Ash's Kingler
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
 Ash's Kingler | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
Ash's Kingler (Japanese: サトシのキングラー Satoshi's Kingler) was the sixth Pokémon that Ash caught in the Kanto region, and his seventh overall. It was also the first of Ash's Pokémon to primarily reside at Professor Oak's Laboratory in Pallet Town.
In the anime
History
Original series
Kanto
Ash originally obtained Kingler as a Krabby in Mystery at the Lighthouse, when he became angry at Misty for saying that it was a fluke that he caught all his other Pokémon. Storming down to the beach, he discovered a minuscule Krabby and made fun of it. Krabby challenged Ash, who fought it with a nearby stick and then captured it in a Poké Ball. Having six Pokémon already in his party at the time, the newly caught Krabby's Poké Ball was immediately teleported away, much to Ash's surprise and concern. He soon learned that Krabby was sent to Professor Oak.
Ash quickly rang Oak and was initially horrified as the thought that Oak was eating his new Krabby. However, the Professor pointed out that he was actually eating tofu. Ash's initial relief changed to jealousy after Oak also revealed that Gary had also caught a Krabby, although his was far larger in size. Later, in Showdown at the Po-ké Corral, Gary actually sniggered at the sight of Krabby's miniscule size.
Krabby made its battling debut in Round One - Begin!, when Ash used it during the first round of the Pokémon League against Mandi. He reasoned that Krabby would be perfect for a battle on the water field despite Misty's protests.
It seemed at first that Misty's forebodings would prove true; Mandi's Exeggutor used Psychic to trap Krabby in a whirlpool. However, Krabby managed to escape and took control of the battle with Vise Grip. It avoided Exeggutor's Hypnosis and took victory with Leer and Stomp. The intensity of the battle caused it to evolve into a Kingler. It was able to finish the rest of the match single-handedly, defeating Mandi's Seadra by slowing it down with Bubble and before knocking it out with Crabhammer Kingler also defeated Mandi's Golbat with a Hyper Beam. This was despite Misty and Brock's real concerns about Kingler's ability to prevail against Seadra's speed and Golbat's air attacks.
Ash also used Kingler in his battle on the ice field in Fire and Ice, where Kingler defeated Pete Pebbleman's Cloyster by striking its protective shell with a fury of unrelenting Crabhammers. It went up against his Arcanine, but its Bubble was dodged by the Fire-type Pokémon, and Kingler was knocked out by a Dragon Rage.
Orange Islands
Kingler spent most of the time at Oak's lab as Ash and his his friends traveled the Orange Islands. Kingler and Muk offered to fight for Ash in the Orange Island Championship battle against Drake in Hello, Pummelo!, but Ash chose Tauros instead.
Johto
In A Farfetch'd Tale, Kingler crowded into Ash's screen with Muk, Tauros, and Snorlax to wish him luck for his next Gym battle with Whitney.
After realizing he only had one Water-type Pokémon, Totodile, Ash had Kingler rejoin his party in time for the Whirl Cup tournament in The Perfect Match!. In the second round, after Totodile's loss to Poliwhirl, Kingler knocked out Poliwhirl with a powerful one-two punch Crabhammer. However, when Ash ordered it to use Vise Grip on Psyduck, the pain gave Psyduck the ability to tap into its Psychic powers and defeat Kingler with an overwhelming Confusion attack. Kingler was sent back to Oak's lab afterward.
In Love, Pokémon Style, Ash planned to use Kingler in the Johto League Silver Conference against Macy's array of Fire Pokémon, but it was injured while rescuing a trio of runaway Voltorb, who shocked Kingler when it caught them. Nurse Joy informed Ash that Kingler would need to rest up, luckily Squirtle arrived in time to fill Kingler's spot.
Advanced Generation series
In Showdown at the Oak Corral, Kingler made a cameo appearance telling the other Pokémon about Cassidy and Butch.
In The Right Place and the Right Mime, Kingler quickly made friends with Ash's Corphish.
Best Wishes series
Kingler was reunited with Ash in The Dream Continues!, where it and the rest of Ash's Pokémon posed in a group photo with him.
Personality and characteristics
In its debut, Krabby appeared to be fiery and brash, challenging Ash to a fight despite him not even being a Pokémon. However, upon capture Krabby mellowed significantly and became a very modest and quiet Pokémon. This is most likely due to its residence with Professor Oak, who said in Showdown at the Po-ké Corral that Pokémon take on the personality of the person who spends the most time with it.
In battle, Kingler was quietly determined, not giving up against Mandi despite on face value being the underdog against all three of his Pokémon. Kingler was a very modest victor, happily hugging its Trainer, but not waving to the crowd or gloating at Mandi. These are more of Oak's traits coming through, as opposed to the rest of Ash's team. This is most likely the reason Kingler never secured a permanent position on Ash's team. It has proven strong in battle, loyal, and caring, but the very little time spent together has likely led Ash to feel more secure using his other Pokémon. Kingler, like Muk and Tauros, remains a trump card in Ash's arsenal.
Moves used
|
|||||||
| A † shows that the move was used recently, unless all moves fit this case or there are fewer than five known moves. | |||||||
In the manga
In The Electric Tale of Pikachu manga
Ash caught Kingler off-screen as a Krabby, and used it in Welcome to the Big Leagues. During the battle, it defeated a Golbat, allowing Ash to move on in the Indigo League tournament.
Moves used
|
| |||||||||
| A † shows that the move was used recently, unless all moves fit this case or there are fewer than five known moves. | ||||||||||
Trivia
- Kingler was the first Pokémon caught by Ash when he already had a full party of six Pokémon on hand. The same didn't happen again until Ash caught Sewaddle in Sewaddle and Burgh in Pinwheel Forest!, 662 episodes later.
- Kingler is the first Water-type Pokémon that Ash has owned that evolved under his ownership, and his only one until A Stealthy Challenge!, 776 episodes later.
- It also was his only evolved Water type up until the capture of Palpitoad in Facing Fear with Eyes Wide Open!.
- It is also his only fully evolved Water type that is currently under his ownership.
- Kingler is Ash's only Pokémon to win in a Pokémon League match single-handedly, excluding one-on-one matches.
- Kingler was Ash's first Pokémon to evolve during a Pokémon League match. It was also his only Pokémon to do so before his Torracat evolved into Incineroar in Fiery Surprises!, 1,007 episodes after Kingler's evolution.
- Since Kingler was injured by multiple Voltorb, it is the only one of Ash's Pokémon at the time not to participate in the Silver Conference.
- Kingler has learned every move it knows in a single episode.
- In Pokémon Yellow, a game highly based on the anime, Krabby's encounter rate is 70%, as opposed to Red and Blue's encounter rate of 33%. In addition, in Yellow only, it is possible to catch Kingler by fishing on Route 25. These additions of commonness are likely made as a reference to Ash's Kingler.
- Kingler is the only Pokémon Ash caught in his first journey through Kanto that did not appear physically or in a flashback during the Best Wishes series, only appearing in the picture at the end of The Dream Continues!.
Related articles
For more information on this Pokémon's species, see Krabby and Kingler.
| Ash's Pokémon | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| On hand: | ||||||
| Traveling with: | ||||||
| At Oak's/In rotation: | ||||||
| With Kukui/In rotation: |
||||||
| At home: | ||||||
| In training: | ||||||
| Released: | ||||||
| Temporarily owned: | ||||||
| Traded away: | ||||||
| Given away: | ||||||
| Traveled with: | ||||||
| The Power of Us only: | ||||||
| EToP only: | ||||||
| Newspaper Strip only: | ||||||
| For a list of Pokémon Ash has temporarily owned, used, or commanded, see here | ||||||
|
This article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation. |
