Given their replacement in Inazuma Eleven Orion by Shining Satans, Big Waves was deprived the chance of being a FFI team whose appearances remained consistent across all three trilogies. But what if I told you this isn't neccesarily the case?

To accompany the finally released Inazuma Eleven Ares anime in 2018, a manga spin-off was released centered across the secondary protagonist team Seishou Gakuen, named Inazuma Eleven: Heir of the Penguins (Or known informally as InaPen). In one of the manga's story arcs, the players decide to go into a training camp as a way to improve their teamwork. However while most chapters are dedicated to mundane situations -while also developing the group dynamic-, the team manages to get a practice match in Chapter 17 AND Chapter 19 (The 18th is dedicated to another mundane situation); aganist the football club of the local Kamase High School.

With a first glance of the members, something here... Gives off a strange feeling of...Familiarity?

And after pondering for a while, eventually the realization hits you like a truck. For some strange reason, these japanese high school students have almost the same appearance as the Big Waves' players.. The grade of similarities varies each member, some more looking like exact copies than others. And even their playstyle is quite similar, don't you think so?

The whole existence of Kamase is one huge mindfuck. 'Lookalike' characters from other sides of the world aren't something entirely new in Inazuma Eleven, but it sure does get creepy when you realize these guys came to the world first, and not the characters we've known first during the FFI.

Dissecting this team and trying to compare it with the original aussie team is something I enjoy doing, although it can be a bit complicated to go onto details. So, why not giving them an entire separate sub-shrine?

Brief Overlook

Like mentioned on the last section, Kamase is just a local high school team on the place Seishou was having a camp. I've analyzed the arc intensely, and unfortunately I don't think it is ever explained where this place is. But it is shown to have a mountain area, hot springs, and a beach. Curious.

Their school's name in japanese is written as 鎌瀬, containing the kanjis of 鎌 (Meaning Sickle, a curved weapon) and 瀬 (Meaning rapids, torrents, shoal, etc). I think it's interesting to keep this name meaning on mind, as you can see, it does in a way or another refer to the water just like the original Big Waves, just that this time focusing on rivers instead of the sea.

By the way, while searching for information about this name in particular, I found out that Kamase is the name of a train station located in a place of the same name, in Sakamoto Prefecture, Kumamoto! You can go there using the Kyushu JR Highway. I don't think it could be the case, but maybe its a hint of their location?

Role in the Manga

Kamase’s match aganist Seishou can only be described as just another challenge to Seishou's main player and InaPen protagonist, Haizaki Ryouhei. A huge important plot point in the manga is the need for him to cooperate alongside his team, but also deal with being considered "Seishou Gakuen's hole". Ironically, Kamase’s Pseudo Box Lock Defense is a perfect place for the hole to shine. Showing finally a proper teamwork is what leads to them winning aganist Kamase High School with a score of 2-0.

A curious thing to point out about Kamase is that, as far as I know, they are the only team on the Inazuma Eleven franchise that is composed of High School players only. Usually the series puts high emphasis on Junior High School soccer only, with other age groups put in second place. The second trilogy of the franchise (GO) gave some slight relevance to other age groups outside of the usual preteens and adults; giving a brief spotlight to High School students as either players or important characters for its story. However until now, there hasn't been a team composed of this specific demography, so it technically makes Kamase a huge deal than it should.

To add more improtance to the matter, Kamase's main player (Keep an eye on this title) constantly boasts about High School soccer being of an "advanced" level, opening yet another window to a different side of the Inazuma Eleven world. Technically we don't know much how HS soccer is handled here, both in and outside the matches... Kamase should have been the best way to learn more about this, but the truth is... That this team's so-called "advanced soccer" is pretty basic. Sure, they do interesting tactics, and the pseudo-Box Lock Defense's existence could be justified by the possibility of Big Waves just not being a thing in the Ares timeline; but after that there's absolutely nothing to it. None of the Kamase's players do anything that could be considered advanced (At least if we compare it to their Junior High counterparts), and hell, NONE of them even get to use a hissatsu.

We'll discuss the lack of hissatsus in Kamase later on, but for now, keep on mind the things we've talked about here. Now, let's go learn about the actual players!

"Meet" the players...?

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION: The following will be comparions (both visual and written) between the Big Waves' players and their Kamase counterparts. Overall I use their anime designs as a point of reference, since they appear more clearly and are better for illustrative purposes. HOWEVER, in some cases I'll add some player's manga design too, since because BW got a few alternations in design between paper and pixel, there exist cases where Kamase inspires its copycat design more from the manga instead. Either way, have fun! And sorry for any mobile user.

Kamase	Big Waves	Commentary
SAME JOE	Zame	Joe	Something that I find intesting about Zame is that while we'll be seeing his teammates take inspiration from either the manga design or the anime design, he's more of a mixture of both. His hair is styled more like the anime, yet the lack of eyebrows make him look closer to his FFI manga counterpart. But even of the reminiscences, there are some unique design choices within Zame, such as the fact that unlike his japanese counterpart, he does not possess those strange "blocky" sideburns; or maybe they look a bit more reduced than Jaws'. This is a bit more tricky to notice, but he doesn't also have that weird black line between his huge panda eyebags (Which would usually make them look like sunglasses). I don't have much else to say unless that I find very cool how, despite his lack of eyebrows, Zame is still able to show emotion (Perhaps even more than original manga Jaws) by just changing the shapes of his white eyes and the black marks that sorround them. Clever!
ANSHOU REEF	Anshou	Reef	Despite his Australian counterpart being EXTREMELY popular, Anshou does EVEN LESS stuff than him on the match. It doesn’t help that in Kamase he was turned into a defender, aka THE cursed position. Legends say that if you are a defender, especially in Ares/Orion, most of your actions become futile… Design wise, I can’t say much too due that Anshou’s only appearance doesn’t even show his face! So we will never know HOW similar or different he and Reef are. All I can interpret for now is that IMO, Anshou looks way taller, a common trend in Kamase High’s designs. After that, all we can do is just speculate…
IRUKA DOLPHIN	Iruka	Dolphin	Given his position as the Big Waves captain, it was quite obvious Dolphin's counterpart was going to be qukte important in Kamase! So pretty much, Iruka is the character with most appearances and speaking lines during the two whole chapters of the match. He sure IS the representing face of this team! When it comes to design there isn't many changes at all, just that his hair color is darker. For some reason, I picture him with lighter skin than the original Dolphin, and with a... Reddish brown color? Dunno.
NAMI SURF	Nami	Surf	First off, because of the lack of swimming googles, it's very easy to dismiss Nami as being Surf's counterpart. And hell, even I wasn't convinced, but I think the hair sold me on the idea. I don't have much to say with this design honestly, just that it's a bit cursed to see his eyes somehow.
ANKOU ANGLER	Ankou	Angler (Manga Design only)	Like the above comments mention, this comparision works better if we use the manga designs instead. As you can see, really nothing has change between players; except that Ankou has a more buff bodytype (Compared with the lanky Angler), his face shape is not square anymore, and his glasses are rounder and smaller. My thoughts? I plan to move this critique too to Matt's page eventually, but I have a enormous dislike for those lips. Not only it's an extremely controversial design choice nowadays, but it is also a disservice to Matt's original design and idea. Say whatever you want about his weird jaw, but its purpose was to look EXACTLY like an Anglerfish. Changing it for those lips just feels so wrong and rather distasteful. Bring his jaw back!!! Still better than 4koma!Angler though. Anything's better than that.
EBI SHRIMP	Ebi	Shrimp	...Basically, Sully but taller, nothing else. But honestly? I like it. Let me confess, I always found odd that Sully was part of Box Lock Defense, since it was a tactic meant to intimidate and entrap. Having such a literal shrimp be part of the box just kinda makes it goofier than it should. Thankfully Kamase did fix this, by still including him on its equivalent of the BLD yet making him taller and buffer. In a way or another, this design reminds me now of a typical anime school delinquent… Neat!
TAKO KRAKEN	Tako	Kraken	Okay, but let me admit. At first glance, I thought he was the counterpart of David Waterman instead. I mean, don't look at me, look at the fluffy hair both have. However it does look more like Clark's hair texture than David's so... Also the fact that neither have eyebrows too. Not a bad design, although confusing. I like also the not-use of pupils here either. Btw I realized that Kraken is actually BUFFER on his manga design, who knows if more than Tako himself.. LOL.
KAME TURTLE	Kame	Turtle	Another design that didnt change much minus one small detail, that being Kame's hair; which now leans more into a blocky mohawk. Plus, his eyes scleras' seem to be fully white than black. Nothing else to comment here for now.
SUNA BEACH	Suna	Beach	In my opinion, probably the most cursed design out of Kamase High School; as Suna is just a tall Shine Beach, with the only difference probably being their eye shape (Shine has ellipses with a few details, Suna has just a very simple pupil). ...And honestly... I have no idea how to feel about it. I've always joked over how would Shine look if he were tall, so... Knowing my jokes have become real just shocks me. But despite that I appreciate his existence overall. An aside note I'd like to put here is on the first Kamase/BW comparison image that led me to research further, the OP didn't seem to be convinced with Suna being Beach. And I agree that it might not seem to be the case at first, but there's an EXTREMELY small detail that seals the deal to me: When seeing his face from behing, you might notice a hair bump over his fringe, which is the LITERAL SAME Shine posseses. Incredible.
"MIZU" WATER	"Mizu"	Water	Just a small disclaimer with this specific character, but this association happened very recently. Originally, I thought that the character of the right was yet another appearance of Nami, given he had a hairstyle very similar to him. However upon closer inspection, not only is the hairstyle different (Nami's hair is spreaded out, meanwhile this character is more shaped like a drop), but the jawline and the nose and pointier, and the player's eyebrows are longer.So, he could be a different character instead. And since everyone on Big Waves has already been shown, then we have no option to associate it with the last character who did not appear yet, David Waterman. It could make sense, since like Mizu, David also has sharper features. Only downside is the hair, which looks radically different than the Water Man than we know. So far, no Kamase character diverged way too much from the hairstyle, so it would be strange for a counterpart to break the rule. I'm still not sold on this because of this reason alone, but for now, ir stays that way. One last fun fact before we proceed, but in case this character is actually Nami instead, then that would make David Waterman the ONLY main BW player without a counterpart in Kamase.
KUJIRA JINBEI	Kujira	Jinbei	Welcome again to another episode of "Will we ever know his face?" Show.This episode, Jean Baker's Kamase counterpart! Given that he was locked inside the goal during the whole match, and only appearing to fail catching Seishou's shoots, well, seems like seeing Kujira's face wasn't an option. Analyzing the details as always, we can conclude two things: 1- His body type didn't change much from Jean's, but 2- His hair color seems lighter (Since the true Poseidon has grey hair in the manga). But that's about it for now. By the way, I realized that Jean also got a drastic redesign on the manga just like Matt, so... Then I think Kujira is gonna look even more different than we think.

What we DON'T know about Kamase

Due to its cursed status as one-match team stuck in a manga that's optional to read, Kamase of course is doomed to have some cut corners around there, or some aspects we might never know about. Let's analyze each of them.

The BW Bench

Let's be brief on this. Seishou doesn't use more than 12 players, meaning that there's no official reserves (Minus the ones that were meant for the Ares videogame). Because of this, Kamase doesn't need to use them either, otherwise it would be unfair. So, there do not exist any japanese counterparts of the Big Waves' benchers. A blessing and a curse at the same time.

I consider the coach to be part of the Bench group in a team, and is it unknown how does the Kamase coach looks like. Would he be an entirely new character? Or a japanese version of Robert Cliser? That's up for interpretation.

The Captain

Alright. This is the most complicated factor on the entirety of Kamase High School, so please bear with me. We'll go through this together.

While I was browsing the manga pages for pictures, I suddenly realized something... Strange about Iruka, that I didn't catch before. Can you? I want you to go back and look properly between Nice and Iruka. Tell me, do you see a difference here?

Well, regardless if you've done it or not, I'll tell it anyway: Iruka is NOT Kamase’s captain.

…Quite shocking. The literal face of Kamase, AND the one representing the Aussie captain is NOT the one actually leading the team. Which is kinda weird to me, given he acts like one, yet doesn't have the actual captain band. Huh…?

Why could this be the case? Maybe it was a mistake from the mangaka? (Since Seishou's captain HAS his own band) Maybe there is an in-universe explanation why? And most importantly… WHO is Kamase’s captain, then?

Wanting answers, I decided to research it further, finding who could have the captain band on his right arm. To make the analysis brief...

Pretty much 90% of the Kamase players are shown with an empty right arm, so the mystery can only be solved with two (Or three?) players. But being honest, these are just odd picks for the spot. Kraken didn't really do much for the team back on the original BW match, nor Surf.

But for the whole Mizu=Nami case, if it ends the other way... Maybe Water's counterpart could be an interesting pick for the captain. I mean, he participated on the important Box Lock Defense tactic and participated the whole match, so he could make for a better captain.

Leaving that aside, since no other Kamase appearance is present in Inapen nor other official material, this mystery is forever left unsolved. What a shame...

The Hissatsus

I've already tried to theorize why Kamase didn't use hissatsus unlike Seishou, but still, we don't have a full reason of why yet.

Opinion + Conclusion

For me... Kamase is a team that exists. Like it or not... They are a real thing on the Inazuma world, they are copies of (almost) all of Big Waves, AND they came to this world first. So technically, all this time, we've seen only the so-called "Faker"'s side.

But, should I hate them because of that? I've seen some BW fans either surprised or a bit disgusted with Kamase’s existence, but my opinion is more positive than anything. I think they are a strange, yet extremely amusing team for me.

...I'll even confess that ive been interested on this team ever since their chapter's initial release 5 years ago, even screenshotting their chapter. I was fascinated with one-episode teams in context and Kamase was no exception, although I didn't knew what was their motif. And so I did 4 years later, right after hyperfixating with Big Waves, which led to me to fall in love al over again with this team.

I have NO idea why Big Waves out of all possible teams was choosen to have alternates in Japan, but the implications of it are so funny it just hooks me up.

Also, similar to the original BW... It's fun to create things with them LOL. So don't be surprised if I somehow start getting invested on making headcanons about them sometime.

With this, you've reached the end! Congrats!