Are you curious about what happened to Ho-Oh and Lugia’s artwork in Pokemon TCG Pocket? We compiled the entire story so that everyone can understand the reason behind such a peculiar event.
If you’re lucky enough to pull any of the Immersive Rares during the early days of Pokemon TCG Pocket’s Wisdom of Sea and Sky set, you might notice that instead of the usual cool, animated artwork, you end up with a card featuring a blank space and the text “New Art Coming Soon.”
Now, we’re all thinking the same thing: why would Pokemon TCG Pocket release a set with cards that don’t even have their artwork ready?
Apparently, someone or a team behind the mobile version of the popular card game messed up, and here’s what really happened after fans were left flabbergasted by the blank cards they pulled.
More content from PokeCardHQ:
- How to Get Japanese Cards in Pokemon TCG Pocket
- How to Log Out of Pokemon TCG Pocket?
- 5 Tips on How to Get More Packs in Pokemon TCG Pocket for Free
- 15 Pokemon TCG Pocket Memes
The Story Behind Ho-Oh and Lugia’s Artwork in Pokemon TCG Pocket
A day before the release of Wisdom of Sea and Sky, fans are already enjoying some sneak peeks of what the Immersive Rare cards of Ho-Oh ex and Lugia ex would look like, after some dataminers leaked the images online.
After the cards made their way to X, a fan artist by the name of lanjiujiu quickly reacted to the artwork depicted on the cards, particularly the Ho-Oh ex. As they posted on X, lanjiujiu pointed out that the artwork suspiciously looks like a traced version of one of his previous works depicting Ho-Oh and a group of Flying-type Pokemon.
The Pokemon TCG Pocket community quickly took notice, even confirming that when lanjiujiu’s artwork is overlaid on the new Immersive Rare’s art, the similarities are indeed striking.
The developers of Pokemon TCG Pocket quickly responded in order to protect the reputation of the artist who made the Immersive Rare artwork for Ho-Oh ex and Lugia ex, SIE NANAHARA.
Pokemon TCG Pocket’s Side on the Artwork Issue
This incident is probably one of the rarest cases where leaks became helpful to the creators of a popular game.
Since there was still time to patch things up, the Pokemon TCG Pocket developers decided to remove the intended artwork for the Immersive Rares of Ho-Oh ex and Lugia ex. This obviously left the community shocked when they received completely blank cards.
Later on, the Pokemon TCG Pocket team made an announcement regarding the new illustrations of Ho-Oh ex and Lugia ex. They described the problem as a “production issue,” explaining that their employees who are in charge of card production gave the artist an incorrect reference.
While the team is working on the new artwork for Ho-Oh ex and Lugia ex, they temporarily added a placeholder to the cards so that players can still pull them even without the artwork.
Based on the follow-up announcements from Pokemon TCG Pocket after their initial statement, they further explained that as per their usual protocol, illustrators are encouraged to use their creativity and skill when working with the artwork for the game.
However, the production team gave an instruction to SIE NANAHARA to redraw one of their concept sketches for Ho-Oh ex, which is clearly the work of another artist who had no idea about the project.
Clearing SIE NANAHARA’s name
To prevent SIE NANAHARA from garnering backlash on social media, Pokemon TCG Pocket wholeheartedly accepted that the fault lies with them and not with the artist. Many people in the community expressed sympathy for SIE NANAHARA and hope that SIE won’t get any more harassment.
SIE NANAHARA is one of Pokemon TCG’s trusted illustrators and was the one behind the amazing illustrations of Hisuian Zoroark VSTAR from Crown Zenith and the Promo card of Greninja ex from the Scarlet and Violet Promo set.
Final Thoughts and Latest Updates
As of writing this post, the Immersive Rares for Ho-Oh ex and Lugia ex aren’t empty anymore; they have been replaced with new ones, which are still made by SIE NANAHARA.
The new artwork for Ho-Oh and Lugia are connected, so feel free to collect them both if you have enough hourglasses to open lots of Wisdom of Sea and Sky packs.
The artwork issue in Pokemon TCG Pocket can be considered an isolated incident, although only time will tell if this problem will occur again in the future.
The Pokemon franchise, after all, is already a part of modern mainstream culture, and many aspiring artists are eager to contribute their talents to a brand that has influenced generations of players and collectors.
Did you have any of the Immersive Rare Ho-Oh ex and Lugia ex in your digital Pokemon card collection? What do you think about this story? Let us know in the comments section below!
