Team Rocket (Japanese: ロケット団 Rocket-dan, literally Rocket Gang) is a Kanto-based organization who steal Pokémon and use them to take over the world.
Members[]
The facility of Team Rocket works in groups. New trainees work at the Team Rocket Academy and are sent out into the field. Giovanni was originally the Gym Leader of the Viridian Gym, but later abandoned his duties. His original headquarters was located near to Pallet Town until it was destroyed by Mewtwo. It was later rebuilt in a rocky canyon near Viridian City.
Team Rocket trio[]
A trio of Team Rocket field agents, Jessie, James, and a talking Meowth, were defeated on an assignment to steal Pokémon from Viridian City's Pokémon Center by rookie Trainer Ash Ketchum and his Pikachu, and since then have followed him everywhere on his journey in order to steal the Pikachu that humiliated them. After following him through Kanto and Johto, coming in contact with many other Team Rocket members along the way and being shown as incompetent compared to said members, the trio followed Ash to the Hoenn region under directions from Giovanni to establish a branch of Team Rocket there (though this was really only a ploy to get them out of his hair). When Ash returned from Hoenn after competing in its regional League Conference, the trio returned to Kanto as well, empty-handed. After following him through Kanto once again, Giovanni assigned the trio to the Sinnoh region, again with the directive to establish a Team Rocket branch there.
Giovanni claims to not even recognize the three agents, and has rejected the only Pokémon they ever presented to him: a Togepi and a Yanma. Meowth often fantasizes about pleasing Giovanni with Pokémon captured using one of the trio's many harebrained schemes and mechas, at which point he would then replace Giovanni's Persian as "top cat", however this is hindered by both the fact that Ash and his friends defeat the trio each time, as well as Giovanni's low opinion of the three, who have managed to eat up much of Team Rocket's funding with their failures.
While Giovanni views the trio as "bumbling idiots who can't do anything right", they have occasionally shown that they can do things right, if only by working on the side of Ash and his friends. It should be noted that when other Team Rocket members have come into contact with Ash or any of his friends they've been often just as easily foiled as these three.
The trio has often been shown as poor or having little money. This may be due to the amount of machinery and costumes they use in their attempts to capture Ash’s Pikachu. Because they have an unusually high rate of failure, one would wonder why Giovanni continues to fund their projects. They often take on side-jobs like selling food at stadiums or creating fake items and selling them to the public. Several episodes after the series began, they notably started speaking in rhymes from time to time.
As of In The Shadow of Zekrom! the trio have undergone a major character shift and, rather than being the comedic relief of the series, the team have a far more serious nature and have become more of a threat to Ash and his friends. They also seem to be more quick-witted than they were before and have successfully accomplished several missions assigned to them. Aside from that, Jessie and James also received new uniforms. Team Rocket as an organization has also been featured far more prominently that it did in all the previous series. For instance, there appear to be multiple agents situated all across the Unova region who pass on information and orders to Jessie, James and Meowth. Giovanni himself has also been featured much more prominently, unlike in previous series when his appearances (outside of Meowth's boss fantasies) were rare. Now he is in regular contact with the trio, assigning them missions and passing on information. As a result, Giovanni is now a serious threat as he is beginning to take a more active role in the trio's operations. Following events occurring in Castelia City, however, the trio have been discharged from their duties. With this, they have returned to their original white uniforms.
Other members[]
Many other members of Team Rocket have appeared besides the aforementioned boss and trio, most of them field agents as well. A recurring duo that is rivals with Jessie and James, Cassidy and Butch, shows up from time to time. This pair reports to Dr. Namba, rather than Giovanni directly.
Attila and Hun, operatives from Team Rocket's Johto branch, are featured as antagonists in The Legend of Thunder!, where they play the same role as Jessie and James do to Jimmy, Marina, and Vincent. Other Johto operatives include Tyson, who was in charge of the Lake of Rage experimentation; Domino, an elite Team Rocket member that was part of a mission to recapture Mewtwo; the Iron-Masked Marauder, a high-ranking agent who managed to capture a Celebi in one of his Dark Balls, and Professor Sebastian, a high-ranking Rocket scientist involved in both Attila and Hun's and Tyson's plots.
Jessie's mother, Miyamoto, was at one time a Team Rocket member under Giovanni's mother, however, she disappeared without a trace on an expedition to find and capture Mew.
Pierce and Dr. Zager are two high-ranking members of the organization introduced to assist Jessie and James with their missions in Unova. Dr. Zager currently has a relationship to Jessie and James similar to that of Dr. Namba in relation to Butch and Cassidy, directly coordinating their missions and providing machinery. Among his creations are an energy cannon using the power of Roggenrola and the "Ghost Train".
Team Rocket has attempted to do many major and potentially globally-altering operations, including cloning DNA of Mew and altering it to create Mewtwo. This stemmed out of a desire of Giovanni to appease his mother's obsession with Mew, although he ultimately desired Mewtwo for use as a weapon. When Mewtwo finally finished developing, he deceived Mewtwo into working for him, using him in Gym Battles against such Trainers as Gary Oak (who suffered his first of only four losses in the anime to date). Team Rocket also attempted to capture and control a Lugia and Celebi, and it also created a device that could force Pokémon to evolve. It also successfully managed to capture a Rayquaza, although it is never revealed whether they maintained control of it or if it managed to escape.
They have various means of transportation, such as boats, submarines and helicopters.