The Pokémon Company has issued a statement asking fans to “refrain from criticising or slandering” the illustrator behind two card designs removed from Pokémon TCG Pocket following plagiarism allegations.

The controversy began when The Pokémon Company pulled two cards from the mobile game’s Wisdom of Sea and Sky expansion after fan artist lanjiujiu posted comparison images showing similarities between the Ho-Oh immersive card artwork and their own 2021 commissioned artwork.

Fans accused the company of plagiarising the artist’s work, with some creating comparison videos suggesting the design had been “traced” without credit.

The accusations prompted calls for legal action against The Pokémon Company.

In response, The Pokémon Company initially acknowledged a “production issue” with the Ho-Oh illustrations on July 29, stating that the card production team had provided “incorrect materials as official documents to the illustrator commissioned to create these cards.”

The company has since released a more detailed statement on Pokémon TCG Pocket’s Japanese social media account, taking full responsibility for the incident.

The statement clarified that the plagiarism occurred when the card production team at The Pokémon Company and Creatures Inc. provided the illustrator with incorrect concept sketches.

“While most illustrations are typically created with the illustrator’s creativity and individuality in mind, some illustrations are requested to be cleaned up from concept sketches created by the card production team,” the company explained.

“This incident occurred in the latter case, where the card production team provided incorrect concept sketches.”

The Pokémon Company emphasised that the illustrator “faithfully followed the client’s request” and should not be held responsible for the plagiarism.

Both affected cards have been replaced with temporary placeholders displaying “New Art Coming Soon” messages while the company works on replacement artwork.

The company has launched a broader investigation into the game’s card design processes and pledged “more thorough quality control to prevent recurrence” of similar incidents.

The statement concluded with apologies to both fans and illustrators who support Pokémon card production, as the controversy highlights the complex production processes behind trading card artwork and the potential for errors in the creative pipeline.