Meowth (anime character)
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Meowth (Nyarth (ニャース Nyāsu) in the original Japanese) is a fast-talking cat who travels with Jessie and James, members of Team Rocket, in the Pokémon anime, the Pokémon manga series (Electric Tale of Pikachu), and the Ash & Pikachu manga. Meowth is unusual among Pokémon for his ability to speak normally, and it can be inferred that his intelligence is much higher than average for his species.
For Meowth's pokedex entry, see Meowth.
Meowth's origin
Most of Meowth's background story is explained in the anime episode Go West, Young Meowth. Meowth was raised in Hollywood. One day, he fell in love with a female meowth who let him know that she preferred being with humans to being with a street-Pokémon like himself. Thus, to impress her, Meowth learned to walk and talk in order to be as much like a human as possible. After she saw him, she looked down on him even more than before, seeing him as a freak. Shocked, he wandered aimlessly until he finally decided to join Team Rocket. He chose to join Team Rocket because "rocket" was the first word he understood from a children's book during his attempts to learn to read and speak.
In the English anime, despite being from a Los Angeles street gang, Meowth was ironically dubbed a distinctive, even camp, New York City accent. While this is possibly an American animation convention for a street tough, it does problematise his origins. Meowth came to Hollywood on the back of a truck after seeing a film called "That Darn Meowth" (a reference to That Darn Cat (1964)) with "dreams of ice cream & fried chicken".
Meowth meets Jessie and James
Meowth spent a day serving the organization boss, Giovanni, until he was assigned to be partners with Jessie and James, who at first didn't notice he could walk and talk. The next day Meowth, Jessie, and James had to steal a rare pokémon from a tower across rivers, mountains, and forests as a test. Being a feline, Meowth consumed all the food provisions and avoided getting wet in the river. The tower, however, had many traps, one of which was a pit into which James would've fallen into if he hadn't grabbed on to Meowth's tail.
After Jessie, James, and Meowth finally are accepted as members of Team Rocket, they go out to steal Pokémon. Their main goal to steal Ash Ketchum's Pikachu. Sometimes, Meowth talks too much and Jessie and James have to give him a ball to distract him. However, over time this technique becomes ineffective. He now lies often, but wants to do the right thing sometimes (which usually goes against what Jesse and James want), and has fantasies of how Giovanni would react if their plans actually worked correctly and they can give Giovanni a stolen Pokémon he'll actually like. Meowth also is the one who now often operates Team Rocket's complicated Pokémon-stealing machinery.
Meowth In Boots
In the Hoenn League Tournament, Meowth meets another Meowth called "Meowth In Boots", (an obvious pun on Puss In Boots.) Meowth In Boots belongs to Tetsuya, Ash's main rival in the Tournament. Meowth is greatlly inspired, and is rooting for Meowth In Boots when the final match of Tetsuya's match with Ash is between Pikachu and Meowth In Boots.