April 13th, 2018 
AstroNerdBoy Fate/EXTRA Last Encore 10
SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:
In the past, Rin and Rani have a beverage at the top of a tower, above the fog, where they come to a truce. In the present, Hakuno has a memory-dream of a meeting he had with Rin and Rani in a previous go-through. When Hakuno awakens, Saber-Nero encourages him to focus on a single Code Cast to use as an enhancement on the sixth tier. When the Moon Mile Ladder arrives, Hakuno and Saber find this tier is a fog-covered place, filled with tons of lances.
As the two explore, they are attacked by “lifeless” Lancer-Rin. A giant, “lifeless” Rani also attacks, but she also targets Rin. Several more Lancer-Rin entities show up to defeat the giant, then pursue Saber and Hakuno. The duo give them the slip as they discover this tier is filled with tons of Rin and tons of Rani battling and being shattered. Saber thinks that either Rin or Rani is still alive and in control of this floor. Hakuno disagrees, feeling that all of these creations are both real and fake.
Hakuno speculates about these creations, but gets smacked by the Rin who’d been helping them since tier 1. Rin says that these other Rin and Rani will kill them, but if they can make it to the dome in the center of the lake of ice, which is filled with bodies of Rin and Rani, Hakuno and Saber will be safe. Rin escorts them there, but as they enter the dome, Rin’s body cracks and she begins to leak energy. She begs them to end the cycle as this process is painful for both Rani and her.
Inside the dome, Saber and Hakuno see a recording of Rani and Rin, explaining that they are both the Floor Master of tier six. Moon Cell could not determine which of them won, so after 100 years, the pair came up with a plan to find a surviving Master, then have said Master end one of them, choosing a winner. Hakuno finds the hibernating bodies of Rin and Rani, but he refuses to kill them. Instead, he revives Rin, but as he tries to revive Rani, she begins to dissolve into energy. Hakuno is displeased, but Rani is happy. She is able to say a proper farewell to Hakuno. With that, Hakuno makes a memorial for Rani, where Rin promises her former rival to support Hakuno from here on out.
Thoughts/Review:
I gotta admit, Fate/EXTRA Last Encore 10 may have been the most interesting episode of the series. Thankfully, it was not melodramatic, as the episodes with Alice were. However, it was still packed with emotion, howbeit in a positive way while being sad.
Rani and Rin
Finally, we have an explanation about Rani and Rin. Granted, the whole notion of them mass producing their bodies for an endless fight is out there. I guess both Rin and Rani had Lancer-class Servants, but how the two managed to infuse their former Servant’s power into their mass-produced bodies is more of a mystery, and one that likely will never be solved. And I guess the hibernating Rin and Rani could only have their consciousness in one artificial body, leaving the rest to just mindlessly, and endlessly fight.
That said, the idea behind this insanity works.What I mean is that while Rani and Rin had their real bodies safely stored away, they could send their “clones” out to the different tiers to try to find a Master to free them from their curse. Having found Hakuno, they did what they could to get him to tier 6. He tried to break the rules and save them both, but in the end, could only save Rin.
I guess that’s partly why Rin didn’t attack him to move on herself. Well, that and the fact that she has no Servant. That is, unless the real Rin also is a Demi-Servant of the Lancer class. It seemed like to me that all of Hakuno’s actions, including erecting a cross for Rani, caused Rin to change her mind along the way. I could be wrong there.
That aside, Rani’s apparent, final “death” was sad, but as things happened, something positive came from it. And it wasn’t melodramatic just to get someone to reach for the box of tissues.
The Stupidity of the Holy Grail War
When I watched Fate/stay night for the first time, the whole Holy Grail War thing made sense. You had some idiot mages who started this thing to try to have a wish granted. Over time, the process became polluted and thankfully was ended.
In Fate/EXTRA Last Encore, the whole Holy Grail War thing just is stupid. I know some sort of explanation was given, but my eyes glazed over at the sheer volume of info-dump we were getting. As such, this whole Moon Cell system seems like it was one big torture system from the start. Nothing really makes sense, beyond the fact that everyone is in a computer.
Final Thoughts and Conclusion
In the end, Fate/EXTRA Last Encore 10 is not a bad episode. For once, it held my interest all the way through. Also, it wasn’t confusing just to be confusing. And while there was still a lot of information dropped on us, it wasn’t as bad as some episode.
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Hmmm so Episode 10 for me was a bit of a turn… like Episode 9 was exciting because our fan favourite Hakuno was there and not this Dead Face guy.
As for episode 10, yeah it kind of got confusing and at times there were moments where I was questioning the purpose of the Rin and Rani plot.
In the end it just seems like they were trying hard to replicate the decision you had to make in the game to choose which of them that you would save and it just didn’t work.
Like you get the sense of deja vu but that is literally it…
Also Lu-Bu Rani just looks weird.
As an aside, I guess episode 11 won’t come out until July. I wonder why the long delay.
Because it’s SHAFT, that’s why.
Haha! True.
Im not sure… wonder if rating is that bad… the episode should be done… unless they are out of budget.
The thing is, im a pretty big fan of Fate Extra but Im not enjoying the anime.
And your a Fate anime series fan but you cant enjoy this installment so presumably the japanese otaku should be the same…
I mean the hype was real, but its the delivery and expectation for the series that was a let down
It did get a late start in the season. Maybe that’s part of the deal.
And I agree with your sentiments on the series being a let down.
@AstroNerdBoy I’m more curious about the single cour rumors.
I don’t seem why a concept like extra would be constrained to one.
The series is at its end at best there are 3 episodes left, with Saber and Leo and Saver and Twice standing in their way.
They could extend the episode with a Tamamo no Mae side of the story or Extra CCC but personally i want it to end before they tarnish the series any further.
If they going to Adapt extra they need to adapt it properly
Single cours seems to be a bigger thing for the Japanese, especially if they are uncertain if a series will do whatever it is they expect from it (like advertise a game/manga/light novel/etc.).
So I finished the first ‘set’ of tenchi ova’s on Blu-ray. Pretty good. Not really a harem series, it’s tenchi is just so, it would get published.
Mihoshi is unnecessary, she seems to be of been created for blonde guro archetype. She’s gets much better further on. Ryoko, is schizophrenic she’s a planet destroyer, in her back story but its never clarified neither is her relationship with Ayeka, which appears to be complicated by different reasons than attacking Jurai. Very rin and Luvia but lacking the aggressive homoeroticism.
Washu is fun, obviously, Ryo, is unbelievable cute, in later episodes as the art dramatically improves. Especially episode 13 with the King, heartbreaking.
Sasami, is contrived?! Her back story as it is, is rather shrugged off.
Ayeka, more in the background than Sasami, only appears because of the harem rival gag for ryoko.
I do don’t think I’ll really like the non cell incarnations. The backgrounds are amazing, and it doesn’t jab at one’s eyes like digital does. It’s why, it hurts to watch the Simpsons in full HD, the yellow is overwhelming, creating sensory overload, my eyes take minutes to adjust everytime.
I reviewed OVA 1 and 2 a while back. That said…
Well, it is the father of the modern day harem genre. The difference here is that the harem element is just icing on the cake. The story of Tenchi and this world around him is the heart of the matter, which is what made it so interesting to me.
Haha! Typo there–guro is NOT where we want to ever go. 😉 That said, she is the gyaru archetype. Actually, all of the girls in TM!R are archetypes. Ryoko is the rude gaijin. Aeka is the ojousama. Sasami is the loli. Washu could fit into a couple of categories since she has two physical forms.
But Mihoshi is not unnecessary. Unfortunately, her backstory remains mostly unexplored, but her family is massively important in the universe of TM!R. And at one point, Akamatsu-sensei was going to write a novel dedicated to Mihoshi and explaining whatever happened to her in the past, but that got scrapped with OVA 3 got the green light.
I wouldn’t say contrived. Almost no one knows the truth of Sasami. If we were on the review for OVA 1 or 2, I’d say more, but in this non-Tenchi review, I won’t say more. 🙂
OVA 1 Review: https://anime.astronerdboy.com/2009/06/back-to-vaults-tenchi-muyo-ryo-ohki-ova.html
Episode 7 Review: https://anime.astronerdboy.com/2009/07/back-to-vaults-tenchi-muyo-ryo-ohki.html
OVA 2 Review: https://anime.astronerdboy.com/2010/03/back-to-vaults-tenchi-muyo-ryo-ohki-ova-2.html
OVA 3 Review: https://anime.astronerdboy.com/2016/01/back-to-the-vaults-tenchi-muyo-ryo-ohki-ova-3.html
OVA 3+1 Review: https://anime.astronerdboy.com/2016/11/back-vaults-tenchi-muyo-ryo-ohki-ova-3-1.html
OVA 4 Reviews: https://anime.astronerdboy.com/tag/tenchi-muyo-ryo-ohki-ova-4
(Still need to watch episode 4 of OVA 4.)
If you get a chance, pick up the first True Tenchi Muyo! novel entitled Jurai. It starts immediately after the events of OVA 2 episode 6 (episode 13 if you have FUNimation’s TM!R release), then delves into Azusa’s back story. I am the adapter of that novel. 🙂 Here’s an Amazon link to it (ignore the description when it starts talking about the 2nd and 3rd novels — those are being released separately). https://amzn.to/2HpwcLP