Pok\u00e9mon fans are accusing the creators of Pok\u00e9mon 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 Pok\u00e9mon Ho-Oh which appears to use traced fan art.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>. The similarities are remarkable. The apparent duplication (and the lack of credit toward lanjiujiu) quickly caught the attention of the Pok\u00e9mon fandom.<\/p>\n Immersive Cards in Pok\u00e9mon Trading Card Game Pocket feature animations. The image of Ho-Oh in question is featured in both that Pok\u00e9mon card and an Immersive Card for Lugia.<\/p>\n lanjiujiu\u2019s 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 Pok\u00e9mon Company claims it has legal rights to do what it wants with designs created by fans.<\/p>\n \u201cDistribution 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 Pok\u00e9mon Company International, Inc., its affiliates and licensors (Pok\u00e9mon) constitutes a royalty-free, non-exclusive, irrevocable, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license from the Fan Art\u2019s creator to Pok\u00e9mon to use, transmit, copy, modify, and display Fan Art (and its derivatives) for any purpose,\u201d reads the publicly available legal information<\/a> on the official Pok\u00e9mon website. The Pok\u00e9mon 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.<\/p>\n Artist Sie Nanahara has worked on artwork for multiple Pok\u00e9mon trading card game cards in the past. Mobile game Pok\u00e9mon Trading Card Game Pocket is developed by Creatures Inc. and DeNA.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>. More recently, another accusation saw comparisons from The Ancient One\u2019s art from Japan\u2019s 2012 tokusatsu drama Kamen Rider Wizard<\/a>.<\/p>\n