Greninja


 * For fighter info, see Greninja (SSBWU/3DS)

Greninja, also known as Gekkouga (ゲッコウガ) in Japan, Amphinobi (French), and Quajutsu (German), made its debut as the Water Starter Pokémon in Pokemon X/Y. It is a Water/Dark-type Pokémon and the final evolved form of Froakie.

Creature Description
Greninja is a large, bipedal, frog-like Pokémon. Its body and legs are dark blue, with single large white bubbles on its legs and arms and white spots over its eyes. Its back feet have two toes, while its front feet have three toes. Its feet are webbed, and it has a yellow chest and a yellow-and-blue face. It has eyes with white sclera, red irises, and white pupils. A large, projecting dark blue stripe runs down the middle of its head, with projecting light blue stripes in between its large, yellow ears. Its mouth is hidden behind a large, pink tongue that wraps around Greninja's neck and extends outward behind its head.

Greninja moves with the speed and grace of a ninja, using swift movements to confuse its enemies while it slices them up with throwing stars made of compressed water; these throwing stars are sharp enough to split metal. Greninja is the only known Pokémon capable of learning Water Shuriken and Mat Block.

Powers & Abilities
Greninja is a Water/Dark-type Pokémon that resembles a frog. Greninja's most prominent feature is it's long tongue that wraps around it's entire head. The tongue is mainly used for attacking an opponent and acts like a scarf for a Greninja. Since Greninja are light Pokémon, they are capable of being exceptionally fast and nimble. Due to their thin and fast bodies, these Pokémon are typically associated with ninjas. Their webbed feet assist them in water, increasing their stealth levels even in water.

Greninja can learn mainly Water-type attacks such as Surf, Hydro Pump, and it's signature attack, Water Shuriken which are literally shurikens of water. Water Shuriken can hit up to 5 times in a Pokémon battle (unlike in Smash Bros. where you can charge it and unleash just one shuriken). Greninja have the ability to spout water from the palms of their hands and the bottom of their feet to create a Hydro Pump attack which can be used for faster movement in the water and for jumping high distances. Even though Greninja are also Dark-type, they can't learn too many Dark-type attacks to take advantage of. They can learn Night Slash, a physical Dark-type attack with a high critical hit ratio but otherwise, they lack Dark-type attacks.

Greninja have the hidden ability of Protean, which allows a Greninja to change their typing when they use a move of a different type. For example, if one were to use Shadow Sneak (a Ghost-type attack), it would turn into a Ghost-type. Protean gives Greninja a upper hand when in battle when it comes down to type advantages and type disadvantages. However, if a Greninja doesn't have Protean, it will always be a Water/Dark-type which makes them weak to the Electric, Grass, Fighting, Bug and Fairy-type but immune to the Psychic-type. Greninja are very rare Pokémon and typically found in captivity but usually live near a large body of water when in the wild. Greninja evolves from Frogadier at level 36 which evolves from Froakie at level 16.

In Super Smash Bros. (Wii U and 3DS)

 * Main Article: Greninja (SSBWU/3DS)

Greninja was confirmed as a playable newcomer along with Charizard during the April 8th Super Smash Bros. Direct stream as a representative of the recently introduced sixth generation of Pokémon and both Pokémon X and Y.

Trivia
Year: 2013
 * During the Greninja and Charizard trailer. People mistaked Mewtwo for Greninja. Which got many people to think that Greninja replaced Mewtwo. Though, it was later revealed that Mewtwo would in fact be in the game.
 * Greninja is a combination of greouille (French for frog) and ninja.

Platform: Nintendo 3DS/2DS

Series: Pokémon