Last week, controversy erupted around the art for an animated card in Pokémon TCG Pocket‘s latest set, Wisdom of Sea and Sky, where a drawing of legendary monster Ho-Oh looked almost identical to that of a piece of commissioned art by a Chinese creator. The Pokémon Company swiftly apologized, and announced the art for both the “immersive” Ho-Oh and Lugia cards would be temporarily pulled from the new set, while making it extremely clear that the fault for the issue did not lie with the artist. Now, both cards have been added to the mobile app, with new art by the same artist.
Every set of cards in Pocket comes with at least one so-called immersive card: a card that when tapped on comes to life, showing a short but elaborate animation that eventually loops back around to the original image. They’re absolutely magical, and offer something real-life cards could obviously never do. For Wisdom of Sea, those cards were intended to feature legendary Pokémon Ho-oh and Lugia, the two mascot characters from 2000’s Pokémon Gold and Silver. However, when the artist whose Ho-Oh drawing had been so clearly been copied drew attention to this, both immersive cards were pulled from the set at the eleventh hour–the result being both cards featuring nothing but some placeholder text and a black screen instead of an animation. It was clearly embarrassing for the company. TPCi made it clear at the time that the responsibility for the issue lay entirely with themselves, providing dodgy reference materials for the artist to work with.
It was odd at the time that both cards were pulled, given no accusations had been made about the Lugia art, but today’s new cards feature a brand new piece of art for that Pokémon too, suggesting TPCi noticed something had been amiss there.
That’s all been fixed now, with both cards added to the set overnight, featuring a brand new pieces of Ho-Oh and Lugia art from the same artist, the excellent Sie Nanahara. When you launch the app today, a very small patch will be added, and if you already pulled the cards you’ll find the new art and animations will appear.
We’d like to share a new update with you. Please take a look. pic.twitter.com/Gh6wgL7G3Z
— Pokémon TCG Pocket (@PokemonTCGP) August 8, 2025
By sheer luck I’d pulled both immersive cards already, so when I started Pocket first thing this morning, as is my routine, I was able to watch both animations, and they’re both utterly splendid. Each shows the legendary pocket monster either descending from the sky or rising from the sea to meet their counterpart, with all manner of other Pokémon appearing along the way. (Including, in the Lugia animation, my beloved Mantine.) Oddly enough, those strange rectangular artifacts on the original Ho-Oh card remain, the elements sliding apart as the animation begins.
Sie Nanahara is responsible for all the incredible art in both cards, which is clearly a stunning amount of work, and includes a brand new rendition of Ho-Oh and Lugia. While Pokémon card art is usually based on each artist’s own vision, when it comes to the immersive cards it’s become clear that far more precise instructions are provided, and this is how things went wrong. It’s excellent that Nanahara has been able to react so quickly to demonstrate her skill, and hopefully this whole messy incident will result in her receiving far more work.
