Giovanni (game)

Giovanni (Japanese: サカキ Sakaki) doubles as the Gym Leader for Viridian City's Gym, and as the Boss of the criminal organization Team Rocket. As the Gym Leader, Giovanni holds the Earth Badge for the trainers that defeat him, and specializes in -type Pokémon.

In the Generation II games, Giovanni has disappeared inexplicably after his final loss to Red, leaving Team Rocket disorganized and confused.

In the anime
Giovanni serves as the Head of Team Rocket in the anime, never really shown taking action in field work, but rather sends the grunts and other members for that. Jessie, James, Meowth, Butch and Cassidy along with other members, are constantly striving to please him in their actions, usually without his compliance.

In the early episodes of Pokémon, his face was hidden from view and his voice was distorted. However, this version was later dropped as the series went on to become more comical. Giovanni has only been shown once as the Gym Leader of Viridian Gym, in the episode The Battle of the Badge, facing off against Gary. In this episode he used Mewtwo, which he was controlling with a machine, against Gary's Pokémon, brutally defeating him. By the time Ash challenged the Gym, Giovanni left on account of an emergency, leaving Jessie, James and Meowth in charge. Ever since the destruction of the Gym, he had never returned to it, rather it was rebuilt and had Agatha of the Kanto Elite Four take temporary leadership of it. Giovanni in the anime series might be some sort of businessman, because he is revealed to own Pokémon Island.

He possesses knowledge of the other crime syndicates in the Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova regions, which are also regions that he does not have a branch of Team Rocket. Despite his dislike of Jessie, James and Meowth, he allows them to try setting up new branches (as they kept following Ash to capture his Pikachu). Upon Team Galactic's defeat, Giovanni began looking into the working of a mysterious organization in Unova as he wished obtain artifacts to further his plans for global domination without confronting them. Giovanni has not been seen since the Meteonite plan's climax and has allowed Jessie, James and Meowth to do as the please in Unova.

While he is rarely shown, he is implied to be very evil and sadistic and it is hinted that he conducts dangerous experiments with Pokemon and is behind his Team Rocket schemes in Kanto, Johto and Unova. In Mewtwo Returns he shows more sadistic and evil personality than in anime, because he tortures Mewtwo even when Domino advises that he could use Mewtwo's power for himself and before that implies that if Mewtwo doesn't surrender he will use his clones on dangerous experiments which will kill them.

Yellow Arc
Just like in the game he disbanded Team Rocket. In the Manga, he is not the Gym Leader.

FireRed and LeafGreen Arc
He discovered about Deoxys and captured it. He also battled Red and Mewtwo while trying to locate his son, Silver.

In Game
Giovanni first appeared in the Generation I games as the Leader of Team Rocket. Eventually, it was revealed that he was the Gym Leader of the Viridian Gym, and the final Gym Leader the player faces. Upon defeating him, Giovanni states that he's giving up on Team Rocket and disappears.

Later on, in the Generation II games, Team Rocket still functions without Giovanni, and believe that he will return. The lost Team Rocket attempt several acts, in order to call their former Leader, though he never makes an appearance.

In the Generation III remakes, Giovanni retains his first role in exactly the same way, with the exception of his updated appearance.

In Generation IV, Giovanni is still missing, but appears as an optional battle in the Celebi Event where it is revealed Silver is his son.

Giovanni has not appeared Generation V so far. Except in Anime.

Pokémon Red and Blue
First Encounter

Second Encounter

Gym Battle

Pokémon Yellow
First Encounter

Second Encounter

Gym Battle

Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen
First Encounter

Second Encounter

Gym Battle

Pokémon Stadium
Gym Leader Castle

Gym Leader Castle Round 2

Voice Actors

 * English: Ted Lewis (current)
 * English: Craig Blair
 * Japanese: Kenta Miyake (Diamond & Pearl)
 * Japanese: Hirotaka Suzuoki (Pocket Monsters & Advanced Generation)

Trivia

 * Giovanni is believed by some to be the father of Ash Ketchum. This is due to his relationship with Delia Ketchum while they were teenagers.
 * Giovanni's name may come from the word GEO for the first part of his name. Geo is Greek for Earth and this is because he is a Ground type trainer.
 * It may also be a pun on how most 20's and 30's American gang members had Itallian names like Alfonso (Al) Capone. Giovanni is an English-Italian name and is a gang leader himself (Team Rocket).
 * Giovanni's outfit in Black and White seems to be based on a general's uniform.
 * In Pokémon Yellow, Giovanni replaced Kangaskhan with Persian since Yellow was based on the anime.
 * He may be inspired by the villain of James Bond series, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. In Bond films and novels, Blofeld leads his own criminal organization, the S.P.E.C.T.R.E., to become rich and reign on the world. As a companion, Blofeld has a cat.
 * In the Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver Celebi event, your rival is found out to be the son of Giovanni.
 * Giovanni's Generation I sprite has shown Giovanni with something that looks like moustache, although Giovanni doesn't have a moustache.
 * The first time Ash Ketchum ever met Giovanni was in IL063, when he challenged Giovanni at the Viridian City gym; the two have never seen each other again. Also on that same episode, Giovanni is seen out of the shadows and is seen for the first time.
 * Also in the same episode, his identfy has been shown since the 15th episode that his identify would not be blown.
 * Giovanni's Japanese name, Sakaki was the name of the leader of Rocket Reds, a gang which bullied the creator of Pokémon, and the one who killed Satoshi's tadpole, Nyorozo.