James's Cacnea

James's Cacnea (Japanese: コジロウのサボネア Kojirō's Sabonea), was the first James caught during his travels through Hoenn, and his seventh overall. He caught it immediately after releasing his.

Hoenn
Cacnea was caught by James in the episode A Poached Ego!. In the episode, Team Rocket found a group of and  being hunted by a Pokémon poacher; Jessie and James permanently released their  and  to protect the Ekans and Koffing. Before releasing Arbok and Weezing, Team Rocket had been chased by some because they had landed in the Beedrill's nesting place. Cacnea had been walking by. When it saw that they were in need of help, it used Pin Missile to drive the Beedrill away. In gratitude, James gave it a bag of cookies. However, the bag was closed. Later, after defeating the poacher, Team Rocket encountered Cacnea on a road. It gave James the bag, and James opened the bag and gave Cacnea a cookie. James then asked Cacnea if it would like to join him, and it agreed, jumping into his arms and hurting him with its spikes.

Cacnea was James's fighting Pokémon throughout all of Hoenn.

In Seeing is Believing!, Cacnea was used to battle Jessie's Cascoon in order to raise her experience so she would evolve. Even though Cascoon won she remained the same. Cacnea was later used in the fight against Ash and his friends, where evolved into.

In The Bicker the Better, Cacnea was used in a Double Battle along with against Oscar and Andi and their  and. Seviper ends up using on Cacnea, which causes Jessie and James to argue, allowing Oscar and Andi to take the win with dual  attacks, sending  flying. Team Rocket later encounters Ash and May and agree to do a tag battle with them, with Ash using and May using. Cacnea and Corphish end up working well together and begin to get an advantage over the other two. Jessie soon sends out Dustox to help win and the battle quickly grows out of control when attacks start to fly undirected. Meowth then takes the opportunity to try to capture Pikachu and has Seviper and Cacnea use and Sandstorm. Pikachu is rescued and Team Rocket is sent blasting off.

In Gaining Groudon, Cacnea battled two belonging to s. It easily defeated the two Rogue Pokémon with Pin Missile.

Kanto Battle Frontier
In The Saffron Con, Jessie wanted to enter the Saffron City Pokémon Contest and asked James if she could borrow Cacnea for it. James agreed and Jessie called out Cacnea in an attempt to bond with it, but it was immediately frightened of her and jumped onto James. James desperately tried to break its embrace and Cacnea reluctantly jumped onto Jessie and became tangled up in her hair. Later that night Jessie and Cacnea agreed to enter the Contest together, even though they had to cut Jessie's hair to get Cacnea unstuck.

In A Hurdle for Squirtle, Jessie used Cacnea in the Appeals Round of the Saffron Contest. Cacnea and Jessie started by running toward each other and hugging. The painful embrace moved the crowd to tears in reaction to how close Jessie and Cacnea seemed to be. Jessie told Cacnea to use and the pins wind upward and collide, creating an explosion similar to that of fireworks. Both Meowth and James were amazed at Jessie's performance. Lilian then went to congratulate Jessie but noticed that Cacnea was still attached to her and she was not moving at all. Lilian tapped her and Jessie fell to the floor, paralyzed with pain. Jessie was then rushed back into the operating room by.

In Sinnoh, it was replaced as James's main battler by. However, it was used alongside, , and Carnivine in several all out battles against and  and to guard the  Pokémon that Team Rocket stole in A Staravia is Born!. It was only seen battling without Carnivine a few times in Sinnoh. It and Carnivine hurt James a lot in Sinnoh because they both tended to be affectionate at the same time. Cacnea was used often in Sinnoh similarly to Jessie's Seviper as Team Rocket's escapist rogue via the use of.

In Dawn's Early Night!, Jessilina used Cacnea and for the Double Performance required during the. Cacnea used Needle Arm, which Mime Jr. s before using on Jessie as both Cacnea and Mime Jr. hug and tickle Jessie, spinning her around the stage. Cacnea then fires Pin Missile, which Mime Jr. mimics, into the sky and creating fireworks. This performance got Jessie a high score, placing her among the s moving on to the Battle Stage.

In Once There Were Greenfields, Gardenia and James battled against Ash and. Gardenia told James to tell Cacnea to use, but James said the Pokémon didn't know that move. Through her explanation on how to do it, he did it anyway, and Cacnea pulled off the move. However, it was unable to duplicate the success. Through, Cacnea explained that the first Drain Punch was only a fluke. Gardenia suggested that James give Cacnea to her to train. He originally declined, but in the end, he realized that his lack of skill would only hold Cacnea back from its full potential. Therefore, he left Cacnea with the Gym Leader to become stronger.

Cacnea appeared again in a flashback in Barry's Busting Out All Over!, where it was shown battling Barry's Empoleon in a Gym battle. It was also revealed to have mastered Drain Punch, making James very pleased.

Personality and characteristics
To James's frustration, each time it was called out to battle, Cacnea would instead affectionately embrace its master, instead of focusing on the task at hand. When it did battle, it was fairly formidable, but usually lost to or one of his friends. Like most of James's Pokémon, Cacnea had a great relationship with him and strived to please him. Cacnea is shown to be extremely loyal to James, demonstrated in Sweet Baby James, when James ordered Cacnea to attack Seviper and it did so without hesitation.

In Maxxed Out!, it was shown it cannot swim.

Trivia

 * For DP025, Professor Oak's Big Pokémon Encyclopedia is about James's Cacnea. He writes this Pokémon senryū about it: サボネアは　ふれるとチクチク　トゲトゲよ Cacnea, prickly spikes, when it touches.


 * Cacnea was the first Pokémon James caught onscreen. His, Growlie, and were caught prior to his appearance on the series or captured off-screen.
 * Cacnea is the first of Jessie and James's Pokémon (including ) to learn a new move while under their ownership.
 * Excluding his temporary Pokémon, Cacnea is James's only Grass type that is not fully evolved.
 * James's Cacnea is the only one of its species seen in the anime.

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