Greninja

Greninja is a streamlined frog-like creature with dark blue skin and a beige underbelly, with long limbs and thin body particularly reminiscent of tree frogs. What resembles a pink scarf is actually its prehensile tongue wrapped around its head. Two long, ear-like protrusions extend from both sides of its head and connect with a smaller horn-like structure in the middle by azure blue-colored webbing. Spots of the same azure coloring can be found on each thigh, arguably resembling ninja stars or battle scars. Much like a frog, Greninja has webbed feet, wall-clinging suction cups on each digit, and powerful hind legs. It shoots streams of compressed patterns from its palms. A large bubble can be found on each limb. A bipedal creature, Greninja can comfortably stand on its hind legs, but leans on one of its front limbs in a crouching stance when in battle. When at rest its eyes are white with hyphen-shaped pupils, but when engaged they gain red, oval-shapes irises, white pupils, and a narrow gaze. It only weighs 88.2 lbs. (40 kg), but is still quite tall at 4' 11" (1.5 m).[2]

It shares a motif of role-playing game classes with its Grass-type (Chesnaught) and Fire-type (Delphox) counterparts; while the former resemble a knight and witch respectively, Greninja draws heavy inspiration from the ninja. In Japan, frogs and toads have long been associated with ninjutsu through the folk story "The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya" (児雷也豪傑物語 *Jiraiya Gōketsu Monogatari*), a story about a ninja who can shapeshift into a large toad.

Greninja is able to move with "a ninja's grace",[3] and has a design and set of abilities associated with Ninjutsu. Among its attacks are the formerly exclusive Water Shuriken, which lets it quickly fire throwing stars made from compressed water,[3] Shadow Sneak, and Double Team.[4] It is also the only Pokemon to learn Mat Block, which shields the user's side with a flipped-up mat. The Protean ability, which lets the user camouflage to the type of the attack it uses, is exclusive to Greninja and the chameleon Pokemon Kecleon (as well as the former's pre-evolutions). Capable of vanishing and reappearing quickly, it enjoys toying with enemies in such a manner.[3] It is very adaptable, learning many moves such as Bounce, Extrasensory, and Low Kick from different types.[4]

Greninja's stealth and swiftness are unique among Water-type starters, contrasting with previous designs like Blastoise and Swampert. It shoots jets of compressed water from its hands, as opposed to many other Water-types that shoot water from their mouths. It was created by Yusuke Ohmura, who designed the Water-type starters of the previous two generations as well as the mascot creatures for *X* and *Y*, Xerneas and Yveltal.[5][6] Greninja's design was finalized by Ken Sugimori, Game Freak's art director.

As *Pokémon X* and *Y* take place in Kalos, a fictional region inspired by France, Greninja's name combines the French word for frog (*grenouille*) and "ninja".[7] It is used for the English, Spanish, and Italian localizations of *X* and *Y.* Ironically, a completely different name is used in the French localization, with "Amphinobi" combining the French word for amphibian (*amphibie*) and "shinobi". Its Japanese name is "Gekkouga", combini