Wednesday 26 December 2012

Team Rocket

For some reason I had Team Rocket's song, Double Trouble, in my head. While listening to it, I decided to do a post on them. From the demands of their mysterious boss, to the things Jessie and James say, to the names of the Team Rocket characters, much is very Masonic.
There is a "proper" music video for this, however anime fans seem to get off on making their own videos, which makes it difficult to find the one featured on old Pokemon episodes.
The lyrics for the song are fairly repetitive and revealing:

Intro: [boss in a very gruff, evil voice] This is The Boss. And I'm sick of waiting. I want Pikachu. And this time; don't screw it up!

Prepare for trouble
Make it double
Prepare for trouble
Make it double

James: We'll be the richest rogues of all time
Jessie: Creators of a grand design
James: I'll be the king
Jessie: I'll be the queen
Meowth: I'll be the joker...of crime

Prepare for trouble
Make it double
Prepare for trouble
Make it double

Jessie: To protect the world from devastation
James: To unite all peoples within our nation
Jessie: To denounce the evils of truth and love
James: To extend our reach to the stars above
Jessie
James
Team Rocket blast off at the speed of light
Surrender now, or prepare to fight!

Team Rocket's rockin'
Talkin' trouble, walkin' trouble
Double trouble, big troubles gonna follow you
We're gonna capture Pikachu

We're Team Rocket
and we fight for what's wrong
 For mayhem, and madness, and rare pokemon
Jessie: I'm so gorgeous
James: I'm always the man
Boss: You're just the players in my master plan

Team Rocket's rockin'
Talkin' trouble, walkin' trouble
Double trouble, big troubles gonna follow you
We're gonna capture Pikachu

We're always gonna try it
No one can deny it
We can start a riot in Sunday school 
James: Oooh! A riot!
We'll have you believin' truth can be decievin'
Both: Do unto others is our golden rule

James: [ridiculous Ooh-hoo-hoo giggle]
Jessie: This is our most ingenious plan ever! If I do say so myself!
James: Even we couldn't screw this one up, Jessie
Meowth: Will you two stop yappin'?! Here they come!

Prepare for troubllllllle!

Team Rocket's rockin'
Talkin' trouble, walkin' trouble
Double trouble, big troubles gonna follow you
Team Rocket's rockin
Talkin' trouble, walkin' trouble
Double trouble, big troubles gonna follow you
[repeat a few times, interspersed with Jessie and James laughing and speaking the words]

Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!


Team Rocket, as most know, are the villains of the long-running series Pokemon. They're conceited yet continuously have their plans thwarted by Ash (in Japanese, Satoshi) and his friends. They also aren't the smartest of villains, as most loved tv villains are rarely the brightest. Of course, as The Boss tells them in Double Trouble, they're "just the players in [his] master plan". Hmm...sounds familiar to Project Monarch to me, as most MK victims are "just players" in the elites master plan.

Team Rocket always introduce themselves (although Ash comes to know them-and their speech- begrudgingly well) with their speech. There's always music playing during said speech, and in some episodes the viewer will see that Jessie and James use a music deck to play in the background. The directly translated from Japanese version of their speech:

Musashi (Jessie): If you ask us something or other...
Kojiro (James): The answer we give will be compassion of the world!
Musashi: To prevent the destruction of our world!
Kojiro: To protect the peace of our world!
Musashi: To carry out the evils of truth and love!
Kojiro: The lovely, charmy villains...
Musashi!
Kojiro!
Musashi: The pair from Rocket Gang soars through the galaxy!
Kojiro: A white hole, a white tomorrow await us!
Nyarth (Meowth): Something like that!


The english version of their speech is repeated through-out their song, Double Trouble, and rhymes:
Jessie: Prepare for trouble!
James: Make it double!
Jessie: To protect the world from devastation!
James: To unite all peoples within our nation!
Jessie: To denounce the evils of truth and love!
James: To extend our reach to the stars above!
Jessie!
James!
Jessie: Team Rocket blast off at the speed of light!
James: Surrender now, or prepare to fight!
Meowth: Meowth! that's right!

In later seasons, they changed their speech for a time.

Direct translation from Japanese to English:

Musashi: There is a voice saying something...
Kojiro: From beyond the horizion...
Musashi: From beyond the big bang...
Kojiro: A voice is calling us
Nyarth: Sorry to keep you waiting!
Musashi: Evil flowers who have courageously bloomed!
Kojiro: In the role of villains who are hard and sweet!
Musashi!
Kojiro!
And Nyarth!
Musashi: The place where Team Rocket is
Kojiro: The world-
Musashi: The universe-
All: Awaits you!

In the English version:

Jessie: Prepare for trouble from the skies!
James: From beyond the stars, a nasty surprise!
Jessie: An evil as old as the galaxy...
James: ...sent here to fulfil our destiny!
Meowth: Plus there's me!
Jessie: To denounce the evils of truth and love!
James: And extend our reach to the stars above!
Jessie!
And James!
And Meowth are the names!
Jessie: Anywhere there's peace in the universe...
James: ...Team Rocket...
Meowth: ...will be there...
All: ...to make everything worse!

Team Rocket has sort-of rivals with another Team Rocket, who wear black versions of Jessie and James' outfits and who are also smarter than Jessie and James. Butch and Cassidy love to mock Jessie and James, making no secret of their "superiority" over the other two.
Notice Cassidy's one eye and upside-down pyramid earring?

In one episode, Jessie and James have a falling out with eachother. Jessie teams up with Butch, while James replaces Jessie with Cassidy. Each "new" team try the speech thing, only to find it doesn't work. By the end of the episode, Jessie and James reunite as do Butch and Cassidy.

In even later episodes, Team Rocket (Jessie and James) switch to two new mottos. I won't bother typing those out part out of laziness, and part because I didn't start this post to talk about each and every version of their silly speeches.

Both Team Rockets, Jessie and James, Butch and Cassidy, were named after famous outlaws of the past. Jesse James was notorious for being a gang leader, bank and train robber, and even a murderer. Butch Cassidy was known for pretty much the same thing. 

Hmmm...so The Boss views the infamous robbers as pawns to be used on his chessboard (as the Elite view MK victims as well as the general public), characters named after murderers, numerous references to truth and love being evil as well as worship of the sky, the persistent attempts at kidnapping Pikachu, not to mention the fact that Team Rocket look as though they're at least 16/17-if not older-basically stalking and harassing Ash (who is 10 in the first season). Oh-and they live in a world where it's normal for young children to leave home to pursue their goal of becoming masters of pokemon, strange creatures they abuse then capture when the targeted pokemon is too weak to continue fighting. The "masters" capture them by throwing weird little balls at them. The pokemon then are trapped in said ball until the "master" sees a use for them, unless the pokemon becomes a favourite by said "master" (such as Meowth is with Team Rocket, and Pikachu is with Ash), then the animal-like creature is allowed to walk with, or be carried by, said master. Pokemon battles are pretty much like dog-fights.

The most common pokeball


All pokeballs

still think its not Masonic?




Sources: Bulapedia
              Wikipedia-Jesse James
              Wikipedia-Butch Cassidy












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