I think the series that used the 2 part format the best were Den-O and Fourze. Helps that Den-O didn't even have a plot until, like, episode 30 :p

But I do have high hopes for Gaim. I want to see how a current series handles an ongoing plot without having to take a break every 2 episodes to introduce someone new with a problem the Rider has to solve.

Well Fourze used it well, until it decided it wanted a plot in the last ten episodes I mean.... :p

I'm gonna keep an open mind when it comes to Gaim, but I'm not gonna act like a kid on Christmas morning like some people have in the respective threads, despite having next to diddly squat to go on.

I'm not giddy for Gaim, but I can't say that I'm not excited. Sure, the trailers haven't exactly given us much to go off of, but it looks like it's trying something different, so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.

Hey, I just noticed something. The two rings Nitou gives to Haruto are Falco and Dolphi, and then Nitou is sent back to his own time without apparently meeting up with Haruto again. It seems like a plothole, but I can't seem to think of anytime Beast used either of those rings in the last ten episodes or so. He pretty much stuck to Buffa and Chameleo.

When did we decide it was time travel? If those kids could call out to Gaim and Haruto from separate worlds and bring them in, I assumed that the Nitou in question came from a world where he hadn't lost his powers yet. A world similar to Haruto's own but one that hadn't progressed as far yet. I didn't look at as a timeline thing.

The 2-episode thing has actually been around pretty much since Kuuga. It just became way more prominent around Kabuto and Den-O when the shows stopped investing a lot of time in ongoing plot arcs. Den-O also specifically brought in the "victim of the fortnight" concept that became the driving focus of pretty much every series after that. The format was still a little loose in Kiva and Decade, but from W onwards we've just gotten show after show that sticks to the basic Den-O format:

- Two main Riders; main is goofy, secondary is serious (I'm counting Gotou for OOO here, since Date being around for most of the series was an awesome accident) (also, this was obviously inverted in Wizard)

- Main character has a non-human partner(s) who directly helps him fight (Taros, Philip, Ankh, Kengo - again inverted in Wizard because Koyomi's actress was unavailable)

- Weird older male authority figure

- Female character with some degree of tsundere-ness.

- Monster of the fortnight whose plan is to in some way create/work off of a negative human emotion.

- Victim of the fortnight who is the main focus of each two-part plot.

Honestly, I am definitely one of those who is looking forward to Gaim moving away from this pattern. It's not a bad way to run a show, but it's all we've gotten since '09 and I really want to see something different again.

Haruto straight up said last week that this must be Kousuke from an earlier point in time.

I also forgot to mention this, but it was kinda nice to see Beast totally job to a villain one last time. :lol

W didn't have this.

The chief detective with his backscratcher. He's relatively downplayed compare to Owner, Kougami, or Ohsuki, but he counts.

So we just watched both parts and boy did they suck. IT is like they let an 8 year old write a show of how to get all of the 15 Heisei riders into the show without any comprehension of plot or characters. It made no sense, the villain was pathetic, and it had the annoyance of featuring Decade while not even getting the actors to voice their own characters outside of Fourze and Den-O. This thing blew chunks and was a terrible way to finish Haruto's journey regardless of them being special episodes. I'm not sure what Toei was thinking, but they could have done A LOT better.

Fourze wasn't voiced by his actor either. The voices were done by their suit actors or so I'm told, definitely not Gentaro though.