Murasakiiro no Qualia, or for normal people: Purple Qualia, is not very well known, but in my opinion it’s really a very good manga worthy of some more attention. Because I don’t want to spoil anything, the summary might look a little weird.
Story:
Purple Qualia tells the story of Hatou Manabu aka Gaku, and her odd friend Yukari. Or at least, odd is what most people would call her, because Yukari claims her purple eyes see everyone as robots, instead of as humans. Her vision also seems to give her insight into the abilities and sometimes even psyche of others. At first, Gaku thinks she's just weird, but as she sees more and more of Yukari's abilities, she can only believe/accept the fact that Yukari sees the world in a unique way.
After the introduction, we get some shoujo, slice-of-life, school life and even some possibly yuri romance elements in the story, until a certain event, after which the manga goes in a totally different direction: it becomes a sci-fi story. After a long explanation about quantum physics etc. (and when I say long, I mean really long), we get to some time-travelling with the multi-timelines idea (parallel worlds). Gaku tries everything she can in order to change the past, but the one thing she wants to change can never be changed. After thinking about whether or not there is something like fate/destiny, she gets to her strangest plan yet, which became possible because of the discovery of “the theory of everything” (a formula explaining every force in the universe), but even that didn’t exactly turn out the way she thought it would.
I guess what I want to say is: it starts out as a simple slice-of-life manga, but it turns into an intriguing sci-fi.
Characters:
There are only 4 characters in this manga that are really important for the story:
Gaku, the main character.
Yukari, the girl with the purple eyes
Nanami, Yukari’s first friend, but who doesn’t like Yukari anymore.
Alice, a girl genius who wants to take Yukari with her to a place for geniuses
Every one of these characters is well-worked out, unique, can be sympathised with and is in one way or another interesting. They all have their good and bad sides, and there is depth to their characters. Another bonus: they all react to things the way actual humans would react, which isn’t always the case in manga. In the second part of the manga, the story is kind of monopolized by Gaku, so she gets the most development (time travel also resets the characters of everyone else, which is kind of logical).
Art:
The artwork is acceptable at worst, and pretty at best. I don’t think anyone could give this artwork a bad score.
Overall:
Purple Qualia isn’t exactly what it seems to be at first, but that isn’t a reason to drop it. This manga gives you an intriguing story, good characters and nice art + moments where the author actually makes the reader think. Definitely recommended for anyone who is looking for a good manga with an intelligent story.