I liked this episode because it was so obviously Japanese - the Princess Day festivities, the dolls, all of it. Of course, 4Kids' perverse desire to eradicate all signs of Japanese culture from the show resulted in it being pushed back a few weeks, making it the Season 2 premiere, but still, that didn't affect the plot much - although it still bugged me that Ash and the others were walking around a city full of blank signs.
Lickitung has to be the least used Pokémon of any character in the show's history. Heck, Misty's Horsea got more exposure than this thing. I think the Japanese writers sort of wrote themselves into a corner with this one. You notice that, aside from Arbok and Weezing, most of Jessie and James' Pokémon have some kind of quirk; Victreebel going after James' head, Wobbuffet popping up at random, Cacnea giving out hugs, Seviper pulling on Jessie's hair, and Chimecho wrapping around James to be cute. Lickitung was just there - he didn't do anything really unique and basically just served as a battle tool. That's probably why they replaced him as soon as they got the opportunity, especially with a Pokémon that had so much of a running gag potential (I'm not saying that Wobbuffet's running gag is good, mind you). Come to think of it, this theory probably also explains why Jessie hardly ever uses Dustox - it was unique as a Wurmple because she had one at the same time May did (which offered the obvious "switch-up" episode plot), but then it just became a fighter and not much else.
Wow, that went further off-topic as I went on, it seems.