The only reason I read this was because it was recommended for fans of HakoMari, which I suppose I was at the time. My love for HakoMari has failed to hold up against the sands of time, but I still have a soft spot for Qualia the Purple. Not necessarily because the story is any good, or that the characters are close to my heart. I think you could enjoy this story just as much if you read it in that "so bad it's good movie" sort of way, but that's not what I'm talking about either. I guess, for me, this manga is more than the sum of its parts. It's got some interesting things to say, but even the author themselves says at the end, "I just drew this manga because I read up on quantum physics lol."

I guess this manga was my first real introduction to quantum physics, and I kind of understand how it works now, but given that this is a manga, I'm sure some of it's just pure bullshit. But that's the beauty of a well-written sci-fi manga: you can't tell if it's pure bullshit or not!

Or maybe I'm just an idiot. That's possible too.

So anyway, this manga does a drive-by on some interesting themes like abnormalities, time looping, individuality, and a bunch of other stuff. I'm a fan of that approach, but I'm sure to others it just feels like the author got a bit over-excited reading through wikipedia pages one afternoon and just decided to throw a bunch of shit together. There is, at least, a through line for the entire story. There's a point. It's not just a mish-mash of weird ideas (although, yeah, that's what it is), and I really have to commend what a good job the author did with characterising and developing the main character. I like it when the protagonist isn't a pussy, but they're also not a Mary Sue either. In fact, you could say that our protagonist is the most normal abnormal character in the story, which is what makes her so easy to empathise with, and so easy to cross the line along with her.

The art's also pretty okay, but there's nothing exceptional here. Character designs are probably the best part, but not to the point of being particularly memorable. Oh, but there are some neat visual metaphors toward the end that I really enjoyed.

By the way, this manga is actually adapted from a novel, and it's pretty easy to tell. Because this story should probably be a lot longer - although maybe it was like that in the novel, too. It sets up a lot of stuff in the beginning, but it never delves into it, and we only get a single answer to the many, many questions this novel poses. And yeah, I guess there's an ending, but it doesn't really feel like one. I don't necessarily have a problem with the way the author ended it, but I do have a problem with them not continuing the story from there. I can appreciate that they wanted to end it before it bored everyone's socks off, but maybe plan your story a bit better...

Both times I read this manga, I got the feeling that I was watching some serial show where the writers would keep introducing newer, cooler stuff on top of the other cool stuff without properly exploring the stuff before, and by the time they got to the last arc, they'd be out of time! So much of this story feels empty; like it's missing a bunch of characters and it's only including the footnotes. The entire setting from the first volume is completely thrown away, which I get is actually an intentional nod to the MC's mindset, but it feels wasted. Oh yeah, and the technobabble is interesting and all, but man was I starting to fall asleep two thirds of the way in.

If I were to rewrite this story, I would make it twice as long with half of the explanations and more cool character moments. Because that's what I love about the series: the way characters interact with each other. The cast of characters is not particularly enthralling from the get-go, but damn can the author write character drama well. The art helps a lot here in conveying the expressions of characters. The story goes to some dark places sometimes, but not to a gratuitous extent. There's always a point to the MC's actions (and the actions of those around her), and it's made clear by the end. Well, most of them.

Oh, and I suppose I should mention the "big bads" in the story, who are kept hilariously vague throughout with similarly vague and hilarious motivations for why they do what they do. They're good enough. They're just there for our MC to fight against. I honestly don't remember what they're called, so I'll just label them "The Syndicate" and move on.

I must say, unquestionably, the best aspect of Qualia is the main character. Not just because of her personality, but because of how the manga goes to great lengths to show the depths of her mind and develops her to such a point that she is constructed, deconstructed, and then re-constructed. Yeah, by the last third I was starting to get pretty bored and annoyed by the shounen-esque levels of escalation, but that last chapter made it all worth it for me. Even if I feel like it's not a proper ending. Her arc ends in such a satisfying way that it makes the entire journey worth it. That is, of course, not to say there weren't some great moments in the middle of the series too. The beginning, though, is lacking. Primarily because they don't come back to it in any meaningful way.

So yeah, I like the series, and I don't think the story is all that great or the characters are especially great or anything, but I just love how the writer used them. And when you cut through all of the psychobabble, at the heart of Qualia is a really simple theme and moral that, even though it has been presented numerous times throughout countless stories, has never been so heartrendingly poignant than here, with as many nuances.

I realise that sounds pretty vague and pretentious - probably even if you have read the manga - but I can't expand on my feelings without spoiling it. So I won't.

If you're a long-time contributor to Wikipedia (or just like reading a lot of words and feeling like you're learning stuff), you'll probably like Murasakiiro no Qualia.