James's parents

James's father and mother

James's parents are two wealthy aristocrats. James's mother's Japanese voice actress is 兵藤まこ Mako Hyōdō, and her English voice actress is Megan Hollingshead. James's father's Japanese voice actor is 梁田清之 Kiyoyuki Yanada, and his English voice actor is Maddie Blaustein.

In Holy Matrimony!, they pretended to be dead as a trap to lure James back home and get him to marry Jessiebelle, an arrangement he now fiercely opposed. From their single appearance in addition to James's occasional recounts of his childhood, they are shown to be rather insensitively oblivious to James's personal feelings. They frequently forced him into things he could've really cared less about while he was growing up, such as endless lessons in upper-class activities and aristocratic mannerisms. They also appointed him a fiancée that he to this day tries to stay as far away as possible from. For the most part it seems that they only hold interest in having James do what they think is best for him and appear to far favor Jessiebelle, whom they view to be their idea of a "perfect daughter in law".

James's parents have been occasionally mentioned since their debut appearance: James, along with Jessie and Meowth, sometimes visits one of his parents' many vacation homes if the trio are in the area.

They reappeared in James's flashback in DP153, where it is revealed that they arranged James to marry Jessiebelle after he expressed interest in her while they were children. Unfortunately the two fail to realize (or perhaps, choose to ignore) the fact that James is now terrified of her and thus fail to ever call the engagement off.

James appears to have inherited his father's hair color, and his mother bears an unusually striking resemblance to Jessie.

This article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation.