MAHOROMATIC’S CONTROVERSIAL ENDING

TONY T. - Guest, 1st Year, Intended Economics and Data Science

While Mahoromatic is an occasionally enjoyable generic school slice of life romantic comedy, it would be forgettable and ultimately pointless if not for its controversial ending. The first 25 episodes of Mahoromatic are fairly stock and not something very unique - the main character, Suguru, gets into shenanigans with the kooky strange characters around him with growing romantic tension between him and his maid, Mahoro. Said maid is secretly a superpowered android previously employed by a secret agency to save the world, but often, the only interesting thing done with this premise is how she strives to keep it a secret from Suguru and the rest of the cookie cutter, generic cast. Her limited lifespan is a focal point of the series, displayed at the end of every episode to an interesting effect. By presenting this dramatic element following numerous scenes of lighthearted jokes, it creates a unique dynamic wherein the audience is aware of underlying tension that most of the characters are oblivious to. Still, even in the instances when military conflicts or dramatic bits do appear within the series, there isn’t a lot done with them and they often fall flat.

And that’s why the bleak, dark, ending works so well for me. In a fairly unexpected turn, Mahoro is forced to self-destruct herself to save the Earth, long before her lifespan actually runs out. In doing this, the audience’s expectations are betrayed as the series’ final episode makes a downright bizarre leap into the far flung future. In this final episode, Suguru, previously a fairly generic nerdy romcom lead, abandons everyone around him to work as a bounty hunter on Mars. In doing this, he completely leaves the rest of the cast in hopes of forgetting the pain he suffers from Mahoro’s death. Sporting a cigarette and a cynical demeanor, his outlook radically differs from everything the character was established to be in the previous 25 episodes. After being backstabbed by a colleague, Suguru lays dying, before seeing Mahoro again. The question of whether or not she is actually there or is just welcoming him to a form of the afterlife is deliberately left ambiguous.

While it is intensely controversial and adds to Gainax’s list of strange endings, I thought the ending showed a great deal of insight into the concepts of nostalgia and past memories. By abandoning his past, Suguru is left numb without any real purpose. Yet, it is only because of his past memories of pain that Suguru leaves the cutesy generic romcom shenanigans of his youth behind in such a startling way. I think the finale paints the rest of the series in a darker light, attempting to comment on how those past, rose tinted memories of a more innocent time should be remembered, but should not consume you. It’s downright heartbreaking how, after building up the fluffy cutesy side cast for so long, the series remarkably has an adult Suguru state that he hasn’t seen them in years. But it’s powerful. Suguru, in this case, is an omen that while it’s nice to live in the past once in a while, it’s incredibly unhealthy to be consumed by it. Thus, upon rewatches, one could view most of the first 25 episodes of Mahoromatic as having narrator bias. Was everything so purely fun? Were all the characters that idealized? All of that is thus left up for question by the finale, as the generic romcom shenanigans become recontextualized as nostalgia.

Slice of life is, in its nature, somewhat escapist: viewers are supposed to project onto the characters and their struggles. What’s really separating older viewers of cutesy school shows like Mahoromatic from the jaded adult Suguru? By viewing such shows, aren’t such audience members escaping into the past just as Suguru lets the past completely define him? Therefore, while Mahoromatic is a very flawed series, I personally found the hugely controversial ending to be a breath of fresh air for these types of series. Your mileage may vary - I’ve seen a lot of people completely hate this finale for betraying the cute and fun dynamics that the show primarily consists of - but I found it to be a breath of fresh air.