Homura Akemi

Homura Akemi
Puella Magi Madoka Magica character
Homura as portrayed in her school uniform in Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
Created by	Akiyuki Shinbo, Gen Urobuchi, and Ume Aoki[1]
Voiced by	Chiwa Saitō (Japanese), Cristina Vee (English)[2]

Homura Akemi (暁美 ほむら, Akemi Homura) is a character from the 2011 anime series Puella Magi Madoka Magica and its related media. As a magical girl, Homura has the ability to travel back in time, and uses this in the anime in an attempt to save the life of title character Madoka Kaname.^[3] Created by Akiyuki Shinbo and Gen Urobuchi, and designed by Ume Aoki, the character plays an important role in Madoka Magica media and merchandise.

Character

Homura is a magical girl who first appears in a nightmare of Madoka's. She transfers into Madoka's school the day after the dream. She is unnaturally good at everything she does, including academics and sports. This makes her instantly popular, even though she is cold and demeaning towards others. Homura's indifferent personality is the result of her failures while going through approaching 100 timelines.^[4]

Originally a shy second-year student, she was befriended by Madoka and eventually saved from a witch by her and Mami, who revealed that they were magical girls. When Mami died in the fight with the rampaging witch Walpurginacht, Madoka sacrificed her life to stop it. Homura, overcome by grief and uselessness, contracted with Kyubey in order to become a person that could protect Madoka, just as Madoka protected her. Her wish was to be able to return to her original meeting with Madoka, leading Homura to receive the power to manipulate time to a certain extent. Homura cares deeply for Madoka, however this caring is eventually twisted into a sole, obsessive fixation on Madoka's survival regardless of her feelings, and Homura never gives up on trying to "save" Madoka, even as she grows more cold, intimidating and antagonistic to others, taking on the role of the "rival hero" magical girl archetype. Caught up in a predestination paradox, she tries again and again to prevent Madoka from being killed or making a contract, but time after time fails to save her. After a timeline reset, Homura always returns to the hospital room she formerly lived in. Since she is always reset to the same age as when she was living in hospital, as a result of her timeline resetting, Homura's physical age is not the same as her mental age; mentally, she is far older than she looks, again a result of her going through what is now approaching 100 timeline cycles.

Her magical weapon is a shield filled with sand that allows her to freeze time. However, this power becomes useless if she is physically restrained as she cannot turn her shield to activate it. She can also use this shield to block projectiles and store the various infinite amount of weapons that she carries. Since her shield and magic has no offensive capability, she instead attacks using stolen firearms and homemade explosives while time is stopped. None of the girls actually know what weapons she has, since she only uses them while time is stopped. Homura cannot reset time until all the sand in her shield is drained – which happens approximately a month and a half from her discharge from the hospital, on the day of Walpurgisnacht – after which she can reset the timeline whenever she desires.

In the final timeline, she inherits Madoka's bow – now a sleek ebony bow with purple diamond setting – and arrows, along with a set of white wings. Homura continues to fight in the new world against the wraiths, despite believing that the world was irredeemably full of tragedies, because it was a world that Madoka once tried to protect, and she vowed never to forget Madoka's resolve.

Her witch form in the PSP Game and the movie Rebellion is Homulilly, known as the Witch of the Mortal World in the PSP Game and the Nutcracker Witch in Rebellion.

At the end of Rebellion, Homura usurps Ultimate Madoka and becomes the being Akuma Homura (悪魔 ほむら), splitting Madoka and her goddess form, sealing her powers and rewriting the universe. Unlike Ultimate Madoka, Akuma Homura can take human form in the new world, and does not exist as a concept. She managed to enslave the Incubator race, who now work under her to take on the curses of the new world. Ultimate Madoka's powers are sealed within her earring, which can change to and from a lizard form, and walk around on its own.

Development

Homura is voiced by Chiwa Saitō.^[5]

The pair of black wings Homura sprouts in the final episode of Madoka Magica was not originally written in the script by Urobuchi. The detail was added by production designers Gekidan Inu Curry, and Urobuchi was happy with the addition as it added more "mystery and depth" to the character. Gen also described Homura's role at the end of the series as that of an "evangelist", the only person in the world that understands Madoka's existence and importance^[6]

Cristina Vee, voice actress of Homura in the English dub of the anime, stated in 2012 that Homura is the most "complex" character she has voiced.^[2]

Media

Homura is a popular character to cosplay.^[7]

The character of Homura has played a large role in all Madoka Magica media, including the original anime series, the subsequent feature-length films, and the main Madoka Magica manga series. In 2015, two spin-off manga series featuring Homura as the main character were announced: a four-panel fantasy slice-of-life comic titled Puella Magi Homura Tamura, and Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Homura's Revenge, an alternate universe story where Madoka joined Homura in her time traveling.^[8]

The focus of the third Madoka Magica film, Rebellion, is primarily on Homura and her relationship with Madoka.^[9][10] Homura is the player character of Puella Magi Madoka Magica TPS featuring Homura Akemi, a third-person shooter video game for Android released in 2011.^[11][12]

A large amount of Homura-related merchandise has been created, such as a Nendoroid figure produced by Good Smile Company,^[13] a figure produced by Kotobukiya based on an "itain" stamp,^[14] and a replica set of Homura's ear cuff that sold for 21,600 yen.^[7] In 2014, 2 PM Works created two sets of high heels, inspired by Madoka and Homura respectively.^[15]

Reception

Homura's character has been well received in Japan. She won first place in the Best Female Character category at the annual Newtype Anime award in 2011.^[16][17] In the Anime Grand Prix polls, Homura was voted as one of the most popular female anime characters.^[18] In Biglobe poll, Homura ranked first in the category "Anime Girl that Attracts the Most Desperate Fanboys".^[19][20][21] In another poll, she was ranked tenth for "Cutest Anime Character"^[22] and was also voted as the fourth "Innocent Anime Heroine".^[23] She was placed first for "8 Essential Time-Travelling Heroines" list^[24] and was also placed second on "Best Female Character with Glasses" according to Japanese poll in 2013.^[25] In NHK popularity poll, Homura was voted as the second best heroine.^[26]

In the Newtype anime awards for 2013, Homura was ranked fourth on the list of "Top 10 Best Female Anime Characters".^[27] In another Newtype anime awards from 2014, Homura was again placed at number four on the list of Best female anime characters.^[28] In 2014, NTT customers voted Homura as their 5th favorite black haired female anime character.^[29] In 2015, Homura was voted by fans as the fourth "Tragic anime heroine" according to Charapedia poll.^[30] In 2016, Homura was ranked second for "Top 10 Shaft Heroines" according to Shaft's Madogatari Heroine official Poll.^[31][32] The Charapedia Japanese website has made an annual survey of which anime characters of the mysterious newcomers are most fascinating. Homura ranked first in the category of "Most Alluring Transfer Students".^[33] In another poll from Charapedia, Japanese fans voted her as the second "Most Enchanting Magic Girls".^[34][35]

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.^[16]

References

External links

• CHARACTER｜魔法少女まどか☆マギカ