The latest Pokemon TCG Pocket set, The Wisdom of Sea and Sky, arrived today, bringing with it a bunch of cards based on Pokemon Gold and Silver. That included a pair of Ho-Oh and Luiga immersive art cards, except it appears that the art for the Ho-Oh card may have actually traced over some commissioned fan art from 2021.
The artist behind the fan art Lanjiujiu shared a comparison between their art and the Pokemon TCG Pocket card, with the Ho-Oh looking nearly identical between them. In turn, The Pokemon Company has released a statement acknowledging the issue.
“It has come to our attention that there was a production issue regarding the illustration of Ho-Oh featured in the immersive card artwork for Ho-Oh EX (3-Star) and Lugia EX (3-Star),” the statement explains. “After internal review, we discovered that the card production team provided incorrect materials as official documents to the illustrator commissioned to create these cards. As a result, both cards have been replaced with a temporary placeholder that the team is actively working to replace with new artwork as soon as it’s ready.”
It also notes that a “broader investigation” is underway to make sure that there is no other plagiarised art in the game. The cards are still available to pull in-game, but as shown by some users online, instead of any art there is just text that reads “New Art Coming Soon.”
Lanjiujui also released a statement earlier today following The Pokemon Company’s, thanking it for its “attentiveness and swift action in removing the image.”
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