Giovanni (Pokémon)

Giovanni (Japanese: サカキ Sakaki) is a recurring antagonist in Pokemon and the leader of Team Rocket, considered the main antagonist of the series by many, Giovanni is also Silver's father.

Rocket Rises
Giovanni first appears in Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, FireRed and LeafGreen as the main antagonist and head of Team Rocket, he is also revealed to be a gym leader and is the games semi-final boss right before the Elite Four/Champion, Giovanni attacks Silph Co. during the game and is responsible for the death of a pokemon, after he is defeated by Red, he swears that he is sorry and leaves to better himself. It is later revealed that he left to become stronger.

Rocket Returns
&nbsp During Gold, Silver, Crystal, HeartGold & SoulSilver, it is revealed that Giovanni had been training at the Tohjo Falls, during Team Rocket's broadcast, he attempts to head to his team but is engaged by a time travelling Ethan/Lyra at the same time that Ethan/Lyra/Kris is fighting Archer and is defeated, Giovanni leaves, his dreams crushed again just as Archer disbands Team Rocket's remnants.

The World Competition
Giovanni returns in Black 2 and White 2 as a participant of the World Tournament, he uses a mixture of his old Pokemon and some new ones.

In The Anime
Giovanni is the main antagonist of the Pokemon anime series. He is the boss of Team Rocket. Therefore he is arguably the main villain of the franchise though, unlike his henchmen, he does very little and arguably has a small to minor part on the show, although his henchmen often have him in mind when they plan something.

Little is known about him (not even his last name, although it should be noted that the characters don't have last names in the Japanese version anyway) but he apparently inherited his position as the boss from his mother called Madam Boss (who is not dead but retired). The organization has apparently been a family business (it is unknown if his parents were the founders of Team Rocket or if its history dates back to his ancestors). He and his family have been using the evil organization to collect Pokemon to use to rule the world. After his mother became too old to continue, she stepped down and gave him the job, hoping he could pick up where she left off. His father's identity is unknown, as is his involvement with Team Rocket. Giovanni is a power hungry, ambitious boss. He is obnoxious and rude, though he has a great deal of cunning and seems to be fairly intelligent.

He is also the leader of the gym in Viridian City, both in the games and the anime. This wasn't revealed until late in the games which could be the reason they never showed his face clearly and altered his voice up until his appearance in the episode "Battle of the Badge" (the episode in which Ash the protagonist tries to win his last badge, the Earth Badge).

One of Giovanni's plans for greater power was to control Mewtwo, a powerful clone of Mew. He hired some scientists to find Mew's DNA to create this clone. The scientists agreed, as their leader wanted to research the secret of restoring life itself, and succeeded in cloning Mewtwo. Mewtwo did not want to be controlled, however, and destroyed the lab, killing the scientists. Giovanni approached Mewtwo in his helicopter and told them that they were partners. He put armor on Mewtwo to focus and control his powers, and

used him in battle. One such victim at Viridian City Gym was Gary Oak, however, unknown events involving Mewtwo caused Giovanni to give him an "emergency assignment", conveniently when Ash Ketchum was on his way to Viridian City Gym, leaving Jessie, James, and Meowth in charge. Ash was able to defeat them for an Earth Badge.

When Mewtwo realized that Giovanni never intended for him to be his equal, he destroyed Viridian Gym. Mysteriously, Giovanni survived without a scratch, suggesting that he shares the same "immunity" as Jessie, James, and Meowth (who seem to be able to survive anything from explosions to falling off cliffs to even drowning). However, in Mewtwo Returns, Giovanni found Mewtwo again, and threatened the lives of the cloned Pokemon to force him to submit. Giovanni weakened Mewtwo with two machines, and as his will was too powerful to be controlled it threatened to destroy Mewtwo first. But with help from Pikachu and its clone, Mewtwo was able to destroy them. Ash threw him into the spring to heal him, and he returned and moved the spring under the mountain so Giovanni or anyone else could not destroy it. Mewtwo decided to erase only the memories of those who were his enemies, thus Giovanni and all his soldiers (except Jessie, James, and Meowth) to forget about Mewtwo entirely. They found themselves in the middle of nowhere and Giovanni commanded them to withdraw, with the strange feeling as though he has been utterly defeated.

Giovanni appears near the beginning of Mewtwo Strikes Back during his attempted control of Mewtwo, and is the antagonist of Mewtwo Returns.

He's still at large. Ash and his friends haven't defeated him yet, although they have confronted him once in the fourth movie, Mewtwo Returns.

After a long absence following the events of the conflict with Team Plasma, Giovanni returned in BW095, making a brief appearance in his office. He appeared in BW096 spearheading Team Rocket's "Operation Tempest," a mission to capture Meloetta and use it to take control of Tornadus, Thundurus and Landorus to conquer Unova. For the first time in the history of the series, he battled against Ash directly, with Persian defeating Pikachu. He then captured Ash, Pikachu and Meloetta and escorted them to the ruins in preparation for the next stage of the mission, using Meloetta's song to summon the Reveal Glass in the temple. At the beginning of BW097, he used the Reveal Glass to summon the Kami trio and transform them into their Therian Formes before setting them against Ash, Iris, Cilan, Larry and Cynthia. However, during the battle Meloetta was dislodged from the mechanism controlling the trio's power, and after looking directly into the Reveal Glass, Giovanni became possessed by the power and went insane, declaring against his followers' wishes that he would instead destroy Unova. With the Kami trio's power he began freezing the land in ice, but when he was saved from a possibly life-threatening explosion by Jessie, James and Meowth, the possession was broken. Ash refuse to let them go after everything they did. James used Yumask's haze to make their get away. On Dr. Zager's advisement he then ordered a full retreat from the Unova region and was last seen flying off in his airplane to return to Kanto with Jessie, James, Meowth and Dr. Zager.

Manga
The manga differs greatly from the show and the games. While he's also gym leader and boss of Team Rocket, he appears to be far more ruthless and influential that in the manga and the games and has several other gym leader as subordinates. He takes a big role in the manga and appears several times. His main goal is to find his lost son Silver (who was abducted by the Masked Man) and to make him the heir of Team Rocket. In the end, however, it's revealed that his true motivation is to see and reunite with his son one more time before he dies (he has a serious illness that wasn't specified). After Silver accepted him as his father he's sent to Silver's hideout to recover. Although he's ruthless he's still an excellent trainer with an exceptional knowledge of ground-type Pokemon and even wrote a book about it called "Mysteries of the Earth". He was also the first to discover that Rhydon could evolve.

His birthday is August 1 and his bloodtype is 0.

Trivia

 * It is revealed that Giovanni is the father of your rival; Silver in Pokemon; Gold, Silver, Crystal, HeartGold, and SoulSilver.
 * There have been rumors that Giovanni might be Ash Ketchum's father in the anime.
 * His manga counterpart from Pokemon Adventures has a connection to the Virdian Forest (where people who are born there are granted special powers) similar to the protagonist Yellow of the Yellow chapters but it is unknown what his special power is.