Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 256

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 256

Inojin’s and Chouchou’s Mission

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 256 is pure filler. And the next episode is going to be filler too. In fact, we’re most likely going to get quite a few filler episodes in a row here. But, I’m still going to review them all.

So, this week’s episode focused on Inojin and Chouchou, which is how you know it’s going to be bad from the start. Of course, singular filler episodes like this tend to be bad anyway. But Inojin and Chouchou aren’t good characters. I still might like them more than Denki and Metal, though.

The mission given to this pair is to track down and capture a known criminal who is stockpiling weapons. But, their mission isn’t actually what it seems. As it turns out, the man they’re after is a former criminal, not a current one. And he’s not stockpiling weapons. He’s stockpiling cooking instruments.

Inojin and Chouchou receiving their mission from the anime series Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 256
Inojin and Chouchou receiving their mission

I already knew that Jingo Kumano was a chef from the preview last week. But, even if you didn’t see that, you could have guessed it as well. After all, this episode prominently features Chouchou. That means there’s a high chance it’s food-related.

But, since Jingo turned out to be a chef, not a criminal, it meant that Inojin’s and Chouchou’s mission was a bust. And what happened afterward illustrates how little work Inojin and Chouchou get.

When Team 7 catches up with them at the start of the episode, they have no work. They’re hanging out in Thunder Burger while Shikadai is off on a different mission. And once the mission they get turns out to be nothing, they spend the rest of the day(s) helping to develop ramen recipes.

Shikadai Is Moving Up

As mentioned, the reason Inojin and Chouchou are jobless is that they don’t have a team leader most of the time. Shikadai is the chunin leader of Team 10. Inojin and Chouchou are both still genin. And because they’re genin, they can’t take on most missions on their own.

During this episode, in particular, Shikadai was working with a team of jonin. Thanks to his large, wrinkly brain and his Shadow Paralysis jutsu, he’s a very capable chunin. And, more specifically, he’s capable in situations that Inojin and Chouchou aren’t.

Inojin has some very good jutsu at his disposal. His primary jutsu is the Super Beast Scroll, which is exceptional at gathering intel. And his secondary jutsu is the Mind Transfer, which also has many uses. The problem lies with Inojin himself. He’s not competent enough to make full use of his jutsu, and so gets left behind by Shikadai.

Shikadai working with a team of jonin from the anime series Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 256
Shikadai working with a team of jonin

With Chouchou, things are much simpler. Chouchou’s various Expansion Jutsu aren’t suited for stealthy missions. The kinds of missions Shikadai is going on and Inojin would excel at in theory aren’t good ones for Chouchou.

And, if you look at the Ino-Shika-Cho formation, this is pretty obvious. The entire formation is set up to benefit the Cho” of the formation. If you remove Chouchou, Shikadai and Inojin can support a wide variety of better shinobi. Chouchou is the weakest link in Team 10 because at least Inojin has the tools to succeed.

Now, I know Shikadai isn’t going to leave Inojin and Chouchou behind. He’s going to remain the leader of Team 10. But, I’d like to actually get to see him completing missions with jonin teams. He’s a good character. I want to see him when his teammates aren’t holding him back.

Jingo Kumano’s Ramen

I guess it’s about time I discuss the man of the day, Jingo Kumano. As I already stated, he’s a former criminal turned ramen chef. And the reason he decided to become a ramen chef is that he went to Ichiraku Ramen once and it was good.

Good for him for escaping from a life of crime. But, he doesn’t exactly seem to be the most business-savvy person around. Just because you had good ramen once doesn’t mean you should open your own ramen shop. Why not start as an employee at Ichiraku first?

To be fair, Jingo does appear to be good at making ramen. When Inojin and Chouchou taste-tested it for the first time, I expected them to say it was bad. But, they didn’t. They said it was good. The only issue was that there was nothing about it that made it stand out from the competition.

Jingo Kumano making ramen from the anime series Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 256
Jingo Kumano making ramen

The big problem Jingo has at the start of the episode is that he misunderstands why his business is failing. He goes out to procure the best ingredients and utensils. But, he left his shop closed that entire time. Of course he has no customers.

Jingo acts like the fact that his shop is empty is the result of his ramen not using the best ingredients. I’d be more surprised if his shop wasn’t empty when he came back to it. You know, like exactly what happened later in the episode when he came back to his shop not empty.

Anyway, at the end of the day, Jingo’s genius idea is to smash up potato chips and sprinkle them on top of his ramen. That’s not something that would have me lining up outside a ramen shop. But, hey, it worked for him.

Conclusion

What do you think of Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Episode 256? Did you watch the episode? Or did you skip it because it’s filler? Should Shikadai move on to a better team? And do you think putting crushed chips on ramen sounds like a good idea? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 257 is available now.

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