Jessie's Lickitung (Japanese: ムサシのベロリンガMusashi's Beroringa) was the second PokémonJessie appears with in Kanto. Lickitung was the first Pokémon Jessie was shown to catch, and is the first Pokémon to have been caught by Team Rocket in the anime.
Jessie unaware that her Lickitung has been traded to Benny
In Princess vs. Princess, during the Princess Festival Jessie had bought a large amount of food and gifts for Giovanni due to the discounts, when a wild Lickitung came along and ate her food and some of the gifts. Jessie sent out her Arbok, only for it to be stunned by being licked by Lickitung. In a fit of rage, Jessie threw a Poké Ball at the Lickitung, successfully catching it. In the same episode, Lickitung was Jessie's forgotten weapon in the finals of the Queen of the Princess Festival contest against Misty. After stunning and defeating a borrowed Pikachu, Bulbasaur and Vulpix by licking them, Lickitung was defeated by Psyduck's Confusion after ignoring Jessie's command for Tackle due to hunger, resulting in Misty winning the contest. This was the only time Jessie used Lickitung in Kanto.
Jessie used Lickitung rather sparingly for the rest of its time under her possession, making the pink Pokémon her second option, after Arbok. Thus, it was one of the least used Pokémon that was owned by a main character. It most often appeared alongside Arbok, Weezing and Victreebel when Jessie and James used all four of their Pokémon in battle.
In Pikachu Re-Volts, Lickitung was used for the first time since its capture, being used to try to steal the Pokémon Butch and Cassidy stole. Lickitung, along with the rest of Team Rocket's Pokémon, were hypnotized by Butch and Cassidy's Drowzee.
In In the Pink, Lickitung was called out to help lick up all the pink Pokémon on Pinkan Island. James made a comment on how Lickitung was a pink Pokémon, but Lickitung had always been pink. Lickitung chases two Nidoran into a cave, but runs out again after angering a pink Nidoking. Later the Nidoking sends Lickitung and all the rest blasting off.
Johto
Benny with his new Lickitung
In Tricks of the Trade, Lickitung was accidentally traded by Jessie to a Trainer named Benny for his Wobbuffet during a commotion at the Pokémon Swap Meet. As Team Rocket's scheme to steal Pokémon with a rigged trading device is discovered by the crowd, Lickitung's Poké Ball was dropped into the trading machine when Jessie was knocked backwards by the Magikarp salesman who was escaping James, and is swapped with Benny's Poké Ball already in the machine; the person Benny had been planning to trade with had changed his mind at the last minute. Jessie soon realized the trade when she sent Lickitung out to battle Ash, and the passive Wobbuffet emerged instead.
Lickitung was seen living happily with Benny towards the end of this episode, and Benny tells Ash and friends to "thank the lady who traded him Lickitung". However, there is no indication that Ash and his friends ever identified the Lickitung as Jessie's old Pokémon, nor that Jessie's new Wobbuffet was originally Benny's. Lickitung and Benny have not been seen since in the anime.
Personality and characteristics
In its debut it was shown to be very gluttonous, eating all of the food Jessie bought for their boss. It was also shown to follow its own rules, ignoring Jessie's commands and stealing food without a second thought (though the Japanese version implied with the former that it disobeyed Jessie because of hunger). Lickitung is a strong battler as seen in its debut when it took out Pikachu, Bulbasaur and Vulpix with just one lick each (with the Japanese version strongly implying that it wasn't even fighting seriously). Lickitung, much like James's Victreebel, showed its affection for its Trainer rather openly. Lickitung licked Jessie's face on several occasions, but not nearly as often as the running gag of Victreebel latching onto James's head occurred. It didn't appear to have much of a bond with Jessie despite this, due to its lack of appearances, and it didn't seem upset about being traded to Benny.
