Pokémon TCG illustrator SIE NANAHARA has received severe criticism after having supposedly plagiarized a piece of Pokémon fanart for an illustration for Pokémon TCG Pocket, the mobile game based on the Pokémon TCG.

The original artist, who is from China and goes by the handle “lanjiujiu”, took to Twitter to highlight the similarities between the fanart and the illustration of the Ho-Oh ex card in question shortly before the card’s release as part of the Wisdom of Sea and Sky expansion set on 30 July 2025; dataminers had leaked card images in advance.

NANAHARA, who has been illustrating Pokémon TCG cards since 2022, allegedly traced over “lanjiujiu”‘s art to create the card’s image. Word of this supposed act of plagiarism spread throughout the Pokémon TCG community, eventually driving The Pokémon Company to remove that card from the game as well as the Lugia card which featured the main image of the Ho-Oh card in its background. The Pokémon Company also released a statement on the matter; notably, it claimed that the alleged plagiarism was the result of improper reference materials rather than being an act of deliberate plagiarism.

Until further notice, the two cards have been replaced with placeholder images.

NANAHARA, whose most well-known work is the Special Art Rare (SAR) Hisuian Zoroark VSTAR card from VSTAR Universe [S12a], is yet to comment on the matter.

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