The Pokémon Company has asked players to stop harassing the illustrator responsible for two TCG Pocket card designs which have been removed following accusations of plagiarism.
Earlier this week the mobile game received its latest update, Wisdom of Sea & Sky, but before it launched Chinese artist @lanjiujiu noted on X that artwork they had previously created of Ho-Oh appeared to have been used as the basis for one of the new cards in the expansion.
removing the design of both the Ho-Oh EX and Lugia EX cards for now, replacing them with a placeholder image which simply says “New Art Coming Soon”.
During its initial statement, The Pokémon Company explained that it had provided the cards’ illustrator with “incorrect reference materials”, but it appears that fans have continued to harass the illustrator and accuse them of plagiarism.
Now The Pokémon Company has stepped in again to stress that the fault lies with its own card production team, and not the illustrator.
In a new statement posted on the Japanese 『Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket』ホウオウex（★3）、ルギアex（★3）に関するお願い pic.twitter.com/Q28OTfw3ga
— ポケポケ【公式】（Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket） (@PokemonTCGP_JP) July 31, 2025
“The issue with the illustrations was caused by the card production team at The Pokémon Company and Creatures, Inc providing incorrect materials to the illustrators as official references. All responsibility lies with the commissioning party.
“While many illustrations are created with a strong focus on the illustrator’s creativity and individuality, in some cases, the card production team may request that illustrators simply recreate the concept sketches provided by the production team.
“In this case, the issue arose because the card production team provided the illustrator with incorrect concept sketches, and the illustrator faithfully created the artwork in accordance with the client’s requests. Therefore, we kindly ask that you refrain from criticizing or slandering the illustrator in question.
“We would like to once again offer our deepest apologies for the inconvenience caused to all the fans who support Pokémon on a daily basis, and to all the illustrators who have contributed to the creation of Pokémon cards. We will continue to strive for even more thorough quality control and to prevent recurrence, so that everyone can enjoy Pokémon Card Games with peace of mind.”
Following the initial removal of the card designs, the artist @lanjiujiu said they were “grateful for the prompt resolution” and hoped the matter could be put to rest.
