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 Wraith Arc. Tropes present only in the anime go here. Note that many of the examples listed on the anime character page also apply to the characters here.
Beware of major spoilers!note
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Homura Akemi
Homura is a student freshly transferred to Mitakihara school, joining Mami's team of magical girls fighting Wraiths a bit later. She retains memories of a world where Witches and Madoka existed.
Her powers have changed from time manipulation into memory manipulation in the new world, with her weapon being a bow. She gets her magic stolen by the Giant Wraith and plans to defeat it, to regain her powers.
- Action Girl: Retains this characteristic from the original anime, even going up against Wraiths with no magic.
- Aloof Ally: Remains cold and distrustful towards Mami and Kyoko, which causes problems for them.
- Always Need What You Gave Up: Homura used her memory-manipulating magic to make herself forget how to use her time magic. This puts her at extreme risk during Wraith battles and causes the Wraiths to steal her time magic when they get a hold of her Soul Gem, making them far more dangerous in turn.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: Fights off several Wraiths in this pose alongside Mami.
- Badass Normal: Even when her magic is stolen and she cannot conjure her bow anymore, she still fights Wraiths with the use of bombs that she's built and some of Mami's guns.
- Brought Down to Normal: Her magic gets stolen by the Giant Wraith.
- Call-Forward: The dress that Homura's hidden potential
◊ wears in the final chapter is basically a white version of the dress Homura wears as her 'witch dress◊' in Rebellion. - Despair Event Horizon: When she begins to doubt her memories of Madoka, believing that she used her memory manipulating magic to make up the whole thing about Madoka and a world of Witches existing. She only snaps out of it upon seeing the Madoka-Wraith die.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: With Madoka having ascended to Godhood and being in this new world, Homura is struggling to figure out what she's going to do with herself.
- Discard and Draw: Her time manipulation magic was replaced with memory manipulation magic in the new world. Subverted, she still retains the time manipulation powers, but used her own memory manipulation magic to make herself forget about them.
- Emotionless Girl: She becomes more stoic when the Wraiths steal some of her magic, which also meant part of her emotions. She goes completely emotionless when she allows the Madoka-Wraith to consume all of her emotions.
- Energy Bow: Her new weapon in the world, akin to what Madoka used previously.
- Fatal Flaw: Her inability to work well with others. She retains the aloof attitude from repeating time over and over in the original anime, even outright refusing to become better acquainted with anyone else, because of her worry that adapting to the new world means she'll forget about Madoka. But the lack of teamwork and insistence on doing things alone leaves Homura open to being overwhelmed when more than one enemy appears, which is what caused her to get her magic stolen by the Wraiths.
- How Do I Shot Web?: Unsure how to use her new powers like the bow and memory manipulation magic, since they are so different from what she used previously.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Gets impaled by a large spike in the climax when she tries to reach her discarded time manipulating shield.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Used her memory manipulation magic on herself to remove any knowledge and memory of the time manipulating shield she had, to ensure that the ultimate Witch of Despair would not be able to come out of it.
- Mind Control: Possess the ability to alter a person's memories in the new world. It's stated that she can only really do it to one person and for a short span of time, as she's not powerful enough to do it to a large group of people.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: She told Kyubey about the world of Witches and the hope-despair cycle the incubators had going on. And Kyubey touching Homura when she reaches her time manipulation shield, and resets the events of the story, allowed Kyubey to remember everything and gain evidence that her story was true. This ends up setting the events of Rebellion in motion.
- Slasher Smile: Dons one when destroying the Giant Wraith.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Gets called out by Mami as this, citing that she's valuing and overestimating her powers too highly, which causes Homura to get into bad situations without backup.
- Start of Darkness: The events of this story are basically foreshadowing and setting up the sanity slippage that Homura goes through in the Rebellion movie.
- Story-Breaker Power: Homura's wish to protect Madoka and the countless timelines she had gone through have given her power great enough to surpass even Ultimate Madoka, if she ever chose to make use of it. This power caused problems when the Wraiths stole it, as this corrupted them and granted them enough emotional power to become Witches, which should no longer exist.
- Time Master: She lost the power of time manipulation. She had it, and it was stolen by the Wraiths when they took part of her magic.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Choosing to erase her memories of her time manipulation magic and the shield's existence caused the Wraiths to be in a position to steal it, which corrupted them into becoming Witches and killing hundreds of people.
- What You Are in the Dark: The Madoka-Wraith suggests Homura abandon the new world and go back through the portal in the shield to be with Madoka again. Homura ultimately refuses, as she believes that Madoka would be disappointed if Homura abandoned her current world.
- You Are Too Late: She appears just a minute too late to save Sayaka from the Giant Wraith.
Madoka Kaname
Madoka appears in front of Homura, despite not really supposed to be existing anymore, after having ascended to Godhood in the previous universe.
She's actually a Wraith that takes on Madoka's form due to being affected by Homura's magic and memories that they've stolen. Though she turns out to also be Homura's hidden potential, which possessed the Wraith in order to try to save the world.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Her main concern is to prevent the overflow of emotions in the world, which apparently would cause a horrific calamity if left unchecked. She also struggles to communicate with Homura because Wraiths don't have names for human concepts and seem to act on nothing but instinct.
- Creepy Good: Certainly acts odd and even strangely manipulative towards Homura, but she's firmly on the side of good and wants to keep the world safe.
- Curtains Match the Window: Same as the real Madoka.
- The Ditz: Fails to understand most of Homura's explanations of the new magical girl system, despite being a Wraith and an integral part of it. She explains it by saying she never had to use human words to describe what they do.
- Energy Bow: Uses a bow that shoots pink energy arrows, just like the real Madoka did.
- Ethereal White Dress: Her main attire is a white dress.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: She appears as Madoka in front of Homura so that she won't kill her immediately. Oddly enough, the Madoka-Wraith still resembles Madoka to other people, despite them not remembering her.
- Humanoid Abomination: She appears to be the same type of corrupted, humanoid-shaped Wraith like the Sayaka-Wraith. Ends up subverted, as she turns out to be a part of Homura's subconscious that possessed a Wraith.
- MacGuffin Super-Person: She's a physical manifestation of Homura's determination and massive potential.
- Mythology Gag: The dress she initially wears appears to be identical to the dress Madoka wears in the compilation movies' opening Luminous.
- Not-So-Imaginary Friend: Seems to be nothing but a corrupted Wraith, but turns out to be a physical manifestation of Homura's soul that possessed a Wraith, so it could re-merge with Homura.
- Pimped-Out Dress: Her white dress has a lot of frills and layers.
- Third Eye: Possesses one in her magical girl Madoka-Wraith form.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: As a Wraith, albeit a corrupted one, she has the ability to consume people's emotions. She takes all of Homura's, at her behest.
Mami Tomoe
Mami is the leader of the Mitakihara magical girls group that fight the Wraiths. She takes her role as leader seriously, while knowing that she sometimes still makes mistakes. Mami works on teaching Sayaka what being a magical girl means, while also trying to keep something akin to peace betwen her and Kyoko, though she often fails.
- Apologetic Attacker: Apologizes to the two corrupted Wraiths that took on her deceased parents' forms.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: Fights off some Wraiths with Homura in this position.
- BFG: She still employs a giant musket as her big Tiro Finale attack.
- Character Death: She dies fighting off several Wraiths in the climactic battle.
- Cool Big Sis: Retains this characteristic from the original anime, mostly when instructing Sayaka on the duties of a magical girl.
- Healing Hands: Uses healing magic on Homura.
- Heroic Sacrifice: She fights off several Wraiths, even when it's clear that she's outnumbered and will lose, so that the Madoka-Wraith can get close enough to the Giant Wraith.
- Ignored Expert: She gets ignored by the other magical girls when giving them advice, even when it could save their lives. She tells Kyoko and Sayaka that they need to get along as teammates and that Homura needs to stay more on the sidelines after her magic gets taken.
- The Mentor: Her role towards Kyoko and Sayaka, though mostly towards the latter because the former has more experience already.
- More Dakka: Her usual tactic when it comes to fighting off a larger group of Wraiths. Summon more guns to shoot more.
Sayaka Miki (Unmarked Spoilers)
Sayaka is a student at Mitakihara school and a relatively new magical girl, working as part of Mami's team in hunting Wraiths. Headstrong and impulsive, she often bickers with Kyoko.
Unfortunately, Sayaka uses up her magic in battle and disappears as the Law of the Cycle demands. Yet she seems to get revived later, which turns out to be a Wraith that was able to take on Sayaka's appearance.
Sayaka Miki
- Decoy Protagonist: The first few chapters focus heavily on Sayaka, with her becoming a better trained magical girl, her feud with Kyoko, and her personal turmoil of the love triangle between her, Kyosuke, and Hitomi. Then she disappears, at which point Homura finally enters the picture and focus shifts to her.
- Doomed by Canon: The final episode of the anime revealed that Sayaka disappeared as part of the Law of the Cycle in the Ultimate-Madoka-created timeline. Therefore, her death in the early chapters of the manga came as no surprise.
- Driven to Suicide: Discussed by Hitomi, who is worried that Sayaka's disappearance meant that Hitomi's ultimatum was the catalyst to cause Sayaka to run off and commit suicide.
- Emotionless Girl: Briefly turns into one when the giant Wraith catches Sayaka and begins to drain the emotions out of her Soul Gem.
- Go Out with a Smile: She seems to recognize Ultimate Madoka and greets her with a smile, before taking her hand and heading to magical girl heaven with her.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Uses up the last bit of her magic to save Mami and Kyoko from the giant Wraith.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: A flashback shows she briefly hesitated in fighting a Wraith that was targeting Hitomi, which would have her emotions devoured. She ultimately saves her friend, though.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With Kyoko, often butting heads and fighting each other.
- What You Are in the Dark: When Hitomi's emotions are at risk of being eaten by a Wraith, which would mean she'd lose interest in Kyosuke, Sayaka hesitates for a moment. But she chooses to fight off the Wraith and save Hitomi.
"Sayaka Miki" / Mutant Wraith
- Armor-Piercing Question: The Sayaka-Wraith gives two over the course of the story.
- Hitomi gets asked if she was actually worried about Sayaka's well-being or more concerned for her own peace of mind, worried that Hitomi's ultimatum drove Sayaka away.
- Kyoko gets asked if she only feels bad now because she refused to give Sayaka some Grief Cubes that could have saved her.
- Friendship Denial: The Sayaka-Wraith denies that Sayaka and Kyoko were ever really friends.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Unlike the real Sayaka who was tempted but decided against it, the Wraith genuinely tries to kill Hitomi.
- Sadistic Choice: Hitomi gets offered on by the Sayaka-Wraith. Lose Sayaka as a friend or give up on Kyosuke.
- Shapeshifter Guilt Trip: The Sayaka-Wraith does this to torment Hitomi and Kyoko.
- Yandere: The Sayaka-Wraith acts threateningly towards Hitomi in demanding that she give up on Kyosuke.
Kyouko Sakura
Kyoko was a magical girl fighting in the neighboring Kazamino City, but came over to Mitakihara on Mami's request for help with fighting the Wraiths. She's headstrong like Sayaka, leading to the two of them often bickering and butting heads.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Receives one from from the Sayaka-Wraith, who asks if Kyoko only feels bad about Sayaka's death because she refused to give Sayaka some grief cubes she had.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Gets killed by the Witch-Wraith's braid tendrils, killing her out of the blue.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Subverted. She was going to perform one by fighting off Wraiths to give Mami and the Madoka-Wraith the chance to progress closer to the Witch-Wraith, but she was attacked from behind and died before she could do anything.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: She obviously wants to befriend Sayaka, but keeps pushing her away.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Retains this characteristic from the original anime, where she's harsh and critical towards a lot of people. Particularly towards Sayaka, though she does it out of worry for her.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: She gets attacked and killed by the Witch-Wraith from behind just as she was talking with Mami.
- The Mentor: Started off as a mentor towards Sayaka, but their relationship soured quickly, leaving their relationship strained. She still tries to be a mentor, albeit a very sarcastic and aloof one.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Swears to destroy the Giant Wraith that caused Sayaka's death because she feels guilty for not having given her grief cubes when she had the chance, thinking it's her fault that Sayaka ran out of magic during that battle.
- Tsundere: Acts in a very 'tsun'-like fashion towards Sayaka, which drives her away.
Hitomi Shizuki
Hitomi is Sayaka's best friend that is not a magical girl. She's been harboring feelings for Kyosuke for a while now, but knows that Sayaka also likes him. Hitomi tells Sayaka that she'll wait 24 hours to give her a chance to sort out her own feelings, and then will confess to Kyosuke.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Receives one from the Sayaka-Wraith, who asks if Hitomi is worried about Sayaka and not actually just afraid that her disappearance will be tied to Hitomi.
- Freak Out: Begins to suffer some sanity slippage as she becomes worried that Sayaka's disappearance meant she committed suicide, and Hitomi believes it was because of her ultimatum.
- Green-Eyed Monster: She became slightly jealous when Sayaka made friends besides her.
- It's All My Fault: Believes she's responsible for Sayaka's disappearance. The Sayaka-Wraith latches onto this and needles Hitomi about it.
- Let Us Never Speak of This Again: She overhears part of a conversation between Kyoko and Mami and asks the former to explain about Sayaka's disappearance, and says that she'll pretend their talk didn't happen after getting some form of answer.
- Locked Out of the Loop: She doesn't know about Wraiths and magical girls, so she can't understand how much stress her ultimatum put onto Sayaka. And when she sees the Sayaka-Wraith, Kyoko basically reminds her of her promise and to do exactly that.
- Point of Divergence: She never confesses her feelings to Kyosuke in this story, out of guilt regarding Sayaka's disappearance.
Wraiths
Click here to see the Giant Wraith
Click here to see the Big Bad
Wraiths are the main antagonist of the story and the beings that have replaced Witches in the newly-formed universe. They usually come out at night and feast on the emotions of humans. If they consume all of them, the victims become empty shells of their former selves.
- All There in the Manual: The Witch-Wraith has a name that only gets mentioned in the commentary of the final volume. It's called The Spindle Witch.
- Black Eyes of Evil: The corrupted Wraiths sport them.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: Wraiths don't mean to actually harm people by consuming their emotions, but they do need to eat emotions because leaving too many emotions unchecked will apparently result in a calamity.
- The Corruption: The Great Wraith that stole Homura's magic becomes corrupted and begins to influence other Wraiths, too. This is what causes the Madoka-Wraith to ask for Homura's help in defeating it.
- Emotion Eater: They consume the emotions of humans, the positive and negative kind. The greater or deeper someone's emotion is, the more likely a Wraith will attack them.
- Hive Mind: The Wraith are normally in perfect synch with each other. They begin to lose this trait as they get more and more corrupted by Homura's magic.
- Humanity Is Infectious: The Giant Wraith that stole Homura's magic became infected with her emotions, which results in it mutating enough to almost create a Witch.
- Humans Are Cthulhu: According to the Wraiths, humans release a great deal of highly dangerous, emotional energy that could destroy the universe, and can infect them, if left completely unchecked. They consume emotions to keep a sense of balance going.
- An Ice Person: Many Wraiths have an icy aura around them that can freeze magical girls.
- Obliviously Evil: The Wraiths don't know that their action of consuming humans' emotions can get them hurt, and are naturally drawn towards powerful emotions because they intend to suppress them as a form of regulation.
- The Quiet One: Most Wraiths are completely silent. The mtuated Wraiths gain the ability to speak, but can only do so while taking on a completely human form.
- Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: The different types of Wraiths are named after different levels of enlightenment in Buddhism.
- 'Shugen Wraiths (Acolyte in the English translation) are named after a type of Asceticism practiced by some Japanese monks in the pursuit of becoming one with nature.
- Satori Wraiths (Enlightened in the English translation) are named after a step to Buddhahood involving understanding oneself.
- Moksha Wraiths (Deliverance in the English translation) are named after a state of release from all Earthly desires.
- Super-Speed: The humanoid Wraiths possess insanely high speed. It turns out to be a case of Time Master powers that they stole from Homura.
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True Neutral: The wraiths are completely oblivious to the suffering they put humans through. They only sense overwhelming emotional energy and seek to turn it into a safe form no matter the consequences.
