Pokémon Pocket has removed the artwork for the flagship cards from its latest set, leaving the Immersive Rare cards for Ho-oh and Lugia amusingly bare. Instead of the gorgeous animated art that fans who open these high rarity cards would expect, they'll be greeted with text promising "New Art Coming Soon".
This comes a day after fans kicked up a storm on social media, pointing out similarities between the Ho-oh card's artwork and a fan illustration by a Chinese artist. Indeed, the outlines of the two pieces look like a near-exact match, overlapping pretty precisely.
It wouldn't be the first time a prolific TCG card artist has been accused of plagiarism, but The Pokémon Company's statement seems to absolve the Pocket artist Sie Nanahara, whose work also appears on some pretty iconic physical Pokémon cards like Shrouded Fable's Greninja promo, of blame.
The Pokémon Pocket Twitter account said an internal review had revealed the card production team provided the illustrator with "incorrect reference material as official documents". It goes on to say the team is now conducting a wider investigation to ensure there aren't similar issues for other cards in the game.
The statement that will greet players on the app simply refers to "inadequacies in the illustration of Ho-oh".
Pokémon Pocket stated that the art would be replaced with a 'temporary placeholder' until a new animated work could be provided. As we already noted, that placeholder seems to just be plain text.
Lugia has also come a cropper, despite no complaints being made about that card's artwork. That's presumably because the animation shows it soaring up towards the problematic Ho-oh.
After The Pokémon Company took action, the fan artist responsible for the original Ho-oh art posted their thanks to Twitter, writing "I appreciate the prompt resolution and hope this matter rests here".
We'll have to see what the new art looks like and how long it takes The Pokémon Company and DeNA to replace the piece. Obviously, you'd assume producing an animated card is much more time consuming than a flat image. It'll also be interesting to see if the Lugia is spared, given that no complaints were raised about it.
And of course, we'll be waiting with interest to see what that internal review turns up. What a mess!
Come and joint the conversation in the Wargamer Discord. And don't miss our guide to the best Pokémon cards in the new set. If you collect physical cards as well, you can also check out our guide to most expensive rare Pokémon cards.