James's Gyarados

James's Gyarados コジロウのギャラドス Kojiro's Gyarados

James's Gyarados

Debuts in Battle Aboard the St. Anne Caught at St. Anne Evolves in Pokémon Shipwreck Gender Unknown Ability Unknown Released in Pokémon Shipwreck Current location Unknown

→ This Pokémon spent 1 episode as Magikarp.

Voice actor Japanese English As Magikarp Unshō Ishizuka Maddie Blaustein As Gyarados Unshō Ishizuka

James's Gyarados (Japanese: コジロウのギャラドス Kojirō's Gyarados) is the second Pokémon that was shown to be owned by James, and his fourth overall. It was sold to him as a Magikarp by the Magikarp salesman on the St. Anne.

History

Pokémon the Series: The Beginning

Magikarp being sold by the Magikarp salesman

James purchased his Gyarados as a Magikarp on the St. Anne in Battle Aboard the St. Anne. While on the ocean liner, the Magikarp salesman tricked him into buying Magikarp, claiming that he could breed it to sell more and more Magikarp. Blinded by the chance to become rich, James gladly accepted the deal. When he later told about his purchase to Jessie and Meowth, however, they revealed that he had been tricked: Magikarp was a completely useless Pokémon, and even its "gold" Poké Ball was just gold-plated. When James revealed that he had spent the advances on both his and Jessie's salaries to buy Magikarp, Jessie got furious, angrily telling him to return it immediately. However, before he could find the salesman again, Team Rocket's assault on the ship started, and James was forced to abandon his search to join the other Team Rocket Grunts. After the operation had been ruined by the passengers' rebellion, the rocking of the ship caused James to drop Magikarp's Poké Ball, and the trio kept chasing it throughout the ship, causing them to get trapped inside and knocked unconscious when the ship sunk soon after.

In Pokémon Shipwreck, when Team Rocket temporarily joined forces with Ash and his friends in order to escape the sunken ship, they appeared to lack a Water Pokémon to swim to the surface, at which point James revealed his Magikarp, believing that it could help them escape. Unfortunately, they soon found out that Magikarp wasn't able to swim at all, just splashing on its place. By sheer luck, the trio was carried to the surface when the ship flooded, along with Magikarp.

The next day, when the group was starving with hunger, they started staring at Magikarp, thinking of eating it. However, when Meowth tried to take a bite out of it, their dreams of a Magikarp lunch were ruined, as, like Misty then mentioned, Magikarp is all skin and bones, making it completely inedible. At this point, James got extremely enraged at Magikarp, declaring that it was completely useless and he didn't want to be its master anymore, and kicked it off the raft. This proved to be a big mistake, as it caused Magikarp to evolve into a Gyarados. Furious at James's behavior, Gyarados completely ignored his attempt to reclaim its loyalty and chased after the group. After it chased them for a while, it suddenly stopped and roared into the sky. Instead of giving up, however, as the group had hoped, this proved to be something much worse as multiple other Gyarados then appeared, and unleashed a devastating Dragon Rage on the group, sending them flying in a watery tornado. James's Gyarados hasn't appeared since having returned to living in the wild.

Pokémon the Series: Gold and Silver

Gyarados reappeared as a Magikarp in James's flashbacks in Tricks of the Trade and Here's Lookin' at You, Elekid.

Personality and characteristics

As a Magikarp, Gyarados showed typical traits of its species, merely splashing in place. It often disappointed its Trainer with how useless it was and seemed oblivious to anything going on around it. After evolving into Gyarados, it showed a lot of rage, angry at its Trainer for deeming it worthless. It was also shown to become a very powerful swimmer after evolving, keeping up with all of Misty's Pokémon. It isn't known whether this is Gyarados's usual personality or if it was just angry.

Appearance

As a Magikarp

Moves used

Using Dragon Rage	Move First Used In Splash Pokémon Shipwreck Dragon Rage Pokémon Shipwreck
A † shows that the move was used recently, unless all moves fit this case or there are fewer than five known moves.

Trivia

Ash and Brock thinking about eating Magikarp

• Gyarados is the first Pokémon Team Rocket obtains from the Magikarp salesman.
• Gyarados is the first Pokémon in the animated series to be released by a main character.
• Gyarados is the first Pokémon belonging to a main character to use a Dragon-type move in the animated series.
• As a Magikarp, Gyarados was one of the very few Pokémon considered to be eaten in the animated series.
• Gyarados is the first Pokémon owned by the Team Rocket trio to evolve.

Related articles

• For more information on this Pokémon's species, see Magikarp and Gyarados.
• Magikarp salesman's Magikarp

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.