When the anime was just getting started in the late ’90s, Takeshi Shudo, one of the original writers on the show and the driving force behind the creation of the Team Rocket trio, wrote two audio dramas that were released in Japan only: It’s a White Tomorrow, Team Rocket! in 1998 and The Birth of Mewtwo in 1999.

Audio dramas (common in anime) are essentially “extra” episodes presented like a radio show instead of being animated, often written by the show writer(s) and always recorded by the characters’ actual voice actors. The events in these two Team Rocket CD dramas have never been firmly contradicted by anything that’s happened later on the actual show, and they give interesting backstory for several characters, so many fans consider them canon to the rest of the anime.

“Mondo” is the name of a junior rank Team Rocket agent in the White Tomorrow audio drama, and as he doesn’t have an English name, I tag stuff of his with the Japanese one. Other characters who are exclusive to these dramas are Miyamoto (Jessie’s mom, a Rocket agent who went missing while in pursuit of Mew) and Madame Boss (Giovanni’s mom, and the former head of anime Team Rocket before her “brat boy” took over the family business).