>>53601451>unfiltered zoomie copeIt was the most popular of the three on launch of Pocket Monsters Red/Green. Before they started selling merch of the things, it was among the most requested for merch behind Pikachu. Shudo evolved it in the anime, because it was so over in Japan with exactly the demographic the anime was targeting, in their bid to keep kid engagement until Game Freak could launch Pokémon 2/GS. It;s a feedback loop now, but it's one that started organically. Shit, given what they were trying in Gen 1 (taking traditional little boy pets and growing them into something unexpected), it just highlights how disgustingly targeted Greninja was (little boy pet animal base, little boy/manchild receptive theme, given to the crtoon MC, who's job it is to shill pokémon).
