What happened to Suguru at the end?

Question

At the end of Mahoromatic (second season), what happened to Suguru?

After Mahoro dies, the final episode reveals that Suguru was so distraught over Mahoro's death that he becomes a cyber bounty hunter who hates robots now. So he was wounded after being betrayed by his partner and then he sees Mahoro again. We know she died, but not in a way one normally would. We find that she has become the "Id" (I may be remembering incorrectly these terms) of humanity, so she's sort of still around. Does Suguru die and he's just hallucinating Mahoror or is he somehow metaphysically reunited with Mahoro?

Answer 1

This is an old question, but I recently re-watched the ending and I wanted to give my point of view of what happen.

Before beginning the last episode...

Mahoro death left a heartbroken Suguru who feels betrayed after he has been left alone again without family. Even if he was able to get some of his old life back with his good friends and school, he decided to leave his hometown to never return again, trying to erase the memories of that time that causes him so much pain.

Then, in the last episode...

After 20 years, Suguru is a 34 years old bounty hunter based on the new Saint-Terran colony established in a planet assumed to be near Earth. We learn soon that many of his body parts have been replaced by cybernetic components, rendering him as a cyborg rather than a human, but also enabling him to do dangerous jobs as hunting down and destroying any remaining of Management androids. The only mood relief of this whole dark episode is a fleeting encounter with Shikijo-sensei, who after seeing she has not changed a bit, Suguru suspects she is an android also; something she notices and clarify she is 100% human. Then Shikijo notices Suguru's sword and the odd look of Jils, his business partner; get a bit scared and decides to left him behind, vowing to meet him again "if he is still alive".

And finally...

Suguru get backstabbed by Jils, who does so just because there is a bounty on Suguru's head. Suguru pain a suffering over these 20 years have been followed by Ryoga and Lisa (his grandmother and only family member still alive), without taking any particular action on it. With Suguru in the edge between life and death, prompts Lisa to take action and talk to Matthew, the collective consciousness of Saint. Mahoro was an android built with Saint technology, so it means that she has a true hearth and memories, connected to Matthew; so after Mahoro destruction, her memories and conciousness when back to him/her. Lisa makes a request to Matthew so they can do something for Suguru, and Matthew tells how 20 years ago a memory born inside him that he were not able to cope with -clearly talking about Mahoro-. As Matthew and some Saints are about to embark on a new journey into deep space, and this uneasy memory will be of no use, he decides to leave it back for Suguru...

This creates a totally misplaced Mahoro in the Saint-Terran colony near Suguru's whereabouts but not directly in front of him (it is not clear this new Mahoro is an android, human or whatever), so Mahoro start looking for Suguru and asking people she finds about him. Finally, she finds Suguru but she is not able to recognize him, as she is still looking for the 14-years old kid. Suguru, who is on the verge of death, thinks that Mahoro is the Angel of Death, the Grim Reaper, or plain simple that he is dying (ironically, he doesn't seems to care much about it). After several really funny interactions between the misplaced Mahoro and the old Suguru, she finally notices he is the person who is looking for, and Suguru realizes the Mahoro that is in front of him is real. She tells Suguru to go back home, where he can get his happy life back and never be alone again.

About Suguru's fate:

It is heavily hinted that Suguru survives and return safely to Earth with Mahoro: first in the epilogue dialogue and second, because Lisa states to Ryoga that "nobody will die tonight". Finally, I think the change in the final scene from 34 years-old Suguru to 14 years old one is just to avoid the weird view it would be Mahoro embracing a 34 years-old man.

This last episode can look grim and many people may hate it, but I really loved it and I think on it as a proper ending to the series as...

...Suguru suffering and sacrifice during 20 years is what triggers Lisa to request Matthew -something that seems to be highly taboo- to do something about it and bring Mahoro back. If Suguru didn't go this dark way, he could have been happier during the 20 years, but he would never had Mahoro back as Lisa wouldn't sense the need to act.

Answer 2

This is a classic Gainax Ending, i.e. an ending where a lot of things happen which are ambiguous or just plain don't make sense. The trope is named after the studio Gainax, famous for these sorts of endings (see also "Neon Genesis Evangelion" or "Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt"), the same studio which produced Mahoromatic. To put it simply, things happen in the anime, but there's no explanation for exactly what happened.

In the case of Mahoromatic, this is understandable. The second season of the anime ended in 2003, while the manga continued until 2004, so at some point the anime studio was forced to either wait to create another season concluding the anime or else come up with their own ending (they chose the latter). Anime-original endings are not uncommon among manga adaptations.

Anyway, here's everything that I've managed to gather from it:

Suguru is now a bounty hunter on the Saint-Earth colony. He works with a comrade, but that comrade later backstabs Suguru in an attempt to collect the bounty on his head. As he is seriously wounded or dying, he sees Mahoro again. Matthew also makes a vauge related comment related to "leaving something behind" as she leaves the Earth to search for more life, which seems like it may be a reference to Mahoro. It's not clear in what form she has been reborn (human, android, or something else entirely), or if she's just a hallucination. Even if she's alive, Suguru is most definitely seriously injured, and it is not explained whether or how he survives.

If one browses through forums and blogs, there are tons of speculative interpretations of this, and none seem to have any official sources backing them up. The only conclusion I can come to is that the ending is ambiguous, perhaps deliberately so. There do not seem to be canonical answers to any of these questions.

For what it's worth, the manga ending is somewhat easier to understand, but it is quite different from the anime ending in terms of the points you have mentioned. There are some similar details, so it may be that the author had some rough idea what he wanted to do but had not finalized the details at the time of the anime's ending.

Matthew (the leader of Saint) was the original basis for Mahoro and the one who proposed her to Suguru's grandfather originally. 20 years after the events of the main story, Suguru is now a Vesper agent and works tirelessly to defeat their enemies. Matthew meanwhile is leaving Earth to search for new life somewhere else, but decides to give birth to a human girl who is the reborn version of Mahoro. As Mahoro ages she begins to remember about Suguru. After one mission, Suguru returns to his home on the Earth, only to be greeted by the reborn and newly human Mahoro. It's implied that they live happily ever after. In this ending it's clear how Mahoro was reborn, and that Suguru did not die and was not hallucinating.

Answer 3

As i checked in anime what i got is suguru is half saint and half human and he's upgraded his body by mechanising himself .He's now in a colony shared by both humans and saints outside earth but he's an vesper agent who kills the battle androids for bounty most of them were keepers who enhanched themselves during the last stage of their end . But suguru gets betrayed by his own comrade who stabs him from back whereas he slices the traitor to half finding out he's a droid to .During this time matthew and lisa discuss to move further in the space. While lisa whos a saint worry's about suguru her grandson as she was the women who gave birth to sugurus mother and was lover of sugurus grand father .This reveals suguru is hybrid of saint and human whereas matthew says she wants to leave her sweet memories behind as they wont be needed in her further journey but will be helpful to someone and assures lisa that suguru is fine and he wont be lonely anymore .Here mahoro is revived by matthew as her sweet memories are left in her she finds suguru in the colony and injured suguru thinks he's hallucinating in his death only to find out she has come back again for real this time as mentioned by matthew sugur is fine despite being injured that means he's well and lives with mahoro goes back to earth to live happily ever after