Kamomedai wasn’t just strong, they were a narrative glitch
I’m rewatching the Kamomedai match and I can't shake the feeling that Furudate overbuffed them to a point where they don't even feel like a high school team anymore.
We’re used to 'illogical' teams, but they usually stay within the boundaries of teenage volatility. Even Fukurodani, a Top 4 team, has the Bokuto Factor (emotional swings). Kamomedai has none of that. They have Date Tech’s blocking, Elite floor defense, and a 2-meter giant (Gao) with insane game sense. They play with a stoic, systematic discipline that you only see in University or Pro teams. On top of that we have another top middle blocker who is also very good all around and the most complete and consistent ace (apart from ushijima) in the series.
To make Karasuno even competitive, Furudate had to overclock Hinata to a level that feels like he skipped his entire 2nd and 3rd years of development. He went from a high-spec weapon to a 3D chess master, manipulating space with diagonal jumps and tempo-shifting and psychological mastery of blockers that should be impossible for a 16-year-old. It’s a brilliant arc, but it pushed the power scaling so high, so fast, that no other high school team should realistically be able to touch Hinata after this.
This ties to my dislike of how furudate chose to carry his time skip. If hinata was THAT GOOD after kamomedai and added any further development, he and kageyama should have leveled every single tornament after that. I love Hinata’s development directionally, but he peaked too soon for the story that furudate chose to tell after kamomedai to make any narrative sense.