Rewatching this episode on the PokemonTV Youtube channel since it first aired in the U.S. when I was a kid... this episode is absurd. After multiple episodes stressing the importance of Ash needing to train for the Pokemon League and Misty & Brock warning Ash for the duration of the episode how important it is he choose 3 well trained Pokemon instead of Krabby who's "never battled" before -- he completely annihilates a trainer using only Krabby/Kingler with zero strategy and subpar attacks like Harden, Leer, and Stomp. Is it supposed to be ironic? I don't get it. As great as it was watching Ash finally use Krabby and its (very unearned) evolution -- both of which I still remember from the first time I watched it 25 years ago -- it really shows the vastly wasted potential of this anime series that could have drawn out this interesting Kingler/Ash arch over the course of several episodes rather than the many junky forgettable filler episodes in this season. But instead they crammed it into the last 1/3rd of an episode where they spend more time on Team Rocket's tomfoolery and Brock talking about his favorite Officer Jennys. Looking back on these episodes I realize how much wasted potential this series was. Each episode is an art in how to waste 20 minutes for 1 minute of really cool action