Japan and Nishida's mouth are indeed very overrated. Watch VBW not give a damn about this competition at all and continue milking Ran's whitepassing existence while he achieves nothing other than win 12 year olds hearts.
But.... Ran is actually part-white though..... imo the hype that team Japan gets is well deserved this year because of how much they've improved, they're pretty much the new kings of Asian volleyball after Marouf retired and Iran is in shambles. Still bitter that the hype for volleyball hasn't reached Italy who basically has everything (a competitive league, amazing national team prospects, and cute players lmao) or maybe even USA or Argentina.