Summary

• Giovanni is a dark and serious villain in the Pokemon anime, willing to threaten physical violence on both people and Pokémon.
• Giovanni uses fear tactics to control Mewtwo and manipulate Meloetta, showing his ability to become a terrifying adversary.
• Giovanni's darker impulses are revealed when he gets his hands on the Reveal Glass, leading him to plot the destruction of the Unova region.

The Pokémon anime isn't exactly known for its horrifying villains, but there's one recurring villain who actually gets down and dirty to the point of being scary to deal with. That villain, of course, is none other than the grand boss of Team Rocket, Giovanni himself.

Many of Giovanni's appearances in the anime are through Meowth's fantasies of how the trio will be rewarded for successfully completing their goal, giving the impression of Giovanni as a goofy, fun-loving guy, but that couldn't be further from the truth. While Giovanni rarely takes direct action in the Pokémon anime, the times that he does prove that he's deserving of his title as the leader of one of the series' most preeminent evil teams.

Giovanni proves he isn't afraid to get his hands dirty, and that he takes the idea far more seriously than Jessie, James, and Meowth do.

Giovanni Threatens Physical Violence on Several Occasions

In the special known as "Mewtwo Returns," Mewtwo does indeed return to the story, having settled in a place known as Mount Quena with his clones from the first Pokémon movie. Mewtwo was, of course, originally created by Team Rocket, and is used by Giovanni as a super weapon, wiping the floor with gym challengers such as Gary even in its power-inhibiting armor, before escaping from Giovanni's control. In the special, Giovanni tracks down Mewtwo and attempts to strong-arm the Legendary Pokémon into working with him again.

He does so by threatening to experiment on the other clones until they "leave this world," one of the few occasions where a human threatens to kill a Pokémon in the entire series. While Giovanni is ultimately defeated and has his memory wiped by Mewtwo, the threat and the assault on Mewtwo's peaceful hideout show how dangerous Giovanni can truly be when he takes action. This isn't the only such occasion, either; later, in Pokémon Black & White, Giovanni orchestrates a scheme to secure the Mythical Pokémon Meloetta and take control of the Reveal Glass, a special artifact.

Giovanni similarly attempts to coerce Meloetta, this time threatening to kill Ash and Pikachu by crushing them inside a shrinking force field, which leaves Meloetta no choice but to surrender to save Ash's life. Giovanni gets his hands on the Reveal Glass, which causes his darkest impulses to rise to the surface. Suddenly, Giovanni no longer wants to conquer the Unova region, but to destroy it, and commands the Legendary Pokémon Landorus, Thundurus, and Tornadus to that end. Jessie and James are able to free him from the Reveal Glass, leaving even Giovanni shocked at his own actions.

Giovanni was used very sparingly in the Pokémon anime, with these two occasions marking his only major roles as antagonist in the series, and both times he threatened people and Pokémon with death without hesitation. It's clear that Giovanni was held back as an enemy because he's simply too dark of a character for the light-hearted Pokémon anime series, as when he's really allowed to let loose, he proves to be its most terrifying adversary.

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