Isabelle



"A good attitude will always take you further than a bad habit."

- Isabelle

Isabelle is a dog in the who first appeared in, where she helps the player with their duties as mayor. Her name was first revealed as Hisho (ひしょ), which is Japanese for secretary, during the developer commentary, then was changed in the June 2012 Nintendo Direct to Shizue, a reference to her breed, Shih Tzu. When localized to English, her name became Isabelle. It may be based on the fact that the top of her head resembles a Bell sack. She has a twin brother named Digby who runs the Happy Home Showcase.

Isabelle reappears in, playing a similar, but smaller role as the head of the Civic Consultation Counter at the Resident Services building.

Since her introduction in, Isabelle has become a mascot for the along with Tom Nook, appearing in all subsequent games and becoming the fictional head of the official Animal Crossing Twitter account though she would be temporarily replaced by Tom Nook to promote  until the month of July. Additionally, she is featured in many pieces of non-Animal Crossing media, including cameos in various games and playable roles in Mario Kart 8 and.

In
Isabelle's main role in is to act as the player's secretary and to help them with their mayoral duties. At the start of the game, she helps the player settle in by offering them advice, as well as providing them with optional tasks akin to those given by Tom Nook in previous games. In addition, she also helps the player earn their development permit, which allows for the enactment of ordinances and the construction of public works projects, by helping them attain a 100% approval rating and, when the player's house is built, making them a resident of the town. When the player gains the abilities to build public works projects and enact ordinances, she assists the human character with those as well, including the ceremonies when projects are complete.

She spends most of the time in the town hall, but is also the main character to stand in the plaza during events. During such events, the town hall is closed, preventing the player from performing their mayoral duties.

Isabelle takes over Mr. Resetti's role of reminding the player about saving until the Reset Center is built. She may be caught sleeping in the town hall a week after the first public works project is built, and this will allow the Dream Suite to be built on Main Street.

In
In, Isabelle acts as Tom Nook's assistant for Nook Inc. Her appearance in requires the player to move three villagers into houses and wait the full three days for each of them to move in. The day after all three villagers have moved in and unpacked, Tom Nook announces that the Resident Services tent will be upgraded into a full-fledged building and advises everyone to use any functions they need to before construction makes the tent inaccessible. The building closes the following day for construction, and Isabelle will appear inside the building once it is finished.

In the Resident Services building, Isabelle can be seen working at her desk, looking out of the window, or watering the office flowers. If the player sits at the Civic Consultation Center stool, she will help in changing the island tune and flag, resetting other villagers' clothes or speech, and will tell the player about the current island evaluation.

Isabelle now wears shoes and she will wear certain hats and outfits throughout events or seasons.

In
In, Isabelle is an employee at the Town Hall and gives the player Public Facility projects, because she has heard of the player's renowned house-building skills. She will follow the player to the facility to provide a list of required items. She can also have a home built for her by scanning her amiibo card via the amiibo phone located in Nook's Homes, which she will share with Digby.

In
In, Isabelle acts as an assistant manager for the player at their campsite, providing tips to bring the most out of their camp, as well as providing various goals for the player to accomplish, from within Market Place. Additionally, by crafting the special item Isabelle's Slideshow, the player can invite Isabelle personally to their campsite.

In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U
In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U, Isabelle has a plethora of roles, each of varying degrees of importance. The secretary makes an appearance as an Assist Trophy, replacing Mr. Resetti as the sole Animal Crossing series Assist Trophy. Once summoned, she tosses fruit at the player who summoned her, which heal them upon contact. However, only the summoner has the advantage of being able to recover by simply touching the fruit; the other players can heal via the fruits, but they first must pick them up and use them as if they were an item.

In addition, Isabelle is a Smash Tour item that, when used, causes all the nearby stat boost items to grow to their maximum size.

A Mii Fighter costume based on Isabelle - consisting of a hat and an outfit - was released as downloadable content on June 14th, 2015. The headgear can be adorned by all three variants of Mii Fighter, while the outfit is only available for the Mii Gunner (with the standard gun being replaced with a party popper).

For Nintendo 3DS
Name in Italics denote PAL Name.

In Animal Crossing × Mario Kart 8
Isabelle is a playable character who - alongside the Villager - is part of the downloadable content pack Animal Crossing × Mario Kart 8, which was released on April 23, 2015. Her signature vehicle is the City Tripper, and she is a lightweight racer.

In
Isabelle is a playable character in. She was revealed during the September 13, 2018 Nintendo Direct. Her reveal trailer initially appeared to be a trailer for, but after her trailer was shown, a teaser trailer for such a game was shown immediately after Isabelle's trailer.

In, Isabelle shares some moves with the Villager like Pocket, the Net, the Umbrella, the Slingshot, the Turnips, and a pot, but some of her attacks are unique as well. Her side special move is a Fishing rod, which can be used to grab and throw opponents from far away. Her neutral attack is a Toy hammer. Her up smash is the do-not-enter sign which is identical to the Public works project with the same name. Her down special involves Lloid acting as a land mine and launching when a player steps on it. It can also be activated by pressing the button again. She utilizes a Party Popper for her side smash, which is similar to the one used by the Mii costume based on her from the previous game. Her up special is functionally identical to the Villager's but aesthetically involves her sitting on a swing set while being carried by two Bunny Balloon items. She also uses other attacks that aren't in the Animal Crossing games like a broom for her up tilt and get-up attacks, a bucket full of water as her down smash, and twirling pom-poms as her neutral air. Her Final Smash is similar to Villager's, in which it involves her trapping her foes inside the Town Hall while Tom Nook and Timmy and Tommy are building the Town Hall, once the Nooks are done, the ending sound effect for paying off your loan is heard, then the Town Hall explodes, dealing massive damage in the process.

Trivia

 * Isabelle appears in StreetPass Mii Plaza as a hat that the player can buy for 1 Plaza Ticket.
 * Like all other special characters, Isabelle is immune to Pitfall Seeds in.
 * Isabelle wears a yellow and black coat instead of her normal green and white shirt during the Autumn and Winter months, respectively.
 * A lazy villager might write a letter to the player saying they had a dream where Isabelle was 40 feet tall and was destroying everything.
 * In, Digby and Isabelle claim to have spent at least a portion of their puphood in a cardboard box. Isabelle will also mention having chewed on Digby's shoes when they were younger.
 * Digby will also reveal that Isabelle is surprisingly smart, being graduated in engineering in nineteen different universities.
 * In, if the player cancels midway through Isabelle's home request, she will mention she once worked with a mayor who erased a whole town.