Cherry on top

Dublin-based Twitterer (and YouTuber) MechaGamezilla made my night (no, not in that way) last week when he drew Animal Crossing: New Leaf villager portraits for five of his followers.

My favorite of the bunch was his rendition of the punk-ish pup, Cherry:

His Ankha and Snake portraits (below and, er, below-er) are pretty awesome, too.

As for how they were created: MechaGamezilla shared with me that he began with pencil drawings on paper, then scanned them and colored them using Photoshop's pen tool.

To see his takes on Gaston and Muffy, check out the "photos and videos" section of MechGamezilla's Twitter page.

Aino's (and Bryan's) Adventures in Animachi, Weeks 11 and 12

Let's get something monumental out of the way right of the bat in this installment of "Aino's (and Bryan's) Adventures in Animachi": Animachi finally has a proper town flag.

Here's a shot of Mayor Aino as she stands proudly beneath it:



Here's another look at it, in case you can't make out all of the details in the shot above.



The "A" is Animachi, of course--although a few of the town's snarkier citizens have suggested (in hushed tones, naturally) Aino may think it's supposed to represent and honor her on-going mayorship.

The figures that can be seen standing around the "A," by the way, are (from left to right) Ankha, Snake and Barold.



Hamlet, above, didn't make the cut, sadly. Is that what prompted him to pack up and leave town last week? No one knows, but at least a few Animachians suspect it may have been a factor.

Although both Aino and Bryan were sad to see the little jock go, the former was happy that the removal of his home meant an illuminated tower could be erected in its place.



The tower in question looks snazzy enough by day (above), but it looks nothing less than stunning at night (below).



Another reason Aino, especially, wasn't entirely gutted by Hamlet's departure: he sent her a framed photo of himself as a parting gift.



Speaking of villager photos: Aino also got Winnie's "pic" last week after completing an entirely mundane task for the long-faced lass.

Aino's (and Bryan's) Adventures in Animachi, Weeks Seven and Eight

As all two of you who enjoy reading these posts (I kid ... I think) surely figured out long ago, I failed to publish an update on Aino's and Bryan's "Adventures in Animachi" last week.

There were a few reasons for that, with the main one being that I didn't (and don't) want to turn this blog into little more than a dumping ground for my obsession-fueled Animal Crossing: New Leaf musings.

As such, don't expect to see another such update next week--or possibly even the week after. Although I have no plans to end this series anytime soon (I'm still far too obsessed with New Leaf to do that), I definitely want to spread out these posts a bit from here on out.

With that out of the way, let's get to what actually happened in Animachi over the last two weeks, shall we?

The screengrab below does a more than acceptable job of summing up a good portion of the last two weeks in Animachi, actually, as both Aino and Bryan spent a lot of that time working on their homes and their wardrobes.

In the shot above, by the way, Aino is showing off her current "Hip Geisha" look as well as her cozy-as-all-hell study.

Moving along, here (above) is a glimpse of Aino's nearly finished kitchen. (All that's left to do is find and install the flooring that matches the wallpaper.)

It's a good thing she's been keeping up on her interior design hobby, as Barold popped in for a surprise visit the other day. Oddly, and unsurprisingly, he fell asleep--while standing--halfway through his so-called inspection.

Speaking of odd encounters, Aino recently had the following exchange with Ankha:

Lest you should think that exchange isn't so odd, here's a shot of the streetlight she'd like to see somewhere in Animachi:

Thankfully, Rodney quickly came to the rescue and suggested the magnitudes-more-interesting "cube sculpture."

Amazingly, Rodney's recommendation didn't win the "Best Public Works Request of the Last Two Weeks" award. No, that went to Bluebear, who, during a rather impromptu discussion one evening, basically begged for a police station to be built.

Here's the sight that greeted Aino and her fellow villagers the next morning:

Aino's (and Bryan's) Adventures in Animachi, Week Five

Life in Animachi was a bit less frantic this week than it was in weeks one through four. That's not to say it was boring, though. For instance, Mayor Aino continued her quest to pimp out her ever-expanding, not-quite-humble abode--including the trippy "balloon room" that can be seen below.

As effervescent as that room is, Aino doesn't spend much time in it. Instead, she spends most of her time in her brand new (and still-in-the-works, admittedly) study.

Aino also erected a few more public works projects in the past week, including this "illuminated heart":

And this "stone tablet":

As exciting as those events were for the citizens of Animachi, both pales in comparison to the opening of the town's first cafe.

That's not to say Aino ran around like a headless chicken the entire week. She also relaxed a bit. Case in point: one day, she spent a few minutes (with Ankha and Winnie) taking in the sight of a double rainbow.

She also had a nice--if exercise-centric--chat with her main "brozinsky," Hamlet.

She hoped to have a similarly enchanting tête-à-tête with Barold, but, well, those of you who've met him know how can be...