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 first appeared with its Trainer, Benny, when Benny was searching for someone to have a trade with his Wobbuffet since Wobbuffet was trained hard enough, it was time for him to have a different Pokémon. Benny was not successful at first but a Trainer with a Stantler accepts his offer but bails for a Hoothoot at the last minute. Jessie's Poké Ball containing her Lickitung falls into the machine instead when she crashed into it. Unbeknownst to her, Lickitung got swapped for Wobbuffet.

With Jessie

Johto

Jessie sends out Wobbuffet to battle Ash and his friends even though she wanted to send out Lickitung. 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 is unaware that her Lickitung has 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 it 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 come across a festival honoring Wobbuffet. Jessie's Wobbuffet pops out of its Poké Ball much to the villagers's excitement. The Wobbuffet Festival crashers show up to attack the Wobbuffet and Jessie sends out her Wobbuffet to battle them. Jessie's single-handedly takes out the Wobbuffet Festival crashers's Pokémon with the use of Counter and Mirror Coat.

In Imitation Confrontation, Wobbuffet battles Duplica's Ditto, Mini-Dit. Mini-Dit transforms into Wobbuffet and uses the same moveset to battle Wobbuffet and Arbok. Wobbuffet ended up losing to its miniature counterpart.

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 became separated with the Pod and the key to it, 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 takes Wobbuffet hostage and Team Rocket dig a hole and head to a warehouse from underground to rescue Wobbuffet. Ash and Totodile go with them only for Totodile to get badly hurt by Golem despite the type-advantage. When Golem is about to finish off Totodile, Wobbuffet jumps in the way and sends Golem flying to its Trainer. Ash is able to get the Poké Pod back but Wobbuffet still has the key as it flies away along with the Team Rocket trio on the Wobbuffet-shaped balloon. Ash sends out Noctowl to get the key from Wobbuffet. Noctowl is successful and Pikachu is 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 puts on the disguise as a maid which made Claydol fall in love with it. This was part of the plan to get Claydol back inside the stone Poké Ball. When Wobbuffet's disguise was revealed, Claydol was angry but the ball managed to capture Claydol 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 would usually cause the elimination of Jessie for one reason or another.

Wobbuffet ran away from the group in Fear Factor Phony after the fake ghost made by some Ghost Pokémon scared it off. While it was running scared, 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 operation was completely ruined.

Sinnoh

Jessilina and Wobbuffet

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

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.

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 her 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.

Moves used

Using Counter	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.