Echika Hieda is a genius electronic investigator who has solved many of the most difficult cases. However, her incredible skill has caused her to overload her aides' brains as they try to keep up with her. After putting yet another aide in the hospital, the higher-ups finally decide to assign her an aide who will be able to keep up with her—a cheerful android named Harold W. Lucraft. The unlikely duo must learn to trust each other in order to solve the impossible cases that are put before them.
Your Forma is a Japanese light novel series written by Mareho Kikuishi and illustrated by Tsubata Nozaki. It is currently published under Kadokawa's Dengeki Bunko label since March 2021 after winning the Grand Prize in the 27th Dengeki Novel Prize. It is licensed in English by Yen Press. A manga adaptation by Yoshinori Kisaragi was serialized in Young Ace, covering the first volume of the novels.
An anime adaptation has been announced.
Your Forma provides examples of:
- 20 Minutes into the Future: The series takes place in an alternate 2023, where incredibly advanced technology like androids and the Your Forma exist. For reference, the original story was submitted to the Dengeki Novel Prize in 2020.
- Abusive Parents: Echika's mother physically abused Echika before dumping her onto her father's doorstep, while her father barely took any notice of her and vastly preferred the Amicus over her.
- Advert-Overloaded Future: In this world, ads can be projected into your brain and field of vision via the Your Forma. Echika often has to swipe the ads out of the way just so she can see. This is what allows Elias Taylor's scheme in Volume 1 to go ahead, since the virus is spread using an innocuous-seeming ad that most people would simply scan past without thinking much about it.
- Alternate History: In this world, there was a virus outbreak in 1992 that led to the development of the Your Forma, an invasive medical thread device that was used to treat the virus and is now used as a cutting-edge information terminal. The story takes place in 2023, where the Your Forma had long been accepted as a part of everyday life.
- Androids and Detectives: Echika is an investigator who Dives into the memories of suspects, and Harold is her Amicus aide who anchors her and processes what she sees. In the first volume, Echika has to overcome her technophobia, which stems from abusive childhood.
- Androids Are People, Too: There are movements dedicated to giving Amicus more rights, and also many people who consider their personal Amicus to be part of their family.
- Buddy Cop Show: The premise of the series.
- Deceptively Human Robots: The Amicus look and speak like humans but act just robotically enough that you can tell that they're actually androids. The RF Models take this a step further.
- Do Androids Dream?: A running theme with the RF Models, but also with the Amicus as a whole. The RF Models are so advanced that it's easy to forget that they are only androids following their programming, but on the other hand they would act in ways that seem far too unlike a mere robot.
- Just a Machine: The Luddite faction views the Amicus as merely robots following their programming. Echika also used to think this way until she spent more time with Harold and overcame her personal issues with Amicus that stemmed from her abusive childhood.
- Mind Virus: The plot of Volume 1 revolves around a virus transmitted through the Your Forma that causes people to fall into comas.
- Same-Sex Triplets: The royal triplets, Steve, Harold, and Marvin, are all male.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: Amicus are programmed with the Laws of Respect, which keeps them from killing humans. But in Volume 3, Lexie reveals that the Laws of Respect are not real at all.
