Jessie, James and Meowth: The Stories You Never Knew (Exclusive)

[@FullMetalVevo]

Team Rocket really is the best part of the anime. I love it whenever they've had to team up with Ash and his pals.

[@kianamaiart]

What a beautiful love letter to team rocket! I was smiling the whole time I watched~ Love how much you delved into the seiyuu and their impact on the characters Team Rocket had such a massive impact on who i am as an artist (a person??). I wasn't allowed to watch Pokemon when i was really young but when I did start actively watching the show, Crossing Paths was the first full episode I watched and immediately fell in love with Jessie. It lead me down the rabbit hole of reading about her backstory and the Birth of Mewtwo, then I eventually got invested in James and Meowth as well. They were my first intro to characters with such in depth, well thought out backstories and that really inspired me as an animator and story artist. I can only hope to one day create characters as iconic as them! In the meantime I've been drawing them nonstop since 2011. I even snuck them into the Disney Channel cartoon I storyboard/direct on (fun fact: Inuyama actually voices a main character in the Japanese dub of our show)! They taught me to never give up even when the odds are against ya! Thanks again for such a lovely video!

[@TheCartoonGamer8000]

Ah wow! I'm definitely aware of your artwork and love for Team Rocket, so it was kind of a surprise to see you here. I was hoping this video would cross your path one day as I know how much the trio means to you, so it's great to hear you enjoyed it so much. Love the work that you do, and the fact you got that visual reference into Big City Greens (and the fact Inuyama works on the Japanese version) is simply amazing, almost like fate at work there. You're irrefutable proof Team Rocket has had a positive impact on people, and I hope that continues, even if they don't appear in the show going forward. Keep up the amazing work, Kiana! P.S., If you haven't yet, feel free to check out my cover of Team Rocket Forever when you get the chance! :)

[@kianamaiart]

@@TheCartoonGamer8000 Thank you thank you! And I just listened to it!!! Y'all killed it and the lyrics are PERFECT

[@TheCartoonGamer8000]

@@kianamaiart Aw, thanks! I’m glad you think so!

[@TheCartoonGamer8000]

@@kianamaiart So glad to hear you thought so! :)

[@gota7738]

I almost skipped this video because 'stuff you didn't know' video about Team Rocket tend to just be factoids from the first decade and make me feel old, but this had actual information I didn't know about yet! Awesome vid! Also it's been a little over a week and I already miss those three. They might not be able to be in the show more but I too will always hold out for a short, movie or radio show. Please cash in on my nostalgia and childhood attachments Pokemon!

[@TheCartoonGamer8000]

Haha, I know what you mean. It's something I've seen far too much of and even I was a bit skeptical adding the big old arrow in the thumbnail, but I'm glad you stuck around. I'd be perfectly okay with them sticking around and Ash leaving, but that's not how they operate, sadly. If you haven't seen it, there's this cool set of Team Rocket shirts on Zavvi - they're really making me want to buy a couple (might need to find a different Zavvi site for wherever you live): www.zavvi.ca/elysium.search?search=team+rocket

[@gota7738]

@@TheCartoonGamer8000 It just makes me confront the fact that many Pokeani watchers might not have existed at the time those establishing episodes, which I consider so memorable, aired on tv. If those folks are clicking on videos like that, I'll be glad if this arrow get them to click on this! Thank you for the link! I don't know how long the merch will be up but it's going on the wish list. In regards too further appearances, I'm living in denial/hope that they're popular and iconic enough that I'll get my nostalgia bait miniseries/movie etc one day.

[@TheCartoonGamer8000]

@@gota7738 Yeah, I'm hoping those shirts don't go away soon. And I feel like they're so iconic (alongside Ash) that it would be criminal if we didn't see them again sooner than later. I mean, when Pokemon advertises the anime/movies on social media,, their current backlog is all Ash-centric. They can't avoid talking about Team Rocket.

[@whenthewobb1412]

Boy, the effort put into this! Unbelievable! I still watch the anime just for Team Rocket and these last 40 minutes were an absolute treat. Thank you for making this.

[@TheCartoonGamer8000]

Hey, thanks so much! A video like this I felt was long overdue, so I'm happy you enjoyed what I put out!

[@MrGamerofmusic]

I still have the Team Rockets Meowth card! As well as a gold border version of the Jungle Meowth card that I think I got in a Fruit by the Foot box! When I moved from my home town. My best friend gave me a Team Rocket card sized envelope with a Dark Arbok card from the first Rocket expansion. It had a small gold Wizards of the Coast logo in a corner of the picture!

[@Ziondood]

My goodness, this was an incredible deep dive! There's so much Pokemon music out there that has completely slipped past me all of these years! I've also never used the PS3 for music before, but BOY am I going to give that a shot ASAP! :D

[@TheCartoonGamer8000]

Glad you enjoyed it, dude! And yes, the first time I heard some of those songs on the White Tomorrow CD, I was totally blown away by how I never knew those songs existed, and how they were around before Pokemon even stepped out of Japan! It makes me wish Pokemon tried to distribute this stuff out here, because I sure as heck would buy it!

[@Nirbion]

What a great retrospective, worth of the Rocket-Trio. As a kid, I loved them tho I was constantly complaining how "stale" they became. Little did I knew back then that this is what made the show so entertaining after their "serious" makeover in BW. Also sad how Pokemon Journey put them on the bench (but there were still GREAT episodes with them). Again, awesome retrospective, I learned A LOT about Team Rocket.

[@TheCartoonGamer8000]

I was in the same boat as you were, having a serious love-hate relationship with their presence in the show. Nowadays, I'd kill to see Team Rocket in two episodes back-to-back. And I'm super glad to hear you got something out of this video, too!

[@GunmetalGator]

28:57 - And that's how their Journeys career went full circle. I LOVE IT!

[@DragonStorm545]

11:18 I always pictured Meowth was mixture of either Tom from “Tom and Jerry” or Sylvester from Looney Tunes and the fairy tale hero Puss in Boots (Not the version from Shrek) with his ability to walk on two feet and talk with the failures of Sylvester and Tom when he tries to catch Tweety or Speed Gonzalez or Jerry, which the latter two are mice like Pikachu.

[@MIKERPHONE]

Pillowcase cameo! 😂👍 Pretty cool to see the origin of that Meowth image! Didn't expect it to go that far back!

[@TheCartoonGamer8000]

Yeah, when I saw how far that rabbit hole went I just had to mention it!

[@ChaoticPochi]

team rocket are so integral to the anime and are definitely the best written characters, it's so disheartening how little screen time they get these days, and the reaction newer fans have when they do get the focus of an episode... that aside, great video and looking forward to the rest of your series!

[@TheCartoonGamer8000]

Thank you very much!

[@TVkingOmega]

To add to this trivia: Meowth's Party, an ending theme best known for its use in Pichu Bros in Party Panic, was actually used as the ending theme for two English Orange Island episodes. Once in Japanese after EP106 The Pokémon Water War, and once in English after EP107 Pokémon Food Fight. Both episodes long before it got properly used in Japanese starting with Don't Touch That Dile (EP117) It’s unknown why or even how this happened but a Japanese end theme has never been used in the dub since.

[@awesomeocelot7475]

It hurts even more now that they aren’t in the anime anymore…..

[@jackhageman9983]

Impressive video I’ve always loved your in depth pokemon anime videos

[@TheCartoonGamer8000]

Thanks!

[@Yensid951927]

I love these guys. Even if I don't have as much time to watch the new series, I always keep up to see if there's a new Team Rocket episode.

[@pastapartyify]

You reminded me just how much I love Team Rocket! They were my favorite as a kid hahaha.

[@TVkingOmega]

Interesting fact: Mondo is voiced by Takehito Koyasu, Butch’s Japanese voice. Though these days he’s better known as Dio Brando in Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.

[@FuFuMega]

Fantastic job! One of the best Pokémon videos I’ve seen!

[@PeterParker-ff7ub]

i wish they had their own show.

[@TheCartoonGamer8000]

24:0 Small correction, but according to Shudo's blog, he'd written lyrics for over 100 different songs for family-oriented musicals. My mistake.

[@CosmicPhantom28]

My best friend and I bonded with our liking of Team Rocket. I hate to say it but I’d probably be a part of the Trio if Pokémon existed

[@ValetinoLovebird]

The reason why Team Rocket still popular despite new gangs like Skull, Star etc

[@LucyKosaki]

I'm surprised there are so many people liking them, because in my whole life I never met anyone who likes them xD When I was younger I didn't really mind them, but I still often felt like the story of the episode didn't have enough tim, because half of it was just team rocket antics. I actually liked what they did in black and white, they felt more like antagonists and the episodes they did appear in made me hyped and were unpredictable unlike previously where you knew 5 minutes later they were going to blast off. I think the best middle ground was the later seasons where they didnt appear in every episode anymore but when they appeared, they actually played a role in the plot instead of only being thrown in at the end like in so many johto and hoenn episodes

[@jefferyquick3280]

Funnily enough, almost all the named members of Team Rocket had a role in the Gundam franchise. Jessie/Musashi: Christina MacKenzie (Gundam 0080) James/Kojiro: Lockon Stratos (Gundam 00) Cassidy/Yamato: Reccoa Londe (Zeta Gundam) Butch/Kosaburo: Zechs Merquise/Milliardo Peacecraft (Gundam Wing) Attila/Buson: Shiro Amada (Gundam: 8th MS team) Hun/Basho: Otto Richter (Gundam Wing) 009/Domino: Murrue Ramius (Gundam Seed) Giovanni/Sakaki: Captain Bright Noah (Mobile Suit Gundam.)

[@TVkingOmega]

It’s also worth bringing up that Kunihiko Yuyama is also a Shudo carryover from his days working on GoShogun and Minky Momo as director. I assume more of the principal staff have worked alongside Shudo.

[@TheCartoonGamer8000]

I bring that up in the video, actually.

[@TVkingOmega]

@@TheCartoonGamer8000 Silly me.

[@PKMNCappy]

I always assumed Meowth was chosen because it was a cat to Pikachu’s mouse

[@halberdierv2]

A little surprised when talking about megumi hayashibara you spoke about minky momo and not her next famous role, Ranma. Regardless, great video.

[@TheCartoonGamer8000]

Well, it wasn’t relevant to the video. Plus, she’s had many famous roles - she’s Megumi Hayashibara.

[@eeveefennecfox]

they should've put mondo in the anime,it woud've been very intresting to see

[@SerenityDowling-q6n]

Now I realized why the whole lore of Team Rocket is making me so confused.

[@MrEnte3000]

2:22 Pretty sure the Rocker's "Whip" is supposed to be a Cable.

[@TheCartoonGamer8000]

Never mind that.

[@StrictlySeeker]

We really need to get back to making classic Taijiri/Sugimori art style (both game/anime), dark underlying backstory, bright strobing, flashing lights and James crossdressing

[@BlueJack222]

22:00 This is what I always wanted why was this concept not realize in the show

[@PeterGriffin11]

This is A frighteningly accurate video...well done.

[@komi___]

It's funny, MorpekoASMR is the only thing I commented after watching the episode, I'm so glad I wasn't the only one.

[@jeremypierreakajproject6750]

It's about freaking time I love team rocket best video much love 🙏

[@Neku628]

What was the inspiration for James' Chimecho, Mime Jr. and his Yamask?

[@TheCartoonGamer8000]

I don’t think they had anything specific in mind.

[@binzala]

With how the Journey season have been, I think they are slowly trying to get rid of Team Rocket trio.

[@binzala]

Fkn called it!

[@PeterParker-ff7ub]

i miss them.

[@LorienInksong]

James looks so cute in the dress he's wearing in Pokemon Sun/Moon!

[@TeamRocketHQR]

Biggest team rocket fan? Does this person have the pokemon tcg pokemon center japan team rocket black suitcase with the two trainer cards? :3 Or the hanger display for the original team rocket tcg set from 2000 in usa? =p

[@TheCartoonGamer8000]

I don't know, maybe!

[@playstationboy2000]

Just so you know team rocket has always been that way, but the thing about that is because team rocket got like promotion for being like that because normally it’s different between different season for being like so evil and the thing with the Pokémon shock episodes that team rocket are in it normally Japanese viewers seeing it don’t often see it like this because of flashing lights going around since this is like what team rocket always do, it’s still something to look into, so thanks for like understanding like showing that part of it in like this video for team rocket part of it. Bruce

[@ianmurphy3840]

4:18 This is a better shiny than the original.

[@0OB08O]

Fun fact: In the Brazilian dub, Bash and Bella have the same voice overs as James and Jessie.

[@CarputingYT]

Love the content keep up the good work!

[@Terapagos3000]

They were supposed to be the core of the anime and to be evolving characters. I mean, that's for all teams in general in all of pokémon. villains in general at all are a good 95%+ of times the core if not the only point of the story told. But Shudo specifically wanted these guys to be good, perfect characters, and to differentiate them from what they were made to become; dull, side "comic" goofy scenes. While they still are less goofy than the so called "protagonists" that are shoven on your faces 93% of the time, Shudo's ideas got almost all rejected because they were too mature, artistically worthy and intelligent for the soulless masses slop the money npcs wanted to create. At least, Shudo had almost all his way, from what I know, with the japanese dub version of the mewtwo strikes back movie. And still, even if jessie and james turned to be a 24 years of nothing, they still are the core and image of the ashnime to me, and their opening scenes are always so cool. they always make me wish to see them thrive and evolve, like Shudo wanted.

[@disneyboy3030]

I wonder if that interview explains why the controversial change was made.

[@TheCartoonGamer8000]

What change?

[@disneyboy3030]

@@TheCartoonGamer8000 black and white.

[@disneyboy3030]

​@@TheCartoonGamer8000is there information as to why they were made more serious for a time.

[@TheCartoonGamer8000]

@@disneyboy3030 None that I could find. Probably just wanted to try something new.

[@disneyboy3030]

​@@TheCartoonGamer8000I guess getting a promotion made them want to try to reinvent themselves.

[@Inactivechannel-r6]

Yessir I love James

[@joehernandez7931]

This awesome

[@Viroh]

nice

[@shamanri7186]

Now they are leaving the anime :(