This is actually kind of a weird case where the anime/manga isn't showing them doing stuff, for whatever reason. Hinata does a mission in Naruto Shinden, but she's usually busy taking care of her family. Ino and Temari apparently still do missions, and Sakura's still Konoha's lead doctor.
I do agree with you on the pacing tho. While I'm not as cynical about the series as some others are, I feel the pacing has been very off at times. This was rather noticeable in the Chunin Exams arc. Not counting the appearance of Momoshiki and co, the entire final round of the exams was covered in four episodes. They spent more time fighting Shizuma's group (two and a half episodes) then they did on any singular fight in the final round.
Part of the reason why Boruto 65 felt like such a breath of fresh air (besides it's insanely high production values) is it's one of the few times the show had a chance to breath and actually expand a single fight scene out.
EDIT: Now that I looked at the episode list and thought about it, I think the biggest issue might be the fact that the anime is adhering to cours. Despite it being positioned as a long running show akin to Naruto and Shippuden, almost every story arc has happened over the course of about 13 episodes or less
1-15 : Academy Arc (15 episodes)
16-24: Filler + Sarada Arc (9 episodes)
25-31: Field Trip Arc (7 episodes)
32-38: Filler + Graduation Arc (6 episodes)
39: Mitsuki's backstory
40-49: Genin Arc (9 episodes)
50: Recap episode
51-66: Movie Arc (16 episodes)
67-69: Cho-Cho Arc (3 episodes)
70: Metal Lee episode
71-79: Mitsuki Arc (9 episodes so far)
The current arc might actually end up being the longest arc yet, which is rather unusual for an anime only arc.
Maybe you're right. It's problematic that show (so far) doesn't really build on top of it self. But I also think a lot of it can be levied with better pacing within the arcs. It seems there's no consideration for what people for instance might have wanted to get out of the chunin arc. So far it feels like all the arcs have been pretty much something they needed to get out of the way and that's not a good way to run it. It also doesn't help that every character is amazing straight out of the gate. Like chunin level before they enter the school even. Even if they all have parents that care for them. Some of the old cast did too, and they were still a lot lower level. (and Boruto is a really annoying entitled character so far).
The "older cast" were treated badly since Shippuden started so...
Well I think A lot of people say this because of the war arc. Sakura had a very good run for the first 100 or so episodes where she showed a lot of growth. Shikamaru also has a lot of growth throughout. Kiba is in a lot of arcs, even if his character doesn't grow a whole lot. Outside them and a little bit of Hinata there isn't a whole lot though. But it's not the whole konoha 11 that got screwed in shippuden. More like, 7-8 of them.
In a recent Italian interview, Ikemoto (the artist not the author) stated that Naruto Part 1 is way better then Naruto Part 2 (which he said was less interesting) and that they want Boruto to follow the Part 1 direction then the Part 2 direction.
He also stated that he got beef from Kishi for his Sarada design. (I think recent addresses from Kishimoto)
This is from NF
They aren't really following naruto part one though. The difference is in execution I guess. The whole way naruto builds is really good. It's exciting and there are regular payoffs in the way they untagle and that then leads to bigger things. Boruto has some serious issues. Both with Pacing and with the way they structure everything. It just isn't exciting. And that has nothing to do with the wold being at peace. I'm sure they could still manage to get a lot of interesting arcs going that build off one another.
Boruto is also too focused on Boruto himself. But that might just be because I'm not a fan of his character.
Why complain about characters that have already been fully developed not getting the screen time you want? If you want to see them developed again, go watch Naruto.
Well even though you didn't reply to me, I gotta say I wish the old cast had 25, or even 15, or 10 percent screentime. You followed them for a lot of years, so it makes sense that you want to get a better look into their lives 15 years later, than what's currently happening. I'm not sure why it has to be only the kids that we see. Afterall it has naruto in the title.
But again, there are elements I like. The old naruto part 1 for instance had a lot of long fights where half of it (or more) were just people standing around having flashbacks. I'm glad that we don't have that issue here. It's also visually a step up from shippuden in general.
