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Homura Akemi (暁美ほむら?) is one of the five main Magical Girls in Puella Magi Madoka☆Magica anime and manga series. She's a second-year student at Mitakihara Middle School and is in the same class as Madoka and Sayaka.

In The Rebellion Story, she unlocked her devil form, Devil Homura (悪魔ほむら?).

Bio

Appearance

As a civilian, Homura is a beautiful young girl with hip-length black hair and flat purple eyes. In the present timeline, she almost always presents herself with an emotionless, stoic look on her face and a black headband. Long before she came to realize the horrors of her destiny in earlier timelines, she wore red square glasses accompanied by braids with purple bows, thus causing her hair to branch out in two sides in the present timeline upon removing the braids. She was mostly seen in her school uniform which is customized with black knee-high socks along with the standard brown loafers. In the present timeline, she is mostly in her school uniform which is customized with black leggings along with the standard brown loafers.

As a Magical Girl, she wears a white, long-sleeved coat that splits in the center near the end of the sleeve, which is lined by a black trim. She sports a black, collared shirt, and the collar is lined with white along the edges. She also has a dark purple bow with long tails in the center of the collar. Around this, she has another larger dull, light purple seifuku-style collar, which has a black diamond shape on the back of it, all of which is over a black, long-sleeved shirt. The skirt is a light almost grey purple with a white, ruffled trim. She also wears black tights with purple diamonds that line the sides of her legs and black heels. The coat appears to have a flower-like pattern with three "petals," and has a purple bow in the back with two long ribbons that end in half-diamond shapes with black, triangle-shaped designs lining the ends.

As Devil Homura, her devil form, her eyes are now magenta, she wears a black dress that is longer in the back. The top of this dress is a heart-shaped plunging neckline, with the inside of the chest piece being sharp to mimic feathers. She has a similarly paired choker, with a bow-and-arrow shaped piece that lays flatly across her chest. Moving down to the bodice portion of the dress, the sides are cut to where only the middle portion of her torso is covered, while the rest, including the back, is fully revealed. The bottom points outwards to either side, the ends being feathers to match her "fallen angel" concept. The inside of the skirt resembles a universe, just as Madoka's. She also wears thigh-high socks that follow a diamond pattern, like the adornments on the stockings she wears as a magical girl. The outfit is complete with black flat shoes with an anklet piece attached, and full-length gloves that end with two strands. This form keeps the hair ribbon that Madoka gave her at the end of the series.

Personality

Ever since her initial arrival at Mitakihara Middle School in the first episode, Homura is depicted as being very intelligent, athletic, distant, and cold. It is revealed in episode four that she ended up like this because she had seen so much suffering during her tenure as a Magical Girl. Because of this, she does not want Madoka Kaname to become a Magical Girl and exudes her best efforts in order to stop her from making a wish with Kyubey, going as far as to attempt to injure or kill the cat-like creature. Despite her cold attitude towards the others, she still very much cares for them, and especially Madoka, as it is her sole objective to protect her ever since she made her wish.

In the original timeline where her journey began, however, Homura is portrayed, and is known around the school for her lack of confidence. She was also known for her physical incapability of performing in P.E. class; she would get dizzy upon doing even the simplest of warm-up exercises, likely because of her time spent in the hospital due of her heart condition. This ended up having the result of her being a target of bullying, as heard on Drama CD 1. Overwhelmed by her perceived uselessness, she begins questioning the worth of her existence as she wanders into a Witch labyrinth. As she is trembling at the hands of the familiars, Madoka saves her life, and she begins her fated friendship with her. Madoka, alongside Mami Tomoe, shows her the basics and dangers of becoming a Magical Girl, and notes that Madoka's attitude became much healthier with every Witch battle.

Despite being regarded as emotionless by Sayaka Miki, Homura is shown to be capable of feeling and expressing emotion. Although she does not easily show signs of remorse, sadness, or pity, it is only because she had grown used to the suffering around her, and must put up a strong front to continue fighting for her goal. Homura herself has stated that she always feels badly with each life she's unable to save or alter, but nevertheless, it does not slow her down from staying true to her objective in saving Madoka Kaname.

Etymology

Homura (ほむら?): When written in kanji, there can be various meanings[1]. In episode 10, Madoka says that Homura's name means "flame; blaze".

Akemi (暁美?): Ake (?) translates to "dawn"[2]and mi (?) translates to "beauty"[3].

Backstory

Homura's portrayal as a cold, asocial, hardened Magical Girl who lacks empathy is actually not at all like the person she originally was. Homura had a heart disease which left her bedridden for a long time, likely leading to her becoming unsocialized. As is shown in episode 10, she initially transferred into Mitakihara Middle School as a timid, shy, and unsure girl before getting encouragement from the first person who reached out to her, Madoka Kaname, who also complimented her name, which she mentioned being self conscious about. After finding out Madoka was a magical girl after wandering into a barrier, along with meeting Mami Tomoe, she felt inspired by them and looked up to them after they saved her life. All is seemingly going well until Walpurgisnacht appears. Mami dies at the hands of the witch, and before Homura could get hurt, Madoka turns and goes to fight the witch by herself. Madoka ends up dying in front of Homura, and she cries over her body, and then makes her wish: "I want to redo my meeting with Miss Kaname. But this time, instead of her protecting me, I want to become strong enough to protect her (source: Netflix subs)," which granted her time powers, and she was immediately thrust back in time to her first day of school, in the beginning of the month.

Timeline 2

Homura, now a Magical Girl, with newfound confidence and excitement, transfers into school all over again, walking straight up to Madoka after her name is written on the board and introducing herself as a Magical Girl, to the dismay of the class and the embarrassment of Madoka. After an indefinite amount of time, she meets up with Madoka and Mami again. With Madoka and Mami as her coaches, she begins training to use her time magic alongside close combat weaponry, and ends up constructing bombs to use as her offensive weapons. In this timeline, Homura fights her first Witch, and with Mami and Madoka's help, she's able to defeat it. This timeline ends when Madoka's soul gem becomes corrupted during the battle with Walpurgisnacht, and is about to become a Witch.

Timeline 3

After coming to the realization that Kyubey is tricking everyone, she does her best to try to convince everyone of that truth, to which Sayaka, who had become a Magical Girl, doesn't believe her and presumes she's only trying to turn everyone against each other, and also adds that Homura would be useless to their team because bombs are the only offensive attack that she has. Following Sayaka's words, Homura steals firearms from a locker and is presumably accepted into their team. Once Sayaka became a Witch, Homura apologizes before using these firearms to defeat it. After the Witch battle is over, Mami shoots and breaks Kyoko's soul gem, before tying up Homura with ribbons and aiming her gun at her, in an attempt to "save" all of them by killing them all and herself so no one would suffer. Madoka shoots and breaks Mami's soul gem with an arrow before she can break Homura's soul gem, and then bursts into tears. Homura comforts her and assures her both of them can defeat Walpurgisnacht by themselves. This timeline ends when Madoka and Homura are lying together in the wreckage of Walpurgisnacht's destruction, defeated. Both of their soul gems are clouded. Homura doesn't have any Grief Seeds, but Madoka secretly had one saved, so she used it on Homura's soul gem suddenly, healing her. Madoka asks Homura to go back in time and save her and everyone else from making a contract with Kyubey. Homura agrees. She shoots and breaks Madoka's soul gem at Madoka's request, killing her, all while crying and wailing. It's at the reset of this timeline -- the fourth timeline -- where Homura gets rid of her glasses and braids and transforms herself into the Homura we see from then on.

Series Timeline

Homura is first seen in Episode 1 in Madoka's dream at the start of the series. She is in pain and struggling against Walpurgisnacht.

Later on she is introduced as a transfer student at Madoka's school. She claims that her head is hurting, and asks to go to the nurse, knowing that Madoka is the nurse's aide. Homura is shown to lead Madoka to the nurse's office rather than Madoka leading her, which seems to put Madoka off, as she nervously shuffles with her hands and attempts to make conversation with the other girl. Homura suddenly turns on her heel and asks Madoka if she truly treasures everyone around her, and if she would ever give up the life that she had. Madoka replies that, no, she is happy with the way things are and loves everyone she knows.

Homura then meets Madoka again later, after Madoka has been lead to Kyubey. Homura is seen trying to kill Kyubey. When Madoka saves Kyubey, Homura is displeased and tells Madoka that the situation is none of her business. Then, Sayaka shows up to save Madoka, spraying Homura with a fire extinguisher.

Powers and Abilities

Abilities

  • Her shield, which is actually a sand timer[4] has given her the ability to turn back time approximately going back one month ago.
    • Her shield can also make projectile protections.
    • Her shield can also be used as a storage device for her weapons which she takes from Japanese military bases.Episode 10
    • She can also stop time, but if she touches someone then this person won't be affected by her time magic.
  • She can teleport.Episode 06

Trivia

  • Homura is the first Magical Girl to:
    • Have a part of her name in her Witch name, Homulilly.
    • Not to have her hair, eye color and Soul Gem all the same color.
    • Have no mentioned or visible relatives at all.
  • Homura loves cats.
  • She attended a Catholic school in Tokyo prior to transferring in Mitakihara Middle School.Episode 01
  • Her demon name, Devil Homura, is given only setting materials and in the Magia Record game.
    • The Japanese word for Devil (悪魔 Akuma?) sounds very close to her surname, Akemi.
  • As given in various stories in Portable, Homura lives alone.
  • According to Gen Urobuchi in an interview in Animagic 2013, Homura is the strongest Magical Girl as long as no one discovers the true nature of her powers.[5]
    • According to the same interview, Homura travelled through approaching 100 timelines.
  • Her shield being a sand timer is connected to Kriemhild Gretchen and Walpurgisnacht having matching silhouettes. Both Witches are described as the lower and upper halves of a sand timer respectively, according to the Production Note.
  • Her popularity was well received in the following nominees.
    • She won first place in the Best Female Character category at the annual Newtype Anime award in 2011.
    • In the Anime Grand Prix polls, Homura was voted as one of the most popular female anime characters.
    • Placed first for "8 Essential Time-Travelling Heroines" list and was placed second on "Best Female Character with Glasses" in 2013.
    • In the Newtype anime awards for 2013, Homura was ranked fourth on the list of "Top 10 Best Female Anime Characters".
    • In another Newtype anime awards from 2014, Homura was again placed at number four on the list of Best female anime characters.
    • In 2014, NTT customers voted Homura as their 5th favorite black haired female anime character.
    • In 2015, Homura was voted by fans as the fourth "Tragic anime heroine" according to Charapedia poll. In 2016, Homura was ranked second for "Top 10 Shaft Heroines" according to Shaft's Madogatari Heroine official Poll.
    • Her voice actress Chiwa Saitō also won the "Best Supporting Actress" award for her portrayal of the character in the Newtype Anime Award in 2011.

References


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