[Spoilers] Thoughts on Ash-Greninja?

As the title says, I'm very curious on what other people think about Ash-Greninja. Be it the idea of Ash-Greninja in general, the story arc for it, or its role in the anime, I'd love to hear some thoughts.

Honestly, I love Ash-Greninja. As much of crazy anime stuff that it may be, the idea just seems so cool. Its scenes are so well animated, and it really feels like Ash has a super important bond with his Pokemon besides Charizard and Pikachu for once. Don't get me wrong, I love both of them, as well as most of his other Pokemon, but seeing a newcomer get so much love is great in my opinion. A lot of people say its design with Ash's hair and all is pretty lame, but I think it looks cool! Its the sort of answer to Mega Pokemon that Ash's team (Narrative-wise) really needed. I really want it to stick around too, but it'll probably leave with the beginning of Sun and Moon...

So, what are your thoughts on it?

I for one am worried abit when Ash-Greninja is a thing. Sure, it looks cool and all, and that giant Water Shuriken it carries, the story and the bond between Ash and Greninja was written okay, but I hope this "synchro-evolution" thing just stays in the anime. The reason I worried is that this "synchro-evolution" feels like Digimon to me, it's like slowly drifted away from the whole Pokemon concept. I pretty sure we won't get many "synchro-evolution" in the future anime development, but still...

Although it's a good thing that Greninja is Ash's another important Pokemon other than Charizard and Pikachu, and Pikachu must've feel bad because he accompanied Ash thousands of episodes but didn't get any appearance changes XD

Most of Ash's Pokemon wont move to the next region except you-know-who. The only exception so far is Aipom in DP series but that's because Ash caught Aipom in late AG series, so the anime staff decides to give Aipom more screentime by shifting it to DP series as well (and to promote the release of Ambipom too at that time, I guess). But Greninja in this case, has the most backstory in Ash's Kalos Team so far, it most likely won't have the chance to go to Alolan Region.

Bleh. I kinda dislike both Ash and Greninja individually. So I'd say I'm never too thrilled about them together.

raxic_ex said:

I for one am worried abit when Ash-Greninja is a thing. Sure, it looks cool and all, and that giant Water Shuriken it carries, the story and the bond between Ash and Greninja was written okay, but I hope this "synchro-evolution" thing just stays in the anime. The reason I worried is that this "synchro-evolution" feels like Digimon to me, it's like slowly drifted away from the whole Pokemon concept. I pretty sure we won't get many "synchro-evolution" in the future anime development, but still...

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Yeah, I can't see synchro evolution being something that would remain in the games, unless it was somehow Greninja exclusive. Maybe they could simplify Ash-Greninja (take away the hair? And add a few more changes) and pass it off as Mega Greninja?

Crizzle said:

Bleh. I kinda dislike both Ash and Greninja individually. So I'd say I'm never too thrilled about them together.

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That's fair! Ash isn't exactly the best character, but I can't help but love him and most of his Pokemon after all of these years.

I'm a big fan of Ash! Throughout the series, I loved how his bond with Pikachu grew... This Greninja thing is taking the spotlight off of the beloved yellow mouse, which is very disappointing to me.

Another thing I dislike about Ash-Greninja is that there's no such thing in the games, and I liked how the show had always been loosely based off of the games.

So, to answer the question, I am not particularly fond of Ash-Greninja. Although, weird water tornado thing aside, the mega Greninja design is kind of cool.

Ky0greK1ng said:

Another thing I dislike about Ash-Greninja is that there's no such thing in the games, and I liked how the show had always been loosely based off of the games.

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(I don't know if you follow S/M news, but Ash-Greninja may be connected to Pokemon Sun and Moon.)

Onto the topic!

I'm neutral on Ash-Greninja. It was cool at first, and I really liked the enjoyable mystery behind it and whatnot, but after revealing what the phenomenon was, I got bored of it. The fact that it's basically just Mega Evolution without a stone was what threw me off. Ash also using that battle strategy so often also kinda bored me... I thought the design was great looking, though, as it resembled Ash quite well when Greninja became Ash-Greninja in battle.

What I do really like about the phenomenon itself? How Ash can actually feel Greninja's pain. I liked that kind of bond, so to speak. But, other than that, the rest of it was getting stale and boring after awhile; I wish Ash would use his Pikachu more...really. But, I guess his other Pokemon need a little more spotlight sometimes....

You know, as Poketuber SilverLeagueNetworks pointed out, even if Ash did win the Kalos League, fans would still complain about how he only won because of his Greninja, which they accused as being a Gary Stu due to its Ash-Greninja form, instead of using his Pikachu as the final member of his team left. From this mindset, they would rather want to see Ash lose a league again, which he did, than seeing Ash-Greninja constantly plowing through the league thus further justifying it as a total Gary Stu.

There's no doubt that Ash-Greninja will not be anime exclusive (remember how some people thought Zygarde's forms were anime exclusive too because of no Pokémon Z).

Pinkie-Dawn said:

You know, as Poketuber SilverLeagueNetworks pointed out, even if Ash did win the Kalos League, fans would still complain about how he only won because of his Greninja, which they accused as being a Gary Stu due to its Ash-Greninja form, instead of using his Pikachu as the final member of his team left. From this mindset, they would rather want to see Ash lose a league again, which he did, than seeing Ash-Greninja constantly plowing through the league thus further justifying it as a total Gary Stu.

There's no doubt that Ash-Greninja will not be anime exclusive (remember how some people thought Zygarde's forms were anime exclusive too because of no Pokémon Z).

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No, Zygarde formes were never ever meant to be anime-exclusive. According to the hacking and deciphering of XY(or was it ORAS?) game codes during early days, people discovered that Zygarde possess two more hidden moves (Thousand Waves and Thousand Arrows) and some avatar identifier values that heavily suggested Zygarde possess other formes. So GF may already possess the idea of making more formes for Zygarde as early as before GenVI game even came out.
Though, it is just super mind-boggling by first sight from audience POV that the results are these...... cells and cores, a dog and a giant robot. Especially the perfect forme's design is just a complete derailment that one normally wouldn't expect from Ken Sugimori when he is the Artwork Director of pokemons.

In case of AshGreninja, I can't 100% ensure that it is something planned in the game. I have a super heavy feeling that it is just something the anime studio take liberty with and play with it, has nothing to do with GF at all.
Although IMO it is possible that AshGreninja may receive reverse importation from the anime to the game in the future, but I think it will only either limited to event-only non-Legendary Pokemon something like the Notched-ear Pichu, or rename and minimally redesign to become the MegaGreninja.
Do not forget, Ash doesn't exist in the game! Either make it into a once-off gimmick, or incorporate it into already existing game mechanics, or invent a complete new game mechanism in order to justify it. But, when new battling mechanism is to be invented, GF need to account how much balance it will shift when introduced, it is also impossible to limited to only one single pokemon. So I don't think GF will do such hectic work of inventing a complete new mechanism just for the sake of reverse importation of one single pokemon from the anime, as that also need to expand to other pokemons as well.

I just think that Ash-Greninja is just an over exaggeration of the whole pokemon amie affection thing in the games. If you max out their affection they get 2x the exp, are more likely to crit, also they can remove status effects like paralyze poisons and burns through sheer force of will, more likely to dodge moves even 100% accuracy moves, and they have a sash effect that can activate multiple times (these features are disable for competitions, of course) and AZ's flowet resembles his apearance(clothing) like Ash greninja so maybe they just combined the 2.

Also When you have a max affection Pokemon it has unique battle dialogue here's a link to bullbapedia[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pokémon-Amie] in the battle quotes section...

In the game if your pokemon with max affection lands a critical hit the quotes tell you that "[Pokemon] is in sync with [Trainer's] thoughts and lands a critical hit!" or something like that. which is kinda what they did in the anime with Ash needing to be in complete sync with greninja for the form to manifest itself.

With the giant shuriken, its probably just a sneak peak to the new Z-moves... that giant shuriken probably a greninja exclusive.

Finally I just wanna say one thing Pikachu should've gotten some special transformation since him and Ash had a stronger bond and Plus its like Mega Evolution but without a mega stone which is stupid.

Uh idk i get pretty sick of ash being the ~chosen one~ kinda chracter in so many different storylines I suppose. Plus if I was pikachu i'd be well upset