James Carter Cathcart, the voice actor behind the iconic Pokemon characters like Professor Oak, his greatson Gary, and James and Meowth of Team Rocket—retires from the anime after 25 years due to an advanced form of cancer.

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You probably heard Cathcart’s voice, even if you weren’t looking at the Pokemon anime since its introduction in 1998. While portraying the great professor Samuel Oakson Gary from day one (as well as Oak himself and Team Rocket’s James and Meowth since 2006), Cathcart’s voice can be heard in several classic anime. She has performed in shows like Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel of Monsters as the bowl cut duelist understory weevil, Kirby: Back in Ya! like the senile gentleman gallant lord, sonic x like music lover Vector the crocodileand even One piece as the Black Cats Pirates officer sissy. Cathcart’s voice has also appeared in a few games, including pokemon snap, valkyrie profile, Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monster Colosseum, shadow the hedgehogand—listen to this—super smash bros brawl As the Pokemon munchlax. In short, Cathcart is prolific when it comes to his craft and talent. It’s sad to hear that cancer is tormenting you right now.

Cathcart has an advanced form of throat cancer

The news comes from CaringBridge, a website that acts as a personal journal for families to communicate health updates online. A page for Cathcart appeared in January, where his wife Martha announced that the advanced cancer started on her tongue and spread to her neck. She said the cancer was treatable and that Cathcart was receiving chemotherapy treatments to shrink the tumor. Unfortunately, according to a new post on April 17, the two learned that Cathcart’s tumor “did not respond to induction chemotherapy” and that doctors believed a more aggressive chemotherapy approach was necessary. It is scheduled to start around May 1, with “seven weeks of radiation therapy, five days a week.” [and] concurrent chemotherapy at weeks one, four, and seven.”

Probably due to the arduous medical treatments that awaited him, Cathcart decided to retire from Pokemon.

“[Cathcart] has decided to retire from script adaptation and voice dubbing to Pokemon USA, as of the conclusion of Season 25,” Martha wrote. She’s been on the series since the very first episode, so it’s a timely decision as the series transitions to new characters and storylines. […] We remain forever grateful for your love, thoughts, comments, ‘hearts’, prayers and well wishes.”

Called “Ultimate Journeys”, the 25th season of the Pokemon The anime ended on March 24 in Japan and saw Ash Ketchum walk off into the sunset. Meanwhile, season 26’s “Horizons” kicked off on April 14. Based on Scarlet and Violet, this season introduces new coaches and minor characters like Professor Friede and Captain Pikachu. However, it will be a while before Horizons makes its English dub debut, as The Pokémon Company ends your new license agreement with Netflix.

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I hope that the treatment goes well and that Cathcart returns to the industry in good health.