OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)Asahi races Karin and realizes what she needs to do to stop the loop.OUR TAKEWell, I appreciated the week off last time, even if I don’t know what it was for, but we’re back to finish this Asahi focused three parter. After multiple go throughs of the same few days, mainly with Uryu’s guidance, Asahi figures out that the thing she needs to move forward is making her own decisions. Not just picking between racing and being a shrine maiden, but simply being able to be her own person. Again, very much an improvement over the three parter with Yae where her involvement was pretty passive and just about Uryu learning backstory that ultimately didn’t impact much. Like seriously, Yae didn’t learn or change at all in that whole thing, aside from fully understanding that she’s in love with Uryu. Great. Meanwhile Asahi basically goes through a major life lesson of balancing her love for her family with her love for herself, getting the last piece to put it all together from her running rival of all people. I mean, we probably could have gotten that WITHOUT all of the strangely intimate moments of these two teenage girls getting on top of each other multiple times, followed by Uryu’s nose bleeding to remind us that yes, this is meant to be arousing to…someone. Not anyone I’d like to know.Overall a pretty solid story arc for its character development and how it worked in the supernatural elements, though the bit at the end is the main difference maker. Asahi reflects on how she’s learned to work for what she wants, but understands (RIGHTFULLY SO) that even if Uryu does get engaged to one of them, it won’t be her. So, she decides to roll the dice anyway and kiss him, followed by confessing her love for him. Good for her being open about her feelings and applying the lessons she’s learned towards being honest about what she wants and going for it! Unfortunately, as with just about every harem show I have ever watched, being the first to confess basically takes her out of the running automatically, even without the big handicap of being a literal child. I’ve been making a lot of comparisons to Quintessential Quintuplets in these reviews and, just like Nino in that show, the only thing confessing does is hasten the other potential candidates, including the winner, to actually make a go for it. But next time is a self-contained episode so we’ll see what happens then. Though I sure wouldn’t mind another week off!