>>26878822 De mortuis nil nisi bonum! This can surely only apply to character, which, in Greninja’s case, had few admirable aspects. For one thing, excepting its implied advocacy of a reformed direction for design and personality, it hardly ever left the straight paths outlined for him by its Pokémon or cultures of inspiration. It mixed them up discordantly, as his amalgamation of Sceptile, Samurott, and Serperior, it never innovated beyond them as many more vain artists or corporate executives well versed in rationalism might have done.
The sentiment expressed in this hackneyed and high-falutin’ Latin tag, however, does not forbid a discerning, inspecting, and lucid attempt at estimating the value of a Pokémon and its influence upon the consumers. And, as to this influence of Greninja’s, let it be said once more, if it lives beyond the Sixth Generation at all, it will do so more as a profound milestone in the history of merchandising than as an artistic opus, timeless, perpetual, universal, and perpetually and eternally precious.
Moreover, there is little doubt that he laid a firm foundation for the form of Pokémon creation and inspiration, which is preponderating stage-driven rather than doctrinally intellectual and merely profound or psychological. But just as the critics of Gen IV did an ill-service to their age to its good and meaningful Pokémon as well as to those it exorbitantly praised, by immoderately glorifying such Pokémon as Lucario, Weavile, etc., so the critics of our present generation, who, in their idolatry of success per se, exalt Greninja to the stature of Ampharos, Mewtwo, and Tyranitar, are doing not only their future Pokémon designs, but also contemporary art, philosophy, thought, and taste — not to mention even Greninja itself — a grave misdeed.