English Dub Review: Naruto Shippuden “The Complete Ino-Shika-Cho Formation!”

Sometimes, people like Choji just need a swift kick in the ass to get somewhere.

As much as I love Choji, there are some things that kind of grate on my nerves. Now, this isn’t saying that “The Complete Ino-Shika-Cho Formation!” isn’t a bad episode, because it’s far from it. My problem lies solely in the fact that every story revolving around Choji is the same exact thing: Choji’s stereotypical lack of self confidence. I get what the character is trying to portray, but as a fellow big guy, the self confidence thing gets old after a while.

It was visited once before when Choji fought Jirobo. Jirobo played on Choji’s confidence, and calling him fat. That caused him to use all three of his secret Akamichi clan food pills, and almost die. The rest of the time, especially during the beginning of Naruto, it’s been poking at the fat jokes. I get it, and it doesn’t need to be beaten into me. I have about 10 years of Naruto viewing experience, and this needs to end sooner or later.

Now that this little rant is over, I can freely talk about “The Complete Ino-Shika-Cho Formation!” There was a lot of backstory to come out of this week’s episode. For starters, it was great to see that there was more to the Akamichi clan than just Choza and Choji acting all cool in the face of their peers. Unfortunately, it took the entirety of Naruto, and most of Shippuden to show what the earrings stand for.

This also marked a small change in Choza, who showed that he had a lot of doubt in Choji. It was a side of Choza that we haven’t seen before, and I am not completely sold on it. The change was rather out of nowhere, and I wasn’t sure if was warranted. Going back to the manga, I felt they played up Choji’s self pity and lack of self confidence a lot more between these last two episodes. In the manga, Choza was afraid that Choji was too kind. I don’t remember Choza getting so worried about Choji being weak not able to fight. It was like the first series never happened.

Asuma was weaved rather well into the backstory as well. Don’t take this the wrong way, while Ino and Shikamaru were present, this was a Choji episode. I’m not sure if they were a hindrance yet. They contributed to the story, but were they necessary? If this was a Choza and Choji narrative, I think it would have been more effective Ino and Shikamaru weren’t there. At the very least, if they were incapacitated because of Choji’s inability to act, this would have packed a punch. However, it floundered a bit, because the backstory with Choza muddled too much with Asuma’s story with Ino-Shika-Cho. The common bond was the earrings. Yeah, who knew that earrings could be a linchpin to keep a plot moving along?

With that said, the emotion of the story carried the bulk of “The Complete Ino-Shika-Cho Formation!” While it bordered on convoluted, it did make sense more times than not. The two sets of flashbacks bordered on a mess, but when they didn’t overlap, it worked. Now, if they can hit on the Hyuga brothers in the next couple episodes, I think I would be a happy little panda.