Aino's (and Bryan's) Adventures in Animachi, Weeks 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22

When we last checked in with the residents of Animachi, Aino and Bryan had just finished remodeling their homes, Robin and Winnie had just moved out of theirs and Chadder had moved into one of his own.

What has happened since then? For starters, Halloween happened.



Mayor Aino's favorite part of this spook-tacular holiday? Scaring the crap out of her neighbors--especially the ones who didn't vote for her during the last election.



Halloween wasn't the only cause for celebration in the last four or five weeks. Another: Snake's birthday on Nov. 3. Aino got him a treadmill as a joke, but Snake actually seemed to like it so she did her best to stifle her giggles after he opened it.



Aino and her fellow Animachians also celebrated the grand opening of Katrina's fortune teller shop earlier this month.



Sure, it could be a bit more visually appealing, but it still looks better than the defiled trash can that used to fill this empty alley.

Speaking of grand openings, Animachi recently welcomed the T&T Emporium to its main street, too.



The highlight of this gigantic, multi-floored store for Bryan: Gracie Grace's shop--despite the fact that its proprietress is a bit on the (strange and) snobbish side.



Although the fair citizens of Animachi said a good number of "hellos" in the last month or so, they also said a few "goodbyes." Case in point: Poppy decided to move to greener pastures shortly after Halloween. (Hopefully it wasn't because of that prank Bryan pulled on her?)

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, Week Three

Considering this is Aino's and Bryan's third week in Animachi, you could be forgiven for thinking there wouldn't be as much as report on as there was during the first two weeks.

Of course, anyone who's also traipsing through Animal Crossing: New Leaf at the moment knows how wrong that line of thinking is--thanks to how slowly various areas and aspects of this adorable 3DS game are made available to players.

Cases in point: in the last week, both the Dream Suite and Kicks opened their doors to the citizens of Animachi, while Club LOL will follow suit this weekend. (The museum should get a second story, too.)

Other noteworthy events that came to pass in the last week: as showcased in the screencap below, Bryan paid a visit to the New Leaf home of Reggie Fils-Aime, president/COO of Nintendo of America.



Also, Aino helped celebrate Bluebear's birthday--or, rather, she watched while Bluebear and Snake celebrated in the former's darkened home.



Oh, and Animachi lost its first resident about halfway through the week, when Chevre moved to greener pastures. (Pun intended.)



Will Flo the penguin be the next to go? Both Bryan and Aino certainly hope so and have been doing all they can to prompt her to leave. Unfortunately, most of those efforts have blown up in their faces--as evidenced by the snapshot below that shows Aino falling victim to a pitfall seed she'd planted earlier in the day in front of Flo's home.



One Animachi citizen that won't be sent packing anytime soon is Rodney. Sure, he irked Aino and Bryan early on, but that changed when ol' Rodney showed his "true colors," so to speak.





Also helping matters has been Rodney's rad bachelor pad, which features two arcade cabinets, a pinball machine and a ping pong table, among other entertaining contraptions.

Other than that, Aino has been spending a lot of her free time racing around town--an endeavor that more often than not ends in disaster.

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

So, I've been playing Animal Crossing: New Leaf for about a week and a half now. How much have I been playing it? I'm going to plead the Fifth on that one. Let's just say I've played it a lot.

What happened during all of that playtime? I thought you'd never ask! Here's a not-so-brief glimpse at the goings on in my New Leaf town, Animachi, over the last week or so.

As you can see in the screenshot below, the week started with a ceremony to celebrate the completion of my town's "vital" campsite project.

And, yes, I punished all of the villagers who failed to show up for this momentous occasion.

One villager who got a pass for not being there: Ankha, who was moving into her new home at the time.

Although I wasn't sure about Ankha at first, I warmed up to her after checking out her new home's decor.

Shortly after the above-mentioned festivities, Animachi experienced its first Bug-Off event. Mayor Aino took part despite the fact that Nat, the master of ceremonies, proved to be more than a bit creepy.

Aino endured the creepiness, though, and ended up winning the whole she-bang.

Oh, and that empty spot on the podium? That's where I would have been standing I hadn't been off fishing or stalking beetles or picking my ears while I gazed lovingly at the "Pikmin Garden" I won via a fortune cookie the other day.