Meowth

Meowth is a small, bipedal, feline Pokémon. It has two cream whiskers on each side of its oval-shaped face and two hairs sticking up on either side of the golden coin-like gem on its forehead. Meowth also has a curled tail. Meowth's tail and feet are cream-colored like the rest of it, but they are brown at the end. It has small paw pads on the undersides of its heels and toes. It is much like a Maneki Neko, a toy of Japanese descent known for bobbing its arm and hand up and down.

Meowth are known for their razor sharp claws that can ruthlessly scratch their foes and inflict numerous scars. They can effortlessly retract said claws to stealthily sneak away.

In the anime, Team Rocket's Meowth is capable of human speech (a skill he learned while living on the street of Hollywood to impress a female Meowth named Meowzie).

Meowth is a Normal-type Pokémon. He is a member of Team Rocket that travels with James and Jessie, serving as one of the main antagonists of the franchise, a supporting character in the Pokémon movies, and the main antagonist of Pikachu Shorts series. He is one of the few non-Legendary Pokémon who can communicate with humans. He is Pikachu's archenemy. He and fellow Team Rocket members Jessie and James are always to trying to catch Ash's Pikachu.

He regularly helps Jessie and James (and sometimes Ash and co.) to translate Pokémon language and is revealed to be the one responsible for building the machines that Team Rocket uses.

Meowth fits in perfectly with his human comrades of Team Rocket as he is conniving, prideful, greedy, and mischievous. Compared to most other Pokémon, he is capable of communicating to humans without needing assistance, having taught himself. Like other Pokémon, he can translate what other Pokémon say to him to those that don't understand what they're saying. However, as a result of learning how to walk and talk, his combat proficiency dropped, most notably claiming that he's unable to use his species' signature move, Pay Day. As such, most of his fights are pitiful. On rare occasions, however, when passionate or incensed enough, Meowth can be very formidable in battle. He has also proven quite able as a performer as well, helping Jessie win several contests and showcases.

He sometimes views himself as the boss and the leader of the trio, reason being, that he builds all the contraptions and thinks of all the plans, though he is rarely taken seriously (and like James, Meowth can be rather submissive to the domineering Jessie). For all his faults, however, he is loyal to Jessie and James, and never lets a few fights get in his way of being friends with them. He thinks highly of their boss Giovanni and dwells on becoming his "top cat" (having a disdain for his Persian as a result).

Meowth is superb at lying, as he often tricks Ash and his friends to believe he is on their side. Pikachu is the only one who doubts Meowth's loyalty due to remembering his countless double-crosses. Despite their rivalry, Meowth has arguably the most sociable moments with Pikachu, especially since they are often forced to team up for real. In some cases, he laments that they can easily be friends. As often as he likes to consider himself a dastardly villain, he is also often shown to be rather jaded and even philosophical at times. He often looks at the moon and laments his direction in life. Among the trio, Meowth tends to be the one who stands most on the facts rather than belief.

Meowth frequently shows himself to be a rather amorous cat: in Kanto, before he met Jessie and James, he fell in love with a female Meowth named Meowzie, in Hoenn he fell in love with May's Skitty and in Sinnoh he fell in love with a female Glameow. In Unova, he competed with Ash's Oshawott for both a male Purloin (that they believed to be female) and Meloetta despite being the main target for Team Rocket's Operation Tempest in the Black & White series until in the episode Unova's Survival Crisis!. Also, in the short "Eevee and Friends" he also showed an attraction to Espeon, Glaceon, and Leafeon. His pursuits for Meowzie in particular chained off his ambitions to learn to speak and act human-like and ultimately his employment within Team Rocket. In Alola to New Adventure! and A Talent for Imitation!, it is implied that he also has infatuations on beautiful-looking and feminine Pokémon such as Gardevoir, Glaceon and Lopunny.

Meowth has yet to evolve. He often expresses contempt for his evolved form, Persian. He is in fact jealous of Giovanni's Persian and has a desire to fill in for it as the boss's "top cat". In Acting True to Form!, Meowth has a bitter rivalry with an Alolan Meowth who is very smart and cunning, and also loyal to Jessie and James, but temporary. Upon hearing that the Alolan Meowth was now working with Team Rocket later owned by their secretary Matori, he became disappointed to hear when he translated its language about its main reason to stay at their headquarters.

Meowth is also a wild Pokémon, despite travelling with human companions. He refuses to let himself be caught by anyone, although he appears to be somewhat partial to Luxury Balls, having nearly been caught by Pikachu in one of them.

During a mission in Unova, Meowth was fired from Team Rocket. After he was fired, he was found by Ash and co. being beaten by a wild Scrafty.