The Team Rocket trio

Team Rocket is a group of three who follows Ash and his friends to try and capture Ash's Pikachu, along with many other rare and strong pokemon for their boss Giovanni. They fail every time, and eventually they just serve to provide comic relief. That being said, what do you think of Team Rocket in general? Are they mainly roadblocks to real progress in the anime, or do they have their ways that prove themselves to be part of the backbone for the anime?

...How about how they were during the Best Wishes arc?



Giovanni promoted them as part of his plans in the Unova region. After their promotion, they changed from their original white uniforms to black uniforms. In the Best Wishes series, they acted in a more serious and competent manner, focusing more on completing specific assignments, often using gadgets such as jetpacks to retreat instead of blasting off. Would you prefer if Team Rocket was a more serious group like they were in Best wishes?

Post any thoughts about Team Rocket here!

I know a lot of people hated them in Best Wishes but I myself loved them because of the fact that it was something different. Plus its Team Rocket who couldn't love them. :D

Although there was a lot I disliked about Best Wishes, one of the things I really liked and went out of my way to cite in my Top Series thread were JJM's objective in Unova. Instead of the cliche catch Pikachu for boss and fail miserably at doing it to one of catching a regional Mythical in the hopes of increasing the power and influence of Team Rocket. Due to this change, they weren't in every Episode and that made it really easy to like them again. When the reverted back to their age old routine is when they lost my respect. They've long outlived their usefulness as far as I'm concerned but they're not going anywhere any time soon.

didn't like them in best wishes. but i did like that they have a more serious goal rather than chasing for a 10 year old's pet. its 50/50 for me with them. there are times where they're funny but there are times where they unnecessarily ruin a good episode. still love james and meowth though

You know if the team rocket trio was scary then the show would get a lot more views.

Honestly they are laughing stock villains.

As @Percy side, sometimes they really add to the episode but sometimes they ruin a really fun episode that was going so well until they appeared. Re-watching the show as I am, I think they shouldn't appear EVERY episode. Give them a break and have them appear every now and then (let's say every 3 episodes or so) and they will be better off, to be honest.

I gotta say that Jessie & James should join the gang, they are like a parody of Pilaf gang from DB, evil but incopetent (sp) and stupid, also Jessie is voiced by Lina Inverse's VA in japanese which is a nice touch, James is a nice rich boy so he's good too, i don't like Meowth's voice in japanese and USA thought, i think his polish low voice (Gargamel's) fits him better

BTW Meowth is good at ramen so that's a plus

To be blunt, they definitely weren't handled all that well, especially in later sagas. They were decent enough to at least make formidable foes in Kanto and Orange Islands, and to a lesser extent Johto (though even there, they had some hiccups, such as losing to a Caterpie that was both a rookie and nearly dead, which also led to their infamous reputation as bottom feeding trainers among fans and even in-universe). But after being retained in AG onward despite Team Rocket as a whole not being involved thanks to Takeshi Shudo insisting they stay on (which if you ask me was a mistake even ignoring that that resulted in Misty being cut), they came across as dead weight. They did get some redemption of sorts in BW where they at least DID try to focus on doing goals besides getting Pikachu (though even there, I really wouldn't say they really proved themselves formidable. Having them beat one of Ash's Rookies effortlessly would have more than sufficed for me), but unfortunately that didn't work out too well and just had them becoming even more badly done. And personally, I wasn't fond of how the Gym Leaders in Hoenn up to about Best Wishes came across as basically Team Rocket clones in skills, or lack thereof.

In fact, seeing how botched they are, it makes me think the writers have absolutely NO idea how to make the main villains be both comedic and a genuine threat, thinking they either make them very threatening and serious, or otherwise so comedic they are pathetic as villains. They ought to take notes on, say, the Red Ribbon Army and especially General Blue. Those guys tended to be very humorous (heck, Blue even acts like James in overall personality in the anime, only unlike James, Blue actually IS Gay), yet they also were shown to be genuine threats to the heroes (Blue, for instance actually managed to beat Goku twice with his psychic powers). I can also cite the Joker or Kefka Palazzo, both of whom were villains who were both humorous and especially grave threats. Heck, even Bowser or Dr. Eggman on their good days came across as both comedic and a genuine threat.

For what it's worth, Dogasu has indicated that Sun and Moon might be their last saga due to their rarely appearing in SM.

needless to say but without team rocket pokemon would have been boring as hell. Maybe i am paranoid but i like the older versions of team rocket more than the newer one.

Overall I really love Team Rocket and honestly some of the TR episodes are some of my absolute favorites because although they're the "bad guys" you can tell that they care just as much about their Pokemon as even Ash and company. I actually had a whole conversations about how Team Rocket just really got kicked down so many times that they ended up on the wrong side of the law with a friend of mine. James especially. Recently just watched an episode in Hoenn when he was really just trying to win something purely and Meowth and Jessie, being the bad influences they are, kinda ruined it. But alas haha.

Team rocket to me are just as much as the main protagonist as Ash is. They are essentially the good guys who still think they're are villains. While they have overstayed their welcome the show wouldn't be the same. I Also felt that the seriousness they showed in best wishes make sense. Remember Jessie and James are masters of disguise at a level They can trick the same idiots millions of times. Also remember that they report all the evil team battles and legendary encounters usually exaggerating their roles in the battle. So I'm Giovanni point of view even though their idiots they get shit done (only the viewers know they don't) . So by the point of best wishes Jessie and James basically became admins and they were pretty good at it to a point that they helped Giovanni captured the weather trio.this also plays into the notion of why Giovanni is nice to them now when he was a bit of a prick
To them the first two gens.

I really like Team Rocket atm. Their dynamic is a lot more interesting when we see them do more than just try to steal Ash's or other Pokémon, and I've found joy in seeing them on screen in SuMo (vs. Sinnoh where my frustration was at its peak, since they always did the same predictable thing). Of course that predictability is the same in the currently running saga, but I'm happy how their personalities are more highlighted and expanded. Seeing them live their daily lives gives them more depth as characters. ☆ at least imo