Iron-Masked Marauder
| Iron-Masked Marauder ビシャスVicious | |
Iron-Masked Marauder | |
| Gender | Male |
|---|---|
| Hometown | Unknown |
| Region | Unknown |
| Member of | Team Rocket |
| Rank | Executive |
| Animated debut | Celebi: The Voice of the Forest |
| English voice actor | Dan Green |
| Japanese voice actor | Shirō Sano |
TheIron-Masked Marauder (Japanese:ビシャスVicious) is the main antagonist ofCelebi: The Voice of the Forest. He is anExecutive member ofTeam Rocket.
In the movies
History
Celebi: The Voice of the Forest
The Iron-Masked Marauder was first seen accosting an oldPokémon poacher for information about aCelebi he had pursued decades ago. After the poacher refused to talk, the Iron-Masked Marauder decided to show him the power of hisDark Balls by using one on a capturedTyranitar. When the corrupted Tyranitar began destroying the hunter's camp, he showed the Iron-Masked Marauder where he found the Celebi.
Using the poacher's information, the Iron-Masked Marauder set out for theLake of Life in a large, spider-like mecha. He eventually came uponAsh,Misty,Brock,Sam, and an injured Celebi. His attempt to capture the Pokémon failed when theTeam Rocket trio intervened, but they quickly offered to join him after they recognized him.
He later sent out hisSneasel andScizor to pursue the group while he followed in his mecha. Eventually, he discovered his Pokémon tied to a rock, at which point he laughed and noted that "those kids" were tougher than they looked. Declaring that the situation had become "interesting", the Marauder and his allies carried on, leaving his Pokémon behind.
Despite searching for the rest of the day, the Marauder failed to find Celebi. However, he quickly formulated a new plan, ambushing the group as they attempted to return toArborville, withJessie,James, andMeowth blocking their escape route. Destroying a few trees to distract the group, the Marauder finally managed to grab Celebi with his mecha's claws, brutally electrocuting it before capturing it in a Dark Ball. Before the villain could properly relish his victory, Ash attempted to retrieve Celebi with the help of a flock of wildPidgey. Although the resulting struggle toppled the Marauder's mecha, he quickly reclaimed his Dark Ball by stepping on Ash's hands until the boy passed out.
Surrounded by angrywild Pokémon, the Iron-Masked Marauder decided to demonstrate the corrupted Celebi's power on them, sending it to attack the wild Pokémon and devastate the forest. Impressed by the resulting display, the Marauder ordered Celebi to absorb the surrounding debris, creating a spiked sphere that he proceeded to ride deeper into the forest. Along the way, he discovered that Jessie had been accidentally sucked into the construct, but welcomed her presence, stating that he needed her to witness Celebi's power and relay the information totheir boss. With that, the Marauder had Celebi transform its construct into a nightmarish monster that began laying waste to the forest and the Lake of Life, revealing his intentions to usurp Giovanni as leader of Team Rocket and conquer Team Rocket and theworld.

When Ash andhis friends arrived to try and save Celebi, the Iron-Masked Marauder directed the corrupted Pokémon's attacks against them. Ash,Pikachu, and Sam were narrowly saved from one blast by the arrival ofSuicune, prompting the Marauder to send out his Tyranitar to try and defeat it. Although the corrupted Armor Pokémon was beaten by Suicune andBrock's Onix, the Marauder remained confident as he sent Celebi to destroy them. He watched Celebi trap and torture Suicune with dark energy, but consequently missed Ash, Pikachu, and Sam's infiltration of the construct. When the electric torture paused due to Celebi fighting the Dark Ball's control, the Marauder attempted to keep Celebi on his side, reminding it that the heroes were its enemies. Ultimately, Ash and Sam's pleas won out and Celebi snapped out of its trance, destroying the Marauder's Dark Ball and knocking him into the lake when the construct collapsed.
The Iron-Masked Marauder made one final attempt to capture Celebi after its recovery, bursting out of the Lake of Life when the Pokémon flew over his hiding place. He attempted to escape with his jetpack, but Ash and Pikachu managed to grab onto his leg. While trying to kick Ash off, the Marauder was electrocuted by Pikachu'sThunderbolt, destroying his jetpack and sending all three of them plummeting. Celebi saved Ash and Pikachu with itspowers, but the Marauder was left to fall into the forest. Although he survived his fall, his mask was knocked off and his remaining Dark Balls were missing. He was last seen beingtied up by a collection of forest Pokémon and berated byDiana's grandmother. It is likely that he was arrested afterwards.
The Rise of Darkrai
He briefly reappeared in a montage inThe Rise of Darkrai, which chronicled the preceding ninemovies.
Character

The Iron-Masked Marauder is a villain with absolutely no redeeming qualities. He is malicious, dishonest, and a downright egocentric person. He values his own life above that of others, whether out of cowardice or selfishness, and has no qualms about harming others, be ithumans orPokémon, for the sake of reaching his own goals.
He has quite a reputation withinTeam Rocket, asJessie,James, andMeowth instantly recognized him and immediately started kowtowing shamelessly. The Iron-Masked Maruader is also shown to be ambitious — although he makes pretence of capturing theMythical PokémonCelebi to present it toGiovanni, his true intentions are to use its power to overthrow his boss and ruleTeam Rocket himself. To achieve his aims, he will gladly sacrifice everything and anything, including his allies and his own Pokémon. Though this later proved to be his undoing, as abandoning his Pokémon left him helpless against the angry forest Pokémon and he was finally defeated.
The Iron-Masked Marauder is skilled at hand-to-hand combat, but does not have the best balance. His primary advantages are hisDark Balls. He also uses a jetpack concealed under his cloak, and a large, four-legged mecha for transport. The mecha can generate a dark barrier to protect it from attacks, and is armed with a pair of strong tentacles tipped with jagged claws which can electrify themselves.
Pokémon
Escaped
| This article is missing information on this character's English voice actor and Japanese voice actor. Please feel free to edit this article to add this information. |
| Debut | Celebi: The Voice of the Forest |
|---|---|
| Voice actors | |
| Japanese | Katsuyuki Konishi |
| English | Eric Stuart |
The Iron-Masked Marauder sent hisScizor afterAsh andhis friends. It battled againstAsh's Bayleef. Like all of the Marauder's Pokémon, Scizor was caught with aDark Ball, having its power charged to the highest level. Despite this, Bayleef was able to defeat Scizor with aRazor Leaf-Vine Whip combo.
Later, after the Marauder was unmasked, Scizor was seen disappearing into the surrounding forest along with Sneasel, freed from the Marauder's control.
Scizor's known moves areDouble Team andQuick Attack.
| Debut | Celebi: The Voice of the Forest |
|---|---|
| Voice actors | |
| Japanese | Yumi Touma |
| English | Kayzie Rogers |
The Marauder'sSneasel was first seen during his interrogation of the oldPokémon poacher, where it freed aTyranitar for the Marauder to capture with aDark Ball. It was later deployed to go afterAsh andhis friends, battlingSam'sCharmeleon. Despite its Dark Ball-enhanced power, it was defeated by Charmeleon'sHeadbutt.
After the Marauder's final defeat, Sneasel was freed from his control, and it was last seen disappearing into the surrounding forest along withScizor.
Sneasel's only known move isSlash.
Tyranitar was originally captured by an oldPokémon poacher, who kept it caged outside along with his other captures. The Iron-Masked Marauder later specially selected Tyranitar in order to demonstrate the powers of hisDark Ball and force the old poacher to reveal the place where he had seenCelebi. It was originally rather timid – possibly due to its captivity – but the Dark Ball's influence transformed it into a violent monstrosity that lay waste to whatever its newTrainer commanded it to.
The Marauder sent his new Tyranitar to attackAsh andhis friends, who were carrying Celebi, but they got away whenJames's Weezing used itsSmokescreen to distract the Marauder. It was later sent out againstSuicune in order to weaken theLegendary Pokémon so the Marauder could capture it.Brock used hisOnix to battle Tyranitar, but the powered-up Armor Pokémon was too strong for Onix. Suicune, however, was able to defeat Tyranitar with a powerfulBubble Beam, and Onix used the last of its strength to slam Tyranitar into theLake of Life.
Later, after the Marauder was defeated, the freed Tyranitar was seen swimming through the Lake of Life and disappearing into the mist, sinkingTeam Rocket's raft on the way.
Tyranitar's only known move isHyper Beam.
| Debut | Celebi: The Voice of the Forest |
|---|---|
| Voice actors | |
| Japanese | Kazuko Sugiyama |
| English | Kazuko Sugiyama |
- Main article:Celebi (M04)
The Marauder's ultimate goal was to capture and corrupt aCelebi to use for his schemes. After searching for a long time and gaining the assistance of theTeam Rocket trio, he finally managed to capture it with hisDark Ball, turning it into a mindless engine of destruction. The Marauder used Celebi to create a huge monster out of debris in the forest, planning to destroyGiovanni and take overTeam Rocket, eventually achieving conquest of the entire world by using Celebi's powers.
However,Ash andSam managed to infiltrate the construct and negate Celebi's brainwashing by reminding it of their shared memories. This destroyed Celebi's Dark Ball, freeing it, and causing the huge "twig-monster", asJames called it, to collapse into theLake of Life. Celebi was left injured and dying from the Iron-Masked Marauder's actions, though Celebi from the future and the past restored its health. The Marauder tried yet again to snatch Celebi and attempted to fly away with his jetpack. Though Ash grabbed his feet and had hisPikachu to useThunderbolt, destroying the jetpack and freeing Celebi from the Marauder's grip.
Artwork
| Ken Sugimori's design of Iron-Masked Marauder |
Voice actors
| Language | Voice actor | |
|---|---|---|
| Japanese | 佐野史郎Shirō Sano | |
| English | Dan Green | |
| Danish | Ole Fick | |
| Finnish | Pasi Ruohonen | |
| European French | Pascal Germain | |
| German | Torsten Münchow | |
| Hebrew | צביקה שוורצברגZvika Shwartzberg | |
| Italian | Pietro Ubaldi | |
| Norwegian | Simen Sand | |
| Brazilian Portuguese | Luiz Antônio Lobue (original dub) Affonso Amajones (redub) | |
| Spanish | Latin America | Humberto Solórzano |
| Spain | Héctor Cantolla | |
| Swedish | Andreas Svensson | |
In the manga

Movie adaptations
The Iron-Masked Marauder appears in themanga adaptation of the movie, fulfilling the same role as he does in the movie.
Pokémon
The Iron-Masked Marauder caught aTyranitar in aDark Ball, instantly corrupting the Pokémon, at the oldPokémon poacher's camp in an attempt to learn of a reclusiveCelebi's whereabouts. It blew up the poacher's camp after the old poacher refused to offer up any information.
Later The Marauder used Tyranitar to help him capture Celebi near theLake of Life.Ash andhis friends tried to intervene, so the Iron-Masked Maruader called on Tyranitar to fight offBrock's Onix andSuicune, who also came to Celebi's rescue.
None of Tyranitar's moves are known.
In the TCG
This listing is of cards mentioning or featuring the Iron-Masked Marauder in thePokémon Trading Card Game.
| Related cards Cards listed with ablue background are only legal to use in the currentExpanded format. Cards listed with agreen background are legal to use in both the currentStandard andExpanded formats. | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Card | Type | English Expansion | Rarity | # | Japanese Expansion | Rarity | # |
| Rocket's Scizor | Best of Game | 4 | P Promotional cards | 002/P | |||
| Rocket's Sneasel | Best of Game | 5 | P Promotional cards | 003/P | |||
| Rocket's Tyranitar | Pokémon VS | ![]() | 142/141 | ||||
Trivia
- According to voice actor Shirō Sano, the Japanese nameVicious comes fromSid Vicious, the late bass player of the English punk rock band,Sex Pistols.
- Due to a mistranslation before the movie's release, it was mistakenly thought for a time that he was the future son of Jessie and James.
- On theNetflix website, their summary ofCelebi: The Voice of the Forest still mentions this.
- In thefilm novelization, he is simply referred to as "Iron Mask".
- In the bookPokémon Hall of Fame, he is referred to as "Iron Mask Marauder".
- The Iron-Masked Marauder is currently the only movie antagonist to be a member of avillainous team at the time of his movie, asAnnie andOakley were only members of Team Rocket in the dub, andButler had already been dismissed fromTeam Magma.
- The Iron-Masked Marauder is the first Trainer in theanimated series to havecaught aMythical Pokémon.
Names
| Language | Name | Origin |
|---|---|---|
| Japanese | ビシャスVicious | Fromvicious andSid Vicious |
| English | Iron-Masked Marauder | Fromiron,mask, andmarauder |
| German | Der Mann mit der Maske | Literally "The Man with the Iron Mask" |
| Spanish | Máscara de hierro | Literally "Iron Mask" |
| French | Chasseur Masqué | Literally "Masked Hunter" |
| Turkish | Maskeli Yağmacı | Literally "Masked Marauder" |
| Italian | Predatore Mascherato | Literally "Masked Predator" |
| Korean | 비셔스Vicious | Transcription of his Japanese name |
| Chinese (Mandarin) | 比夏斯Bǐxiàsī | Transcription of his Japanese name |
| Chinese (Cantonese) | 比剎士Beihsaatsih | Transcription of his Japanese name |
| Danish | Jernmasken fra Ban Marodøren i jernmasken* | Literally "The Iron Mask from Ban", possible referencing Azkaban, a jail in the Harry Potter universe. Literally "The Marauder in the Iron Mask" |
| Finnish | Öinen rautanaama Rautanaamioinen Ryöväri* | Literally "Nightly Iron Face" Literally "Iron-Masked Robber" |
| Norwegian | Jernmaskejegeren | Literally "The Iron Mask Hunter" |
| Brazilian Portuguese | Saqueador da Máscara de Ferro | Literally "Marauder of the Iron Mask" |
| European Portuguese | O Ladrão da Máscara de Ferro | Literally "The Thief of the Iron Mask" |
| Swedish | Järnmaskmarodören | Literally "Iron-Masked Marauder" |
| Thai | บิชาสVicious | Transcription of his Japanese name |
Related articles
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Celebi: The Voice of the Forest | |
|---|---|
| Characters | Diana •Dundee •Iron-Masked Marauder •Sam •Towa •Mr. White •Pokémon poacher Celebi •Suicune |
| Locations | Arborville •Lake of Life |
| Other | Time travel •Dark Ball |
| Soundtrack and score | Soundtrack Please Let There Be Good Weather Tomorrow (single) Pikachu the Movie Song Best 1998-2008 |
| Adaptations | Manga •Novel •Ani-Manga •Sticker Storybook |
| TCG | Celebi • Timeless Celebi (J Promo 1,10th Movie Promo) •Rocket's Celebi •Dark Celebi Rocket's Tyranitar •Rocket's Scizor •Rocket's Sneasel Kecleon •Suicune Tyranitar Half Deck •EX Hidden Legends Theme Decks |
| Merchandise | All Movies Perfect Guide Game Boy Advance special edition Pokémon House (Pokémon mate) |
| Tie-in media | Inuyama Inuko's Pokémon Hour •Pokémon.com games |
| Related animation | Pikachu's PikaBoo (Pikachu short) Professor Oak's Pokémon Lecture •Pikachu the Movie Memorial |
| This movie article is part ofProject Anime, aBulbapedia project that covers all aspects ofPokémon animation. |

