Nagisa Momoe

Nagisa Momoe
Japanese Name	百江 なぎさ (Momoe Nagisa)
Voiced by	Japanese: Kana Asumi English: Xanthe Huynh Italian: Martina Felli Spanish: Maribel Pomar

"I came back 'cause I wanted to eat cheese one more time!"
— Nagisa, Rebellion.

Nagisa Momoe is a character from Puella Magi Madoka Magica. She first appeared in the original series as the witch Charlotte, but her magical girl form was not properly introduced until the sequel film Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie: Rebellion. She has since grown in popularity and has been increasingly featured alongside the Holy Quintet in merchandise and subsequent media.

General Info

Physical Features
Age	8 - 12 (estimated)
Eye colour	Orange and yellow (central heterochromia), blue and yellow (in Scene 0)
Hair colour	White
Magic
Soul Gem	The white candy on her belt
Weapon	Trumpet horn
Witch Form	Charlotte
Powers and Abilities	Unknown (her magic makes her more self-assertive and greedy)
Wish	“One single cheesecake which my mom will think is the best.”
Other
Japanese pronoun	Nagisa (なぎさ), watashi (私)
Known relatives	Unnamed mother (deceased), unnamed father (absent)
Origins	Uncertain, but possibly Mitakihara City
School	Not attending

Personality

Nagisa is usually rather childish, serving as the plucky and cheerful comic relief of the group, though she's shown to be more perceptive than she seems. She tends to speak rather eloquently (e.g. "Let me explain that from my own lips", "We were once bringers of hope, who despaired and spread our curses").

As Bebe, she is even more childish, often jumping around, and panicking at the thought of turning into cheese.

From an interview with the character designer, Ume Aoki, regarding Nagisa: "At the beginning I was imagining her as the type to do things at her own pace, a little selfish, but once her speech patterns were determined I started to feel like all of that was part of her innocence and youth, and was able to draw her naturally."

Story

Backstory

Currently unknown. A section in Puella Magi Production Note suggests she may have a mother who died from an illness, but the section is technically for an unused prototype witch.

Nagisa in Madoka Magica

Nagisa technically appears in Episode 3 as the witch Charlotte.

Nagisa is presumed to have been taken into Law of Cycles by Madoka at the end of the anime.

Nagisa in Rebellion

Warning, this section contains spoilers about the movie.

Prior to the beginning of Rebellion, Madoka, Sayaka and Nagisa enter Homura's witch barrier from the Law of Cycles. In order to stop Kyubey's plan to observe and control the Law of Cycles, Madoka entrusted her memories and powers to both Nagisa and Sayaka so they could reawaken her to save Homura at the right time. Nagisa later explains that she took the mission because she wanted to eat cheese again. Once she enters Homura's barrier, Nagisa disguises herself as her witch form (which Kyubey would not recognize). The other characters call her Bebe. While disguised, she stays at Mami's house and helps the magical girls fight Nightmares. The memory altering effects of the barrier causes Mami to believe that Bebe is her oldest friend. Although her own memories are unaffected, Nagisa seems to reciprocate Mami's friendship. Eventually Homura begins to discover the truth of the false world and suspects Nagisa/Bebe as the culprit due to her appearance as Charlotte. Homura tries to interrogate Bebe, but is stopped by Mami. Bebe escapes as Mami and Homura fight each other. When the battle concludes, Sayaka helps Homura escape from Mami, and Nagisa returns to her human form. She apologizes to Mami for deceiving her and explains the truth to Mami. Nagisa reappears as Bebe once Homura transforms into Homulilly. She transforms back into her human form and uses her weapon, an explosive bubble-blowing trumpet, to create cracks in Homulilly's barrier. Ultimately, the magical girls hold off Homulilly and her familiars long enough to break through the barrier, revealing the isolation field that Homura's soul gem was trapped in. Madoka calls out to Homura's remaining humanity and together they destroy the isolation field from within, foiling the Incubators' plot. Once the barrier disappears, Ultimate Madoka descends from the sky along with a carriage containing both Sayaka and Nagisa. Madoka intends to take Homura into the Law of Cycles. However, Homura has been changed by her experiences in her barrier and thus grabs Madoka before she can take her soul gem. Homura then separates Madoka from the Law of Cycles and uses her new powers to rewrite reality. Nagisa is shown to be engulfed by the colors spilling out of Homura's soul gem and spreading to cover the universe. In Homura's new reality, Nagisa is unable to return to the Law of Cycles. She is seen happily running about in her civilian outfit, implying that Homura has erased her memories of being a magical girl. It is also suggested Homura has suppressed her magical girl and witch powers, effectively turning Nagisa back into an ordinary human. Eventually Nagisa meets up with a group of kids her own age and leaves with them. It is implied that they are all going to school together. At the end of the movie Mami saves Nagisa from falling packages of cheese, suggesting that they will become friends again in the new reality.

Nagisa in Magia Record

• See Nagisa Momoe in Magia Record

"Once she carried hope, and eventually she scattered curses. Soon, she was guided to the Law of Cycles, and now she has become a messenger and flew down to Kamihama. She has a strong obsession with cheese, and despite being on a mission, her head is impulsively filled to the brim with the rhythm of cheese."

Powers and Abilities

As seen in Magia Record, she can produce bubbles from her horn. The exact effect of the bubbles is unclear, but in Rebellion they were shown to be powerful enough to put cracks in a witch's barrier.

According to a Rebellion production note, she uses her horn to cast magic that makes her more self-assertive and greedy.

Observations

• Nagisa claims she came back as a secretary of Ultimate Madoka to eat cheese again. How true this is is currently unknown.
• She has a child-like appearance.
• She is said to be very close to Mami.
• Her weapon is a trumpet, styled like Charlotte, that can shoot bubbles powerful enough to put cracks in a witch's barrier.
• She seems to hate Kyubey, as she is seen snarling at him several times as Bebe.
• She can channel or change her form to and from Bebe (and by extension Charlotte's second form). She can also summon Charlotte's and other witches' familiars. The Pyotrs she summons don't do anything, but a Polina is seen helping Mami with her trapezes. This is because of special powers granted to her as a secretary of Ultimate Madoka, as well as being a part of the Law of Cycles.
  • She rides on a Sebastian during the battle with Homulilly.
• Her magical girl design is near-identical to an initially-proposed beta outfit for Yuma.
• Nagisa's last name is almost identical to Mami's last name, Tomoe. The only difference is the first syllable.
• In many languages, "bebe" means "baby". This fits with Mami's name, which is pronounced similar to "mommy".

Etymology

• Nagisa's given name is written in hiragana and has no particular meaning.
  • It can mean "beach" or "water's edge" when written in kanji (渚 or (汀). The "-sa" part can mean "sand" (沙) or (砂).
• The first character for Momoe (百) means "hundred", but also carries the connotation of "a lot of things". The second character (江) means "inlet" or "bay". "Momoe" could be translated as "a hundred rivers".

Trivia

• Unlike the other magical girls in Madoka Magica, Nagisa's hair, eyes and soul gem are not all the same colour.
  • Nagisa's eye color pattern is possibly a form of heterochromia, a cosmetic disease that causes one's eyes to be multiple colors, called Central Heterochromia. Traditional heterochromia is usually seen in individuals whose each eye is a different color, however Nagisa's variation is an alternate that causes the eyes to change color near the iris of the eye. Most likely, though, it is just a reference to Charlotte's second form.
• Nagisa is voiced by Kana Asumi, who played Yuno in Hidamari Sketch. According to an interview, Madoka Kaname is based on Yuno.
• Nagisa's transformation starts with her saying "Parmigiano Reggiano!", a sort of cheese also known as Parmesan.
• According to the Rebellion production note, Nagisa's magic is a horn that is supposed to make her more self-assertive and greedy because she regrets wishing for just a single cheesecake.
• Nagisa's given name is mentioned once in the movie by herself, but only in the original Japanese version.
• Her relationship with Mami Tomoe as of Rebellion may be a reference to the (literal) mother/daughter relationship between Usagi Tsukino (Sailor Moon) and her daughter Chibiusa (Sailor Chibi Moon) from Sailor Moon.
  • Additionally, Nagisa's original design context greatly resembles Mami.
• In Magia Record, there are three different versions of Nagisa.
  • Version 1: The version the player pulls from the gacha, This is the same Nagisa as seen in Rebellion.
  • Version 2: The version appearing in Nagisa Momoe's Wish Comes True. This version is seperate from her Rebellion version and is completely unique to Magia Record.
  • Version 3: This version of Nagisa appears in Scene 0, a prequel story to the original show set in Magia Record. Due to Madoka's wish in this timeline (to save the magical girl inside Charlotte), a pseudo-Nagisa appeared. She has a different color scheme similar to Bebe and lacks a soul gem due to her technically not being a magical girl and instead a construct of Madoka's wish.

Gallery

See Gallery:Nagisa

External links

• Nagisa Momoe at Pixiv image repository (Japanese)