As the leader of the original evil group, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Team Rocket, Giovanni has provided a big set of shoes to fill in the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokémon fanbase, as he is essentially the stand🐬ard that all other evil team leaders must live up to. For the most part, Giovanni is easily on𝕴e of the more memorable characters in the series and has gone on to return several times over many titles, each time with the same goal of conquering the Pokémon world.
Despite his popularity and consistent appearances, there are a lot of aspects about his character that go unnoticed, which isn't surprising considering the staggering number of characters that appear across all versions of Pokémon.
10 Shi🥃rking His Respon🥃sibilities
In 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokémon Red and Blue, Giovanni is first introduced as the leader of Team Rocket and is battled in the Game Corner underground hideout for possession of the Silph Scope. Although players don't find out his true identity as Viridian City's gym leader until much later, this would mark the first time in the series that a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:gym leader appeared outside of their gym, and was the only time in the generation one games that this occurred. This would later go on to become a comm💙on trend among gym leaders, but it was Giovanni who first decided that he didn't need to stay put just because he was constantly being challenged by newbie Pokémon trainers.
9 𓃲 Muไltiple Battles
As well as being the first gym leader to appear outside of his designated gym, he was also the first gym leader in the series that players were able to battle multiple times in the same game. Re-match battles against gym leaders wouldn't become a common occurrence until 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokémon Emerald, but before this, 🅰Giovanni held the title of the most battled gym leader in any given game.
8 🍒 Conflicting Positions 🍃
In the official Pokémon Red and Blue guide by Nintendo Power, Giovanni was stated to be the regional head of Team Rocket, with his position of power not stretching outside of the Kanto region. This would later go on to be retconned, as in the sequels, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokémon Gold and Silver, he was presented as the to♋p dog of Team Rocket, above all othe✤r heads.
Though this is likely due to the fact that the world of Pokémon wasn't fully established in the first generation games, it does open up the possibility that there are more he𝔉ads of Team Rocket that a♔re yet to be seen in the series, who are in charge of more remote regions of the world.
7 🅰 Localized Mob Boss
For a western audience, it's easy to see Giovanni as a stereotypical Mafia boss, as his looks and persona give him a distinct Godfather vibe. This is only the surface of his character, however, as his link to the Game Corner would paint him as closer to a Yakuza boss, specifically the Bakuto ♔si🍬de of crime. Before the formation of the modern Yakuza, the Bakuto were heavily involved in gambling as a front to their criminal activities and even coined the word Yakuza after the phrase "ya-ku-sa," which means a losing hand in card games.
6 The Questionable Kangaskhan 🐼
Although Giovanni sticks to his 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Ground-type team rather strictly, the one exception to this is the Kangaskღhan that is usually a part of his team. While it does have the general appearance of a Ground-type, its Normal-typing marks it as the only Pokémon used by a gym leader in generation one that isn't a part of their specialty. This also ties into fan theories that Kangaskhan was originally a part of Cubone's evolutionary line, as both Pokémon have very similar designs.
5 Original VS FireRed and LeafGreen Te൩am
For the most part, the gym leaders' teams stay more or less the same between the original generation one games and their remakes, with some slight changes to movesets to update them and keep up with the currently available moves. Giovanni's team, however, took quite a hit between Red and Blue and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:FireRed and LeafGreen, as his most powerful Pokémon, Rhydon, has been replaced with a second ꧅Rhyhorn that has an identical moveset to the first, but five levels higher. This does a lot to take away from 🦂his difficulty as the final gym leader, as Rhydon is a significantly greater threat than its pre-evolution.
4 ꩵ Original Vs L🌳et's Go Team
Unlike Giovanni's team in FireRed and LeafGreen, his team in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee isn't one to♏ scoff at. Although his team is trimmed down to four Pokémon: Dugtrio, Nidoqueen, Nidoking, and Rhydon, they are all a decently high level and capable of dealing serious damage.
The only downside to this team is that, strangely, each Pokémon only knows threꦇe moves, meaning they aren't nearly as imposing as they could be, especially considering the diverse movepools available to Nidoking and Nidoqueen.
3 🦹 ജ Manga Version
The gym leaders in the Pokémon Adventures manga tend to be vastly different from their anime and video game counterparts, especially in the first generation, where many of them were trying to take over the world. Giovanni stays largely the same compared to his counterparts, although several gym leaders work under him as well as the standard Team Rocket grunts. His team i🃏s also a little different, with him not only specializing in Ground-type Pokémon, but also having a Cloister and a Beedrill that he is rather attached to, not unlike the Persian he is always seen with in the anime.
2 ✤ Japanese Name
For the most part, gym leaders' names from older generations will represent the type of Pokémonꦑ they specialize in. Brock with Rock-type and Lt. Surge with Electric-type are good examples, though Giovanni seems to stand out from the crowd in this regard. This isn't the case with his Jap🧔anese name, Sakaki, as he is named after a sacred tree from Shinto religion of the same name that also bears a strong resemblance to the Earth badge he grants anyone able to defeat him. While western audiences may not have seen his true position coming, Japanese players were probably able to guess it right away.
1 𝓰 𓆏 Voice Actor Change Over
When 4Kids lost the rights to the English dub of Pokémon, many of the original voice actors were replaced, with notable characters such as Ash sounding noticeably different between the Hoenn and Sinnoh regions. Giovanni's voice actor, Ted Lewis, was one of the few actors to retain💞 their character's role after the changeover💃 and still plays the role to this day.