Butch

Butch (Japanese: コサブロウ Kosaburō) is a recurring character who appeared in the Pokémon anime. He is a member of Team Rocket who occasionally runs across and  along with his partner Cassidy. He made his debut appearance in The Breeding Center Secret.

History
Butch was a recruit in the Team Rocket Academy to become an official member of Team Rocket. During a test he took, Butch along with Cassidy and as his partners have become the top group of trainees in the Blue Team. He and his partners compete with the Red Team on catching the red-colored. Even though neither side managed to do so, they were made into official teams.

Kanto
Butch's first onscreen appearance was in The Breeding Center Secret where he was in disguise as a worker in a Five-Star Breeding Center he and Cassidy owned. They managed to get many Pokémon due to their scheme including Misty's Psyduck and James's Weepinbell. , enter the breeding center so  can retrieve her Psyduck, only to find out that it is fake. Butch overhears Todd's camera flash and investigates only to find out that it was 's electricity. Jessie, James and Meowth enter the breeding center to rob the Pokémon there. However, they were caught along with Ash and the others. He chases them with James retrieving his Weepinbell which evolved into Victreebel. The group, save for Misty, Pikachu and, get trapped in a cage set up by Butch and Cassidy. Butch takes the camera to have the seven framed for breaking in. Officer Jenny arrives and has the caged people sent away until Misty was able to prove that they were innocent. Butch is then defeated by Ash's Bulbasaur and gets arrested by Officer Jenny.

Orange Archipelago
Butch returns in Pikachu Re-Volts where it was revealed that had bailed him and Cassidy of jail. They took a that he got from their fake breeding center and orders the Drowzee to  the Pokémon into turn against their Trainers. Ash and his friends have Jessie and James work with them to get the Pokémon back. They managed to infiltrate their base, with Ash and the others demanding Butch and Cassidy to give them back the Pokémon. It was no use as Butch once again orders Drowzee to make the hypnotized Pokémon attack their Trainers. Ash forces his Pikachu to attack him in order for the attack to hit the machine. As the machine was destroyed, all of the possessed Pokémon were free and Butch and Cassidy were arrested again.

Johto
Butch and Cassidy create a in The Fortune Hunters and they disguise themselves as innocent owners. He gives away Fortune Telling books that will tell each Trainer which Pokémon they present. Similar to the fake breeding center earlier, Trainers can drop of one of their Pokémon off, this time with the belief that the day care owners will help them trade Pokémon. Jessie and James go to the Day Care to steal the Pokémon there. However, they get stopped by Butch and Cassidy who reveal themselves and get tied up in the process, only for them to escape. Misty goes to the Day Care to find out about her Pokémon type but finds out that it was a fake Day Care as part of the Team Rocket duo's scheme to steal Pokémon. Butch manages to catch Misty and her friends from freeing the caged Pokémon. Butch sends out which manages to defeat her. The Team Rocket trio come in with James in his Moltres costume. Butch tells him that his fortune was not real. Afterwards, he has his Primeape finish off Jessie, James and Meowth with Cassidy's Raticate blasting them off. Butch then notices Ash, Misty and trying to free the Pokémon. He and Cassidy battle them but are defeated. Afterwards, Officer Jenny takes them away.

During the arc, Dr. Namba assigns Butch to capture said Pokémon. He does so by creating a Lugia decoy and manages to capture the. With the younger Lugia captured, Dr. Namba has Butch capture the parent Lugia using the child as bait. The parent Lugia falls for it but is stopped by Ash's and Ritchie's Pikachu. Butch is prepared and uses a contraption invented by Dr. Namba to make a Pokémon go in rage. Butch tries it on his Hitmontop and his Hitmontop successfully defeats the heroes' and Charmeleon, and catches the parent Lugia without any interference. The gang is also captured as well. In Team Rocket's base, Butch and Cassidy have a rematch with Ash and Ritchie using Pikachu and Sparky, respectively. The contraptions on the opposing side's Pokémon are removed and get defeated by the Pikachu. After their defeat, the duo have a rematch with their rivals in Team Rocket. It becomes a tie as both sides manage to free the parent Lugia and get blasted off.

and
Butch becomes a recurring antagonist in Pokémon Chronicles, often capturing certain Pokémon for Dr. Namba's R project. So far, he has made various attempts to capture rare and unseen Pokémon but fails every time.

Butch appears in True Blue Swablu during Meowth's boss fantasy when he was shown failing. He cameos in The Scheme Team where he was seen on a motorized scooter and a jet pack. Butch then appears in The Ole' Berate and Switch! where he hosts a fake tournament and sides with Jessie after she temporarily leaves James and Meowth. Their plan was found out by the heroes and were sent blasting off.

Butch appeared in Sleight of Sand!, where he and Cassidy used their Rhyhorn robot in an attempt to capture a. However, he was stopped by Hippowdon,, Ash, and his friends.

Character
Butch's partner is Cassidy, and she is one of the few that usually manages to get his name right, much to his frustration. In one of the most famous running gags in the anime series, everyone else calls him "Biff," "Bilge," "Buzz," "Bill," "Bob," "Botch," "Buffy," "Butcher," "Chuck," "Clutch," "Footch," "Hooch," "Hutch," "Mitch," or "Patch" (コサンジ  in Japanese). Sometimes when Cassidy gets it right, he, out of habit, tries to correct her and ends up calling himself the incorrect name. This, of course, annoys him to no end, so much so in the Pokémon Chronicles episode Training Daze that he said in frustration, "That does it, I am changing my name." In A Promise is a Promise, to annoy James, he calls him "John."

It was thought that Giovanni and Dr. Namba recognized Butch and Cassidy as higher-ranked members than Jessie, James and. However, in the Best Wishes series, this was proven wrong, as Giovanni himself told them they were his highest ranked agents.

Pokémon
This listing is of Butch's known in the :

In the games
Butch, along with Cassidy, only appears in the spin-off game Pokémon Puzzle League, as the opponents in the Spa Service Bonus Stage.

Trivia

 * According to Eric Stuart, he modeled Butch's voice after Harvey Fierstein and Sandra Diamond in order to differentiate him from his counterpart, James.

Related articles

 * Images on the Bulbagarden Archives