Giovanni (Pokémon)

Giovanni (Japanese: サカキ Sakaki) is a villain from the Pokemon franchise. He is the boss of Team Rocket, the main villains of the anime series. 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.

In the games Giovanni is an end boss and not revealed to be the gym leader until you battle him in the gym. He also has a son named Silver (the rival in the second gen. games and the current remake of them) both in the games and the Pokemon Adventures manga.

He still at large. Ash and his friends haven't confronted him nor defeated him yet.

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.
 * Ther have been rumors that Giovanni is 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.