>>49850718>Why did this piece of shit somehow become ONE OF the most popular Pokemon of all time?FTFY
As for the questions, to be honest i also wonder how Greninja turned out so fucking popular, and this is coming from someone who loves the design. I saw some leaks and instantly loved it. Actually thought it was too good to be true and i thought the tonguescarf was the most genius and fitting design quirk i'd seen yet, but the more experimental design was something i assumed would filter a lot of people, making it a somewhat niche pick. But then my entire Pokemon group actually unilaterally loved the thing. Even the hardcore Fennefags jumped to the Froakie train after the Greninja reveal, and so far he's the only starter that has seen such one-sided support in my group to this day, which left me pretty dumbfounded, especially since there were many polls i participated in that took place close to release date that also had him as the overwhelming favorite. A dorkly poll for best Pokemon of all time actually had him on 24th place as the 4th highest ranking starter one month after XY's release. I was used to being the hipster taste guy in the group and suddenly normies actually liked one of my favorite designs too. Felt pretty great, really.
>>49850919>He's only liked due to being shilledAs stated above, i think thats completely false. Compared to most other shillmons, Greninja's promotion was extremely tame. But what sets him apart is what was stated above, he was super fucking popular even before they started promoting it. For example, Cinderace was clearly thought as its superior replacement. So minmaxed that it's arguably the best in-game starter ever without AND with HA. The whole region even had his theme as the gimmick and they started promoting it even earlier than Greninja, yet in the Google Poll made over a year after SWSH release it didn't even Break Galar Top 5. To this day i'm convinced that this Picture is what actually made Gren popular.
