I’ll be honest, of all the crushes I could admit to, the woman who’s attempted to steal Pikachu roughly a thousand times and blasted off just as often feels like a strange hill to die on. And yet here I am, completely under Jessie’s spell.
There is no denying that she is beautiful. Her design is iconic and her confidence is magnetic. But that isn’t why she is my woman crush Wednesday.
What keeps drawing me in and coming back to Jessie is that she is unapologetically herself. Loud, theatrical, stubborn, endlessly resourceful and so determined that even after being launched into the horizon for what feels like the thousandth time, she’s already planning tomorrow’s scheme before she’s landed. There’s something genuinely admirable about that.
It started with the Team Rocket motto. That full-body swagger. The dramatic pause before “Prepare for trouble”. The absolute conviction that she was the star of the show, despite technically being the villain of the week. Somewhere along the way, I realised I was looking forward to Team Rocket’s entrance almost as much if not more than Ash’s next adventure.
What really won me over, though, was discovering just how ridiculously talented she is. This is a woman who’s disguised herself as a nurse, a Pokémon Coordinator, royalty, a fortune teller and more random characters than I can count, all in service of plans that were probably doomed from the start. She builds machines from scraps, acts, sings, cooks, designs costumes and somehow commits to every ridiculous role as though the audience is giving her a standing ovation.
That’s not incompetence.
That’s dedication.
Getting to know her past, seeing how she engages with James and Meowth as well as other characters showed there was so much more to her than comic relief.
Of course, she’s far from perfect.
Her morals are… flexible.
She lies, schemes and works for an organisation whose entire business model revolves around stealing other people’s Pokémon. She’s also a far better friend than she likes to pretend. Jessie can be selfish, dramatic and determined to get her own way, but when James, Meowth or her Pokémon genuinely need her, she’s there without hesitation. Their friendship isn’t perfect, they bicker, tease each other and occasionally blame one another when another plan explodes in their faces, but there’s real loyalty underneath it all. After all these years, Team Rocket feels less like an evil organisation and more like an incredibly dysfunctional family, and Jessie is a huge part of what holds that family together.
She isn’t admirable because she’s morally flawless. She’s admirable because she refuses to stay defeated. Every setback becomes another reason to try again. Every failure becomes another dramatic speech about why the next plan will definitely succeed, even if every other plan has done nothing but fail. Underneath all the theatre is someone who simply wants to prove she can make something of herself.
I’d honestly love to spend a day with her. It wouldn’t be peaceful. She’d be exhausting. She’d also never be boring.
Say what you want about her ethics; the spotlight was always going to find Jessie eventually. She’s quirky, endlessly resourceful, fiercely determined and impossible to ignore. Even after another inevitable blast-off, you just know she’ll straighten her uniform, flick that iconic hair over her shoulder and deliver the Team Rocket motto tomorrow with exactly the same confidence as she did today.
Crush level on Jessie from Pokémon: Reluctant respect with a healthy dose of admiration.
Enjoyed this Woman Crush Wednesday? Who’s your unexpected anime crush? Is there a character you admire for reasons beyond looks? Share your pick in the comments.
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