The Pokémon Plagiarism Controversy

Update 07/30/2025: Pokémon TCG Pocket has replaced Ho-Oh and Lugia cards with placeholders following this story. The new cards simply say “New Art Coming Soon”. The Pokémon Company says the issue was due to the artist receiving incorrect reference materials, not deliberate plagiarism.

To call Pokémon a global phenomenon would be a dramatic understatement. It is literally the most lucrative media franchise active right now and is valued at more than Star Wars and Marvel combined.

The brand has found success in film, video games and merchandising. One of the cornerstones of its success has been the mobile gaming market. That is where Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket (Pokémon TCG Pocket) has become a significant success for the brand.

However, a long-awaited expansion for the game is causing controversy just one day before its release. Leaks and press photos touting the expansion, entitled Wisdom of Sea and Sky, hint that one of the most important pieces of art in the pack may have been traced from a work of fan art.

While it would be easy to dismiss this as sour grapes from a fan artist, the evidence is strong. It clearly indicates that, at the very least, something is amiss with this artwork.

However, that doesn’t mean that the artist has much recourse. Worst of all, it doesn’t mean that The Pokémon is alone in facing exactly this kind of problem.

The Story So Far

In December 2021, X (formerly Twitter) user @lanjiujiu shared some Pokémon fan art to their account. These works included a rendering of the Pokémon Ho-Oh, a bird-like creature that is orange and yellow.

For the most part, the artwork was well-received but not incredibly popular. However, over the past few days and weeks, leaks about the Wisdom of Sea and Sky expansion have been appearing online. This included renderings of the expansion’s version of Ho-Oh.

This prompted @lanjiujiu to post on their X account side-by-sides of their art against the official renderings. This prompted another user, @KetX2L, to note that @lanjiujiu’s art was also the basis for a “bootleg fig maker’s” rendering of the Pokémon.

User @KertX2L claimed that the artwork was most likely lifted from that fake figurine rather than directly from @lanjiujiu’s work.

However, a different user, @Lewchube, posted a short video showing the official Pokémon TCG Pocket overlayed with @lanjiujiu’s work. The result was a perfect fit.

The new Pokémon TCG Pocket Immersive Ho-Oh artwork appears to be traced from 2021 fan-art by lanjiujiu.

Entire perspective, wing shape and overall feather size are largely identical. pic.twitter.com/K8aVrERq6r

— Lewtwo (@Lewchube) July 29, 2025

The Pokémon Company, which manages the rights for Pokémon and is jointly owned by Nintendo, Game Freak and Creatures, has not responded to the allegations.

So what can @lanjiujiu do in this situation? Probably not much.

Shadenfreude and Sympathy

For many, this incident is a moment of schadenfreude when it comes to both The Pokémon Company and Nintendo.

Both companies are notoriously litigious when they feel their rights are violated. Starting in early 2024, both companies began to target Pocketpair over their hugely successful game Palworld. This culminated in a patent lawsuit filed in September of that year.

But it goes even beyond that. Looking just at Pokémon, they have also targeted cheatmakers with legal threats, shuttered fan-created games and filed takedown notices against YouTubers discussing the TV show.

Now Nintendo is on the other foot. They’re the ones accused of infringing. However, a legal war is highly unlikely, regardless of what Nintendo does next.

First, as we’ve discussed before, fan art is a complicated space legally. Though most creators tolerate fan art, it is technically an unlicensed derivative work. Though @lanjiujiu can easily show how their work was copied, The Pokémon Company and DeNA can just as easily argue @lanjiujiu’s “original” work was also an infringement.

While they are unlikely to do that, it highlights the complexities of this space. Worst of all, this says nothing about challenging a behemoth like The Pokémon Company in court.

Still, that doesn’t mean that there’s no problem here for The Pokémon Company. These posts have received over a million views, and the community backlash is potentially severe. Though we won’t know the impact until the expansion formally releases, this is still publicity that The Pokémon Company neither wants nor needs.

However, they have no shortage of examples to learn from.

When Companies Plagiarize Their Fans

The Pokémon Company is far from alone in being accused of plagiarizing from fan creations.

Wizards of the Coast, makers of both Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons, have had multiple incidents of artists copying fan creations.

Similarly, video game developer Bungie has faced numerous allegations of using fan art in various capacities, including in a toy gun co-developed with Hasbro.

Just a few months ago, Marvel faced allegations that it used fan art for cards in the game Marvel Snap.

In all the cases, the solution was essentially the same: Make amends with the fan artist and then announce new policies to prevent future plagiarism (even if those policies are ineffective).

Wizards of the Coast, for example, seems to have this down to an art form. They’ve had enough of these cases that they can quickly change the attribution and work out deals with begrudged artists.

However, by all accounts, this is The Pokémon Company’s first encounter with this. Although this is positive, as they have dealt with fewer issues, it also means they lack experience. In short, we don’t know how they’ll handle this, and their silence up to this point is troubling.

The smart play here is obvious. Reach out to @lanjiujiu and strike a deal that includes attribution and some form of compensation, and then work to prevent future issues. Though they aren’t in the same place as Wizards of the Coast or Bungie, there are cracks in their process that need to be patched.

It’s a simple solution that The Pokémon Company could use to build some goodwill. That’s something they could use ahead of this launch.

Bottom Line

It’s obvious that something went awry here. The Pokémon Company screwed up and, somehow, traced fan art made it into a final product. Given how aggressive both The Pokémon Company and its owners have been on copyright matters, this puts them in a difficult position.

To be clear, being aggressive about protecting your rights is fine. However, one of the drawbacks is that when you cross a line yourself, it becomes that much more embarrassing.

Still, this could represent an opportunity for The Pokémon Company. If they handle this with grace, it will likely blow over and be nothing but a footnote to the release. Even better, they might earn some goodwill, especially if they aren’t directly responsible.

But if they blow this, it may become something that follows them. Every time they make a headline for enforcing their intellectual property, people will be reminded of this story.

That said, would it matter for The Pokémon Company if they were? As we discussed at the beginning, this is currently the most lucrative franchise in the world. This speed bump isn’t likely to change who buys Pokémon games, toys and more.

But they still ignore this at their own risk. As Wizards of the Coast and Bungie learned, how you respond to the first allegations matters greatly when you’re facing your second or third.

So none of this changes the smart move. Address this situation by making things right with the original artist, apologizing to the fans, and explaining what happened, as well as how you are preventing it in the future.

Though this likely won’t be a major deal either way, addressing it now ensures that the issue will not fester or linger.