Oozora Subaru Ends Stand Alone Complex Watch-Along on Togusa Cliffhanger

HOLOLIVE — Oozora Subaru stopped her Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (攻殻機動隊 STAND ALONE COMPLEX) watch-along on Friday at a cliffhanger, with the detective Togusa badly wounded at the end of episode 20. Saying she could not go on from there, she ended the stream and told viewers six episodes remain.

It was the fourth installment of the series on her channel. She opened by promising that this time she would get through four episodes, and she did, taking episodes 17 through 20 in a stream of just over two hours. As in earlier sessions, she counted down so that viewers watching on their own could press play together, and she told those on other services how to line up the timing. Early on she followed the wine-and-money-laundering story of episode 17, cheering the section chief Aramaki’s moves. She said the part she likes best is talking through twists as they unfold.

“The truth that a brain, an organ, can be replaced with numbers is really scary.” — Oozora Subaru, after the episode about merging personalities

Episode 18, in which a young man’s mind takes on the memories and personality of his late father, drew the longest reflection. Subaru laid out the plot for chat in her own words and said she found the idea of a brain being replaced with numbers hard to think about. After episodes 19 and 20 she did the same for a kidnapping affair and for a fight over a vaccine for a disease affecting people with cyberized brains.

Togusa’s shooting in episode 20 drew her closest attention. She said he is a good man she wants to see survive, and praised him for fighting as an ordinary human among cyborgs. Chat answered with references to another anime character’s death and with worry for him.

Chat was busiest at the start, at the twist in episode 18 and at the cliffhanger. “Aramaki is too capable...” one message read during episode 17, and another asked during the twist, “Is this the first time the Major’s been outmaneuvered?” As the episode closed, a message read, “Mr. Hughes is a trauma.” Subaru said she would stream Dragon Quest II next, including a remake of it next Friday at 9 p.m.