Pokémon fans are accusing the creators of Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket of plagiarism after artwork created by a fan in 2021 was seemingly used for a card in new expansion Wisdom of Sea and Sky. That expansion pack, officially due out Wednesday, allegedly includes a new Immersive Card featuring Legendary Pokémon Ho-Oh which appears to use traced fan art.
Chinese artist lanjiujiu posted on social media a few images comparing their commissioned fan art of Ho-Oh from 2021 to a datamined official card, credited to artist Sie Nanahara, coming to the mobile game with the Wisdom of Sea and Sky add-on. The similarities are remarkable. The apparent duplication (and the lack of credit toward lanjiujiu) quickly caught the attention of the Pokémon fandom.
Immersive Cards in Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket feature animations. The image of Ho-Oh in question is featured in both that Pokémon card and an Immersive Card for Lugia.
lanjiujiu’s Ho-Oh artwork was originally commissioned, apparently by PC House Studio, a company known for selling unofficial anime and gaming character models. Although fans are largely on the side of the fan artist, some have pointed out that The Pokémon Company claims it has legal rights to do what it wants with designs created by fans.
“Distribution in any form and any channels now known or in the future of derivative works based on the copyrighted property trademarks, service marks, trade names and other proprietary property (Fan Art) of The Pokémon Company International, Inc., its affiliates and licensors (Pokémon) constitutes a royalty-free, non-exclusive, irrevocable, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license from the Fan Art’s creator to Pokémon to use, transmit, copy, modify, and display Fan Art (and its derivatives) for any purpose,” reads the publicly available legal information on the official Pokémon website. The Pokémon Company knows people will use its characters to make fan art, so it call dibs on using and revamping the ones that go viral or look really good.
Artist Sie Nanahara has worked on artwork for multiple Pokémon trading card game cards in the past. Mobile game Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket is developed by Creatures Inc. and DeNA.
The situation seems similar to the Marvel Snap plagiarism accusations earlier this year, where an artist called out the dev team for using fan art he created in 2018. More recently, another accusation saw comparisons from The Ancient One’s art from Japan’s 2012 tokusatsu drama Kamen Rider Wizard.
Fans have urged lanjiujiu to pursue action, but so far there’s no indication the artist will — and given The Pokémon Company’s legal power, it seems unlikely he’ll get far.
Polygon has contacted The Pokémon Company for comment and will update when the company responds.