What is the Ash-Greninja form of Greninja?


This new form of Greninja is circulating around. I am _not_ following the
anime or the movies so please try to be gentle if it was obvious.

What exactly is this Greninja? If it's a mega-evolution, how did it get there
without a stone? How exactly does his powers/abilities/skills vary from other
normal Greninja?

I know the physical difference, that it starts to resemble Ash a bit. Easily
noticeable is the red middle part on his head instead of the body blue.

This is the normal Greninja:

[![Normal
Greninja](https://i.stack.imgur.com/A4Fhv.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/A4Fhv.png)

And this is Ash's:

[![Ash-
Greninja](https://i.stack.imgur.com/auRdX.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/auRdX.png)




Basically, what happens is that the bond between Ash and Greninja is so strong
that Greninja took the new form as Ash-Greninja where Greninja takes some
features of Ash (as you mentioned) and it is not a mega evolution. Some
theorists say that it might be synchro evolution from the pokemon spin off
_Pokemon Reburst_. By turning into this form, Greninja's power greatly
increases and as you can see on its back, there is a giant shuriken which is a
replacement for water shuriken (the move). The Ash-Greninja form can only last
for a short period of time before Ash and Greninja gets tired and faint,
during the form ash can also feel the pain that Greninja is feeling.

The official website explanation is "Ash's Greninja takes on a mysterious new
appearance in the latest season! Ash-Greninja is the form that Greninja takes
when the bond between it and Ash is raised to the limit. The strength of their
bond changes Greninja's appearance, and it takes on the characteristic look of
Ash's attire. This phenomenon is also said to have happened just once several
hundred years ago in the Kalos region, but it remains shrouded in mystery."

The anime explanation is saying pretty much the same thing. When it first
happened in the ninja village, the anime explained that because the bond
between is great, he has taken a new form. The first appearance looked
something like this.

[![Ash-Greninja first
appearance](https://i.stack.imgur.com/a0bFUl.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/a0bFUl.png)

during this stage, Stallone did a lot of testing where he discovered that this
transformation will take place only when Greninja and Ash have mentally
synchronized. Then later in episode 25, while versing the kalos champion, Ash-
Greninja got the full form and it looked like this.

[![Ash-Greninja full
form](https://i.stack.imgur.com/W5tgjm.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/W5tgjm.jpg)

it was then explained that this was when the bond became maximum level where
they are completely synchronized. And then it goes through the phases of
difficulty between Ash Greninja and stuff.

Some power ups include faster, stronger, giant water shuriken, using water
ninja knife things instead of the normal iyarigiri move. And in the episode
35, water shuriken became huge (kind of like rasen shuriken), it looked like
this

[![Ash-Greninja water
shuriken](https://i.stack.imgur.com/pVsFLl.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/pVsFLl.png)

Everything about Ash-Greninja is explained in the anime, it also shows
Stallone testing how it works and the road to master this form.

I highly recommend _Pokemon XY & Z_. The anime has improved a lot, Ash is no
longer the immature young kid, he seems (mentally) more as a teen now and
yeah, I definitely think you should give it a try.




Basically, what happens is that the bond between Ash and Greninja is so strong
that Greninja took the new form as Ash-Greninja where Greninja takes some
features of Ash (as you mentioned) and it is not a mega evolution. Some
theorists say that it might be synchro evolution from the pokemon spin off
_Pokemon Reburst_. By turning into this form, Greninja's power greatly
increases and as you can see on its back, there is a giant shuriken which is a
replacement for water shuriken (the move). The Ash-Greninja form can only last
for a short period of time before Ash and Greninja gets tired and faint,
during the form ash can also feel the pain that Greninja is feeling.

The official website explanation is "Ash's Greninja takes on a mysterious new
appearance in the latest season! Ash-Greninja is the form that Greninja takes
when the bond between it and Ash is raised to the limit. The strength of their
bond changes Greninja's appearance, and it takes on the characteristic look of
Ash's attire. This phenomenon is also said to have happened just once several
hundred years ago in the Kalos region, but it remains shrouded in mystery."

The anime explanation is saying pretty much the same thing. When it first
happened in the ninja village, the anime explained that because the bond
between is great, he has taken a new form. The first appearance looked
something like this.

[![Ash-Greninja first
appearance](https://i.stack.imgur.com/a0bFUl.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/a0bFUl.png)

during this stage, Stallone did a lot of testing where he discovered that this
transformation will take place only when Greninja and Ash have mentally
synchronized. Then later in episode 25, while versing the kalos champion, Ash-
Greninja got the full form and it looked like this.

[![Ash-Greninja full
form](https://i.stack.imgur.com/W5tgjm.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/W5tgjm.jpg)

it was then explained that this was when the bond became maximum level where
they are completely synchronized. And then it goes through the phases of
difficulty between Ash Greninja and stuff.

Some power ups include faster, stronger, giant water shuriken, using water
ninja knife things instead of the normal iyarigiri move. And in the episode
35, water shuriken became huge (kind of like rasen shuriken), it looked like
this

[![Ash-Greninja water
shuriken](https://i.stack.imgur.com/pVsFLl.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/pVsFLl.png)

Everything about Ash-Greninja is explained in the anime, it also shows
Stallone testing how it works and the road to master this form.

I highly recommend _Pokemon XY & Z_. The anime has improved a lot, Ash is no
longer the immature young kid, he seems (mentally) more as a teen now and
yeah, I definitely think you should give it a try.

