One of the main ingredients for the success of the Pokémon franchise is nostalgia. Nostalgia means bringing back old characters, places, and Pokémon. This is probably why the leader of Team Rocket, Giovanni, is still active in the anime, games, and manga.

Team Rocket was the first and thus most nostalgic evil organization of the franchise. Jessie and James from the anime are definitely not going away anytime soon, and neither is their boss, Giovanni. He certainly is not retiring in the video games either, as fans had to battle with Rainbow Rocket in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. How did they decide Giovanni would lead all these amazing villains? He’s the first, and when you’re the first, you might as well also be the best.

Despite being around for so long, fans still see this villainous leader as a character shrouded in mystery. What is his story? We know some about him, but there are many holes which have sparked a lot of fan theories about his goals, family, and fate.

There are now tons of sources to draw from with 20 seasons of the Pokémon anime, spinoff shows such as Pokémon Generations, more than 100 games, and even a musical stage show. Examining all these, we can put the pieces together of what we know about this infamous crime boss.

25 Silver Is Giovanni’s Son

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Numerous sources have proven this fact to be true, Giovanni had a son and that son is the rival from the Silver and Gold games. This was proven in the Pokémon Adventure’s manga, in an episode of Pokémon Generations, and in the Japanese script in the games Soulsilver and Heartgold.

In the manga, Silver was taken as a young boy and did not discover Giovanni was his father until he was a teenager.

As expected, he did not feel comfortable knowing that his father was a crime boss but eventually accepts it and even saves Giovanni’s life at one point.

24 Giovanni’s Mom Is Known As Madame Boss

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In the anime, Giovanni’s mother is Madame Boss, who is the previous ruler and founder of Team Rocket. As expected of a crime boss, her main goal is making money and auctions off Pokémon. She has no Pokémon of her own, but dreamed of capturing Mew and using it to rule the world. Like mother, like son right?

According to the Pokémon Birth of Mewtwo Drama CD, Madame Boss’s best woman was Jessie’s mother, Miyamoto. It was on her mission to get Mew for Madame Boss that has caused Jessie’s mother go to missing and presumed dead.

23 Only Gym Leader To Appear Outside Gym In Gen I

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Typical Gym Leaders in the games live in their gyms. Not Giovanni though, he is a crime boss who is needed in other places. Due to this, he is the last Gym Leader the player needs to defeat before the Elite Four in Pokémon Red and Blue.

The only way to get him to return to his gym is to defeat him and Team Rocket at Silph Company.

As most know, he specializes in Ground-Type Pokémon and gives the player the Earth Badge.

22 His Name Is Misspelled In Pokémon Stadium

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Released in 1999 and 2000 for the old Nintendo 64, Pokémon Stadium was one of the early franchise games that wasn’t plot-driven. Instead, the player just worked to beat a long series of battles in a stadium. There were familiar characters to defeat, and one of those characters was Giovanni, or better remembered as “Giovani.”

The real reason for the missing letter in his name was not a mistake, but a way for the developers to adapt when they had a limited about of space for his name.

21 Japanese Name Matches His Gym Badge

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As popular as Japanese games have gotten worldwide, the language limitation is always an issue in translation. Giovanni’s name is actually Sakaki in Japan, where his character and the Pokémon franchise was born.

In English, his name probably became Italian sounding because his crime-boss status reminded us of other popular characters.

Sakaki is a sacred tree in Shinto belief in Japan, which is what the Earth Badge references in its green and leafy design. The badge probably did look more Grass-Type than Ground-Type for English players didn’t it? Now you know why.

20 Child Giovanni Rescued His Persian

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There is good in everybody, right? Fans got to see a better part of Giovanni in the Japanese manga series called How I Became a Pokémon Card. The issues came with a free Pokémon card with a story detailing the card’s artwork. In one such story, fans got to see Giovanni as a child. He finds an injured Persian in a forest.

After saving it from its injuries, Giovanni even saves it a second time from being sold off by a corrupt doctor. The comic goes to years later where Giovanni uses the same Persian in the Gen I games.

19 Tried To Steal A Master Ball

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A Master Ball should be at the top of any Pokémon villain’s list of things to steal. Giovanni caught on early in the series in Gen I.

He takes over Silph’s Company headquarters and kept its leader hostage in an attempt to get the Master Ball, which can successfully capture any Pokémon.

What Giovanni was planning to use the Master Ball for has been under a lot of speculation and has created many theories from fans. Some even argued he was planning to use the ball for good, which we will get more into further in this list.

18 Takes Mr. Fuji Hostage

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Taking a sweet old person hostage is a must for any criminal organization right? However, Fuji and Giovanni are shown to have a history. He used to be Dr. Fuji, a man who studied cloning and worked on Mewtwo with Giovanni in the anime. In the anime, however, we see him perish from an explosion.

In the games, Mr. Fuji was also once a Dr. Fuji who created the Lab on Cinnabar Island. He survives on to be a good person though and players have to save him from Team Rocket.

17 Deleted Meowth Daydream Was Bonkers

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A product of the Pokémon anime is Meowth’s “Boss Fantasies.” In these daydreams, Meowth picture’s their boss rewarding them for their hard work or how he would have use for a certain Pokémon. One of these never made it out of Japan though when Meowth imagined how Giovanni could use enchanted honey.

In this daydream, he imagines Giovanni in a speedo in a desert covered in honey.

This attracts Pokémon who all come to lick the honey off him. This was never aired outside Japan because people saw it as suggestive.

16 Redeemed In Some Games/Stories

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Despite reappearing constantly and being a crime boss again, the manga and games have shown instances where he does good. In Pokémon Adventures, Silver’s quest is to redeem his father and Giovanni does actually team up with Red at a certain point to protect the world.

In Pokémon Origins, Red gets Giovanni to disband Team Rocket and start a new life. This also happens in the Red and Blue games, as the player defeats Giovanni and he decides to disband Team Rocket and dedicate himself more to training.

15 One Of The Most Recurring Villains In Pokémon

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Like the other recurring characters in Pokémon, this man has been through a lot. No matter where you travel in the world, this man’s name somehow reaches you.

He is in the games Red, Blue, Yellow, FireRed, LeafGreen, HeartGold, SoulSilver, Black 2, White 2, Ultra Sun, Ultra Moon, and Stadium.

He’s made it into most spinoffs such as Origins, Generations, and Pokémon Live! In the anime, he is still just as active as he was in his home region, seeming to follow his plans based on where Ash’s team travels.

14 Giovanni Owns A Giant Pokémon Theme Park

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Ridiculous but true, Giovanni created a theme park called “Pokémon Land.” This appeared in the episode, Island of Giant Pokémon where Ash, his friends, Jessie, Meowth, and James entered the park without knowing and were horrified to see giant Pokémon, not knowing they were robots. The park was ultimately destroyed.

Why Giovanni built the park is a good question. An even greater question is why he has giant robots in a park and is not using them to steal Pokémon or rule the world.

13 Agatha Takes Over His Gym Temporarily

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The reveal of a crime boss being the Viridian Gym Leader did complicate things for society. In the anime, he could no longer be the Gym Leader once his identity was revealed. While a new Gym Leader was being sought after, Agatha took over the gym temporarily.

Agatha is one of the Elite Four though, so is that really fair to the trainers?

She uses Ghost-Type instead of Ground-Type too, so that ruins the whole Earth Badge aesthetic. When Ash challenged her, his Pikachu lost to her Gengar but she was impressed anyway.

12 Uses A Weak Type, Ground

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For being an intimidating and mysterious villain, Giovanni uses a type that is known for its many weaknesses. While their health and defense is known to be higher than average, their low special defense and speed make using them risky for trainers. Their weaker special defense is especially bad when you see that they are weak to Water, Grass, and Ice types, which all typically use special attacks.

Narratively one can argue this just makes Giovanni a greater trainer, as he does not let these weaknesses hinder him and is still able to be powerful.

11 Episodes Never Shown Due To Tohoku Earthquake

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Being an island nation sitting over the Ring of Fire, Japan is victim to a lot of natural disasters. During the time of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011, some episodes of the anime featuring Giovanni were permanently shelved.

In the episodes, Giovanni had Team Rocket facing off against Team Plasma.

At first, they were delayed due to the developers finding them important for the plot. Then the episodes were found in poor taste due to a city getting destroyed by an earthquake in the episodes and they never aired.

10 Theory: He Is Ash’s Dad

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With Silver not quite existing in the same way in the Pokémon anime, many fans theorized that Giovanni’s son is actually Ash. The theory has even been hinted at in some spinoffs, such as in the musical, Pokémon Live! In the play, Delia (Ash’s mother) states that she once dated Giovanni and even was in his gang at one point. She left the gang and Giovanni after meeting Ash’s father, but who is to say that he’s the biological father?

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Maxie, the leader of Team Magma, being Giovanni’s grandson came up when fans noticed that Maxie looks a lot like Silver with the red hair, red iris’s, and pale skin. What makes this theory fall a little short is the age of Silver versus the age of Maxie. Silver is more of a kid while Maxie is an adult.

Maxie is also just plain similar to Giovanni.

Their eyes are the same shape and their villainous behaviors are alike. Maxie’s attachment to Groudon may also be a result of a relation to Giovanni and his Ground-Type Pokémon.

8 Theory: Is He A Good Guy?

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This theory in particular only discusses the Giovanni from the games. Fans noted that in-game Giovanni and Team Rocket do not seem to care about using Legendary Pokémon the same way as the other evil organizations.

What the theory boils down to is that Giovanni is working to stop Mewtwo from causing damage to the world. Mewtwo in the games is described as vicious and only caring about winning battles from journals the player can find on Cinnabar Island. This could explain why Giovanni tried to steal a Master Ball.

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7 Has Controlled Legendary Pokémon

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Unlike his game counterpart, anime Giovanni got his hands on a lot of Legendary Pokémon. He even controlled them. These Legendary Pokémon included Meloetta, Landorus, Tornadus, and Thundurus. All this happened in Meloetta and the Undersea Temple and Unova’s Survival Crisis.

Controlling these Pokémon were part of a Team Rocket scheme called “Operation Tempest.”

This was partly a big moment for Giovanni because it’s the first time fans got to see his Persian do any battle movies after 700 episodes.

6 Creates A MechaMew2

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MechaMew2 is a robot Pokémon only seen in Pokémon Live! According to its creator, Giovanni, MechaMew2 was also the most powerful Pokémon in existence. It’s able to learn any move, and can remember more than just four. Not only could it learn any move, but it could amplify them and make them stronger.

The prop used in the musical for this devastating robot was 10 feet tall! It even got its own TCG card that claimed it weighed 4587 pounds.

In the musical, the robot is defeated by Mewtwo, who gives the robot feelings and it self-destructs.