Greninja

**Greninja** is a Ninja Pokémon from the *Pokémon* series. It debuted in the series' sixth generation as the final stage Water-type starter Pokémon of Kalos, and is present as a playable character in *Super Smash Bros. 4* and *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*.

## Origin

Greninja, a dual Water/Dark-type Pokémon, is a bipedal frog-like creature that greatly resembles a ninja; it wraps its long tongue around its mouth in emulation of a scarf. It is the final evolved form of the Kalosian starter Pokémon Froakie, evolving from the intermediate Frogadier from level 36 onward. It is categorized within the Pokédex at #658 as the "Ninja Pokémon".

According to the Pokédex and based on its statistics in the *Pokémon* games, Greninja is extremely fast, to the point that it has the highest raw speed statistic of any starter Pokémon (not counting Mega Evolution). Fittingly, it relies on this speed in battle to confound its prey with swift, ninja-like grace before striking with its Water Shuriken move, which is said to be able to shear metal. In exchange, however, it is rather frail because of its low overall defenses.

In the *Pokémon* games, Greninja has access to numerous unique abilities. Initially, it was the only Pokémon able to learn Water Shuriken—which it uses in *Super Smash Bros.*—and Mat Block (used in the *Super Smash Bros.* series during Secret Ninja Attack), where it flips a tatami mat in front of itself to shield itself and its allies from incoming attacks. Besides these two unique moves, it has access to a diverse range of offensive and status moves; while its standard ability is Torrent (as with every other Water type starter Pokémon\_, its Hidden Ability is the rare Protean, which changes its type to match each move it uses and ensures it gets the maximum possible power out of every attack, allowing it to take advantage from its large range of available moves.

In *Pokémon Sun* and *Moon*, Greninja appears as a gift Pokémon obtainable via the games' demo version. This Greninja is male only, cannot breed, and has the unique Battle Bond ability, the latter of which transforms Greninja into its more powerful Ash-Greninja form after defeating a Pokémon. Ash-Greninja is exclusive to *Sun*, *Moon* and their "upper versions" *Ultra Sun* and *Ultra Moon*, due to Greninja and its pre-evolutions being unobtainable in *Pokémon Sword* and *Shield*, and the form being retired outright in favor of Battle Bond being repurposed into a stat-boosting ability in *Pokémon Scarlet* and *Violet*.

Greninja has made multiple appearances in the *Pokémon* anime, but is most notable for being Ash Ketchum's ace Pokémon during the XY series. Having been part of Ash's party ever since Ash received it from Professor Sycamore, the Pokémon developed a close bond with Ash throughout the series as it trained and evolved, eventually gaining access to its strengthened "Ash-Greninja" (coined by Bonnie) form because of the connection between Pokémon and Trainer.

With the help of Greninja and the rest of his Pokémon team, Ash was able to achieve his greatest success in a Pokémon League tournament up to that point, only losing in the finals due to Greninja being overwhelmed and defeated by Alain's Charizard. At the end of the series, Greninja bade farewell to Ash, parting ways in order to help protect Kalos alongside two Zygarde, Squishy and Z2.