Despite the cheery look of both Sailor Moon and Puella Magi Madoka Magica, both series are actually riddled with tragic characters and heartbreaking backstories. Sailor Saturn, also known as Hotaru Tomoe, is the sailor scout of destruction and has a tragic part in the outer scout's rebirth. Homura Akemi is a magical girl who thought she was living a dream, only to soon see the girl she fell in love with slaughtered in front of her. Both of these powerful girls have extremely dark story arcs that really make fans think that they both deserved better in their respective series.
10 Sailor Saturn: Spent Most of Her time Alone
Sailor Saturn was alone well before the Moon Kingdom was attacked. Despite being the princess of her planet like the other scouts, she seems to have been asleep for the majority of history and had no adoring subjects.
Much like Sailor Pluto, Saturn was given a duty that she couldn't abandon, which was to help the world restart if things went wrong. Even after being reincarnated, though, she was alone until she met Chibiusa.
9 Homura Akemi: Sick From Birth
Homura Akemi was a young girl with bad eyesight and a weak heart. Because of her health issues, Homura constantly spent most of her time in the hospital, where she was isolated from children of her own age.
When she finally got well enough to attend school, she made her first real friend Madoka. At the start of each reset, Homura always awakens in her hospital bed, where she must heal her health issues in order to fight well.
8 Sailor Saturn: Abused by Her Father
Before she awakened, Hotaru lived with her father, who was a scientist and used her in his experiments to bring Mistress 9 into her body. From what fans speculate, her father never really loved Hotaru and only in the first anime did he survive and care for her after rebirth.
Despite the fact that Sailor Saturn is used to being alone, the fact that she had to grow up for a second time without her dad's presence is rather sad.
7 Homura Akemi: Used by Kyubei
Homura was one of many girls that Kyubei sucked into becoming a magical girl, knowing that her ultimate fate was to suffer as she slowly turned into a witch. All of the girls' suffering is because of Kyubei misleading them on what becoming a magical girl actually entails.
Kyubei also ignored Homura's threats and continued to go after Madoka, even after she destroyed his body several times while trying to protect her.
6 Sailor Saturn: Fated to Destroy Herself
Sailor Saturn only awakened in order to force those around her to be reborn, including herself. Saturn is the Sailor Scout of Destruction, which means that she is fated to destroy herself over and over again to help protect Princess Serenity and the universe.
Despite this sad fact, Saturn does not hesitate to reincarnate the outer Senshi or dive into a portal to destroy Pharaoh 90 when he becomes a threat to the Earth and other Senshi.
5 Homura Akemi: Fated to Become a Witch
Homura, from the second she made her contract with Kyubei, was fated to become a witch after she had gone through tons of suffering. Witches in the series will always be hunted down by other magical girls and ultimately killed.
Homura herself found a way around this loophole for some time, but as of the last movie, she became a witch for a short amount of time before she ripped Madoka in half upon awakening in the real world.
4 Sailor Saturn: Only Awakened to Battle
Sailor Saturn is forced to awaken whenever something really bad has happened or is about to happen. This is seen all through the series and even in the Stars arc when she rapidly matures to be able to use her powers once again.
She does seem to escape this fate in the future as she is said to become one of Chibiusa soldiers in Crystal Tokyo, but there has never been any information about her life after the Stars arc.
3 Homura Akemi: Is Forced to Relive the Same Battle
Homura's wish was simply to be able to protect Madoka so that she didn't have to die. Due to the way Kyubei operates and the undeniable fate of magical girls, Homura gets stuck in a constant time loop where she is forced to battle witches over and over again.
Homura literally has to go up against the same witches time and time again, including Walpurgisnacht, who is pretty much the moment that Homura knows she and Madoka will both be killed.
2 Sailor Saturn: Her Final Attack Destroys Her
Sailor Saturn's final attack destroys her and then reverts her into a child. This doesn't excuse her from her duties, though, as she will immediately age-up if she is needed in combat, essentially ensuring that she may never have a regular childhood.
It does seem that her final can be interrupted to lessen its impact and save her life, as is proven when Chibiusa confronts her later on.
1 Homura Akemi: Her Final Attack Turned Her Into The Devil
Homura's final attempt to use her power helped her to rip Madoka in half so that she could spend more time with her. The only downside was that this completely corrupted her soul gem, turning her into the devil and antagonist of the series.
While another movie hasn't shown how much this action actually corrupted Homura, her personality at the end of the movie seems even more warped than it did before.