Jessie's Wobbuffet

Jessie's Wobbuffet ムサシのソーナンス Musashi's Sonans

Jessie's Wobbuffet

Debuts in Tricks of the Trade Caught at Johto Gender Unknown Ability Unknown Traded in Tricks of the Trade Original Trainer Benny Traded for Jessie's Lickitung Current location At Team Rocket headquarters

This Pokémon is fully evolved.

Voice actor Japanese English As Wobbuffet Yūji Ueda Kayzie Rogers

Jessie's Wobbuffet (Japanese: ムサシのソーナンス Musashi's Sonans) was the only Pokémon obtained by Jessie during her travels through Johto.

History

File:Wobbuffet initial appearance.png

Wobbuffet's first appearance, under the ownership of Benny

With Benny

Wobbuffet originally belonged to a Trainer named Benny. In Tricks of the Trade, Benny was searching for someone to trade Wobbuffet with for a stronger Pokémon at the Pokémon Swap Meet in Palmpona. Benny was not successful at first, though a Trainer with a Stantler seemed to his offer, but then bailed for a Hoothoot at the last minute. Jessie's Poké Ball containing her Lickitung then accidentally fell into the machine instead when she crashed into it. Unbeknownst to her, Lickitung got swapped for Wobbuffet.

With Jessie

Johto

Later, after the trade had commenced, Jessie wanted to sent out her Lickitung to battle Ash and his friends, but to her surprise, Wobbuffet appeared instead. James then immediately looked up its moves for Jessie. Even though Wobbuffet had no offensive attacks, it managed to counter Chikorita's attacks back to her. Wobbuffet was blasted off along with the Team Rocket trio by Pikachu's Thunderbolt. 

Jessie was unaware that her Lickitung had been traded to Benny for his Wobbuffet

Since the episode Tunnel Vision, Wobbuffet had its place in the Team Rocket motto, first before Meowth (which usually left him very upset) and some episodes later, right after Meowth. It could often be heard crying out subsequent to the "Team Rocket is blasting off again!" line, even if it was not out of its Poké Ball when the team was sent blasting off. Wobbuffet was thus somewhat a fourth team member.

When Wobbuffet popped out of its Poké Ball in Power Play!, and redirected Meowth's attack back to himself, Jessie had the idea of building the Robo-Mecha Wobbuffet where it would counter any attack back to the user similar to Wobbuffet's Counter.

In Wobbu-Palooza!, Ash, his friends and Team Rocket came across a festival honoring Wobbuffet. Jessie's Wobbuffet popped out of its Poké Ball much to the villagers's excitement. The Wobbuffet Festival crashers then showed up to attack the Wobbuffet and Jessie sent out her Wobbuffet to battle them. Jessie's single-handedly took out the Wobbuffet Festival crashers's Pokémon with the use of Counter and Mirror Coat.

In Imitation Confrontation, Wobbuffet battled Duplica's Ditto, Mini-Dit. Mini-Dit transformed into Wobbuffet and used the same moveset to battle Wobbuffet and Arbok. Wobbuffet ended up losing to its miniature counterpart, however.

In The Wayward Wobbuffet, Wobbuffet was tasked the job to guard the Poké Pod containing Ash's Pikachu. During the chase to get the Pod, Wobbuffet, along with the Pod and the key to it, went serperate from Jessie and went on an action-packed adventure. It bumped into a thief named Goneff who was not happy with Wobbuffet bumping into his vehicle. However, Goneff took Wobbuffet hostage. Team Rocket then dug a hole and headed to the warehouse Goneff was hiding from underground to rescue Wobbuffet. Ash and his Totodile went with them only for Totodile to get badly hurt by Golem. When Golem was about to finish off Totodile, Wobbuffet jumped in the way and sent Golem flying to its Trainer. Ash was then able to get the Poké Pod back but Wobbuffet still had the key as it flew away along with the Team Rocket trio on the Wobbuffet-shaped balloon. Ash sent out Noctowl to get the key from Wobbuffet, however. Noctowl was successful and Pikachu was freed from the Poké Pod.

Hoenn

In A Poached Ego!, Wobbuffet was sent out to battle Rico's Tyranitar. It was getting ready to counter Tyranitar's Hyper Beam but fainted as Hyper Beam was too strong.

In Claydol Big and Tall, Wobbuffet put on the disguise of a maid which made a humongous Claydol fall in love with it. This was part of a plan to get this dangerous Claydol back inside its stone Poké Ball. When Wobbuffet's disguise was revealed, Claydol was angry, but Claydol was returned to its stone Poké Ball before Wobbuffet was hurt.

Kanto Battle Frontier

Wobbuffet participated in its first contest onscreen in A Hurdle for Squirtle. Jessie planned for it to use the countering technique against Harley's Ariados. However, this backfired, as Ariados's String Shot manipulated it into a puppet. Since then, it was used in other contests, but would usually cause the elimination of Jessie for one reason or another.

Wobbuffet ran away from the group in Fear Factor Phony after a fake ghost made by some Ghost Pokémon scared it off. While it was running away it saw a Kirlia dancing and fell in love with it. When Team Rocket caught Pikachu and Kirlia, Wobbuffet jumped into the mecha after it and broke the Kirlia and its Psychic Pokémon friends free from Team Rocket's capture. Entirely thanks to Wobbuffet, Team Rocket's plan was completely ruined.

Sinnoh

Jessilina and Wobbuffet

Jessie relied on Wobbuffet more often in Pokémon Contests, including during their participation in the Wallace Cup. However, it often did not do well similar to the ones in Hoenn and Kanto.

Following the Team Rocket trio's journey in Sinnoh, Jessie was forced to leave Wobbuffet at Team Rocket's headquarters as it is not a Pokémon native in the Unova region and would attract attention.

Other appearances

Wobbuffet made an appearance along with Meowth in the Pikachu shorts, PK23 and PK24. Strangely, both these shorts take place during the Unova arc, which Wobbuffet is absent from for the aforementioned reasons above.

Personality and characteristics

Wobbuffet in love

Wobbuffet was used occasionally for battles. Wobbuffet's knowledge of moves like Counter and Mirror Coat came in handy, since Team Rocket often found itself on the receiving end of powerful attacks. 

Wobbuffet usually served as a comic relief character. It would emerge from its Poké Ball frequently and often at inappropriate times. Team Rocket have also had various vehicles and robots based on it.

Even though Jessie often seemed annoyed with Wobbuffet, she was shown to truly care for it. This is showcased in a handful of episodes, including Who, What, When, Where, Wynaut?, in which Wobbuffet temporarily went missing. Jessie was very worried and desperately went searching for it on the island. Another instance was in Dealing With a Fierce Double Ditto Drama! where Jessie was upset at James's idea to send Wobbuffet to Giovanni since they couldn't tell it apart from Narissa's Ditto.

Wobbuffet also seems to care for Jessie deeply, although its loyalty has sometimes been in question, such as in Fear Factor Phony, where it temporarily left the group to hang out with some Psychic-type Pokémon and even single-handedly stopped Team Rocket's plan to steal Pokémon.

Moves used

Using Bide	Move First Used In Counter Tricks of the Trade Bide × A Hot Water Battle Mirror Coat Freeze Frame
An × shows that the move cannot be legitimately known by this Pokémon in the games.
A † shows that the move was used recently, unless all moves fit this case or there are fewer than five known moves.

Trivia

Jessie and Wobbuffet

• Wobbuffet was the first traded Pokémon to become an important part of the main cast.
• For DP024, Professor Oak's lecture is about Jessie's Wobbuffet. He writes this Pokémon senryū about it: きがつけば　なのりもやってる　ソーナンス
• Until Duplica pointed it out, Wobbuffet always used Counter to deflect attacks. Although this should only work against physical attacks, it actually worked against any, though not always very well (sometimes the attack would be reflected in different directions rather than back at the opponent; on two occasions it caused Team Rocket themselves to blast off). So it must have used Mirror Coat every time against a special attack though Jessie ordered Counter. Even though Jessie gets confused as to whether to use Counter or Mirror Coat, whenever Jessie wants to counter an attack using Wobbuffet, she would just say "Wobbuffet, counter that attack" or similar since she told Wobbuffet to use its head when countering a physical or special attack.
• Wobbuffet spent 511 episodes as a part of Jessie's party, making it the Pokémon to have spent the most time on a main character's party before leaving, more than two complete series together, and spending the third-most time as a main cast member, after Pikachu and Meowth.

Related articles

• For more information on this Pokémon's species, see Wobbuffet.
• Episodes focusing on Team Rocket

Team Rocket's Pokémon
Travel with:	Meowth	Rotom Phone
	Jessie			James
On hand:	Wobbuffet	Seviper	Yanmega	Mime Jr.	Carnivine	Yamask
	Woobat	Frillish	Gourgeist	Amoonguss	Inkay	Morpeko
In training:				Cacnea
At home:				Growlie	Chimecho
Released:	Arbok	Dustox	Mimikyu	Weezing	Gyarados	Mareanie
Traded away:	Lickitung			Victreebel
Lived with (all three):	Bewear	Stufful
Worked with (all three):	Delibird	Pelipper
Temporarily owned:	Porygon Zero	Shellder	Magikarp	Second Victreebel	Hoppip
	Mawile
Befriended:	Blissey
Status unknown:	Starmie			Pidgey	Numel
For a list of other Pokémon Team Rocket has commanded, see here and here

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