Team Rocket motto

The Team Rocket motto is a motto that Team Rocket members often recite and/or live by.

In the anime

Jessie, James, and Meowth have several mottos, saying one of them in nearly every episode when they reveal themselves to Ash Ketchum and his friends. Early on, they had an irresistible urge to say it whenever hearing the word "trouble", but this seemingly has been left to the past.

Original motto

Japanese	Rōmaji	English
ムサシ: なんだかんだと聞かれたら	Musashi: If you ask us something or other...	Jessie: Prepare for trouble...
コジロウ: 答えてあげるのが世の情け	Kojirō: The answer we give will be the compassion of the world!	James: ...and make it double!
ムサシ: 世界の破壊を防ぐため	Musashi: To prevent the destruction of the world!	Jessie: To protect the world from devastation!
コジロウ: 世界の平和を守るため	Kojirō: To protect the peace of the world!	James: To unite all peoples within our nation!
ムサシ: 愛と真実の悪をつらぬく	Musashi: To carry out the evils of truth and love!	Jessie: To denounce the evils of truth and love!
コジロウ: ラブリー・チャーミーな敵役	Kojirō: The lovely, charming villains!	James: To extend our reach to the stars above!
ムサシ: ムサシ	Musashi: Musashi!	Jessie: Jessie!
コジロウ: コジロウ	Kojirō: Kojirō!	James: James!
ムサシ: 銀河をかけるロケット団の二人には……	Musashi: The pair from Team Rocket soars through the galaxy!	Jessie: Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!
コジロウ: ホワイトホール、白い明日が待ってるぜ	Kojirō: A white hole, a white tomorrow awaits us!	James: Surrender now or prepare to fight!
ニャース: にゃんでにゃ	Nyarth: Something like that!	Meowth: Meowth! That's right!

Since the episode Team Rocket was introduced in, the duo has used rhyming "prepare for trouble" and "make it double" phrases. An example from Zig Zag Zangoose!, where Jessie was training Seviper and Meowth filled in for her, is:

Meowth: Prepare for trouble, here in the wood...

James: ... and make it double, like you know that you should!

Also, in many later episodes, James said "fight, fight, fight" at the end of his last line. Wobbuffet also began saying its name at the end of the motto in Tunnel Vision, and has done so in most episodes since.

It should also be noted that this version of the motto was used in commercials for Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen with each line being said by different children, omitting the parts where Jessie, James and Meowth say their own names and the line "Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light."

Song version

In episodes where singing is the central theme and Jigglypuff or Igglybuff are the stars, Jessie, James, and Meowth have also sung a song version of their motto.

Jessie and James: You know us as Team Rocket and we fight for what is wrong. We're tired of our motto so we thought we'd try a song. The speed of light, prepare to fight.

Meowth: Meowth, that's right!

James: I am the handsome one.

Jessie: I'm the gorgeous one.

All: Looking good its lots of fun. We get some things wrong but we keep rolling along. We want to capture Pikachu. We hope to do it soon. And when we do we'll be the new stars of this... cartoon!

Good version

In The Power of One when Team Rocket decides to help Ash they use a different version of their motto.

Jessie: If that kid thinks were here for trouble...

James: ...we're certainly going to burst his bubble!

Jessie: Instead of causing tribulation...

James: ...we've undergone a transformation!

Jessie: Though it's way outside our usual range...

James: ...we're going to do something nice for a change!

Jessie: Jessie!

James: James!

Jessie: Up til now Team Rocket's been quite unscrupulous!

James: Being good good guys for once would be super-dupulous!

Meowth: That's right!

Butch and Cassidy

Butch and Cassidy also have a motto, which is similar to Jessie and James's original motto. During Pokémon Chronicles, they add "(now) here's our mission, so ya better listen!" after Butch's first line. Like Meowth and Wobbuffet, Cassidy's Raticate often pops out at the end.

Japanese	Rōmaji	English
		Cassidy: Prepare for trouble...
		Butch: ...and make it double!
		Cassidy: To infect the world with devastation!
		Butch: To blight all peoples in every nation!
		Cassidy: To denounce the goodness of truth and love!
		Butch: To extend our wrath to the stars above!
		Cassidy: Cassidy!
		Butch: Butch!
		Cassidy: Team Rocket circles the world at the speed of light!
		Butch: Surrender now or you will surely lose the fight!

Battle Frontier

During the Battle Frontier saga, Jessie, James, and Meowth changed their motto, likely to reflect the fact that the motto changed in the Japanese version at the start of the Advanced Generation series:

Japanese	Rōmaji	English
ムサシ: なんだかんだと声がする	Musashi: There is a voice saying something.	Jessie: Prepare for trouble from beyond the skies!
コジロウ: 地平線の彼方から	Kojirō: From beyond the horizon...	James: From beyond the stars, a nasty surprise!
ムサシ: ビッグバンの彼方から	Musashi: From beyond the Big Bang...	Jessie: An evil as old as the galaxy...
コジロウ: 我らを呼んでる声がする	Kojirō: A voice is calling us!	James: ...sent here to fulfill our destiny!
ニャース: お待たせにゃ	Nyarth: Sorry to keep you waiting!	Meowth: Plus, there's me!
ムサシ: 健気に咲いた悪の花	Musashi:Evil flowers who have courageously bloomed!	Jessie: To denounce the evils of truth and love!
コジロウ: ハードでスイートな敵役	Kojirō: In the role of the villains who are hard and sweet!	James: To extend our reach to the stars above!
ムサシ: ムサシ	Musashi: Musashi!	Jessie: Jessie!
コジロウ: コジロウ	Kojirō: Kojirō!	James: And James!
ニャース: ニャースでニャース	Nyarth: And Nyarth!	Meowth: And Meowth are the names!
ムサシ: ロケット団のあるところ	Musashi: The place where Team Rocket is	Jessie: Anywhere there's peace in the universe...
コジロウ: 世界は	Kojirō: The world-	James: Team Rocket...
ニャース: 宇宙は	Nyarth: The universe-	Meowth: ...Will be there...
All: 君を待っている	All: Awaits you!	All: To make everything worse!
ソーナンス: ソーナンス!	Sonans: Sōnansu!	Wobbuffet: Wobbuffet!

Since the first episode, they have adapted their traditional rhyming phrases "Prepare for trouble" and "Make it double" into the motto, thereby restoring the first two lines of the original motto. James's Chimecho and James's Mime Jr. also contribute their names at the end of the motto in most episodes they appear in.

Sinnoh

In Sinnoh, the trio changed to a new motto yet again.

Japanese	Rōmaji	English
ムサシ: なんだかんだの声を聞き	Musashi: We hear voices saying this and that...	Jessie: Listen, is that a voice I hear?
コジロウ: 光の速さでやってきた	Kojirō: We come along in a swift current of light...	James: It's speaking to me loud and clear.
ムサシ: 風よ	Musashi: The wind!	Jessie: On the wind.
コジロウ: 大地よ	Kojirō: The land!	James: Past the stars.
ニャース: 大空よ	Nyarth: The sky!	Meowth: In your ear!
ムサシ: 世界に届けよう　デンジャラス	Musashi: The danger we will deliver to the world!	Jessie: Bringing chaos at a breakneck pace.
コジロウ: 宇宙に伝えよう　クライシス	Kojirō: The crisis we will convey to the universe!	James: Dashing hope, bringing fear in its place.
ムサシ: 天使か悪魔か　その名を呼べば	Musashi: Whether angels or demons, if you call the name,	Jessie: A rose by any other name is just as sweet.
コジロウ: 誰もが震える魅惑の響き	Kojirō: The captivating echo that shakes everyone...	James: When everything's worse, our work is complete.
ムサシ: ムサシ	Musashi: Musashi!	Jessie: Jessie!
コジロウ: コジロウ	Kojirō: Kojirō	James: James!
ニャース: ニャースでニャース	Nyarth: And Nyarth!	Meowth: And Meowth, now dat's a name!
ムサシ: 時代の主役はあたしたち	Musashi: The stars of the era are us!	Jessie: Putting the do-gooders in their place...
コジロウ: 我らは無敵の	Kojirō: We are the invincible...	James: ...we're Team Rocket...
All: ロケット団	All: Team Rocket!	All: ...in your face!
ソーナンス: ソーナンス	Sonans: Sōnansu!	Wobbuffet: Wobbuffet!

They often replace the first two lines with

Jessie: Listen, is that a twerpish voice I hear?

James: It's shrieking to me loud and clear.

Jessie: Listen, is that a pitiful head of a pokécentre I hear?

James: It whines to me loud and clear.

or something similar. As in Battle Frontier, Mime Jr. contributes its name after Wobbuffet.

It is notable that the Sinnoh motto is modified more often even in the Japanese version.

Ripoffs

File:AshBrockTR.png

Copycat time...

File:MistyDuplicaTR.png

...times four.

The motto has been ripped off repeatedly by Ash and his friends during the series. The first time it was done was in Ditto's Mysterious Mansion, where Ash, Misty, and Brock, along with Duplica, put on Team Rocket uniforms and mocked the original motto, with Duplica severely angering the two by saying "ignite" instead of "unite". The motto was mockingly mimicked again in The Chikorita Rescue!, and then much later the DP motto was mocked in Mass Hip-Po-Sis and DP056. As before, the trio is angered.

Blasting off

When defeated, and flying off due to a Pokémon's attack or a malfunction in their mech, Jessie, James, and Meowth usually cry "We're blasting off again!" before disappearing into the distance with a star. This usually happens only once each episode, but there have been many occasions in which it has happened multiple times, especially in Malice in Wonderland, where they are shown blasting off four times on screen, and heard to blast off many more times offscreen. Butch and Cassidy have also "blasted off", however, James noted once that he, Jessie, and Meowth had copyrighted it.

In the manga

In the Pokémon Special manga, the "Rocket" in Team Rocket is apparently their motto, which is an acronym for:

Raid

On

City

Knock out

Evil

Tusks