(Post-Route 0 + Madoka Magica Spoilers) Hiruko Shizuhara and Homura Akemi: A Comparison

Alright, so it's been about 14-15 years since the Madoka Magica anime came out, and with the new coming out in the next month, I figured I might do a comparison between the two cold, pragmatic, and morally grey girls of the anime and this game. I should first mention that it's been several years since I first seen the Madoka Magica, so I might've some details. But I still find Hiruko and Homura to be similar, so let's get into that.

Firstly, let's start with their appearances. I will be comparing Homura's magical girl outfit to Hiruko's casual one since Homura wears a school uniform when she's not transformed and while Hiruko's class armour has some slight differences from most of the other girls' class armours, I feel that her casual outfit is more suitable in this case. To start, they both have long dark hair let down. While Hiruko's hair is closer to violet than black like Homura's, the latter has some violet tips at the end of her hair.

Then, they wear clothes that makes them come across as more mature than their peers. Homura's magical girl outfits consists of high heals, black tights with diamond patterns, grey skirt with white frills, a white blouse with black accents, and black headband. This feels like something I prolly would've worn in middle school when I wanted to present myself as more mature than my peers. Meanwhile, Hiruko's outfit is basically classy woman-coded. She wears black high-heal boots, a black dress with a slit up to her thigh, a black leather jacket, and various accessories. To add onto their similarities, Homura even wore glasses one point. Ironically, that was before she became the person that she is now though.

Then, we have their personalities. Most of the time, they are calm and collected and are willing to make enemies out of their teammates. For early examples, Homura causes a rift between her and Mami when Homura tries to tell Mami to not involve Madoka in her magical girl training. This causes Mami to misinterpret Homura's intentions as being competitive over being the strongest magical girl. Meanwhile, Route 0 was Hiruko at her worst. She starves the non-fighters when she takes over as leader, and then threatens to kick them out unless they join the battles. Understandably, they all start hating her for it.

They are also very goal-driven. They are willing to do whatever it takes to achieve their goals, even if it means to alienate their friends and putting them in danger. Homura goes out of her way to protect Madoka and keep her from signing the contract to turn her into a magical girl. Furthermore, >!whenever she died in various timelines, she'd reset the month in order to try again. However, this unintentionally gave Madoka more power potential, which made Kyubey more inclined to pressure her into becoming a magical girl, putting her at even more risk!<. Then we have Hiruko. She, like Takumi, wants everyone to survive to day 100. However, instead of making that clear to everyone, she resorts to manipulating others like she does in Route 0 and SF. She also has no qualms about >!letting the genocide happen to the futurans in some routes since she sees it as fulfilling the mission.!<

Despite this, they both care about other people, at least to some extent. As mentioned, Homura is very protective of Madoka and is willing to do anything to save her. Meanwhile, Hiruko cares about her friends, most notable Takumi. She acts as his advisor most of the time. Additionally, in Slasher Killer, >!she doesn't out Takumi as the killer until everyone else is dead and she refuses to leave his side and let him die alone. She also kisses him just before they die!<. Additionally, they both have trouble expressing their true feelings. Homura goes out of her way to be detached to anyone that isn't Madoka so that she doesn't end up getting hurt again and again. Meanwhile, Hiruko acts like a tsundere and gets defensive over her kinder side.

They also have deep-seated trauma linked to >!timeloops!< that led to moral degradation. In Homura's case, >!she initially time-travelled to protect Madoka and work with her as magical girls. However, witnessing her best friend / love interest die over and over again ended up caused her to repress her capacity to care and become the cold, antisocial girl that she is now!<. Meanwhile, >!witnessing several timelines that end in everyone dying!< caused Hiruko to become desensitized to cruelty such as >!brainwashing Eva!< in SF.

Perhaps the clearest similarity between the two is their relationships with Madoka and Takumi. In Homura's case, the reason why she became attached to Madoka in the first place is because >!Madoka was the first (and potentially the only one) to be kind to her. In return, she wanted to be the one that protected her. Which shifted into the goal of keeping her alive at all costs!<. Meanwhile, it's not exactly clear the moment when Hiruko got attracted to Takumi, but it's been speculated that she first fell in love with him >!in a timeline that we haven't seen!<. However, given that Takumi is somewhat similar to Madoka (and the fact that he can attract most girls), it's not hard to see why she would fall in love with him.

They are also both willing to do questionable things for the sake of their loved ones. There's Homura's actions at the end of the Rebellion movie, >!where she forcibly steals Madoka's godhood and rewrites reality to ensure that Madoka is safe and only human once again!<. Meanwhile, in SF, >!Hiruko lies to Takumi about curing his Slasher Killer counterpart since she wanted preserve a meaningful moment between the two. Even though it would lead everyone dying over and over again!<.

That being said, there are some differences between the two girls. For one thing, Homura has repressed her ability to care for anyone other than Madoka. To her, everyone else isn't human and it's easier this way since she wouldn't have to be hurt again. A prime example of this is >!her attempting to get Sayaka to purify her grief seed. However, Homura didn't do that because she cared whether or not Sayaka lived. She only did it because she knows that Sayaka dying and turning into a witch to severely hurt Madoka!<. Meanwhile, Hiruko does genuinely care about people other than Takumi. This is illustrated in KG, >!where she partnered up with Darumi because she knew about her past and suicidal tendencies and didn't want her to risk getting killed!<.

Additionally, there is their pasts. Before Homura met Madoka, >!she was a shy and sickly girl that didn't have any friends. Until Madoka befriended her. It was the repeated exposures to Madoka's death that turned Homura into the calculated person that she is today!<. Meanwhile, based on the prequel novel, it appears that Hiruko was the same calculated person that we see now. It's just that it focuses more on her boredom with her mundane life unlike Homura's initial personality . Speaking of boredom, there's also the fact that unlike Hiruko, Homura doesn't fighting or get excited by it. She does it because she feels she has to for Madoka's sake.

With all of these similarities and subtle differences in mind, it leads me to think that Homura at the end of the Rebellion movie is what Hiruko might've been if she didn't lose control over her moral restraints completely. I'm not saying it would definitely have happened, but it's definitely possible. These two are interesting characters in their own right. They are both pragmatic and cold people that have suffered from a moral degradation over time. Let me know if you agree with these or if I missed something. And I, for one, am excited for the Walpurgishnaught movie to come out.