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Who is Homura Akemi?
Homura is one of the main characters in the anime series, Puella Magi Madoka Magica (known as Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica in Japan). Released in 2011, Madoka Magica has been praised for its characters, soundtrack, and surreal visuals.
Homura first appears in protagonist Madoka Kaname’s dream, and later transfers into her class. She is a cold and mysterious girl, hardly ever interacting with anyone other than Madoka. Though she keeps her motivations secret, Homura is determined to stop Madoka from becoming a magical girl at all costs. In truth, Homura wished to redo her meeting with Madoka to save her from being killed by the witch Walpurgisnacht, and later, to prevent her from making her contract with Kyubey. She has repeated the same month “approaching 100” times and with each loop, becomes more and more emotionally distant from Madoka while Madoka’s own magical potential increases exponentially. Initially, Homura was a weak willed girl who Madoka saved from being eaten by a witch.
Within the Puella Magi series, girls with enough potential can become magical girls in exchange for having a single wish granted by a “messenger of magic,” Kyubey. As magical girls, it is their duty to fight witches spawned from negative emotions. While Homura is a magical girl, Kyubey strangely seems unaware of her wish and her abilities. Atypical for magical girls, Homura primarily fights with stolen weaponry (including guns, rocket launchers, and bombs), as opposed to magically constructed weapons. Homura’s true weapon is her shield, which also doubles as a sand timer. If Homura stops the flow of the sand in her shield, she will freeze time, which is the ability granted to her by her wish. Anything maintaining physical contact with Homura while time is frozen will continue to move if they remain in contact. To disguise the true nature of her abilities, Homura initially only stops time for brief intervals, moves a few paces, and then resumes time to appear as if she’s moving quickly or teleporting.
Homura in Video Games
The Puella Magi series has a small number of video games to its name, though only one has seen an official release outside of Japan. Madoka Magica Online was a browser based MMO available until May 28, 2015 where players could make their own magical girl and play through an altered version of the anime’s story. Madoka Magica Portable was a PSP game developed by Bandai Namco and released on March 15, 2012. This game is a rougelike RPG where players can once again play through the events of the anime, though it also features branching paths, allowing for new scenarios. Though this game has never seen an official western release, several English translation projects have been started over the years. Unfortunately, none have ever been completed, though a recent 2020 project features a complete translation of Madoka’s route. Bandai Namco have also published Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Battle Pentagram, an action RPG for the PS Vita.
By far the most notable Puella Magi game is the gacha game, Magia Record, which is thus far, the only Puella Magi game to see any release outside of Japan. This game features an original story, with all new characters designed by Madoka Magica character designer aokiume. However, the cast of Madoka Magica make appearances throughout, including Homura. Homura was available in her glasses version for free to all players at launch, while her “normal” version was only available for a limited time as this version is not native to the game’s timeline, and because she’s a popular character, the developers can make more money by withholding her. The game also features the original characters from the various Puella Magi spin-off manga.
Madoka Magica has also had several collaborations with other games, including Phantom of the Kill, Breath of Fire 6, Divine Gate, The Battle Cats, and Unison League. Most notably, Madoka Magica costumes and weapons were available in Monster Hunter Frontier G. The show’s OP, Connect, has appeared in numerous rhythm games (in cover form likely due to licensing issues), including Dance Dance Revolution and Taiko no Tatsujin. The Kalafina songs, Magia and Kimi no Gin no Niwa, have also appeared in Jubeat Plus.
Why Homura?
Honestly, I just think it’d be neat. According to a recent Source Gaming poll, exactly one person wants Madoka in Smash and another (not going to lie, this was probably my vote) voted for Iroha Tamaki, the protagonist of Magia Record. Sense at least one other person wants Puella Magi content in Smash, it should definitely happen. That’s how it works, right?
She’s an anime character. She’ll never appear in Smash.
Yes.
If they did by some miracle add a Puella Magi character, it would be Madoka.
Probably.
Homura and Sakurai
おみやげの八ツ橋もらった…。 pic.twitter.com/dXeL4UZUOG
— 桜井 政博 / Masahiro Sakurai (@Sora_Sakurai) August 30, 2013
Clearly, she’s in. No other possible explanation exists.
SHAFT
SHAFT animated Palutena's trailer so clearly they're getting a character.
Homura’s Moveset
Homura fights using an entire army’s worth of stolen and homemade weaponry. She’s used rocket launchers, mortars, handguns, machine guns, flashbangs and pipe bombs. So far, the only character to use modern weapons in this manner is Snake. Joker uses a (toy) handgun, but only for one move, and Bayonetta’s bullets are magical. Furthermore, Homura tends to leap through the air, allowing for more flowing graceful movement than Snake’s heavier ground-based combat.
The most notable aspect of Homura’s fighting style is her magical ability: the ability to freeze time. While she does use this ability to teleport, it could be yet another meter that when filled allows her to activate the slow motion effect on all targets. However, sense overusing magical abilities will cause the user to become a witch the ability could have some risk/reward tied to it instead of making it a meter. Perhaps the user is free to use the ability however they wish, but will take heavy amounts of recoil damage from its overuse? Or we could go SmashBoards tier gimmicky and give her a Grief Seed mechanic where she gets Grief Seeds from scoring KOs and using a Grief Seed will fill her Soul Gem meter which when filled allows her to use her time abilities free of charge. It’d be totally fine. I see nothing wrong with making a character this gimmicky.
Overall, I feel it would probably be best to just give her a really short distance teleport so she has poor recovery but can use it to quickly evade damage and reposition while she peppers the opponent with gunshots. This would be more faithful to her character than giving her some kind of wacky meter, and would probably be more fun. I do worry about this being extremely annoying online, but sense Homura’s
Homura’s Final Smash should be the scene below from 0:51 to 2:23. All 92 seconds of it. I will accept nothing else.
Stage Ideas
Madoka Magica has a number of locations that would make for some of the most unique looking stages in Smash Bros.
Any of the witch’s labyrinths would be excellent choices for stages. Gekidan Inu Curry’s style remains one of the strongest aspects of the Puella Magi series’ visual identity, and it would be a shame to see that passed up. Charlotte’s labyrinth would likely be the best pick as it is home to one of the most infamous scenes in Madoka Magica, though Gertrud’s labyrinth could also work as it is the first labyrinth encountered.
A stage set during Walpurgisnacht would also be an excellent choice, though it wouldn’t be as visually stunning as a labyrinth. Should this be chosen, I imagine it would likely be set during Madoka’s dream in episode 1 where the main stage platform would be the giant tree with Walpurgisnacht herself and the ruined city looming in the background. Walpurgisnacht could also serve as a stage hazard.
Another possible stage for Homura would be Homulilly’s labyrinth. This would cause a bit of an oddity where Homura would be both playable and the stage, but Chrom is both playable and a Final Smash, so it’s not too big a deal. Should this be chosen, it would be another location that would express Inu Curry’s visual style. On the other hand, this would be massive spoiler both for Madoka Magica and Rebellion just by existing, so even if Sakurai tends to not care about spoiling massive twists, I’d rather this not be chosen.
Music Ideas
Homura could come with an excellent selection of music even ignoring the games.
From Madoka Magica, Beginnings, Eternal, & Rebellion
- Connect
- Magia
- Sis Puella Magica!
- Credens Justitiam
- Decretum
- Agmen Clientum
- Venari Strigas
- Numquam Vincar
- Symposium Magarum
- Surgam Identidem
- Luminous
- Mirai
- A Human Bullet
- Colorful
- Absolute Configuration
- Misterioso
- Kimi no Gin no Niwa
From Magia Record
- Infinite Battle
- First Contact
- Place to Hunt
- Welcome to Mirrors
- Be Terrified
- Creation
- The Imaginator
- Battle Fields
- Initiation Battle
- The Crow
- Magical Artist
- Calculated Future
- Last Dungeon
- Battle Bell
- Depth in the Mirror
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