Aside from Ash and Pikachu, the longest-running characters in the Pokémon anime are Jessie, James, and Meowth, who are part of the criminal organization Team Rocket. These three characters are almost as well known as Ash and appear in every episode in the anime in some form or another.
Many fans may also remember that once upon a time, the trio had rivals within Team Rocket named Butch and Cassidy. Giovanni himself seemed to favor the duo more, often helping them out while putting down Jessie and James for their failures. Are Butch and Cassidy really all that great though, and if so, why aren't they in the series anymore?
10 JESSIE & JAMES: More Prominent
To begin with, Jessie and James are much more prominent than Butch and Cassidy will ever be. Unlike Jessie and James, the duo has only appeared in a small handful of episodes, with the last one being Sleight of Sand in 2008. That means that Butch and Cassidy have been missing from the series for over a decade now.
Jessie and James, however, are still going strong in the newest season of the anime.
9 BUTCH & CASSIDY: Top Performers
It is stated in the Pokémon lore that there is a Team Rocket training academy that all new recruits must go through. It is also stated that Butch and Cassidy performed at the top of their class and were positioned to be the best members the organization had ever had.
This accomplishment can be seen in the 2003 episode, Training Daze, which gives more insight into how Jessie and James became a team.
8 JESSIE & JAMES: Help Save the World
There have been several times where Jessie and James actually became good guys in the series. As it turns out, the pair would rather see the world not destroyed. They have helped calm legendary Pokémon as well as take on devious villains to help Ash and friends accomplish their goal.
Jessie and James do always return to a life of crime afterward, but every fan knows that they have good hearts that they both try to hide.
7 BUTCH & CASSIDY: More Devious
Butch and Cassidy aren't likely to help save the world as they don't have a problem with going down a darker path. These two are completely fine with lying, cheating, deceiving others, and ever possibly harming other members of their organization.
It's possible that if the duo were given enough power that they would be the ones trying to steal legendary creatures and almost ending the world in the Pokémon movies.
6 JESSIE & JAMES: Haven't Gone to Jail
Jessie and James, despite being pretty bad at hiding themselves, have never actually gone to jail or been captured by Officer Jenny. In fact, they were wanted criminals in the very first episode of the show who seemed to have never been captured before.
Butch and Cassidy, on the other hand, get arrested in just about every episode they appear in. After their scheme goes bad, they are carted off by the police. However, Giovanni usually ends up paying to bail them out.
5 BUTCH & CASSIDY: Actually Stole Pokémon
On the upside, Butch and Cassidy have actually managed to successfully steal Pokémon and get them back to the Team Rocket base. This is proven when they later use a Drowzee that they had stolen from one of their previous anime schemes.
As of right now, it doesn't seem like Jessie and James have successfully stolen anymore Pokémon after meeting Ash in the first season of the show.
4 JESSIE & JAMES: They Have Meowth
Jessie and James have one of the rarest Pokémon in the world on their team, a talking Meowth. While Meowth isn't exactly a stellar member of Team Rocket either, he does give the trio the ability to talk to and understand the Pokémon around them.
If Jessie and James would get a bit smarter, they could easily use Meowth as a tool to steal more Pokémon during their schemes.
3 BUTCH & CASSIDY: Better Team
While Jessie and James may have Meowth, Butch and Cassidy usually have stronger Pokémon on their teams, such as Primeape, Aggron, and Raticate. It's actually a mystery how this duo can lose in battle to Ash, who just has a seemingly inferior team of Pokémon.
Jessie and James don't exactly ever get a stellar line-up to brag about. Wobbuffet is mostly useless in battle, and they're often both stuck using Poison-types or Pokémon that most seasoned trainers wouldn't carry with them.
2 JESSIE & JAMES: Founders
Despite all that Jessie and James had been through, they became the founding members of the Team Rocket Branch of Alola. They single-handedly helped put together a base in the region and pave the groundwork for the rest of the members to arrive in Alola.
Being able to start up a whole new division of an organization is pretty impressive, especially given how much they seem to mess up every other mission they touch.
1 BUTCH & CASSIDY: Better Schemes
Butch and Cassidy have come up with some pretty full-proof schemes in order to successfully steal Pokémon. They have run a fake breeding center, hypnotized a large amount of Pokémon, stolen a baby Lugia, and even kidnapped Professor Oak.
It's safe to say that Butch and Cassidy are far better when it comes to making up successful plots and actually getting unsuspecting trainers to freely hand over their Pokémon.