Ash's Greninja is an anomaly a beast that we've never seen before and there are very few Pokemon that have been able to fundamentally change the franchise like this one this is the story on Ash's Greninja who was once an All-Star pick Rose fell and Rose to Greater Heights but to understand all this we have to take it back all the way to the callus region before Greninja was even a Greninja where he was just a lonely Froakie when froi first hoped from his egg he was already very different from his group while everyone else was having fun and partying froi just wanted to train and get stronger at first glance the other froakies thought our froi was just a little weird and just enjoyed training a lot but these differences eventually turned into hate they were so scared of the unknown that they decided to kick froi out of the group leaving him out in the wild to be all alone some time has passed and froi has somehow made it to Professor sycamore's lab but there's one other issue with this froi whenever Professor Sycamore gives him out to a brand new trainer froi always ends up getting returned or abandoned by that previous trainer this is because froi believes he has such high potential that he won't let it be wasted by mediocre trainers so he'll continue waiting at the lab until he finds someone worthy of his power some time has passed and that leads us to the first episode of the Pokemon X and Y anime where Ash is landing into the Kalos region and I got to be honest for a second this has to be one of Ash's best character designs yet he looks so mature for his age compared to previous seasons and this new design is actually quite quite telling on why froi gravitated towards Ash because while Ash was walking through the callus region froi was following him within the shadows and when Ash got into a battle with Team Rocket and Pikachu almost got hit by a devastating attack froi jumped in the way tanking the attack for Pikachu wanting to help Ash they ended up defeating Team Rocket but froi was in critical condition and they rushed him over to the professor's lab and at this lab Ash learned the truth Professor Sycamore told Ash that this froi has actually been abandoned by its last trainer and really doesn't trust humans all that much and only wants to be raised by a strong trainer Ash believed that froi was actually a good Pokemon and that he just needed the right opportunity to unlock his true potential and this was proven even further where Team Rocket stole Professor sycamore's G chop and he started tweaking out but froi in the end ended up saving the day protecting the Garchomp because of all this froi realized Ash's love for Pokemon and realized that Ash would actually be a worthy trainer for him and Ash thought likewise and ever since then froi joined Ash's team being one of his Aces and you would think from that the story goes smooth sailing with them becoming the best of friends but the story actually gets so much more complicated since froi is actually never worked within a team he actually struggled a lot with teamwork especially in the early episodes where froi would not listen to Ash's instructions and always just do what he sees fit this Behavior actually costed froi a battle against a Fletchling destroying his self-confidence because he knew he had the power to win the battle but he just lost because of his own thoughts and when froi applied this he became better than ever being able able to defeat this flexing in a rematch and with all that being said and done Froakie ended up enjoying his time on Ash's team and made some pretty good friends but what froi didn't realize is that he was creating even greater Rivals one of the rivals that were Brewing up was this ninja that said ashes Froakie was actually slow and he had a Frogger himself and he said his Frogadier was way more faster and better than ashes froi Ash didn't take this lightly and challenge him to a battle and that's when they learned real quick that they are not on top they got absolutely destroyed they got beat so bad they were pretty bummed out about it but the ninja actually offered to train froi which they did they taught froy had to be more agile on water be more stealth and overall become a better Pokemon and they said they'll meet them again and hope that froi got him stronger taking all this info in you would think froi would put his head down and try to become stronger than that Frogadier but froi actually made a brand new rival on his own team in a later episode there was a Hawlucha that Ash wanted to catch so he sent out Froakie and they got into a very heated battle which resulted into a draw ash still ended up catching Hawlucha but froi just didn't want to work with Hawlucha and Hawlucha did not respect froy at all Ash even took them out in a double battle and they completely lost it bickering against each other and did not work together Ash realized this wasn't working and it wasn't until Ash's life was in danger the two Pokemon actually teamed up set their differences aside and realized that they could work together so we now manag to get an established team and froak is looking pretty good but later in the timeline Ash meets meets the ninja trainer again finding him going down a river unconscious when they wake him up they realize that he actually has a Greninja now not a Frogadier they asked as for their help to defeat the barbaracle so Greninja and froi put their differences aside and team up to fight the barbaracle the fight wasn't going the greatest Greninja and froi teamed up but they weren't winning at all Greninja also looked to Q was out for the count and Barbaro was going in to do the finishing blow on froi but froi decided to evolve into Frogadier to be able to destroy the Barbarian irle showing us his true strength and using his new move razor Shell at this point froggy deer became one of the aces on Ash's team he showed his true potential being able to defeat an opponent way stronger than him and saving the Greninja it seemed like Frogadier almost surpassed his rival but he developed a brand new one in the process in a later episode Ash meets a kid named Sawyer and he sends out his tro and Frogger H alucha vers them in a double battle Ash's team completely dominated the battle but the next day Sawyer came back and Trio had evolved to at grov is we got to see how Frogadier would handle an even matchup where he even had the type disadvantage and Frogadier did not disappoint he made use of his crazy speed juking out grile and finished the battle off with the move water pulse but at the end Frogadier did give grov his respect and they mutually respected each other knowing that someday he would be a very formidable foe as we continue on with Ashton greninja's Journey something interesting happened when they went up against the gym leader Olympia she had to reveal a revelation that she had she prophesized that ashes Greninja is actually special and that he has some dormant power deep inside that he just hasn't awakened yet she also verbally let Ash know about greninja's backstory and how he was abandoned when he was younger and looking for a strong trainer his entire life this motivated ash a lot and he resonated with Greninja knowing his pain and promised Greninja that he would try his absolute best to make sure that he reaches his full potential and he'll use him in many battles funny enough they went to immediately fight the gym leader after this and Greninja and tof fame won in a double battle using a group attack that we haven't seen them use before after hearing all this from the gym battle Ash thought it would be pretty smart to get some more information about Greninja so they went over to the ninja Village to actually understand what special power Greninja has deep inside here we learn that thousands of years ago there was an ancient Greninja that had a form that people have never seen before and he used it to protect the village while we're learning all this it gets interrupted because the ninja Village is under attack there's a big battle outside of the village and there's a Bish sharp going absolutely crazy frogadier's rival Greninja tries to fight off the bishar but gets absolutely destroyed Ash sends off Frogadier and Pikachu and they're trying their absolute best to defeat this Bisharp but nothing is working against him Bisharp has them all knocked down and it seemed like it was over Bisharp was commanded to use shadowclaw to finish off Pikachu but Frogadier jumped in the way blocking the attack and choosing to evolve into Greninja to protect his friends for Ninja learned the move water shuriken which is one of his signature attacks and fired it off but something weird s of to happen Ash felt a strong connection between him and Greninja and greninja's eyes started glowing red and they fell even closer than ever and Greninja had a water Aura surrounding him we couldn't really see his face but this Greninja had definitely gotten stronger and little did Ash and Greninja know this is the first time they would have used Bond phenomenon not much is known about this transformation but what we do know is that it's only achievable between certain trainers in Pokémon like a one in a million chance when this transformation happens the Pokémon and the trainer are one so much to the point where when the Pokemon takes damage the trainer takes damage too Greninja used his Newfound power to absolutely destroy the Bisharp and even surpass his old rival the other Greninja everything was looking good from here Greninja evolved protect the village and even unlocked a brand new form but greninja's true stories and real challenges were about to unfold in a way they could have never expected there were a few instances after this where Ash and Greninja would accidentally tap into the form but they wouldn't really understand what was going on the form would also put too much of a strain on Ash's body which would make him pass out from time to time when activating it which was really dangerous Clemen made a machine and he discovered that Ash and Greninja need to be fully in sync to be able to master this form and while they were doing more training on this ash ran into soyer again and he had a rematch with his septile this septile was no joke now he grew up he knew a bunch of Dragon type moves and bullet seed and Razor Leaf the battle was getting tough for Greninja but Ash and Greninja felt in syn activated their bom phen phenomenon and completely destroyed septile but this caught the attention of a trainer in the stands his name being Alon Alon was completely shocked that a trainer was able to have a Mega Evolution type transformation without a mega stone so he knew he had to challenge Ash to a battle Alan revealed to Ash that the Ace of his team is his Charizard mega Charizard X and he went head-to-head with Greninja completely destroying Greninja forcing him to transform into Ash Greninja form but they still lost Ash and Greninja were pretty bummed out about this so they got back to training to try to master their new form so they could beat Alan and when they thought they had a good gripe on it they challenged Alan again and I've got to say up until this point in the anime this is one of the most intense fights we've seen Ash and Greninja were seriously going all out against thew and his Charizard and it seriously looked like Greninja was going to win the fight but when Charizard transformed into Mega Charizard X he blasted a flamethrower at Greninja then hit him with a super effective Thunder Punch this forced the battle Bond transformation again and the battle was looking so even Greninja and Mega Charizard were going head-to-head but it all started catching up to Ash Ash cannot withstand the damage Greninja took and he passed out he woke up in the hospital with all his friends surrounding him and they were a little worried but they were happy that Ash was safe and Ash told Alan that he wants to battle him again at the Pokemon Callos league and all said that he'll compete Ash and Greninja were a little down so they started doing some more training and then they ran into the champion of the Callos region Diantha Diantha had caught wind that there was a trainer going around with a Pokemon that had a Mega Evolution like transformation and she wanted to see it for herself so they challenged each other to a battle Ash and Greninja did not hold back they activated their bomb phenomenon having that water Aura around them and they got super fast and they were actually doing really well up against diantha's gavor so Diantha had to respond to this and she mega evolved too this battle was getting so intense gavor was throwing out Shadow balls Greninja was making Shadow clones and this truly felt like a champion level battle ginja knew he had to do something if he wanted to win this battle so he took all the energy from the outside of his body and put it onto his back turning it into a big water shuriken revealing his face for the first time Greninja threw his new water shuriken at diantha's Shadow Ball and cut right through it but this new found power was too much for Ash and Ash passed out making them lose the battle Ash and greninja's confidence didn't get any better from this loss since they've been losing a lot recently and they really wanted to get better and Ash felt deep inside he wasn't a good enough trainer for Greninja they had a match with Sawyer and they actually lost against the de septile they didn't lose because they were weak they lost because Ash's confidence was very low that he couldn't do the battle Bond transformation anymore with Greninja all of this was seriously sending Ash down a spiral making him question his abilities as a Pokemon trainer as a whole because days ago he was able to beat Sawyer but now he's losing to him and he can't even transform anymore Ash was developing impostor syndrome impostor syndrome is where someone is feeling anxious and not feeling the success internally even though to everybody else El are doing really well nobody else thought Ash was fraudulent only him Ash decided to try to move on and they went to Snowbell City to get the last gym badge and when Ash first challenge the gym leader wolck it wasn't going well Hawlucha had already lost and tof frame took a big beating too it was only left to Greninja Ash tried to tap into the battle bomb form and it worked Ash and Greninja got their spark back right but even with this transformation they still ended up taking major attacks from wol Rick and losing ultimately to a gyro ball this sent Ash over the edge they lost again later that night Ash told Greninja how he is really feeling how he feels like he was being a big let down and he was sorry that he's not capable of mashing the transformation for Greninja so what Ash did is that he left everybody and went off to the forest alone to think Greninja also was feeling kind of down too since Ash and Greninja do share some degree of emotions and Greninja also went off by himself while Ash was out in the forest he was helping a wild Pokémon and the weather started getting worse and Greninja and Squishy realized Ash was in trouble they sensed it they ended up rushing to Ash's Aid and Ash was falling down a cliff but Greninja saved Ash at the last second Ash was so excited that his Pokemon came to his rescue but Ash also let go of the wild Pokemon and they needed to save him fast and in that moment without any hesitation Ash and Greninja activated battle Bond and Greninja jumped down trying to save the Pokemon and Ash served as greninja's vision and Greninja serves as a physical body being able to save the Pokemon Ash and Greninja were really happy they were able to save the Pokemon and Ash came to their real realization that the battle Bond transformation should be treated as one not like two entities but one together the ninja agreed on this and because of their Mutual understanding they finally mastered battle Bond Ashton Greninja went back to challenge wolf Glick and they vers his Mega Obama snow and in this battle we saw for the first time Ashton Greninja fully transform into Ash Greninja mode mastering the battle Bond and going head-to-head with the eighth gym leaders Pokémon and Greninja came out on top with all that being said and done Ashton Greninja got their eighth gym badge and now they're ready for the colos league where all of their Rivals will be in one place to prove that they're the best of the best when Ash entered the tournament he was already on everyone's Radars a bunch of people would come up to him even news reporters wanting to see his new transformation with Greninja that no one's ever seen before making Ash's battle some of the most viewed ones in the callous region and the people weren't disappointed Ash got his first round against this kid with an Altera and Greninja completely decimated it all of Ash's friends and Rivals were also competing in the Callis league tournament and they all had different various challenges but we finally made it to the semifinals one of greninja's most notable matches Greninja versus septile this started off the battle playing no game Sawyer used Mega Evolution on septile showing off septile new form Mega septile and he used frenzy plant to transform the entire arena with vines Ash and Greninja used battle bond to transform and they dodg the freny plant vines and use cut to destroy them after dodging a bunch of attacks Greninja goes in on septile and uses Arrow a with some of the smoothest animations we've seen in Pokemon but septile caught Greninja off guard using leaf storm Greninja and septile fought neck and- neck clashing with Leaf blade and the water shuriken back and forth Ash was seriously feeling the effects of Greninja taking all this damage onto himself but Ash knew he had to hold on strong so he doesn't lose the battle Ash and Greninja were fully synced being able to dodge all of seti's vines moving left and right and they knew they had to go in for a finishing blow ninja awakened the shuriken on his back and jumped high in the sky and uses the move double team paying up to Naruto with a bunch of his shadow clones and used rasan shuriken subtile tried to block it with leaf storm but it wasn't enough greninja's water shuriken hit septile and Ash and Greninja won the battle even with the type disadvantage and with this Greninja ended the long rivalry with septile coming out on top and being able to move to the finals with Ash versus Alan now this battle is very important for ash this is his first time ever making it to the finals in the Pokémon League and it wasn't looking good Ash was down to his last Pokémon Greninja it was Greninja versus Charizard The Faded matchup that was meant to be Greninja went in knowing he has the type advantage and got a decent cut in on Charzard and ashar ninja took it as seriously as possible and transformed immediately into ashar ninja Alan chose to keep the same energy since he knew if he didn't transform now he would lose and he transformed into Mega Charizard X also giving him a neutral Advantage because Mega Charizard X is not weak to water types anymore Alon Charizard went in for a dragonclaw and Ash's Greninja went in and clashed against it too and they were having some some of the greatest hand-to-hand combat we've seen yet in this series Charizard tried to use Thunder Punch to try to One-Shot Greninja but Ash was smart and told Greninja to use water shuriken to deflect the Thunder punches Greninja got a clean hit against alon's Charizard and sent him flying all the way back and Ash knew was his opportunity to win Ash told Greninja to use water shuriken Ash and Alan were simultaneously thinking at the same time that no matter who loses this has been one of the best battles of their entire lives then Ash's Greninja proceeds who make the biggest water sugar we've seen in the entire series Alan starts getting scared and tells Charizard to use blast bur ninja lets off his greatest shuriken sending it straight at Mega Charizard and the blast bur gets closer to Greninja and both of the moves hit each of the Pokemon simultaneously this created a big explosion and nobody in the entire Arena knew what was happening and then the smoke started to clear up we could see Ash's Greninja Standing Tall and Alan Charizard almost fall to the ground but in the moment Ash's Greninja fell Ash lost the battle even though Ash and Greninja lost it wasn't like last time they were actually proud because they gave it their all and they just lost to a better opponent and Alan was crowned the champion of the tournament for the gang even at time to relax team Flair had an evil plan brewing in the back and Ashen Greninja at the core of it because the leader of Team Flair was trying to use Ashen greninja's battle bond to use for evil purposes but in the end Ashen Greninja broke free because of their battle Bond and Alan teamed up with them to defeat team Flair but we did have an issue with the giant rock shaped like zygard trying to destroy the entire world and all of the Champions that were here at this point ended up teaming together to defeat the big rock because of all this Ash's Greninja and Alan's team were named The Heroes of Kalos because they did save the world from this Zygarde it was looking really good for Ashton Greninja even though they didn't win the Pokemon Championship they did end up saving the world which was a plus but something came up Greninja could actually sense that the evil Roots were still popping up around Callos and Squishy actually suggested if Greninja could go on a journey with them to help cut down the rocks from time to time so that another evil phenomenom doesn't develop or old team flare members don't take advantage of this situation Ash was really hurt after hearing this news but he knew Greninja would be serving a much greater purpose constantly saving the lives of others than coming back to canel with him so Ash and Greninja said farewell they gave each other a handshake and gave them each other a big hug and Ash promised to meet them again and we didn't see Ash's Greninja for a very very long time in the Pokemon animes not until Pokemon Journeys in Pokemon Journeys Ash had a Lucario and he was having a bit of trouble tapping into his Aura and sometimes Mega Evolution so Ash thought it would be a good idea to make Lucario meet up with Greninja since he felt the same type of energy back then with Lucario when we make it to the Callos region we can actually see the evil Vines are still infecting their region and out of nowhere Ash's Greninja appears back again and meets up with Ash and Lucario saving them from the Vine Ash is so happy to see Greninja again and he actually asks Greninja for a favor if he can 1 V one him and Lucario and help train Lucario so he doesn't have any self-doubt about his ability Greninja agrees to help out Ash and they get right to the battle Lucario realizes very quickly he's out match for Ash's Greninja and he completely loses it Lucario ends up getting really sad and runs away but when Ash wants to go after Lucario Greninja says he'll take you from here and talk to Lucario Lucario and Greninja end up having a heart-to-heart conversation which I wish I could tell tell you what they were saying but they literally just talked in Pokemon language so I can only assume that he was giving him good advice the advice Greninja gave Lucario was so good because Lucario was able to respect Greninja after this point and no longer be jealous of him and the training paid off because when Lucario met back up with Ash he was able to learn oras Spear and do a really big attack by the end of all this ash completed his original Mission on trying to get Lucario to tapen with his Aura energy and Ash thank Greninja and they were off saying forwell again and that seems to be it for Greninja he headed off and Ash tells go that even if him and Greninja are far apart Ash will always have a strong connection with Greninja to know if he's well Greninja definitely has one of the more complex stories in the Pokemon anime starting off from a little froy and becoming a world class Pokemon though make sure to subscribe so you don't miss any more Pokemon lore and let me know down below who you want to see next