Homura Akemi

> *“Remember this and take it to heart: Kindness sometimes leads to even greater tragedy.”*
>
>

*- Homura Akemi*

Homura Akemi is a protagonist (Later antagonist) and a former member of The New Action Squad.

## Character Information

### Personality

Cold
intelligent
smart
cunning
distant
silent
courageous
protective
manipulative
ruthless
devious
mysterious
stoic
powerful

### Goal

To protect the universe from evil (former)
To protect Madoka from danger/To fill the universe with darkness

## **BIOGRAPHY**

Homura's self portrayal as a cold, antisocial, hardened Magical Girl who lacks empathy is actually nothing more than a front she built for herself; those traits were not a part of her original personality. Homura 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 was 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 and looked up to them after being saved by them. When Walpurgisnacht comes along, and Madoka dies, 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. With her powers, she can pause time, store things in her shield, and go back in time to redo her meeting with Madoka.

Outside of Mitakihara City, she was also a member of The New Action Squad. But after the events of the season 4 finale, she had decided to stay with the villains on their side. But still vowing to protect Madoka.

## **APPEARANCE**

Homura is a young girl with waist-length black hair and violet eyes. In the present timeline, she almost always presents herself with an emotionless, stoic look on her face. Long before she came to realize the horrors of her destiny in earlier timelines, she wore red spectacles accompanied by two interlaces of braided hair, thus causing her hair to branch out in two sides in the present timeline upon removing the braids.

In her Magical Girl form, 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 said collar is lined with white along the edges. She also has a darker purple bow with long ribbons 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 dull, light purple with a white, ruffled trim. She also wears black leggings 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.

## **PERSONALITY**

Ever since her arrival at Mitakihara Middle School, Homura is immediately depicted as being very intelligent, athletic, distant, and cold. It is revealed in episode four that she is only like this because she has 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 tries to do anything in order to stop her from making a wish with Kyubey, going as far as to attempt to injure and even kill the cat-like creature. Despite her cold attitude towards others, she still very much cares for Madoka, as it is her sole objective to protect her due to the countless amount of blood, sweat, and tears she has shed over her jumps in time.

In the original timeline where her journey began, however, Homura is portrayed as meek, shy, timid, 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 due to her time spent in the hospital because of her heart condition. This had the unfortunate 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, where Madoka saves her and she begins her fated friendship with Madoka. Madoka, alongside Mami Tomoe, shows her the ropes and dangers of becoming a magical girl and notes that Madoka's own attitude became much healthier with every Witch battle. In an ironic twist, in the anime timeline, we see how frail and meek Madoka is, compared to the current Homura, whose personality had performed a complete 180-degree turn due to her experiences in multiple timelines.

Despite being regarded as emotionless by Sayaka Miki, Homura is far from it. 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 main objective in saving Madoka Kaname.

## **TRIVIA**

* The name **Homura** is written in hiragana, which has no special meaning. However, when written in kanji, it can read as:
	+ Flame or blaze (炎 or 焔)
	+ Heart on fire (心火)
	+ Mass of flame (炎叢)
	+ Village protector (保村)
	+ Beauty, Excellence or Surpass (秀)
	+ Village and Hamlet (邑)
* Homura's surname **Akemi** means "Bright" (**ake**) and "Mindset" (**mi**). It can also mean "dawn beauty".
* Homura is frequently referred to as "Homerun-chan" amongst Western fans, due to the similarity of the two names
* Japanese fans refer to her as "HomuHomu," as one of the runes in Episode 3 translates to this.
* In the Magia Record NA community, Homura with her glasses and braids is often referred to as "Moemura," while Homura without her glasses is referred to as "Coolmura".
* She is the first and only hero to turn into a villain and betray the New Action Squad.