English Dub Review: Boruto “The Genin Documentary”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

The Chunin Exams are on the horizon, Iwabe is desperate to shape up as a ninja, with is difficult since his team, Team 5, is still on suspension. But Naruto has a solution for that: giving their team a mission to be in documentary highlighting the perks of being a ninja. This is apparently much more necessary, since it seems the demand to being a ninja has been low as of late as career options have expanded. Iwabe, Denki, and Metal get really involved, with the director wanting edgy and flashy shots, but their sensei Udon pulls them, feeling they’re not learning the right lessons. Instead, he tells them about his own time as a Genin, when he was just loser with snot dripping down his nose. But he persevered and became the “cool sensei” that he’s known as now.

Meanwhile, the film crew continues their attempts at cool shots, accidentally starting a demolition of the building they’re shooting in, so Team 5 arrives to rescue them. Iwabe uses his Earth Style, but that only does so much, so Udon uses his own Dripping Nose technique, which uses hardened snot, to save them all. So, the whole team learns a valuable lesson that looking cool is not the same as being cool.

OUR TAKE

We’ve hit another brief patch of filler for the next couple weeks, which I’m certainly not thrilled about. However, if we have to get filler, I guess putting time into developing the less important teams isn’t the worst use of time. The only way I really knew Team 5 up until now was that it had Rock Lee’s kid in it, but NOW I will forever know them…as the team led by the guy who used to be snot nosed kid on Konohamaru’s team. All in all, not a very large change in significance. That said, it’s apparent that Iwabe’s more the star of the team (or at least for this episode), so I guess we’ll be mainly following his development whenever they’re involved. Which makes sense, I suppose, seeing as Denki’s whole character is that his dad is rich and I assume Metal is the product of Rock Lee head butting a tree until it got pregnant somehow.

The decline in citizens being interested in becoming ninja is curious, though. We’ve heard little hints over the course of the series that the shift towards peace has not entirely been for the better, and less people being willing to risk their lives in a time where there are no major ongoing conflicts to rally behind does seem like a natural result. Makes me wonder if this show is headed towards a new war that could upend the peace everyone’s gotten used to or grown up in. After all, Boruto’s generation never knew the horrors of fighting Orochimaru or the Akatsuki, which means we’re overdue for a challenge for them to face. And by overdue, I mean REALLY overdue because we’re creeping up on the fifty episode mark and I still don’t see ANY overarching plot.

Also, odd remark from Naruto at the end of this that I can’t help but chalk up to some sort of mistranslation. He says he never took the Chunin Exam which is why he’s still technically a Genin…except we know for a FACT he TOOK the exam, just that he never passed it. Also, I guess it never mattered in the end, but he seriously never bothered trying after the war was over? You would think being at least Jonin would have to be a prerequisite. Also when are we going to see what the Jonin exams are like? Ah well, more stuff to pull from the fanfictions, I guess.