Greninja

Greninja (, Gekkouga) is a Ninja Pokémon from the series. It debuted in the series' as the final stage Water-type  of, 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 ; it wraps its long tongue around its mouth in emulation of a scarf. It is the final evolved form of the Kalosian starter Pokémon, evolving from the intermediate from level 36 onward. It is categorized within the 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 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 (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 (as with every other Water type starter Pokémon, its Hidden Ability is the rare, 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 obtainable via the games' demo version. This Greninja is male only, cannot breed, and has the unique, 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 "s" 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 's ace Pokémon during the. Having been part of Ash's party ever since Ash received it from, 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 ) 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. At the end of the series, Greninja bade farewell to Ash, parting ways in order to help protect Kalos alongside two, and.

As a playable character
Greninja debuts as a newcomer in Super Smash Bros. 4. It was first revealed in the Super Smash Bros. Direct on April 8, 2014, alongside fellow Pokémon fighter. Much like in its home series, Greninja is very quick and mobile, similarly to and. However, it possesses more consistent KO power overall in comparison to them. It also possesses special moves that can catch opponents off-guard, such as Shadow Sneak and Substitute.

Masahiro Sakurai decided to add Greninja to Super Smash Bros. 4 long before the release of Pokémon X and Y, having initially reserved a space on the roster for a brand new Pokémon. Sakurai's only source material for designing the character was concept art of Greninja.

Greninja is currently ranked 26th out of 55 on the tier list, placing it in the C tier. Greninja's strengths include very fast overall mobility and great combo potential, most notably with its neutral attack's jab cancel, and its up and down tilts. Water Shuriken also grants it a decent projectile, which not only has fairly good travel distance, but is also capable of being thrown out for a fast attack or charged up for greater power. Despite these positives, Greninja has a few noticeable negatives. It has unusually high ending lag in its moveset, especially its smash attacks. Substitute is a weak and avoidable counterattack. Lastly, its grab game is burdened with an abysmal pummel, an overall low damage output, and only two throws whose utility is decent at best. Regardless of these issues, as well as being noticeably nerfed in update 1.0.4, Greninja is still viewed as a viable choice for competitive play, thanks to it achieving decent results.

As a playable character
Greninja returns as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Unlike in SSB4, it is an unlockable character instead of a starter. Two of the most notable changes are that its water katanas have been replaced with water kunais, and that its Final Smash now features its Ash-Greninja form introduced in the anime and featured in Pokémon Sun and Moon.

Greninja has been greatly buffed from Smash 4 to Ultimate. As with all other characters in the game, its already quick mobility is faster like most characters, while its previously situational moves (such as dash attack, down smash and Water Shuriken) are much more versatile. Due to the game's universal changes to dash mechanics, Greninja can also further exploit its amazing ground mobility, allowing for easier setups into its combo starters, such as down tilt and dash attack. Furthermore, the reduced landing lag on Greninja's aerial attacks gives it an easier time landing, while the universal 3-frame jumpsquat improves Greninja's ground-to-air potential. Overall Greninja retains its status as a viable character in Ultimate's early meta with above average representation as of late thanks to, , , , and and is considered as a high or even top tier character by many professional players.

Trivia

 * Greninja's depiction in Smash is not directly based on a particular member of its species in the anime, unlike all other playable Pokémon in the game, due to its moveset being inspired by mere concept art. However, it shares its voice actors in various languages with and 's Greninja.
 * In Ultimate, Greninja uses water kunai in place of water katanas, much like Ash's Greninja. Greninja also now transforms into the form during its Final Smash, Secret Ninja Attack.
 * Greninja was the first character debuting in the 2010s to be revealed as a fighter.
 * Prior to Corrin's appearance as downloadable content, Greninja was the most recently debuted playable character at the time of SSB4's release, with a debut of October 2013.
 * Out of all the newcomers of SSB4, Greninja has the fastest air speed by default.
 * After the release of SSB4, a Japanese Event distribution from November 21, 2014 to January 20, 2015 featured an Event Greninja with its Smash Bros. moveset.
 * Several Greninja in the film Pokémon Detective Pikachu use water swords, similar to the Greninja in Smash 4.
 * Greninja was the first fighter announced to be playable in a Super Smash Bros. title on the same console as its console of origin, as Pokémon X and Y and Smash 3DS are all Nintendo 3DS games.