exception. The same applies for the animation as well. There are just a lot more better choices in the genre that manage to achieve what 'YOUR FORMA' is trying to, and they do it better, which leaves this series to be just another crime investigation anime with a low amount of redeeming qualities.
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  Enjoyment Level - 7.9/10
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  Favorite Character - Harold Lucraft
  Favorite Episode - Episode 12 ‘Manifestation of the Nightmare’

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• 

  luxray978

  50/100
  An overcrowded series that fails to capture any specific appeal

  Animation
  The animation in Your Forma is fine during talking scenes but struggles when the show needs to display action. This isn't a large flaw as the show doesn't need to focus on fast paced movement often but it doesn't act as a draw either. During the brain-diving sections, there is an attempt at being creative with mindbending visuals which I normally enjoy a lot. However, these segments visually felt like a mixed bag: I found the shakeup of the animation style to be nice but I felt like they could’ve gone further with it instead of sticking to changing colors and some theme associated oddities.

  Characterization
  Your Forma suffers from a bland main duo which while in Harold's case is thematically appropriate creates a dull viewing experiance.

  I like Echika’s character design visually with its layering and hanging bits but it doesn’t feel clear why she is dressed in a unique way considering her personality. Despite her flashy looks she feels passive and bland throughout the show. This is made worse by how she continually becomes a helpless damsel. In the investigations, she sometimes makes small leaps in logic when she’s overshadowed by her counterpart. Despite this being the setup it doesn’t feel like a good Holmes-Watson dynamic but she isn’t given another reason to be around besides the brain-diving making it unclear most of the time why she is here in the first place. If the intent was to commentate on these traits it would be one thing but the show seems to think Echika is playing an active role and this disconnect causes a lot of problems.

  For the majority of the series, Harold is monotone and doesn’t present much interest to the viewer. While he’s a Master Detective, his strict regurgitation of information doesn't provide interest. While this is the point of his character arc and he improves a lot in the final arc when combined with Echika who is equally uninteresting the result is a flat and lifeless stage presence for most of the show.

  Regarding his interactions with Echika, I think There is supposed to be a romantic element here but it never landed for me. The concept of them being able to understand everyone else but not each other is interesting but it doesn’t feel fleshed out. I can sometimes see what they are going with and some moments in isolation work okay but as a whole it feels empty. These issues may be due to the choice to skip the first arc of the light novel (which I have not read) but I don’t think that’s completely the case. The problem is a continual failing and not due to not knowing information about their backstory that leads to these issues.

  Worldbuilding

  The worldbuilding of Your Forma is an overcrowded disaster that forces the Your Forma, Biohacking, Amicus robots, and Brain Diving to share the same space. Each of these ideas feels like they need far more room to breathe and they end up choking each other out.
  Despite the show being named after them, Your Forma isn’t particularly interesting, they mostly act like a cell phone despite the show's attempts to say otherwise. “Isolation units” and “dead zones” appear whenever necessary and make the “you always have a computer embedded in you” aspect takes a sideline in the mysteries. Their major presence is showing a heads-up display through character’s POVs which I didn’t find particularly interesting and being a pathway to access cyber-reddit.

  Ostensibly Biohacking is somehow related to Your Forma but it’s unclear how or why and it mostly feels like a bizarre way to have a doctor who is in junior high. There are implications they are some type of anti-technology fundamentalists but it’s very unclear how or why and the whole concept feels like a slapped-on addition.

  The Amicus robots are the most developed aspect of this world thematically but their interaction with them feels very surface-level. It raises some interesting questions about the line of consciousness but doesn’t feel the need to engage with these themes deeply. The “Laws of respect” acting as modified Asimov laws are brought up frequently but I didn’t find the discussion of them to be very detailed or interesting.

  Brain diving finds itself extremely underexplored thematically and mostly serves as a segue for attempts at glittery scenes. This lack of interest is a missed opportunity for narritive dept. The concept of police having the ability to dig into people’s brains at will for information seems rife for social commentary. The storytelling style for these segments is somewhat unique in it's narrative style but it’s not enough to be a draw to the series on its own. In comparison Id:Invaded has a similar concept with some incredible visuals and discussion of the thematics of the situation which I found far more enjoyable.

  The show would’ve benefited massively from focusing on one or two aspects instead of spreading themselves thin and introducing multiple high concepts they can’t properly handle. I understand the urge to make the world feel more advanced by adding all of these together but in the absence of a major change to the way society functions, it ends up crowding the waters.

  Plot and story structure

  Your Forma didn’t work for me as a pure deductive mystery since there don’t feel like enough clues to figure things out on your own. However, it doesn’t feel like it functions properly as a thriller either with the plots feeling slow and low stakes except when they decide to have Echika get kidnapped again. The final arc improves on this and has a much better thriller structure but it feels too little too late, the constant jumping between concepts as mentioned in the worldbuilding section has left gaps that can't be patched up.

  Conclusion
  While Your Forma is fundamentally fine I can’t imagine telling someone to watch it with its blank characters and muddled themes. While it’s easy to blame the adaptation for this there are structural issues on a basal level that doomed it from the start. To create a good version of the series you would need to trim the fat and hone in on a thematic element to define the story. I find myself very disappointed as I was excited for a science fiction mystery series but I don’t think I can give Your Forma any higher than a 5/10.

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• 

  HeartbreakRebel

  52/100
  An anime that just felt way too complex for me

  My Review of "YOUR FORMA"!

  

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  I need to rest my brain after this….

  ____Story____

  This show follows two detectives by the name of Echika Hieda and Harold W. Lucraft. In this world, a device called Your Forma was implemented onto the brains of humans to save humanity. Together, robots and humans coexist. However, mysteries arise that lead the two main detectives to go through multiple different conflicts each episode.

  ____Characters____

  Echika Hieda and Harold W. Lucraft are similar in the way that they’re both serious about their work. Although they’re both kinda emotionless, Harold does show more emotion and is more alert than Hieda, but Hieda is quite talented as a detective, being great at brain diving, a technique to analyze memories of someone’s brain.

  ____The Good____

  It was slow grower, but I ended up enjoying the catchiness of the ending song. I usually complain about how the characters singing the OP or ED track is corny and annoying, but I guess the presentation made it more whimsical and fun. Focusing more on the story of the anime, I found it to be quite interesting. From what I could understand, the mysteries definitely required some thinking, but they were somewhat fun to go through.

  ____The Bad____

  This anime just felt way too complicated for my liking. I feel like the creator spent a bit too much time going into the details of world-building that it made the mysteries a bit harder to understand. I feel like I’d have to rewatch this anime like 3 times for everything to make sense, and I’m just not a fan of that. I like some complexity in my mystery anime, but I’d prefer less compared to this.

  ____The Downright Ugly____

  Nothing downright ugly here (apart from those murders….)

  ____Is It Worth The Watch?____

  If you want a complicated anime with some interesting mysteries, this might be worth the watch. Personally, I don’t think it’s worth the watch otherwise. That ending is pretty catchy though!

  Thank you for taking the time to read my review. I hope this helped you with your decision on whether to watch this anime or not! If you already have watched it, I hope that you can agree with me with some of the points I made. If you enjoyed this review, I would greatly appreciate a follow too! ^^

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