Following AI Cheating Controversy, Pokémon Announces Winners Of Card Contest

The winning entry, Pikachu scratching his ear with a bag leg, in front of some flowers.

Each year, The Pokémon Company holds a competition to find a new illustrator for their Pokémon TCG cards. Only in the last couple of years has this been opened to entrants from outside of Japan, and with that has come controversy. However, after a tumultuous period, the finalists for this year’s contest have finally been picked, and damn, it’s all beautiful work.

This year’s contest was rather marred when one entrant, who had been included in the top 300, was rather obviously using AI to create images, and indeed entering under multiple identities.

After people made a fuss, The Pokémon Company acknowledged the issue, and said they’d be disqualifying the cheat, and allowing other legitimate entries in to fill the spaces. It remained concerning that such obvious shenanigans had been let through, but TPC is notoriously enigmatic and incommunicative, so even this was a surprising move.

However, we can now sweep that all aside, and instead celebrate the legitimate artists who deserve their wins. And wow, there’s some great stuff here.

The competition is broken into a number of categories, with the emphasis on the smaller, landscape images that appear in the windows on a regular Pokémon card. While the prized cards are generally the portrait full-art designs, it makes sense to constrain entrants to the windowed images, with its inherent limitations.

The categories are Best Standard Card Illustration, Best ex Card Illustration, and a Grand Prize.

The middle category is the odd one out, since non-alt-art ex cards are highly restrictive in their nature, leaving little room for originality. It’s a great piece of Toxtricity art by Anderson, certainly, and it won because of its use of the space to depict a unique angle for the Pokémon, but it’s harder to get excited about.

What’s so lovely about the two other winners, however, is quite how different they are.

The Pokémon Company is getting better and better at featuring ever more lavish art, but is still quite conservative on style, so seeing the pick for Best Standard Card Illustration is a real treat. It’s a stunning depiction of Feraligatr by artist Acorviart, inspired by linocut and risograph printing.

The Grand Prize is certainly more conventional, but makes up for it in adorable. Pikachu perhaps seems a little on the nose, but Kazuki Minami’s painting is breathtaking. What works so incredibly well here is the intricate detail of the background flowers, contrasted with the far simpler depiction of Pika, in such a cute and recognizable pose. And that light on his face...come on.

I want to highlight a few of the runners up, too. Firstly, another Feraligatr, this time by tayu, which appears to be one of the most spectacular pieces of embroidery I’ve ever seen. There are so few multimedia artists making Pokémon cards, despite how popular the wonderful Yuka Morii’s clay art has been for 25 years. Also, it’s a wonderful picture beyond the media.

In a contest that was upset by AI slop, it’s lovely to see a piece that AI would try to copy, and get horribly wrong. This Melmetal by gohealth feels so gloriously metallic, and yet so cartoonishly stylized. Also, when did you last see a Melmetal sit down?!

Shiho So’s Pikachu is one of the 15 Judges’ Award winners (alongside so many more Feraligatr!), and would be one of those cards that’d make you smile every time you pulled it from a pack. It’s just joyful.

And why not end with yet another Pikachu? satoutubu’s art here is...I just want to hug it! I want to exist in a world where creatures look like this. If satoutubu became a regular Pokémon TCG artist, I’d immediately begin collecting all their cards.

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