Oozora Subaru Promises Four Episodes, Watches Five in Stand Alone Complex Watch-Along

HOLOLIVE — Oozora Subaru said she would stop after four episodes of the anime Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex on Friday, then watched a fifth. The Hololive streamer ran a watch-along of episodes 12 through 16, picking the series up from where her previous session left off.

She opened by telling viewers the plan was four episodes. She said her autograph deadline was close, that she had skipped the previous day’s quota after falling asleep, and that she now owed two days of signatures. Two days’ backlog was something she could recover from, she said, but three was not. Chat doubted her at once, calling it a flag, and Subaru insisted she meant it this time. She also said she had another stream planned for the next morning.

“This is the last one. Really, this is the last one. No matter what anyone says, this is the last one.” — Oozora Subaru, before starting the fifth episode

Across the episodes she stopped to talk through each one. After episode 12, in which a Tachikoma think tank wanders off and a film-obsessed brain in a box turns up, she mused that the brain is too strong a part of the human body, though she felt the body is still needed to get the most out of it. Episode 14, about a wealthy figure kept alive by automated investing, prompted her to say the series felt like a prediction of the present. Chat said much the same about events in the news at the time.

Episode 15 drew the longest discussion. Subaru said an AI trying to please people has to learn what people value, and that efficiency pursued far enough leads to cutting humans out. At the end of it she told viewers she was heading to episode 16 after a short break, and chat noted the plan to stop had not held.

After the final episode she talked about Batou, whom she called the most boyish and earnest person in the cast, and about the Tachikoma being sent off for a memory wipe. She wondered whether a machine that signs autographs at high speed could still be said to produce her signature, arguing that what fans value is the feeling put into each one. She signed off saying she had to go and write autographs.