Homulilly

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"Despite her appearance, she's the most hurt." ~ Sayaka

Homulilly (HOMULILLY) is the witch form of Homura Akemi. She is the Witch of Mortal World (此岸の魔女, Shigan no Majō). Homulilly first appeared in the bonus material and special game over of Madoka Magica Portable.

In The Rebellion Story Homulilly reappears, now known as The Nutcracker Witch (くるみ割りの魔女, Kurumiwari no Majō). The movie takes place in her barrier and Homura transforms into Homulilly once she discovers the truth. Her appearance has been altered from Madoka Magica Portable. Homulilly also reappears in Magia Record as Homura's doppel.

Witch Cards

Homulilly (Portable) Runes HOMULILLY Type Witch of the Mortal World Nature Closed circuits / Karma Episodes Puella Magi Madoka Magica Portable, Magia Record (As Homura's Doppel.)

くるみ割りの魔女。その性質は自己完結。かつて数多くの種を砕いたその勇姿も壊れてしまっては仕様がない。他に価値など持たないこの魔女が最後に望むは自身の処刑。だが、首を刎ねる程度で魔女の罪は消えない。この愚かな魔女は永遠にこの此岸で処刑までの葬列を繰り返す。

Homulilly (First Form) Runes HOMULILLY Type Nutcracker Witch Nature Self-sufficiency Episodes The Rebellion Story The Nutcracker Witch. Her nature is self-sufficiency. Her once gallant figure that crushed countless seeds is now broken beyond repair. This witch, who holds no other value, seeks her own execution as her final wish. However, merely beheading her will not erase her sins. This foolish witch will forever repeat the funeral procession to her execution in the mortal world.

くるみ割りの魔女。その性質は自己完結。歯はこぼれ頭蓋はとろけ目玉も落ちた。もう種を砕けない頭には約束だけがみじめに植わるが、殻の中で目覚めた魔女はそれでもまだ魔法少女の姿を色濃く残す。手下達はその姿をデキソコナイと呼び恥ずかしく思っている。

Homulilly (Second Form) Runes HOMULILLY Type Nutcracker Witch Nature Self-sufficiency Episodes The Rebellion Story, Magia Record The Nutcracker Witch. Her nature is self-sufficiency. Her teeth have crumbled, her skull has melted, and her eyeballs have fallen out. In her head, which can no longer crack seeds, only a pitiful promise remains planted. Even so, this witch who awakened within her shell still vividly retains the appearance of a magical girl. Her minions call this form "Failure" and feel ashamed of her.

Familiars

偽街の子供達。その役割は泣き屋。葬列を盛り上げるために涙の芝居をする着せ替え少女人形。やってきた人形どもはイバリ、ネクラ、ウソツキ、レイケツ、ワガママ、ワルクチ、ノロマ、ヤキモチ、ナマケ、ミエ、オクビョウ、マヌケ、ヒガミ、ガンコ、最後のアイはまだ来ない。「色から生まれ空にはあらず、此岸の淵こそ我らが舞台」そのちからは魔法少女にも劣らない。

Clara Dolls Runes CLARA DOLLS Type Nutcracker Witch's familiars Duty Mourning Episodes The Rebellion Story, Magia Record, Walpurgisnacht: Rising The Children of the False City. Their role is to be mourners. These dress-up dolls perform a play of tears in order to liven up the funeral procession. The dolls present are Arrogance, Gloominess, Liar, Coldheartedness, Selfishness, Bad-mouth, Slowpoke, Jealousy, Laziness, Show-off, Cowardice, Foolishness, Resentment, and Stubbornness, while the last one, Love, has yet to arrive. "Born from color, not in the sky, the edge of this mortal world is our stage.” Their power is no less than that of a magical girl. (Additional details here)

くるみ割りの魔女の手下。その役割は刑の執行。ギロチン台へ送られる魔女の葬列を務めるブリキの兵隊。愚か者を憎み愚か者を断罪する。その重たい頭は真面目で融通が利かないため、魔女の言葉に耳を貸すことはない。人間サイズの他、巨大なブロッケン級が存在。白いネズミが大嫌い。

Lotte Runes LOTTE Type Nutcracker Witch's familiars Duty Carry out punishment Episodes The Rebellion Story The Nutcracker Witch's familiars. Their duty is to carry out punishment. They are the tin army who perform the funeral procession of the witch being taken to the guillotine. They detest fools and convict them. Their heavy heads are serious and inflexible, so they do not listen to the witch's words. Apart from the human-sized ones, there are also gigantic Brocken-type ones. They hate white rats.

くるみ割りの魔女の手下。その役割はネズミの駆除。白いネズミどもを狩り立てる虫歯の騎兵。他にもブリキの兵隊達を手伝い葬列の進行を邪魔する不届き者を排除したりする。

Luiselotte Runes LUISELOTTE Type Nutcracker Witch's familiars Duty Exterminate rats Episodes The Rebellion Story The Nutcracker Witch's familiars. Their duty is to exterminate rats. They are a cavalry of decaying teeth that hunt down the white rats. They also assist the tin army by removing any troublemakers who obstruct the progress of the funeral procession.

くるみ割りの魔女の手下。その役割は凶報。魔女の葬列の始まりを告げるキグルミ鳥。偽街の子供達から餌付けされているらしく、彼女らの言うことにはいくらか従うものの基本的に知能は鳥並み。群れを成して飛び回るが、被り物のせいで視界が悪くとりあえず動くものに突っ込む習性がある。通常サイズの他に巨大なブロッケン級が存在。

Liese Runes LIESE Type Nutcracker Witch's familiars Duty Bring ill tidings Episodes The Rebellion Story The Nutcracker Witch's familiars. Their role is to bring ill tidings. They are kigurumi birds that announce the start of the witch’s funeral procession. It seems they’re fed by the Children of the False City, so they follow some of their commands, though their intelligence is about on par with an average bird’s. They fly in flocks, but due to their headgear, their vision is impaired, and they tend to crash into anything that moves. In addition to their usual size, there are also gigantic Brocken-type ones.

くるみ割りの魔女の手下。その役割は咀嚼。もう種を噛み砕くことが出来なくなった魔女の代わりに余計な異物を噛み砕くための歯型くるみ割り人形。口の中からくるみ大砲を発射することができる。自慢のエナメル質は硬度10と言っても過言ではないと評判。

Lilia Runes LILIA Type Nutcracker Witch's familiars Duty Chewing Episodes The Rebellion Story The Nutcracker Witch's familiars. Their role is to chew. These nutcracker dolls, in the shape of teeth, crush any unwanted foreign objects in place of the witch, who can no longer crack seeds. They can fire walnut cannons from their mouths. Their enamel is so proudly hard that it is said to have a hardness of 10, and that’s no exaggeration.

くるみ割りの魔女の手下。その役割は配役の周知徹底と舞台管理。偽見滝原の上空に浮かぶ鉄の飛行船。結果内へ連れ込まれた人間達の記憶を書き換え、魔女のための新しい脚本を与える。魔女の手下であることに違いないが、その役割は道具に近く魔女の感情からも直接的な影響を受ける。

Lisa Runes LISA Type Nutcracker Witch's familiars Duty Thoroughly inform the cast and manage the stage Episodes The Rebellion Story The Nutcracker Witch's familiars. Their role is to thoroughly inform the cast of the play and manage the stage. They are iron airships that float above the fake Mitakihara. They rewrite the memories of the humans brought inside and assign them new scripts for the sake of the witch. They are undoubtedly the witch's familiars, though their role is closer to that of tools directly influenced by the witch's emotions.

History

Madoka Magica Portable

Unlike all other witches in the game, with the exception of Kriemhild Gretchen, Homulilly doesn't appear in the game or bonus dungeons, nor is any other information provided in the game or bonus materials. She only appears in a Game Over screen in the game if a player loses to Walpurgis Night in Homura's route, under specific conditions. There is a dialogue of Homura losing hope and an illustration of Homulilly before the Game Over screen appears. The dialogue is as follows:

Japanese		English		Image
暁美ほむら	これだけ準備して それでも勝てない……。	Akemi Homura	I prepared so much, and yet I can't win...
暁美ほむら	そうだ……。 また時間を……。	Akemi Homura	That's right, time can still be...
暁美ほむら	！！ 砂が……。	Akemi Homura	!! The sand...
暁美ほむら	そうか。 魔法を……。	Akemi Homura	So my magic...
暁美ほむら	ああ。 ここで終わりなんだ……。	Akemi Homura	Ah. This is the end...
暁美ほむら	まどか。 あなたを救えなかった……。	Akemi Homura	Madoka, I couldn't save you...
暁美ほむら	ごめんなさい……。	Akemi Homura	I'm sorry...
HOMULILLY GAME OVER
STANDARD GAME OVER

The Rebellion Story

See Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie: Rebellion.

Magia Record

Homulilly reappears in Magia Record as Homura's doppel. Her eyeglass version (and swimsuit version) sports Homulilly's appearance from Madoka Magica Portable whereas her normal version is more similar to Homulilly's appearance from The Rebellion Story, even having Lotte-like shadows around her.

Eyeglass Version description

Homulilly. The Doppel of Closed Circuits. Her form is the mortal world. The master of this emotion repeats trial and error countless times, transcending time. Continuing to accumulate fate, the master and her Doppel have nearly entirely fused across her whole body. Her skin has become glass, and her expression has become fixed like a doll’s. The way she continues attacking dispassionately until her target falls silent is far too close to that of a witch, even compared to other magical girls. In addition to possessing the ability to manipulate time sand, she can extract low-priority information from the cosmic being placed on her hat. She can also harden time sand to recreate weapons that exist on Earth.

Swimsuit version description

Homulilly. The Doppel of Closed Circuits. Her form is the mortal world. The master of this emotion wound up on the beach during her trips of trial and error through time. She's got a holiday vibe, maybe due to the summer sun. By absorbing strange skills from the alien she has trapped on her straw hat, she conjures a palm tree that fires rounds of coconuts. No witch would enjoy being pelted with supersonic coconuts, and the Doppel's attacks are guaranteed to hit due to the game mechanics, so they forfeit the moment it aims. The palm tree boasts high accuracy and it can target and hit a lone enemy repeatedly. Consider it an improvement.

In-Game (Normal version) description

Homulilly. The Doppel of Karma. Her form is the mortal world. The master of this emotion traverses many worlds in search of an exit, weaving together vast threads of fate in the process. Almost her entire body has turned to glass, and following behind the master are 14 incomplete bodies born from her emotions. These 14 bodies eliminate obstacles methodically to achieve their goals. They diligently knit together more and more threads of fate regardless of their master’s will, and this intricately-tangled fate will likely drive their master into a labyrinth that is even more difficult to escape. These emotions do not yet have names to describe them.

Haregi version description

Homulilly. The Doppel of Karma. Her form is a treasure ship. The master of this emotion thinks of the lost splendor she left behind during the old year. The seven bodies carried by the treasure ship are the remnants of the emotions the master tried to detach at the start of the New Year, but their expressions are painted over by the regret she harbors, making it impossible to read the original emotions. This doppel crushes the enemy when the master cannot bear the weight of her regrets and throws out the entire treasure ship. The more dazzling the first sunrise is, the heavier the master's regrets become, so the seven of them wear glasses so as not to be blinded by the dawn light of the New Year.

Observations

Homulilly's witch kiss in the PSP game custom theme

Red Spider Lily

• "Shigan" is the opposite of "Higan" (nirvana). Higanbana (literally "higan flowers") is the Japanese name for red spider lillies. So shiganbana, or Homu lilly, could be a pun.
• All three alternative forms of Homulilly employ a record spinning as a hat. The top part looks like an old vinyl record, and the stylus has an odd shape. If you think about it, it almost makes it look like a stereotypical witches' hat. In Rebellion a wheel turns around revealing runes that refer to Homura's devotion of Madoka
  • An endless record that keeps spinning - that could possibly refer back to her timeline reset ability and her ability to manipulate time, or never giving up as she keeps going on and on
  • Alternatively, her record hat could symbolize a 'broken-record' considering Homura reset the same span of time over and over, much like a record skipping
• In Homulilly's original appearance, the section where the braided parts meet, there is something that looks like red sticks held by hands formed by the ends of her plaits
  • If these are knitting needles, then her design could also be partially based off of the famous old quote "A stitch in time saves nine", meaning good preparation can prevent future hardship (or tragedy)
  • Under the red stick, the hair forms the shape of what that looks like the number eight or the infinite symbol
• Homulilly appears to have half of her head cut off, which is a reference to the guillotine in her barrier, guillotines are usually symbols of punishment and shame, which may reflect Homura's guilt for not being able to protect Madoka
• Her familiars, Lotte appear to be based on the English Queens guard due to their uniforms and hats
• The names 'Liese' - meaning 'God is my oath' and 'Lilia' - meaning 'innocence and purity' - could possibly be a reference to how Homura viewed Madoka in such a positive light and looked up to her
• Liese looks like a raven or a crow, crows are usually omens of death or a sign bad luck is about to befall
• The Clara Dolls are most likely named after Clara from the Nutcracker, fitting Homulilly's title being the "Nutcracker Witch"
• In the new world created by Homura, the Clara dolls are seem jumping off an edge covered in discarded school shoes. It is Japanese tradition to remove your shoes before committing suicide
• In Japan the Red Spider Lily signals the arrival of fall. Many Buddhist will use it to celebrate the arrival of fall with a ceremony at the tomb of one of their ancestors. They plant them on graves because it shows a tribute to the dead. People believe that since the Red Spider Lily is mostly associated with death that one should never give a bouquet of these flowers

Stories and Legends Regarding the Red Spider Lily

Since these scarlet flowers usually bloom near cemeteries around the autumnal equinox, they are described in Chinese and Japanese translations of the Lotus Sutra as ominous flowers that grow in Diyu (also known as Hell), or Huángquán (Simplified Chinese: 黄泉; Traditional Chinese: 黃泉), and guide the dead into the next reincarnation.

When the flowers of lycoris bloom, their leaves would have fallen; when their leaves grow, the flowers would have wilted. This habit gave rise to various legends.

A famous one is the legend of two elves: Mañju (Simplified Chinese: 曼珠; Traditional Chinese: 曼珠), who guarded the flower, and Saka (Simplified Chinese: 沙华; Traditional Chinese: 沙華), who guarded the leaves. Out of curiosity, they defied their fate of guarding the herb alone, and managed to meet each other. At first sight, they fell in love with each other. Amaterasu, exasperated by their waywardness, separated the miserable couple, and laid a curse on them as a punishment: the flowers of Mañju shall never meet the leaves of Saka again. It was said that when the couple met after death in Diyu, they vowed to meet each other after reincarnation. However, neither of them could keep their words. In commemoration of the couple, some call the herbs 'Mañjusaka' (Simplified Chinese:曼珠沙华; Traditional Chinese: 曼珠沙華), a mixture of 'Mañju' and 'Saka', instead of their scientific name. The same name is used in Japanese, in which it is pronounced manjushage.

Some other legends have it that when you see someone that you may never meet again, these flowers, also called red spider lilies, would bloom along the path. Perhaps because of these sorrowful legends, Japanese people often used these flowers in funerals. The popular Japanese name Higanbana (彼岸花, Higan bana) for lycoris radiata literally means higan (the other or that shore of Sanzu River) flower, decorate and enjoyable, flower of afterlife in gokuraku jyōdo (極楽浄土, gokuraku jyōdo).

The significance of red lillies is interpreted as the eternal separation of two friends/lovers; a relationship forced to be separated by obstacles, circumstances, and outside forces. This is interpreted as Homura's failure to reunite with Madoka as they are both doomed to fail to break the cycle of despair. The myth about the two lovers never meeting again, despite promising one another, reinforces the idea that to Homura, Madoka means more than just mere friendship.

Broken Tooth Symbolism

In The Rebellion Story the witch has a new appearance, and is clad in an ornate dress resembling Homura's magical girl outfit. While she initially retains her record player-like witch hat from the PSP game, she quickly discards it to reveal a giant spider lily that replaces the top half of her head. Teeth constantly fall from the spider lily, like water droplets or tears.

This relates to the biblical depiction of Bruxism as sinners wailing and gnashing their teeth in hell.

It also preludes Homura's eventual transformation into a demon since her witch represents a sinner and she is the first magical girl to sin and rebel against goddess Madoka declaring herself to be a force of evil.

It could also relate to the Nutcracker Ballet; in the story the nutcracker was once a human who was transformed into a nut cracker and later given as a gift a Christmas party where he was damaged, the girl felt sad for him and took care of him, then when the mice attacked he came to life and defended the girl. Similarly Homura started out as a normal girl and was held back by her heart condition, then she befriended Madoka and the others and became a Magical Girl and grew stronger with the intent of protecting Madoka; which would be similar to the role reversal in the ballet. However since Madoka died in most of the timelines until she finally ended up as a part of the universe, Homura could see herself as still being the damaged nutcracker doll who can't protect the girl who helped her or even fulfill her most basic purpose.

Trivia

• HOMU is a known nickname for Homura used by Inu Curry, revealed in runes in Episode 3 Charlotte's barrier.
• Although not listed as Homulilly's familiar in the Witches Artwork, the blimps seen around the false Mitakihara city are in fact familiars called Lisa. This was proven true in the Rebellion Production Note.
• Her Witch's Kiss from the Special PlayStation Portable theme bundled with the limited edition of Madoka Magica Portable looks like an hourglass on top of a red spider lily (彼岸花, Higanbana) although it is Homura's character color purple, instead of the usual red color.

Gallery

See Gallery:Homulilly