>>40045337You might be looking to start shit, but i actually agree that it's one of the best designs there is.
I give it extra points because it's one of the few times that going experimental actually improves the design. Most of the time GF, on their quest to make things "quirkier" only adds details that muddy or hinder the concept. A clear example being Samurott's busy identity crisis that while somewhat creative only makes it both an inefficient Samurai Steed AND an Inefficient Samurai itself. It's weird that thought the whole point of swordsmanship is that it was an art born from our bipedal capacities and the wide range of motion our arms and hands provide, GF decided to add 5 swordsmen pokemon and make them ALL quadrupedal for some idiotic reason.
Greninja on the contrary has everything going for it. The base animal is already closely tied to Ninjas in Jap folklore, so it's conceptually fitting. The base design is actually quite simple and very frog-like, but the quirky details actually fit the motif. Frogs are known for their tongues too, so working it into the design in a way that makes sense both in relation to its biology AND the Ninja Scarf concept was a small stroke of genius. I could've never found a way to make a prominent tongue pokemon so palatable, but the creativity behind it actually makes me overlook the detail and find it very cool overall.
It's easy to make a simple and memorable design. It's harder to make a more complex and experimental design be just as memorable, that's why i think Greninja is an all-time classic despite not completely loving him. I'm just not very fond of frogs, but he's cool in my book.
