pikestaff

Over the Moebius Skies

Fond of yuri and giant robots. Char Aznable's Pet Eevee, for better or for worse. Probably for worse.

last.fm listening


I just finished reading this manga. It's... a lot of things. It's about a girl who who sees people as robots, and how she seems doomed to die. And it's about the girl who wants to save her, through quantum mechanics. And also, there's a magical girl... as you can see. Her magical outfit seems to be based to some extent on the robots that her yuri crush sees humans as, which is a nice touch.

Really, though, it's hard to put this one into words, and it genuinely needs to be experienced to be fully appreciated. The story jerks you back and forth through time, into alternate reality after alternate reality, and shows you in horrifying detail just the lengths to which our protagonist will go to get the outcome she wants - and a lot of it is dark.

Yes, it's good old fashioned twisted and toxic yuri. Manabu, aka Gaku-chan, kills, tortures, manipulates, makes romantic advances, and in at least one timeline uses a magical girl baton to get what she wants, but because you can feel her desperation, it only serves to somehow make her a more sympathetic character. And besides, if she's treating life like a video game, it makes sense she wouldn't think much about the NPCs. But what will Marii think of everything Manabu has done for her? Ultimately, that's the heart of the story, bringing a bittersweet but wholesome end to a fascinating plot.

Qualia the Purple was published as a novel in 2009 and as a manga in January of 2011. This makes it older than Puella Magi Madoka Magica, with which it shares some plot devices. Sorry Homura, but Manabu did it first and she did it with style.


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