Team Rocket

Team Rocket (ロケット団 Rocket-Dan) is a Criminal Organization, with their base in the Kanto Region, and the Isshu region with branches in the Johto Region, and Sevii Islands. They are headed by Giovanni, who also doubles as the Viridian City Gym Leader.

Team Rocket's main goal is obtaining powerful and rare Pokémon to further their criminal syndicate in hopes of someday taking over the world. They obtain these Pokémon by regular capture, or more often, theft. In addition to this they also preform inhumane experiments on Pokémon to further their power.

In Anime
Team Rocket, in the anime, have a Base of Operations in Kanto and are headed by Giovanni. Their headquarters were once located in between Pallet Town and Viridian City but has since been destroyed. It is now in an unknown location inside of a large canyon. Team Rocket has also been shown to have branches in the Johto Region and other areas in Kanto.



Jessie, James and Meowth
Featured more often then the Team as a whole are Jessie, James and Meowth. These three are a small group of members that follow around Pokémon Trainer Ash Ketchum. They were first shown in the episode Pokémon Emergency! in an attempt to steal Pokémon from the Viridian City Pokémon Center, and were defeated by Ash. Ever since then, they have mainly focused their attention on Ash in hopes of stealing his Pikachu. The trio's persistence has led them to every region Ash has been to including Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and currently the Sinnoh Region. Since Ash started going to regions where Team Rocket branches are not located, they also double as founders of new branches in the region, although this is just a ploy to keep them away so that they won't ruin Giovanni's plans.



Jessie, James, and Meowth are generally considered failures, as they almost are never successful in their schemes. Giovanni regularly refers to them as "a bumbling trio" and never wants them around his big plans as they "can't do anything right". Despite this fact they always strive to please their boss, and are very persistent in doing so. In the 14th season, they will receive a promotion to advanced agents.

Other Members
Besides Giovanni, Jessie, James, and Meowth there have also been other Team Rocket members featured multiple times or having large roles. Another duo is Butch and Cassidy, who have been in multiple episodes and are the rivals of Jessie and James. Along with them is Attila and Hun who pursue Jimmy as Jessie and James pursue Ash. There are also non field agents that work as scientists such as Dr. Namba and Professor Sebastion. There have only been a small number of Team Rocket Officers shown but such officers include Domino and Vicious. These high-ranking officers work solo and are considered the best in Team Rocket.

Members
The following are members of Team Rocket. Members with an asterisk to the side of their name means they are part of the manga.
 * Bosses: Giovanni/Madame Boss/Mask Of Ice*
 * Rocket Executives: Archer/Ariana/Proton/Petrel/Grey
 * Elite Officers: Miyamoto, Domino, Vicious
 * Under the Mask of Ice: Keane/Chermaine/Karen/Will
 * Spies: Lawrence lll, Annie and Oakley/
 * Agents: Cassidy, Butch, Jessie, James, Attila and Hun
 * Sergeants: Lt. Surge, Koga, and Sabrina
 * Commanders: Viper, Tyson
 * Scientists: Professor Sebastion, Professor Fuji, Dr. Namba
 * Others: Wendy, Giovanni's Secretary, Rocket Scout, Keade, Mondo

In Games
Team Rocket has appeared in various games including the Generation I, Generation II, and Generation III's FireRed and LeafGreen games. In Pokémon Yellow, Team Rocket's Jessie and James also appear in several locations and battle the player.

Kanto
Team Rocket in the original, FireRed and LeafGreen games appear throughout the game. They first appear in Mt. Moon and then are conducting their plans in Saffron City, the Game Corner in Celadon City and the Pokémon Tower. Their Leader is Giovanni which whom the player battles with on a couple of occasions and then finally in the Viridian City Gym, since he is the Gym Leader.

Johto
They return to Johto a 4 years later. In Azalea Town, they threaten to cut off Slowpoke's tails and sells them. When the player reaches the Lake of Rage he/she will discover that Team Rocket was behind the Red Gyarados incident, and will join forces with Lance in an attempt to pull the plug. Team Rocket is eventually defeated, and in a last resort they take over the radio tower and hope to contact Giovanni, but are once again stopped. They are disbanded the last time.

Trivia

 * The duos in Team Rocket, in English, are named after infamous outlaws. Such as the American outlaws Jesse James, Butch Cassidy and Attila the Hun.
 * There is a song from RuneScape called Sigmund's showdown which sounds similar to the Team Rocket theme song.