George Lucas once explained that the second act of a series is about putting the characters, who are now established, in the worst situation possible (ex. Luke loses a hand, Han is frozen in carbonite). In volume seven of Your Forma, it feels exactly like we’re in that middle act—everything is going to hell, and there doesn’t seem to be any reasonable way out. But in the midst of all this suffering—as with The Empire Strikes Back—this volume is one of the most exciting, best volumes of the budding sci-fi classic.

The situation is almost unimaginable for Harold and Echika right from the start. After being taken into custody following the hostage situation, Harold and his “brother” Steve are quickly moving toward the day they’ll be scrapped. Meanwhile, false charges abound for those in the Electrocrime Investigations Bureau, including Echika, as the Alliance members—including the Bureau’s own director—seek to cover themselves while using Echika to find an important item they believe she has access to.

One thing that author novel Mareho Ikuishi never does is pull punches; the situation in volume seven is bleak, and there apparently is no way out. Though we as readers know that things can’t end this way—with Echika put into prison and Harold shredded into a million pieces—the weight of the “machine” pressing upon them (courts of justice with their own agendas, a corrupt police system, a shadowy organization of powerful world leaders, a society that finds Harold too dangerous to keep “alive”) creates a feeling of dread throughout most of the volume.

Surprisingly enough, there is room in the midst of all this conspiracy and danger for romance—at least as far as it can be described as such between the android Harold and the emotionally stilted Echika. Even though the two are too clumsy for any type of conventional romance scene, the pages I’m describing are angsty and will tickle the “woman loves robot man” itch for those who are pushovers for the pairing. They’re among my favorite pages in the volume, though there are so many other passages to enjoy—those involving Echika’s visit to her past, a couple of visceral action scenes, and those involving fan favorite Fokine among them.

New characters introduced in (and one brought back into) this volume are both a strength and its weakness; while I enjoyed how rapidly the story built out some of the elements involving the Alliance, these characters somewhat function as a deus ex machina. They weren’t enough to bother me too much, but they do remind me that as much as I love Your Forma, it isn’t a perfect series.

Still, it’s one of the best sci-fi series I’ve encountered across any format and—if this book is any indication—is getting better by the volume. In this postscript, Ikuishi-sensei notes that the characters are entering their final chapter, maybe debunking my idea that we were in the middle of the adventure. But my hope is that the last chapters of this series stretch multiple volumes long, because I feel there’s richness to this world and plot left to be explored, and emotional depth for the main characters that I want Ikuishi-sensei to further plumb. Either way, it may be a while before it all ends—this volume came out in Japan almost eighteen months ago, and the volume before that in 2023. But take your time, sensei—this is a series worth waiting for.

Your Forma is published by Yen Press.

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