Giovanni (Pokémon)

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Giovanni

A frustrated Giovanni, as he appears in the anime
Japanese name Sakaki
Voice actor(s) (English) Ted Lewis (seasons 1-8);
Craig Blair(seasons 9-10)
Voice actor(s) (Japanese) Hirotaka Suzuoki (Deceased),
Kenta Miyake (Diamond and Pearl onwards)
First appearances
Game Pokémon Red and Blue
Anime episode Ep. 15, Battle Aboard the St. Anne (voice only)
Ep. 63, The Battle of the Badge
In-Universe Information
Preferred Pokémon type Ground-type Pokémon (in the video games only)
Occupation Viridian City Gym Leader; Team Rocket's Leader and Organized Crime.

Giovanni, known in the Japanese versions as Sakaki (サカキ Sakaki?), is the leader of Team Rocket in the fictional world of Pokémon. He is also a former Viridian City Gym Leader. When defeated in his gym, Giovanni gives the victor an Earth Badge. The gym remains closed most of the time, while Giovanni is off managing Team Rocket. His English name is both a play on the Italian mafia stereotype and a reference to the prefix geo-, while his Japanese name may refer to Cleyera japonica, which the Earth Badge resembles.

Contents

[edit] In the anime

[edit] Depiction

In the anime, Giovanni is the Team Rocket Boss and a former Viridian City Gym Leader. Though he's labelled as a Ground-type user in the video games, the group of Pokémon that this Giovanni uses are actually quite diverse. He is very ambitious and intolerant of failure; as a result he has fired Jessie, James and Meowth from Team Rocket on multiple occasions.[1] However, they always manage to find a way to rejoin. In early episodes, his face is almost completely obscured by shadow, and his voice is digitally altered.[2]However, in "The Battle of the Badge", we see and hear the real Giovanni for the first time.[3]

Giovanni is shown to have access to vast wealth and resources. The money probably comes from Team Rocket's main source of income — the profit of selling stolen Pokémon — which can be seen in some of his properties such as the amusement park of giant robotic Pokémon which appeared in the anime episode "Island of the Giant Pokémon".[4] Giovanni also gains a lot of money from smuggling Pokémon, Pokéball trafficking, and other crime rackets. He has Team Rocket operations in both Kanto and Johto.[5]He rarely meets people in person, as he prefers to communicate with his underlings via telecommunications.

Giovanni may be a corrupt industrialist, which is constantly alluded to in his "legitimate" business interests, such as the previously mentioned theme park and his attempts to rid himself of the soldatos Jessie and James, whose foolish actions in his name are a constant embarrassment--not that maintaining a good reputation seems high on his priority list. When Giovanni promoted Jessie and James to Team Rocket's Blimp Brigade in "A Scare in the Air", he said: "I haven't got those blimps repaired for decades and the only thing I've maintained on them is the insurance."[6]This insinuates that collecting the money from their crashes was far more important to him than the deaths and/or injuries of whoever happened to be traveling on them.

Giovanni acts somewhat like an Italian mafia leader--a similarity further hinted at by his name, which is common in Italy. As such, he may be named after Giovanni Brusca , Giovanni Bontade or Giovanni Vizzini. He can often be found scratching his pet Persian's head. Perhaps not coincidentally, his behavior with the Persian looks very similar to other evil mastermind-and feline pairs: Inspector Gadget's Dr. Claw and Mad Cat as well as Ernst Stavro Blofeld of the James Bond films and his pet angora cat and Dr. Evil and his pet cat, Mr. Bigglesworth from the Austin Powers series. Furthermore, Vito Corleone from The Godfather is also often seen stroking a cat, thus strengthening the mafia connection.

[edit] Timeline

Despite his lead villain role in the early games, Giovanni's role in the anime is fairly minor compared to Jessie and James. He makes his most prominent appearances in the Kanto League seasons. As with the games, Giovanni later abandons his Gym Leader role but retains his position as the Team Rocket Boss. In "Battle Aboard the St. Anne", he plans to steal the Pokémon of trainers onboard the cruise ship.[7] In "Island of the Giant Pokémon", he finds out that his amusement park Pokémon World has been destroyed.[8] In "The Battle of the Badge", Giovanni defeats Gary Oak in his gym in Viridian City but has to leave due to an "emergency assignment" concerning Mewtwo. [9] Giovanni delegates his duties to Jessie, James and Meowth, which ultimately leads to Ash Ketchum defeating them and the destruction of the Viridian Gym. In "It's Mr. Mime Time", he tells Mewtwo that the trio could scour the Earth for the rarest Pokémon, but they could never find a Pokémon as rare as him.[10] In "Showdown at the Poké Corral", Giovanni takes off in his helicopter after Mewtwo destroys the Team Rocket HQ and flies off into the distance.[11]In "The Evolution Solution", he takes a vacation at Seafoam Islands.[12]

Giovanni goes on to make brief appearances in the later seasons. In the Orange Islands episode "A Scare in the Air", he promotes Jessie, James and Meowth to Team Rocket's Blimp Brigade.[13] In the Johto League episode "Dues and Don'ts!", he mentions that Team Rocket is cutting back on its members, but he allows the trio to rejoin.[14] In the Hoenn League episode "A Ruin with a View", he orders them to set up Team Rocket operations in Hoenn.[15] In the Battle Frontier episode "The Scheme Team", he learns of their "success" in eliminating Teams Aqua and Magma.[16] In the Sinnoh League episode "Two Degrees of Separation", they inform him that they plan to continue their duties in Sinnoh, but he has no idea who they are.[17] Giovanni's most recent cameos usually pertain to Meowth's fantasies as to how the Team Rocket leader is going to thank him, Jessie, and James for bringing him rare Pokemon.

Giovanni appears at the beginning of the first movie, Mewtwo Strikes Back. He finances the cloning of the rarest Pokémon, Mew, which leads to the birth of Mewtwo. Giovanni manipulates Mewtwo into believing that he can help him. Giovanni trains Mewtwo in his gym in Viridian City, but the Pokemon is outraged when he realises that the Team Rocket leader is using him as a tool. Mewtwo destroys the Team Rocket HQ and flies off into the distance, escaping Giovanni's clutches.[18]

In Mewtwo Returns, Giovanni locates Mewtwo hiding in Mt. Quena in the Johto region. He rallies his troops, travels west, and commences his operation to bring Mewtwo out by capturing the clones so that he can force Mewtwo to submit to his will. Despite his attempt at recapturing Mewtwo, Mewtwo erases all memory of himself from Giovanni's mind. Giovanni's role in the movie ends with him stating that he feels that he has somehow been utterly defeated.[19]

[edit] Family

Giovanni's mother appears in the first act of a Drama CD play that concerns the origins of Mewtwo and his life until the events of the first movie. Its transcript may be viewed here. In the first act of the play, set twenty years in the past, Giovanni's mother (a "very beautiful woman" according to his narration) is the leader of Team Rocket. She is never identified by name, referred to only as the On'na (Japanese for "woman") Boss. Special Agent Miyamoto brings to her attention the existence of Mew from an audio tape containing his cry, recorded in the Andes, and On'na Boss sends her there to investigate. Miyamoto never managed to return, but Team Rocket did not forget about Mew, and when Giovanni became the leader of Team Rocket, he continued searching for the elusive Pokémon, which ultimately resulted in Mewtwo being created.

In On'na Boss's only appearance she is portrayed as having the ruthlessness and leadership qualities also displayed by Giovanni, but their characters are not exactly alike. For example, the first thing that she asks when she hears the recording containing Mew's cry is whether they can sell it as a CD, and continues commenting on the price of the recording equipment throughout her conversation with Miyamoto. In contrast, Giovanni is more interested in the Pokémon's power and the control he can exert over him and through him. On'na Boss also seems like a less than ideal mother; in conversation with Miyamoto about their children she refers to Giovanni, who is at least in his late teens at the time, as a "brat" (on which Giovanni the narrator comments with a gruff "hmph!").

It is often speculated that Giovanni is Ash Ketchum's father due to a scene in Pokémon Live! in which Delia states that she dated Giovanni when she was younger. So far, this is the only piece of canonical evidence to support this theory in any way. Some have pointed out that Giovanni didn't even recognize Ash on the one occasion they've met (in Mewtwo Returns) as evidence against the theory. However, if Giovanni had no role in raising his son (which would certainly be the case if he were Ash's father), he would have no way of recognizing the boy more than a decade after his birth. The frequently-cited photograph in Pokémon 3 does not actually contain Ash's father; rather, the mysterious male in question is the missing father of Molly, the little girl whose dreams conjured up Entei.

In the Pokémon Adventures manga, Silver is revealed to be Giovanni's son. As this character is not present in the anime (a character based on the GSC rival appears in the opening to the Legend of Thunder special, but is never mentioned again), and all the Pokémon media have varying storylines, it is possible that he either does not have any children in that version, or that his child won't play a role in the anime.

[edit] In video games

In the Pokémon Red, Blue, Yellow, FireRed, and LeafGreen video games, Giovanni is the Team Rocket Boss and Viridian City Gym Leader. He specializes in Ground-type Pokémon and is rumoured to be the owner of Celadon City's Game Corner.[20] Like his anime counterpart, this version of Giovanni is a cruel and ambitious man, who is intolerant of failure. Later on in the games, though, he changes his personality.

[edit] Timeline

When the player first arrives in Viridian City, the gym is closed and the identity of its leader is unknown.[21]The player later infiltrates the Rocket Hideout in Celadon City and defeats Giovanni, who drops a Silph Scope and leaves afterwards. Once the player arrives in Saffron City, it is revealed that Team Rocket have taken over the place and Giovanni has been blackmailing the President of Silph Co. to acquire modern technology. The player defeats Team Rocket's boss again and breaks his organization apart, liberating Saffron City in the process. Giovanni escapes the Silph Co. building and goes into hiding. Once the player earns 7 badges, he re-surfaces in Viridian City, where it becomes known that Giovanni is the mysterious Gym Leader.[22]He has re-opened his gym and resumed his duties, but plans to use the gym as a front for restoring Team Rocket to its former glory.[23]After being defeated for a third time, a remorseful Giovanni disbands the organization and decides to dedicate his life to Pokémon training.[24] He disappears and is not seen again.

Three years later, in Pokémon Gold, Silver and Crystal, Giovanni makes no appearances, though he is mentioned. Team Rocket survives through its Executives, who control the organization but seek to bring back Giovanni, who is supposedly in solo training.[25]The Executives fail to accompolish this and are ultimately defeated by the player, causing the disbandment of Team Rocket for good.[26]

In the spin-off games Pokémon Stadium and Pokémon Puzzle League, Giovanni reprises his role as the Viridian City Gym Leader (although in the latter, his look has been changed to his anime appearance).

[edit] Family

It is hinted throughout the games that Giovanni has a child. In Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, a Team Rocket scientist on Five Island confuses the protagonist for Giovanni's son, correcting himself by revealing that Giovanni's son has red hair, and states that Giovanni's son also directly opposes Team Rocket.[27]

[edit] In manga

In the Pokemon Adventures manga, Giovanni is given a similar personality and outfit, if only sporting some new additions to his team, Pokémon he calls "outside of his specialty," Cloyster and Beedrill. He considers the latter "special" due to its having been caught in his hometown forest, the Viridian. He claims to be "a trainer from the Viridian forest," implying he may or may not possess the same abilities as Yellow and Lance, both of whom were born there and thus received the gift to empathize with Pokémon by reading their minds and even into their memories with training, and to heal them completely with a touch.

[edit] Storyline

Giovanni first appears disguised as a Paleontologist whom Red calls "the fossil guy," as he bestows him with the Old Amber which is later resurrected into Aerodoctyl with the help of Blaine. As with the games he is actually the leader of Team Rocket and came to Red in order to "test him or something like that" in their first encounter, deeming him unworthy of his attention due to his having spared two defeated Magmar who set the Pewter City Museum on fire.[28]

Giovanni also makes brief cameos when Silph Co. collapses upon Team Rocket's defeat as Team Rocket makes a run for it, and later reappears after Red's defeat of Mewtwo when he heads to the Viridian City Gym to figure out the mysteries of the "Missing Leader," who turns out to be Giovanni, the same paleontologist he had seemingly befriended so long ago. Giovanni then makes a plea with Red and asks him to join Team Rocket, to which Red obviously refuses, and Giovanni, having expected such from the hotheaded hero, throws his Pocket Balls to the ground as to offer a handicap, to which Red does the same, saying he'll consent if defeated..but only in a fair fight.

Giovanni then replies that is exactly what he looks for in a lieutenant, and the two engage in a battle with Giovanni taking the advantage due to his superior skill and battle prowess, as the only one of his Pokémon defeated is the "non-specialty" Beedrill as a result of a surprise attack by Red, while Red loses his Poliwrath, Snorlax, and Aerodoctyl, though Giovanni "sacrifices" his Golem with an explosion attack on Snorlax. The rest, save Pikachu, are trapped in their Pocket Balls, never to be released as a result of their opening mechanisms being destroyed by Giovanni's Dugtrio.

With all hope seemingly lost, Pikachu's ball bounces back to him, when Giovanni calculates that it will take a second for it to emerge from its Pocket Ball, two seconds for it to charge up the 100,000 volts required for its Thunderbolt attack, and then another 2 seconds for it to reach him and his remaining Pokémon, Nidoking, Nidoqueen, Rhyhorn, Rhydon, and Dugtrio.

By then, Nidoqueen will have long impaled Red and his Pikachu with its Poison Sting to kill them, but as it turns out, Red had it charge up inside its Pocket Ball, and thus Giovanni is defeated, with the last thing he sees before his seeming demise that Red had been equipped with an electricity-resistant glove as a trophy to his defeat of Lt. Surge who had them, to which he remarks that it's ironic that his defeat had to be in the hands of his own weapon, to which Red replies that it was instead the "pain he sensed in the Pokémon he attempted to corrupt for his evil in the Viridian forest, a part of his 'grand plan,'" after which he collapses from the injuries he received in the fight.

The Pokémon in the forest calm down afterwards, and Red promises to the young girl who rescued him, Yellow, that he will one day return to become the next Viridian Gym Leader, and the best that ever was.[29] Giovanni does not make a cameo until two years later well into the Yellow storyline wherein he is a crucial part of the Elite Four's plan to slaughter all humans with the help of Lugia which they summon using the 8th and final badge, along with the rest of the Kanto Badges used to merge the Legendary Birds 2 years ago.

As such, Lance lures Giovanni into his hideout, the Cerise Island, where he pretends to have been felled by him to seize his badge. Upon Lance's defeat at Yellow's hands, he remarks that it was no surprise, as there was no way that the Elite Four leader could survive the 1,000,000-volt attack that Yellow and Pikachu generated with the help of the rest of the team. Surge and Sabrina then greet him and claim it's time for the revival of Team Rocket at last, after which he scoffs at their pitiful prowess against the Elite Four, opting to stick with the help of children to make up for their incompetence.

Giovanni then officially disbands Team Rocket and walks away as he sees that Yellow's mysterious powers have converted the energy of destruction generated by the badges to the powers of life, which spreads to the island and even to the mainland, while Lugia vanishes into the western region and the center of the GSC era, Johto, one year later. He does not appear in this arc however, though years later, he makes a cameo at the end of the Ruby-Sapphire arc and is the main focus of the FRLG arc as Red's main antagonist.[30] He captures Deoxys and hires new elite members to work for Team Rocket's new goal: to find and retrieve his long-lost son kidnapped by the Mask of Ice so many years ago: Silver.

[edit] In Pokémon Live!

Although Giovanni's screen time in the anime was rather minimal compared to his least competent minions, he had a big part in the USA stage musical, Pokémon Live!, where he was played by Darren Dunstan. In the musical, he builds a mechanical Pokémon called MechaMew2, based on Mewtwo. MechaMew2 duplicates and amplifies the attacks of the Pokémon it faces, using these powers to destroy all who challenge it. In the hopes of expanding MechaMew2's repertoire, Giovanni lures unsuspecting trainers to his Gym with the promise of a special prize—the Diamond Badge. As MechaMew2's attack collection nears completion, Giovanni realizes that the last two attacks left are possessed by electric Pokémon. He sends Jessie, James and Meowth to try and get Ash's Pikachu. Not to be outdone by the rest of the shows cast, Giovanni has a few musical numbers himself, his most memorable one being his solo number, "It Will All Be Mine".

While his bumbling baddies screw up, Giovanni lures Professor Oak into a trap, and as a result, also captures Ash Ketchum's mom, Delia, whom he seems to recognize. After Giovanni brings them to his hideout, Delia reveals to Oak that she was Giovanni's girlfriend in her teenage years. Giovanni gloats over them about how his MechaMew2 will soon be unbeatable, which is then interrupted by Jessie, James, and Meowth coming in with Pikachu, whom they've actually managed to capture successfully. Surprised that his worst minions actually did something right for a change, Giovanni orders Pikachu to attack MechaMew2, but the rodent refuses to listen. During the struggle that follows, Delia and the Professor escape. Giovanni is too egotistical about MechaMew2 to bother sending anyone to recapture them, and instead sends Jessie, James and Meowth, to fetch Ash, figuring that Pikachu will only listen to his trainer.

Shortly afterward, the trio returns with Ash, who wastes no time in getting the battle with Team Rocket's leader underway. After Ash has Pikachu use Thundershock and Thunderbolt against MechaMew2, Giovanni declares his victory when Mewtwo suddenly shows up and throws a collection of Ash's happy memories at MechaMew2. MechaMew2, now having learned of the values of friendship and caring, turns on its creator and Self-destructs. Giovanni survives, though, because he manages to show up for the curtain call at the end.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Dues and Don'ts!" Serebii.net. URL last accessed 2007-10-13
  2. ^ "Battle Aboard the St. Anne" Serebii.net. URL last accessed 2007-10-13
  3. ^ "The Battle of the Badge" Serebii.net. URL last accessed 2007-10-13
  4. ^ "Island of the Giant Pokémon" Serebii.net. URL last accessed 2007-10-13
  5. ^ "A Ruin with a View" Serebii.net. URL last accessed 2007-10-13
  6. ^ "A Scare in the Air" Serebii.net. URL last accessed 2007-10-13
  7. ^ "Battle Aboard the St. Anne" Serebii.net. URL last accessed 2007-10-13
  8. ^ "Island of the Giant Pokémon" Serebii.net. URL last accessed 2007-10-13
  9. ^ "The Battle of the Badge" Serebii.net. URL last accessed 2007-10-13
  10. ^ "It's Mr. Mime Time" Serebii.net. URL last accessed 2007-10-13
  11. ^ "Showdown at the Poké Corral" Serebii.net. URL last accessed 2007-10-13
  12. ^ "The Evolution Solution" Serebii.net. URL last accessed 2007-10-13
  13. ^ "A Scare in the Air" Serebii.net. URL last accessed 2007-10-13
  14. ^ "Dues and Don'ts!" Serebii.net. URL last accessed 2007-10-13
  15. ^ "A Ruin with a View" Serebii.net. URL last accessed 2007-10-13
  16. ^ "The Scheme Team" Serebii.net. URL last accessed 2007-10-13
  17. ^ "Two Degrees of Separation" Serebii.net. URL last accessed 2007-10-13
  18. ^ "Mewtwo Strikes Back" Serebii.net. URL last accessed 2007-10-13
  19. ^ "Mewtwo Returns" Serebii.net. URL last accessed 2007-10-13
  20. ^ Game Corner Man: Keep this quiet. It's rumored that this place is run by TEAM ROCKET. Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow (in English) 1998 (US)
  21. ^ Viridian City Man: This POKéMON GYM is always closed. I wonder who the LEADER is? Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow (in English) 1998 (US)
  22. ^ Viridian Gym Man: Blow me away! GIOVANNI was the GYM LEADER of VIRIDIAN? Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow (in English) 1998 (US)
  23. ^ Giovanni: Welcome to my hideout! It shall be so until I can restore TEAM ROCKET to its former glory. Pokémon FireRed/LeafGreen (in English) 2004 (US)
  24. ^ Giovanni: Having lost in this fashion, I can't face my followers. I have betrayed their trust. As of today, TEAM ROCKET is finished forever! As for myself, I shall dedicate my life to training again. Let us meet again someday! Farewell! Pokémon FireRed/LeafGreen (in English) 2004 (US)
  25. ^ Rocket Executive: What? Who are you? This is the office of our leader, GIOVANNI. Since disbanding TEAM ROCKET three years ago, he has been in training. But we're certain he will be back some day to assume command again. That's why we're standing guard. I won't let anyone disturb this place! Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal (in English) 2001 (US)
  26. ^ Rocket Executive: How can this be? Our dreams have come to naught. I wasn't up to the task after all. As GIOVANNI did before me, I will disband TEAM ROCKET here today. Farewell. Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal (in English) 2001 (US)
  27. ^ Gideon: What, you again? You... You're not GIOVANNI's kid, are you? No, that can't be right! GIOVANNI's kid has red hair. You don't have any reasons for bugging me. Leave me alone. Pokémon FireRed/LeafGreen (in English) 2004 (US)
  28. ^ " Pokémon Adventures: Volume 23 - RBY arc" Serebii.net. URL last accessed 2008-04-09
  29. ^ " Pokémon Adventures: Volume 38 - RBY arc" Serebii.net. URL last accessed 2008-04-09
  30. ^ " Pokémon Adventures: Volume 17 - FRLG arc" Serebii.net. URL last accessed 2008-04-09

[edit] External links

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Pokémon leadership positions