Homura Akemi is one of the five main Magical Girls from the hit anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica also known simply as Madoka Magica. Homura's portrayal as a cold, asocial, hardened Magical Girl who lacks empathy is actually not at all like the person she originally was. Homura had a heart disease which left her bedridden for a long time, likely leading to her becoming unsocialized. As is shown in episode 10, she initially transferred into Mitakihara Middle School as a timid, shy, and unsure girl before getting encouragement from the first person who reached out to her, Madoka Kaname, who also complimented her name, which she mentioned being self conscious about. After finding out Madoka was a magical girl after wandering into a barrier, along with meeting Mami Tomoe, she felt inspired by them and looked up to them after they saved her life. All is seemingly going well until Walpurgisnacht appears. Mami dies at the hands of the witch, and before Homura could get hurt, Madoka turns and goes to fight the witch by herself. Madoka ends up dying in front of Homura, and she cries over her body, and then makes her wish: "I want to redo my meeting with Miss Kaname. But this time, instead of her protecting me, I want to become strong enough to protect her (source: Netflix subs)," which granted her time powers, and she was immediately thrust back in time to her first day of school, in the beginning of the month.