Pokémon Company Requests Fans to Halt Criticism of Illustrator Amidst Plagiarism Allegations in Pokémon TCG Pocket

The Pokémon Company has urged its fans to cease criticising the illustrator responsible for the designs of two Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket cards that were pulled due to plagiarism claims. The controversy began when fan artist lanjiujiu shared comparison images of their 2021 commission artwork and the new Ho-Oh design in the Wisdom of Sea and Sky expansion, highlighting the similarities between the two. Following the allegations, The Pokémon Company issued a statement acknowledging a production issue with the Ho-Oh illustration and revealed that the card production team had provided the illustrator with incorrect materials. As a result, the company is conducting an investigation into the card design process and has temporarily replaced the affected cards with placeholders. In a recent update, The Pokémon Company reiterated that the defects were caused by the card production team providing incorrect official materials to the illustrator. The company explained that while most illustrations are created with the illustrator's individuality in mind, some are based on concept sketches provided by the production team. The Pokémon Company has taken full responsibility for the incident and asked fans to refrain from criticising the illustrator, who they claim followed the client's request. The company has apologised for the inconvenience caused to fans and illustrators, and has pledged to improve quality control to prevent similar incidents in the future.