Characters / Puella Magi Madoka Magica Portable

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Main Character Index
Magical Girls (Homura Akemi, Sayaka Miki) | Kyubey | Witches | Supporting Characters | The Movie Rebellion | Kazumi Magica (Magical Girls | Others) | Oriko Magica | Suzune Magica | Tart Magica | Portable | Magia Record | Concept Movie Trailer | Wraith Arc

This page is only for character and character gameplay tropes that appear exclusively in Puella Magi Madoka Magica Portable. See here for character tropes from the original series.

Magical Girls and Kyubey

Madoka Kaname

"It's like I met her in a dream..."

• Adaptational Badass: Of sorts; we see more of her in action than we do in the anime.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome:
  • Leaps to the aid of anyone in trouble, be it her friends, a new transfer student she's never met before, or Amy the cat. Prior to becoming a magical girl, however, she doesn't have the self-confidence to follow through on this all the time.
  • In Mami's route, Madoka can even wind up coming on too strong and making Homura uncomfortable with all the attention she's getting.
• Combat Medic: She was known as archer, but a third of her active skills are healing techniques. She can even heal murky Soul Gems!
• Crutch Character: Employed rather interestingly. As long as she's been properly raised^note (given equal status doping and taught skills rather than ignored in favor of other party members), Madoka can eat Walpurgis Night and its familiars for breakfast. But because the story eventually progresses to Homura's wanting to keep her from contracting, Madoka isn't an available party member in the later routes, where the Walpurgis battle actually matters.
• Only Sane Man: In the bonus route, as all the other girls eventually get drawn into Homura's wacky plans.
• Plucky Girl: Especially in early timelines, where she quickly bounces back from revelations of the true nature of magical girls and refuses to give in to despair.

Homura Akemi

"Fate can be changed."

• A-Cup Angst: In Homura's True Ending, when Sayaka forces Kyoko into the old school uniform of the large-breasted Mami, Kyoko takes great offense at Sayaka's comments about the chest area being loose. Madoka and Homura's dialogue after this exchange implies that Homura is going through this, too.
• A Taste of Power: In Madoka's (tutorial) route that follows the anime closely, Homura is at level 25 at the start of Charlotte's fight. Compared to Mami's level 10 (and she can be considered a veteran) and Sayaka's level 1, Fridge Brilliance plays here when you remember just how much her accumulating experience from her time-loops affects this.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: In-Universe. Depending entirely on the player's choices, in Homura's own route she can be anything from The Paragon devoted to protecting the well-being of the whole cast to her anime characterization of only caring about Madoka. And somehow, she's still in-character no matter the choice.
  • Paragon Homura is taken to the point of Character Exaggeration in the bonus route, where she runs around being the other girls' extremely aggressive fairy godmother.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: She has some strange lines◊.
• Despair Event Horizon: And this time, it can turn her into a witch.
• Didn't Think This Through: In the bonus route, she spends so much time and effort making Mami, Sayaka, and Kyouko happy individually that there's no time for the five girls to learn to work together before fighting Walpurgis Night. When the others turn to her for advice, Homura gives up and resets the timeline right away.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: If she tries to solo Walpurgisnacht and wins, she still ends up dying in Madoka's arms. Finally in peace knowing that Madoka will never make a contract and with the Witch finally gone, she moves on without succumbing to her despair.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Check out Hitomi's behavior in the bonus route.
• Flower Motifs: A Red Spider Lily. Marking her continual loss and Star-Crossed Lovers motif. Hell, it's even in her witch name and witch kiss.
  • Specifically, a Red Spider Lily means that you will never see someone ever again.
    • Part of the name of flower (Higan) is also a homophone for nirvana, contrasting with the type of witch hers is (Shigan, the Mortal World).
• The Gadfly: Bonus route, justified as she acts the way that she never was before to see a different outcome.
  Homura: (In overly enthusiastic tone) Even though you're a magical girl, you've got the artistic sense to name your finishing move 'Tiro Finale'. A finishing move!! With a name!! And that name is 'Tiro Finale'!! How amazing!!
  Mami: Please stop saying 'finishing movie' and 'Tiro Finale'... You're definitely mocking me.
• Hidden Depths: We all know that this girl is more than she seems, but this game reveals more of her off-screen actions like how she actually was hunting for Gertrud to present her Grief Seed to Mami as a token of friendship when she's shooting Kyubey in Episode 1, trying to save Mami from her well-known demise and Sayaka from her Witch transformation, or even offering Kyoko food and shelter.
• I Did What I Had to Do: In Madoka's route, she is forced to leave a bunch of witch-kissed humans to die because Madoka is in danger of contracting. She regretted abandoning them, but did so anyways.
• Kleptomaniac Hero: Actual skill in-game.
• Punny Name: The higan in higanbana (spider lily) can also be construed as a Buddhist euphemism for nirvana, which has a matching term for samsara that is also Homulilly's "nature" as a witch.
• Socially Awkward Hero: From social anxiety in early timelines, and then out of apathy and Brutal Honesty in later ones.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Of course, it's Homura we're talking about.
• Time Master: Not only stopping time and leaping back to the beginning of the month after her sand runs out, Homura is also capable of slowing down enemies and speeding up herself.

Sayaka Miki

"The miracle I wished for..."

• Always Someone Better: She realizes that she's the weakest girl in the Mitakihara group, which really does wonders to her self-esteem. Kyubey says that she spends ten times the amount of magic in her familiar hunting than Kyouko's brutal frustration-fending massacre of the same familiars. When Mami gets her head chomped off, Sayaka thinks that she's not worthy to be a magical girl and throws her Soul Gem inside Charlotte's barrier, triggering the already elaborated event of And I Must Scream below.
• And I Must Scream / Body Horror: There's another gem-throwing accident, but this time it isn't found for quite some time and her body starts to rot. She wanders around awhile, ignorant of her condition as Kyoko is unconscious when she awakes (though she describes that she has difficulty moving), until Kyousuke comes to and calls her a monster. For crying out loud, the girl has half of her face fall off and she doesn't realize it because of the Feel No Pain attribute of the magical girls!
• Butt-Monkey: All the girls have at least one opportunity to become witches somewhere or other in the story, but Sayaka has more than anyone else. In her own route, there are two points at which she might turn into a witch, and both involve her accidentally traumatizing Kyousuke into a Freak Out and calling her a monster.
• Cat Fight: With Hitomi in the bonus route. More of a screaming match, to be precise, but Hitomi still slaps Sayaka.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: In her own route, she's not at all pleased to have to share Madoka with Mami and Homura, especially since Madoka has to go on witch patrol and can't hang out with her as much.
• Combat Medic
• Counter-Attack: Only if the enemies are attacking in close range.
• Despair Event Horizon: Just like in the anime, but worse. Kyosuke seeing her in her decomposed state after her Soul Gem's misplaced for a while, and called her a monster. She and her friends also get a full view of her Soul Gem turning into a Grief Seed.
• Genki Girl: In the Extra Route.
• Hey, You!: In most routes, she refuses to call Homura anything other than "Transfer Student".
• Just Eat Gilligan: There's an option for her to simply confess to Kyousuke that she's a Magical Girl, and he will believe her and returns her feeling.
• Magic Music: Sings as part of her healing spells, as well as to inflict Sleep on targets.
• Musical Theme Naming: Many of her skills' names.
• Oblivious to Love: Though she's usually the victim of this from Kyousuke, in the Tea Party ending, Sayaka acts this way towards Kyouko, not understanding why her effusive praise of Mami's cleanliness hurts Kyouko's feelings.
• Power Born of Madness: Can inflict the madness status on herself with Rhapsody.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Possibly.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: In the bonus route, she finally manages to win Kyousuke, and he even accepts her identity as a magical girl as the coolest thing ever.

Mami Tomoe

"If you'll be by my side..."

• Barrier Warrior
• Butt-Monkey: Dies or at least has a chance of dying in every route but the bonus one. But then, given her fate in the anime, is it a surprise?
• Clingy Jealous Girl / Green-Eyed Monster: In her own route, she becomes insecure in her friendship with Madoka and resentful towards Homura when the latter enters the picture. Depending on the player, Mami can either discuss her feelings with Madoka or isolate herself and become more and more miserable to the point where she breaks down after fighting Gisela alone and becomes a witch.
• Clothing Combat: Mami's weapon is actually her ribbons, used as a whip. But until her encounter with Gisela, she decides that she can't fight at close range, making her muskets from the ribbons as her primary weapon.
• Despair Event Horizon: Realizing that sometimes people don't appreciate her help, especially that suicidal mother who lost her son since she wasn't powerful enough to beat the Witch, making her question her work. Similar to Sayaka's in that she's found by someone, shows her tainted Soul Gem and has a few last words, but for different reasons and what turns her into Candeloro in her route:

  ''I'm no longer a magical girl... I've turned... Into this...''

• Driven to Suicide: There's an option for Homura to tell her and Kyouko about the Awful Truth. When Sayaka turns into Oktavia, if Homura kills her before Kyouko and Madoka do their "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight, she decides that all the crazy shit happening is too hot for her and shoots herself.
• Idol Singer: Bonus route.
• Meaningful Rename: Candeloro.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Possibly.
• Survivor Guilt: She really takes the fact that she could have saved her parents along with herself, but didn't, hard. When she runs away and lets a child get eaten by Gisela, the guilt becomes twofold. Later, depending on the Road Cone, she can save the child's mother, thinking that she can finally atone. But the mother is already suicidal to begin with because her child is dead, and demands to know why Mami didn't let her die. This is one of the factors that contributes to Mami turning into a witch.
• Taking the Bullet: Against Walpurgisnacht's attack so Madoka can deal the killing blow in her route, then doing the same to save Sayaka from Charlotte in Sayaka's route.
• Team Mom: Particularly in Sayaka's route, where she has to temporarily play peacekeeper between Sayaka and Madoka, then between Sayaka and Kyouko.

Kyouko Sakura

"She's the only hope I had left."

• A-Cup Angst: When Sayaka makes her try on Mami's school uniform, she's rather put out by Sayaka's comments that it's loose in the chest.
• Barrier Warrior: She can create a lattice-like barrier of red diamond-shapes.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: It turns out to be even worse than what the anime showed us. After learning about her wish, Kyoko's father makes an intentionally ridiculous sermon where he claims God doesn't exist and despair is the only thing that guides humans. Kyoko and her father are horrified when the parishioners start agreeing with it. It soon becomes clear that Kyoko's father has a Compelling Voice, which drives him over the Despair Event Horizon because he thinks it makes him like the devil. He then calls Kyoko a witch and all the parishioners join in.
• Despair Event Horizon: If Sayaka turned into a witch, and Homura finished her off before giving Kyoko and Madoka a chance to redeem her. She did not take losing the last of her 'family' well, let out a curse to the world, and turned into a Witch.
• Due to the Dead: She makes Mami a grave in day 10 of her route and gives it some flowers and teddy bear from the game center she often plays in. It's very simple, but the effect is powerful.
• Dying Curse: She delivers one if Sayaka becomes a witch, Homura finishes her off before Kyoko can do so and having her own Soul Gem tainted. Having nothing left to care about, she curses everything on earth and turns into a witch.
• Face–Heel Turn: If she succumbs to her Despair Event Horizon, she outright gave a Dying Curse to the rest of the world, swearing to tear everything down.
• Fiery Redhead: Taken to horrifying extreme in that her Witch form has a candle for a head.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Sayaka in Sayaka's route, eventually, if Sayaka doesn't wind up turning into a witch first.

• Gotta Catch Them All: Her reason for fighting witches so she can collect more, if not all of the Grief Seeds.
• The Hedonist: In the Extra Route.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: To the point of When All You Have Is a Hammer….
• Kleptomaniac Hero: Just like Homura, an actual skill in-game.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Beats up bullies, gives Tatsuya candy, rescues other magical girls, and grumbles about it the entire time.

• Meaningful Rename: To Ophelia, if she becomes a witch.
• Pater Familicide: And this time, we witness it from Kyoko's eyes.
  • And it's far worse than you could have imagined.
• Pooled Funds: There's a scene of her sitting on top of countless Grief Seeds in her church like some kind of mafia boss.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Mami's suicide.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Possibly.
• Walking the Earth: In Homura's route, if she and Homura survive the Walpurgisnacht battle, Madoka and Sayaka don't make their contract, and Mami gets mogu-mogu'd.

Kyubey

• Demoted to Extra: In the Extra Route.
• Manipulative Bastard: A main game mechanic of the Visual Novel part of the game is for Kyubey to manipulate the girls' emotions depending on his choices.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: All of Kyubey's actions are geared towards his energy collection goals, but because he doesn't understand how emotions work, his dialogue choices can serve to calm the girls down instead and prevent their turning into witches.
• Out of Focus: In Homura and Bonus Route, mostly because she no longer has reservations of not shooting him in public after exposing his eating his own corpses habit.

Witches

General

• All There in the Manual: Albertine, a witch first mentioned on the anime's website, is revealed in the game. Gisela might also count, given that she is only seen for about two seconds in the anime during a flashback sequence.
• Canon Foreigner: The game has several original witches, such as Candeloro and Ophelia, the witch forms of Mami and Kyoko, respectively. It also marked the first appearance of Homulilly, Homura's witch form. There's also Quitterie, a witch that has Kyubey's head and uses giant stuffed Kyubeys as familiars, and Itzli, another witch that resembles a Brain in a Jar and is said to be from another planet.
• Mook Maker: All witches can create familiars to fight for them.
• Optional Boss: Albertine's familiars, the Anjas, are fought as part of the story. Albertine herself as well as Quitterie and Itzli are only fought at the end of various Bonus Dungeons.

Albertine

• Creepy Doll: She looks like a doll in a colorful jumper and her barrier seems to be based on the trappings of a young girl's childhood.
• Death of a Child: By definition all witches come from young girls, but it is implied that Albertine was young even by magical girl standards when she became a witch, judging by the childlike aesthetic of her witch's barrier (colorful stars and notebook paper), her love of hide-and-seek, and her familiar Anja looking like a crayon scribble.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: One of her stockings has a stripe pattern, while the other has a star pattern.
• Hide and No Seek: She loves to play hide-and-seek with her minions. However, because they're not very intelligent, they don't look for her.
• Living Drawing: Albertine is a giant drawing of a girl, combined with a Creepy Doll aesthetic. She actually scribbles her familiars into existence.

Candeloro

• Battle Butler: Her minions are maids whose job is to escort visitors to her tea party. They also fight for her, like all familiars.
• Creepy Doll: Her familiars, which resemble Madoka and Kyoko as maids.
• Fun Size: Candeloro is the tiniest witch yet, even smaller than Charlotte—she's little enough to fit into one of her own teacups.
  • Visual Pun: That's small enough to be bite-sized.
• Happy Place: She is said to dream of ideal things. Her witch barrier seems to be a representation of an imaginary world where Mami would be happy — a tea party that never ends and friends who will never leave her. But sadly, it's all a delusion.
• Hates Being Alone: She can't stand being lonely, and never lets visitors to her barrier escape.
• Lethal Chef: Don't eat the food at her tea party, or you'll lose your soul.
• Meaningful Name: She is apparently named after Candlemas, which may be a Stealth Pun — it's on Groundhog Day.
• Replacement Goldfish: Her familiars look like Madoka and Kyoko, and are referred to as her precious friends.
• Token Good Teammate: Candeloro is stated to be a kindhearted and inviting witch who only attacks whenever intruders in her barrier when they try to leave.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: She hosts a tea party every day in her labyrinth, but eating the food she serves will remove your soul.

Charlotte

• Mook Maker: Charlotte's first form has no other attack except for spawning unlimited Pyotr until her lifebar is drained.

Gisela

• Berserk Button: Her minion Dora hates magnets.
• Mechanical Monster: She is a transforming robot made of motorcycle parts that can cloak herself in a whirlwind.
• Transforming Mecha: She can shapeshift into a motorcycle-like form.

Homulilly

• The Unfought: She is never fought in the game itself and only appears at the end of Homura's route if the player loses to Walpurgisnacht.

Itzli

• My Brain Is Big: This is a giant, oversized brain.
• Optional Boss: You’ll find Itzli at the end of the bonus dungeon- if you can survive the other witches, of course.

Ophelia

• Doppleganger Attack: She attacks by creating clones of herself. This alludes to a drama CD where it's revealed Kyoko had this power, too, but lost it when her family died.
• Dying Curse: If Kyoko and Madoka try to save Sayaka after she turns into Oktavia, but fail because Homura has already killed her, Kyoko can turn into Ophelia at that moment if her Soul Gem is dark enough. She realizes her life is meaningless and laughs. With her last words, she says that if she can't save those she loves, she will curse the world instead.
• Flaming Hair: Of sorts — her head is literally a lit candle.
• Headless Horseman: Her design evokes this trope. From a distance, it looks like her head is the fire itself. Looking closely, it becomes clear that the "neck" has an eye on it, and it is her actual head.
• Meaningful Name: Her name is a reference to Hamlet.
• Visual Pun: Her head has a flame on it, so you could call her a hothead. Considering how Hot-Blooded Kyoko was...
• Youkai: Ophelia's familiars are based on the rokurokubi, a type of Japanese supernatural creature that look like normal humans by day, but gain the ability to elongate their necks at night.

Quitterie

• Affably Evil: Her nature is described as respectful.
• Cuteness Proximity: Her minions are handcrafted costume mascots that people can't help but love. They're so cute that it's impossible to bring oneself to threaten them. Fittingly, they’re all dressed as Kyubey.
• Fallen Hero: All witches by nature are this trope, but Quitterie is said to be what remains of a magical girl who gave up everything to fight for the universe, and believes that she is saving the universe even now.
• Shout-Out: Her real form may be based on the Pincushion Man from the 1935 American cartoon, Balloon Land, and also bears some resemblance to the true form of the Other Mother.
• Textile Work Is Feminine: Quitterie's design implies that she was some kind of seamstress or tailor in her previous life. Her real form has a pincushion for a body and sewing needles for arms, and her minions are handcrafted costume mascots.