Two-Episode Arcs

[CaptainTalon449]

So there's been a vocal group that doesn't like Drive going back to the whole two-episode arc thing. However, I beg to differ for one reason. There's legimate reasons why I think it's been working well and that mainly in part due to Machine Chase. Machine Chase provides Drive an enemy that is about as strong if not stronger than Drive himself because of that and the fact that Chase himself takes a very active role in making sure the Roimudes evolve by fighting Drive it makes the two episode arc not feel stale or tired

[takenoko]

I think it's fine as well, but I do wish there were a larger plot to lead the viewer along. It'd be nice if Shinnosuke had a major goal to motivate his story. Like some killer that he needs to chase down or some major case that he was never able to solve. If his partner actually died or if the monster that attacked Kiriko had stuck around a bit longer to hassle them throughout the series, that could have been a thing.

Since it doesn't have that, the episode/episodes feel a bit episodic. I think that's part of the reason people are feeling a bit bored with this series. It wouldn't be so bad if the characters are interesting, but right now Kiriko and Belt-san are the only characters that intrigue me so far.

[Catastrophe]

It does it more like Kabuto then Wizard though, which I'm fine with.

Like Kabuto would destroy one Worm one episode and then the second the next. See episodes 3 and 4 with the two art monsters for Drive, same basic thing.

The one annoying thing with two episode arcs, especially in Wizard was the bullshit reasonings they would use in some episodes to pad it out.

[dancercotillion]

Wizard handled it very poorly, for sure, whereas Gaim was basically a 42-part episode. (I'm obviously discounting the stupid non-sequitor episodes here.) So far, Drive having this two-part format is fine. It's not as lazy as "the monster literally runs off camera and Wizard doesn't even bother chasing him," and that's a pretty good step towards good writing!

I think the thing is people came to associate "two-parters" with "shitty" because Wizard fumbled it so hard, so now they improperly assume the shittiness came from the two-episode format and not from being a lousy show. W was all about two-part episodes, and people loved that show, so the format isn't the issue. The execution is.

We'll see how Drive pans out with this, but so far the cliffhangers have been "the monster is revived to attack again", "there were two monsters", and now "the kaijin is just too damned strong; also, poison". Those are much, much better than "Haruto's blood sugar was too low" or "the monster hopped a low hedgerow and walked behind a fern".

[Phoenix512]

People were hating on two episode arcs since Den-O but what they don't realized that it existed way back in the days of Kuuga. As I keep saying, I wish people would stop complaining about it. It's part of the KR format for the most part.

[Catastrophe]

You are correct in that statement. W kind of forced it into mainstream recognition with the arc titles as well though.

Some series pull it off better then others. I suppose it depends on the writer. I wouldn't worry about it with Drive because Sanjo did a great job with W.

[AxemYellow]

With 2-episode stories, it really matters how they do it. If done well it can be great, since they have more time to develop the plot and guest characters. If done poorly, it feels like padding. With Drive, as with W, I think it works well since we have cases that require first a setup then a solution.

[OOOKaiser]

It does it more like Kabuto then Wizard though, which I'm fine with.

Like Kabuto would destroy one Worm one episode and then the second the next. See episodes 3 and 4 with the two art monsters for Drive, same basic thing.

The one annoying thing with two episode arcs, especially in Wizard was the bullshit reasoning they would use in some episodes to pad it out.

I was re watching Wizard until I stopped halfway the series until I realized how boring they were stretching the episodes.