>>19317449It pains me to see how oblivious people can be towards design, and i'm not speaking of Pokemon only. But i'll try to explain a bit in the most objective way i can to see if i can sprinkle some love among cynicism.
Ok anons, the reason why blastoise's design is often berated is because it spontaneously sprouts clearly man-made machinery, which from a design standpoint makes little to no sense as it is a characteristic that is alien to the creature, even if it actually does communicate the idea that the Squirtle line are pretty much "Water Cannons", though it tends to play on Blastoise's "tankyness" a bit too literally.
Now imagine you want to make a ninja pokemon inspired by cats. You'd want to look for exploitable similarities and defining aspects between the two to create a design that bridges both sides without "breaking the canon" so to speak.
The Froakie lines' thing was to showcase a natural progression from Rookie Rogue to Full Blown Ninja Assasin, all the while being represented in frog traits. This in mind turns bubbles into a synonym for young and unexperienced, just like frogs that lose their foam as they mature. Considering japanese folklore like the legend of Jiraiya and his association with frogs, a frog ninja would be an easy concept to grasp for fellow japs. Frogs are known for their long tongues, so in this case, it wasn't
Farfetch'd to cleverly play this characteristic into another common ninja trope: -The ever present Ninja Scarf, a handy tool that Ninjas use to conceal their identities, steady themselves on trees, among a plethora of other uses. The added prehensileness of it being an actual appendage gives him even more uses of it.
As for
>>18991211Those spoilers Greninja has are reminiscent of actual ninja headgear ala Pic Related, whilst also adding aerodynamics, considering that his froggy-ness will mean that he'll spend lots of time in the air during leaps.
See the full picture before offering critique.