Jessie And James

Jessie and James are antagonists and members of The Villains.

## **BIOGRAPHY**

Jessie and James alongside Meowth are a trio belonging to Team Rocket who 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. However they always fail and have been defeated hundreds of times with them blasting off into the sky, mostly via Pikachu's Thunderbolt attack. The trio's persistence has led them to every region Ash has been to including Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, and later in the Alola 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 according to Cassidy, this is just a plot to keep them away so that they won't ruin Giovanni's plans. So far they attempted (but failed) to form new Team Rocket branches in the Orange Islands, Hoenn, and Sinnoh.

They are both considered failures, as they almost are never successful in their schemes and are incompetent.

Outside of Kanto, they are also members of The Villains at the request of Giovanni.

## **APPEARANCE**

#### **JESSIE**

Jessie has red long hair that she wears curled in a comet-tail behind her head. She typically wears a pair of green pearl earrings that are meant to complement her blue eyes.

From the opening in *Johto Journeys* and onwards, Jessie's hair is changed from red to magenta.

Jessie usually wears a customized Team Rocket uniform that complements James'. It consists of a short black shirt that exposes her midriff under a white high collared sleeved shirt emblazoned with a large red R, a white miniskirt, black leg-length boots, and long black arm-sleeves.

#### **JAMES**

James has shoulder-length periwinkle hair with a single fringe sprouting from the center and green eyes. He is usually seen in a Team Rocket uniform, which consists of a white long sleeve shirt with a large red R on it, a black short sleeve undershirt, white pants with a purple belt, black boots, and matching gloves.

## **PERSONALITY**

#### **JESSIE**

essie is the short-tempered member of the Team Rocket trio, having a tough streak as well as being vain and very prone to anger. Every time she has stolen someone else's belongings or Pokémon, she always claims, "Your things are mine, my things are *still* mine." Due to her pride, she usually underestimates her opponents' strength, which is a cause for her own failure.

She tends to be a drama queen and has a diabolical temperament.

She also values her beauty and long hair; she will become furious if her face or her hair is damaged. A prime example is in *Tracey Gets Bugged* when a younger Scyther manages to slash her hair down to a shoulder-length, devastating her and sending her into a rage. Jessie also shows her violent outrage when someone insults her beauty by calling her old. Her anger also scares James and Meowth, especially when their missions end up in a failure.

Jessie is shown to care about her Pokémon despite her nasty temperament.

#### **JAMES**

In his debut anime appearance and onwards, James is initially seen as a calm and serious person who tends to recite the Team Rocket motto with more elegance and flair than his cohorts. As the series continued, however, much of the trio's original seriousness melted away.

In *Holy Matrimony!*, James shows his very sensitive side and intense fear when it comes to his wealthy family, particularly due to his heavily enforced, sheltered upbringing and the constant harassment he had endured from his childhood fiancée Jessiebelle. His parents were negative influences, as shown when he finally grows up and displays a clear disdain and fear concerning their wishes to marry him off to Jessiebelle. He sensitively questions whether he has a "duty to be manipulated", and he calls out his parents as being "lousy" due to their failure to realize the detrimental effects of Jessiebelle's attitude had on his upbringing. He openly despises upper-class society, lamenting about how it seems to him that they have strict rules for just about everything; feelings which were most likely triggered by Jessiebelle's constant criticism. In *The Treasure is All Mine!*, however, it is shown that before his rebellious attitude arose in him, James cared deeply for his parents. He also clearly cares for his grandparents, Nanny and Pop-Pop as seen in *Sweet Baby James!*.

## **TRIVIA**

* The anime gag of blast offs may have originated from Team Rocket. According to the series, Jessie, James, Meowth, and their Pokémon have blasted off over 700 times and stopped their gag when they reached Unova, but the gag returns in *Adventures in Unova*. Other Team Rocket members have blasted off as well, including Butch and Cassidy and several other Team Rocket Grunts.
* It is noted that Team Rocket and their Pokemon has blasted off more than any other characters in the series; However separately, Jessie has blasted off more than 500 times excluding James and Meowth; James has blasted off more than 500 times excluding Jessie and Meowth; Meowth has blasted off more than 700 times excluding Jessie and James; and Wobbuffet has blasted off more than 300 times. Butch and Cassidy have blasted off 10 times in the series with two of their blast offs being caused directly by Ash and his friends and the other eight caused by Delia Ketchum, Ritchie, Professor Oak, Gary, and Tracey.