A new Pokémon TCG Pocket set day is always an exciting day, but the release of new set Wisdom of Sea and Sky has seen two of the most anticipated cards being pulled with immediate effect. Both of the immersive cards, Ho-Oh ex, and Lugia ex, have been replaced with temporary place holders while they are replaced with new art.
Chinese artist lanjiujiu on twitter shared their own fan-art of Ho-Oh in 2021, and is alleging that the new Immersive Card is traced from their own art.
Here is the now withdrawn Ho-Oh ex immersive card artwork:
Here is lanjiujiu’s 2021 artwork:
And here is a comparison between lanjiujiu’s 2021 artwork, and the card art.
The artist is alleging that the Ho-Oh is traced from their own artwork, and have contacted the Pokémon Company asking for the situation to be dealt with. The unique post, along with the curves, wing spacing, perspective and feather size all seem to directly correspond.
The Lugia ex has also been withdrawn, but does not appear to be facing any direct plagiarism allegations at this time. It does however feature the Ho-Oh in it’s animation, so also needs updating.
Here is the Pokémon Company official statement:
“To our community,
Thank you for your continued support and passion for Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket.
We want to share an important update regarding the upcoming expansion, Wisdom of Sea and Sky. 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).
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.
We are also conducting a broader investigation to ensure no similar issues exist elsewhere in the game.
To all our players who have been looking forward to this expansion, and to the talented illustrators who bring the Pokémon world to life, we deeply apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. We take this matter very seriously and are committed to strengthening our quality control processes to prevent this from happening again.
Thank you for your understanding, patience, and continued support of Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket. We remain dedicated to delivering an experience that you can enjoy.”
