I know “Homura is Catholic” is only vaguely implied (in canon, all she says is that she went to a Christian missionary school, and in Japan those are overwhelmingly run by the Catholic Church) and we meme about it, but like. As someone who was raised Catholic, I have never seen a more Catholic character than Homura Akemi.
The religious-level obsession she has with Madoka. Her all-consuming guilt and self-doubt. Viewing suffering for Madoka’s sake as something beautiful and aspirational. Viewing herself as the literal devil for having selfish desires that aren’t even that bad.
Anyway who do you think her confirmation Saint would be
I was raised evangelical protestant but even with my limited exposure to catholicism she reads VERY Catholic to me too. Like there's definitely some overlap—the viewing yourself as evil or sinful for being "selfish", my beloathed; the idea of (certain kinds of) suffering being aspirational or holy, kiss my ass—but there's an intensity and/or reverence for those overlapping things that I definitely see more often in Catholic people and art.
Plus there is nothing quite like the kind of ecstasy and transcendence portrayed in depictions of the suffering/death of saints and religious figures in Catholic art, and that same sort of beauty and raptuousness is just all over Homura's whole everything I feel like. And this is just off watching the anime in like 2012 and only seeing a handful screenshots of the movies here and there, so like. Yeah.
I dunno I just very much wanted to cosign the "WOW is Homura like the poster girl for a sapphic Catholic tragedy or what?" vibes. It would not have been the same if she was at a protestant missionary school, not only are the particular traumas a different flavor but it doesn't have the same "beautiful suffering" aspect because by and large that is super not the flavor of art and beauty you get from protestant upbringing.
(anyway off to read the confirmation saint suggestions in the notes bc I'm sure this fandom will have some amazing picks)
What's interesting to me is. I don't know what Homura's actual religious beliefs are, and, if not for Rebellion, just in light of the series, the main 12 episodes of the show, while she does show the same character traits as in Rebellion, it's still possible to read the Catholic school as, not that important to her character.
I feel like after watching Rebellion though. Like, it still isn't clear if Homura, personally, herself, believes in the Christian God, but she definitely has Catholic Guilt, and buys into a lot of the notions of Sin and Penance. The Christian, Catholic, Worldview, so to speak.
If anything, I think Homura is a perfect example of the idea of. Cultural Christianity. In her case, Cultural Catholicism, more specifically. She's also Japanese, so she's also influenced by the broad blend of Shinto, Buddhism and, the significant portion of Japan that is, essentially atheistic or non religious, and Christianity has existed and had some influence in Japan, but.
Homura, specifically, I feel like has to be understood as, if not personally believing in Catholic doctrine, then having it repeated around her for a good portion of her early life. And she's seen a lot of the Catholic iconography, because her subconscious is able to replicate it, and. I really don't think she can be understood, perfectly, accurately, without it. It's almost vital, I think, to the story of Rebellion.
It's also, yes, very funny to meme about.
But the dialectic of the series, I think is that. Kyubey and Madoka are, representative of Buddhism, (possibly even Mami, given the wording of her wish was to be "tied to life", which is distinctly Buddhist phrasing) and, seemingly, (insofar as we take Kyubey as an accurate source on the nature of reality) the universe itself, in Madoka Magica, is a Buddhist one. Buddhism is true, in Madoka Magica as a setting, and Homura approaches everything she does, the way she responds to the world around her, the way that a Catholic would instead.
I mostly agree with this. With a few objections:
I wouldn't phrase it as "Buddhism is true in the setting", since there isn't actually a literal Buddhist religious cosmology involved (or any real life religion for that matter), and more that "the setting operates primarily within a Buddhist framework" At least during the anime. The spin offs don't really have that kind of thing most of the time, and then also Rebellion is told from Homura's perspective, though there are still many elements of that.
Kyubey also doesn't really represent Buddhism. Madoka yes, Madokami definitely, Kyubey no. Gen Urobuchi cited Kyubey's inspirations as Utilitarianism, Cthulhu, and... specifically the philosopher Michael Sandel, of all people, who most classify as "communitarian".
It's kinda fascinating though how each character represents a different ideology.
Homura has Catholic Guilt from her upbringing despite presumably not being religious, and is also repeatedly associated throughout Rebellion with Nietzche, in ways that do actually make a lot of sense thematically and ideologically especially for that film but also her character in general. In fact it could be argued that whole the original anime is Buddhist, Rebellion is Nietzchian, which fits given the whole idea of the ideological conflict between Madoka and Homura.
Madoka is the bodhisattva Kannon, with a hint of Jesus (likely some of that is also a result of Homura's bias in that regard, but it isn't a completely fabricated comparison even with Kannon already accounted for), and she is also a psychopomp for Magical Girls.
Kyubey I've already mentioned, but he's a hyper-utilitarian hivemind collectivist. He's not any specific kind of utilitarian that actually exists though to my knowledge, going off of what he says he believes in the show. Rather he borrows from multiple doctrines and that's part of why he seems so hypocritical and unreasonable. He's half totalitarian utilitarian and half choice utilitarian, which means that he has to use loopholes to make people "willingly agree" to his contracts, in ways that violate the idea of informed consent, because he doesn't actually care despite thinking he does seemingly. Also he presumably doesn't measure utility as based in emotion the way human philosophers do. (I will admit I may have some bias here as someone whose own philosophy is functionally utilitarian). Though I guess he's meant to be more allegorical, anyways. Also his goal to unnaturally extend the lifespan of the universe is vet antithetical to Buddhism, since he's essentially extending samsara and the point of Buddhism is to escape samsara.
Kyoko (in the original timelines) espouses a philosophy that I'd generally describe as libertarian individualism, with different aspects of various ideologies that fit that description. But her version of capitalism runs off of grief seeds instead of money. It's kind of ironic actually given her impoverished background, but also more realistic than one might think. She's also a hedonist, in a colloquial sense of the term. She isn't very good at sticking to her own beliefs though if a young child is involved or if Sayaka begins self destructing. And of course all of this is a result of her own trauma which likely stripped her of her previous religious faith (mostly, at least. She does pray one last time before she dies in the anime).
Sayaka seems to function on essentially virtue ethics, not out of any understanding of moral philosophy, but because she goes by her gut instinct, and has essentially survivors guilt about Kyousuke's injury, while also idolizing the cultural idea of heroes as moral paragons. This black and white thinking, where good and bad are measured by intent and not outcome, so thoughtcrimes exist and any amount of self interest is wrong, is exaggerated by her experiences throughout the anime. Though by rebellion she seems to have improved, but not as much as initially appears. Her black and white thinking is still present, it has just shifted from more generalized non-religous virtue ethics to "the law of cycles is good".
And then Mami just kind of believes in the status quo most of the time and when her preconceptions are shattered she usually jumps to harmful extremes.
It's an interesting mix for sure and no character is ever really shown as completely in the right or in the wrong (even Kyubey and Madoka).
If you enjoyed this thread you should read Jujutsu Kaisen. Differing philosophies is basically it’s bread and butter
