Following severe online backlash regarding the new immersive Ho-Oh ex and Lugia ex cards, Pokémon TCG Pocket has removed the two three-star artworks and replaced them with placeholder text. This is due to the card’s artist tracing fan art of Ho-Oh, which constitutes art theft.
On July 29, just one day before the new Pokémon TCG Pocket packs, Wisdom of Sea and Sky, were due to launch, fan artist lanjiujiu pointed out glaring similarities between their illustration of Ho-Oh from 2021 and the new immersive card for the legendary in Pokémon TCG Pocket. They provided a speed paint video of their process creating the original artwork, which features Ho-Oh and several other flying Pokémon.
It’s clear that Pokémon takes this issue very seriously, as today, Pokémon TCG Pocket released a statement addressing the offending artwork and removing it from the game. According to the statement, “after internal review, [Pokémon TCG Pocket] discovered that the card production team provided incorrect reference materials as official documents to the illustrator.” Pokémon is famously very protective of its character designs, so card artists referencing or even tracing official artwork to ensure fidelity is to be expected. In this situation, the card artist, Sie Nanahara, used the resources that Pokémon incorrectly gave to her.
MORE FROM POCKET TACTICS: Pokémon TCG Pocket tier list, Pokémon TCG Pocket friend codes, Pokémon TCG Pocket decks
