Umbrella

Umbrellas play a small role in the - serving no real function other than as an accessory to enhance the individuality of players. Umbrellas are carried by villagers when it rains - all animals have a set umbrella, but they may swap them for others after a while. Frog villagers do not carry an umbrella in the rain, in contrast with the rest of the villager types.

Uses
Players can spin umbrellas by pressing the 'Action' button when equipped, but in general this has little useful effect. The exception to this is if a player is being chased by bees, in which instance the player who can get their umbrella out of their inventory and spinning before the bees attack will be protected. In Animal Crossing, equipping an umbrella will prevent the player from becoming tanned when visiting the Island.

Umbrellas can be placed in homes, taking up one floor space. In, Umbrellas are worth +3 HRA points.

In the Summer months in City Folk, parasols are sometimes used by villagers on sunny days to protect them from the sun.

Programming
Umbrellas are a very important part of life in Japan, as parts of that region receive heavy rainfall. Umbrellas have been included in every AC game since the first title for the N64. Along with the tool type of umbrella purchased from shops, players can use the patterns that they carry around all the time to make umbrellas, as well.

Considering the high level of importance given to other wearables, particularly in New Leaf-Welcome Amiibo (see Daily Lucky Item, Katrina and the Lovely Phone) it's highly unlikely that umbrellas serve zero function, though the differences for in-game experiences sans umbrella are likely to be at the program-level and too subtle for players to observe.

Animal neighbors comment about human players not having an umbrella. It's likely that their opinion of the human avatar diminishes if the social guideline of carrying an umbrella when it rains is not followed. All animal neighbors utilize umbrellas, with the exception of frogs in New Leaf-Welcome Amiibo.

Fitting into society and obtaining the approval of the community is a theme that runs through AC games, particularly in New Leaf-Welcome Amiibo because the human is now the mayor.

Carrying around an umbrella is likely to maintain or even add to animal neighbors' opinion of the human avatar aka friendship and love level (see Luck Programming, Lovely Phone and Katrina). All animal neighbors carry umbrellas when it rains and programmers use animal neighbors as models of behavior in other situations, such as to show how to shake trees, water flowers and carry tools around town.

Designs
Patterns made by players can be equipped as umbrellas - one of the four original patterns a player can find in their inventory is an umbrella template. This is useful as a pattern transferred into an umbrella shape uses only a central wedge of the usual square design space.

Doubutsu no Mori N64
There were 32 different umbrellas in the N64 title.

The price of the Nintendo umbrella (64 Bells) is a reference to the Nintendo 64, the console that preceded the GameCube.