Animal Crossing's Artsiest Villagers
Who should be our top picks for the ACNH Fringe Fest Island?
Note: this post contains spoilers for Happy Home Paradise requests, Sanrio characters, and the Animal Crossing movie.
All our ACNH Fringe Fest Island villagers, as well as most of our Happy Home Paradise projects, are chosen to fit the theme of arts and culture. Bitty’s boutique home, Kabuki’s living embodiment of Japanese theatre, Katt’s amphitheatre, Chrissy’s fashion show - all of them reflect the vibe of ACNH Fringe one way or another.
But who else should live on our islands? Whose vacation home requests should we prioritise? Who’s on our wishlist?
After watching Backseat Dev’s ACNH ranking videos (ranking every known Animal Crossing: New Horizons villager by edibility and fighting ability), I was inspired to come up with my own algorithm for ACNH Fringe. A few weeks later, I present to you:
Animal Crossing New Horizon’s Artsiest Villagers!
The ranking included all 413 current villagers in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, including the new/returning Series 5 villagers and the Sanrio villagers. They scored points based on the following (which I’ll elaborate later in this post):
Happy Home Paradise request
Interior design of island home
Villager’s personal theme (name, catchphrase, look, etc)
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp bio
Number of K. K. Slider album covers
Appearance in the 2006 Animal Crossing movie Gekijōban Doubutsu no Mori
Bonuses for personality type and hobby
Bonuses for existing fame in and out of Animal Crossing fandom
You can check out the ranking spreadsheet for yourself - I’m sure there’ll be some disagreement on my scoring system, but hopefully this post will help explain my logic.
FUN FACT! As I was writing this, I realised that I missed one very important variable in my calculations. I had to go back and rescore - and remake all the images. Sigh.
Let’s go through our top 4 villagers:
#1: Pietro (80 points)
Pietro smashes through the top of the list by a massive margin by checking off most of our criteria. He is, rather infamously, a classic clown - in fact his name is a callback to the Pierrot stock character from commedia dell’arte, one of the earliest forms of professional theatre. Both his island home and Happy Home Paradise vacation home are carnivals and he gets bonuses for his Smug personality and Music hobby.
Pietro is also one of our newest residents, replacing Julian! So far he’s fitting in fine - we are a coulrophobic-free space on ACNH Fringe. (Though I’ll keep an ear out for any rumoured screaming.)
#2: Shino (48 points)
Shino, one of the newest additions to New Horizons, made a respectable effort to hit second place. She is the living embodiment of Japanese Noh theatre, from her name to her hannya mask-like look - very apt for an artform that focuses more on visuals than words.
Her request for Happy Home Paradise was “I wanna rock out in front of a Japanese-style backdrop!” - absolutely an arts venue. She and Sasha gained a lot of media attention upon their announcement for their gender ambuigity, making them famous outside the Animal Crossing update. She also gets bonuses for being a Peppy villager with the Education hobby.
#3 (Tie): Becky (30 points)
My first run of the algorithm forgot to account for villager home scores - a massive oversight! Once I fixed that, Becky jumped up to a joint 3rd place with her chamber orchestra home. (The Becky on my personal island keeps wanting to get rid of her grand piano because it apparently brings back “bad memories”, though she nevers gets around to doing so - I wonder what happened?) She also gets full marks for her Happy Home Paradise request of a practice space for her choir.
Becky may be a very standard English name, but her name in Japanese and Korean is “Aria”, befitting her music theme. (Her Mandarin Chinese name is Yǒng Xuán, which is apparently a mix of the words for “aria” and “melody”.) She’s also the only person in our Top 3/4 who’s made it on the cover of a K. K. Slider album - specifically Cafe K.K..
#3 (Tie): Rosie (30 points)
Rosie is potentially our most versatile and prolific villager on this list. She was one of the supporting leads on Gekijōban Doubutsu no Mori, playing one of the best friends of the lead human character Ai. She is also the only regular Animal Crossing villager in the Nintendo Collector’s Edition of Monopoly, joining Tom Nook and K. K. Slider. (Interestingly, an ACNH edition of Monopoly was released this year!)
Rosie’s Happy Home Paradise request of a talent agency also gets her full points, as well as the full bonus for being Peppy. Her Pocket Camp bio does mention being a celebrity, but it wasn’t specific enough to earn points. (The Pocket Camp ranking is a whole other situation that I’ll get into later on.)
Scoring Algorithm Explained
Before we get to the rest of the Top 20, let’s discuss the algorithm. The basic calculation is:
(Happy Home Paradise request + Island home theme + Villager theme + Pocket Camp bio + K. K. Slider covers + Appearance in Animal Crossing movie) x Type Bonus x Hobby Bonus x Special Bonus
(It’s entirely possible that the scores could be a little different if I set it up as ((((Additive scores)xType Bonus)xHobby Bonus)xSpecial Bonus) but someone else can do that math to check)
Let’s first define what counts as arts for the purposes of this algorithm:
Included: Performing arts (acting, dance, circus, stage magic, etc), literary arts, music, visual art, screen & digital media, games (digital and non-digital including streaming), culinary, floral arrangements, textiles & fashion, crafting, pop culture, some history, events, philosophy, nursery rhymes & fairy tales, superheroes, mythology
Not included: science (inc archaeology), sports (except gymnastics), toys, general academia, finance
As you will see, there are a lot of gray areas and some places where I allowed one expression but not another. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of debate and disagreement on my criteria - feel free to make a copy of the ranking spreadsheet and adapt it with your scores (and let me know how you go!).
Happy Home Paradise and Island Home
Both the Happy Home Paradise requests and island home themes are scored on the same set of criteria: whether the buildings are art venues, venues with art elements, or houses with art elements.
For the purposes of this ranking:
Arts venues: places that are centered around the creative development of art or are entirely arts-focused. This includes studios (gaming, photography, visual art), stage & movie theatres, workshops, kitchens, galleries, amphitheatres, museums, retreats, and schools. This earns 4 points.
Venues with arts element: places that are more about the consumption of art or where it’s not 100% about the art but involves something artistic. This includes most clubs, event spaces, shops with art, cafes with art, recreations of historical sites, arcades, and game rooms. This earns 2 points.
House with Arts Element: a house either by name (i.e. the HHP request specifically mentions a house or home) or by having a bed, bath, or garage that incorporates an art element such as musical instruments or sewing machines, or in some cases things like a focus on colour or a fairy tale vibe. This is also the category for spaces that aren’t really homes but don’t have enough going on to make it count as a venue (e.g. Billy’s messy manga-wall space). This earns 1 point.
Not included: gyms (except Frobert’s request for a backflip gym because I counted it as circus), medical or scientific labs, restaurants (unless they have something else like a performance space), most boutiques, shops that just have random furniture or toys, houses that only have DIY tables/music players/gaming computers as their “art element”, offices, banks
My basic thinking is: if I were to make a map of arts venues for a festival, what would be included? Restaurants, shops, and clubs were tricky - the scores can change a lot depending on whether I’d include them or not.
Using the examples from the infographics:
Rosie’s talent agency for HHP is very obviously an arts venue. Similarly, Bitty’s island home is both a boutique and a tailor shop, with no bed or other indication of it being a house.
Audie’s HHP request was a club where she could be a DJ - I did originally mark this as an arts venue but I wanted to keep the clubs scoring consistent so I marked this as a venue with an arts element. Similarly, Curlos’s island home is set up as a bar/cafe with a live band setup - but not so much a stage, since the band is off to the side.
Raymond’s HHP home is a tailor shop, but because he specifically wanted a home it gets marked as a house with an arts element. Stella’s island home is a cozy little yellow house with a bed and a sink - but also a crafting table setup.
Some honourable mentions:
Naomi’s sad art cafe for HHP - I debated on whether to count as an arts venue or venue with arts element before deciding to keep cafes consistent
Blanche’s and Gladys’s island homes which are both references to the Japanese folktale Tsuru no Ongaeshi (White Crane's Return of Favor), about a man who rescues a crane that then returns as a weaver woman
All the Sanrio characters’ island homes were automatically scored as homes with arts elements due to their original IP references, but their HHP requests were all over the place: Étoile and Rilla wanted homes to work on art (handicrafts and music), Chelsea wanted a fairy-tale forest home, Chai wanted to be surrounded by cute fluffy things, Toby just wanted to gaze at his yard, and Marty wanted a place to both eat and work out.
Villager Theme
The villagers themselves were scored based on whether they were obvious arts references or subtle arts references. This was based on a few factors, such as name (in any official ACNH-localized language), catchphrase, favourite saying, appearance, and others.
To be deemed as an obvious arts reference, the villager needs to fully embody that reference - you should be able to look at them and go “ah yes you are totally a reference to X”. This is usually helped by having that reference be reflected through multiple factors. For instance, Pietro, Shino, and Kabuki are all very obviously references to clowning, noh, and kabuki theatre respectively, as shown by their names and appearances.
Villagers that are subtle arts references may need a little digging, or they only have their reference reflected in one element - for instance, Becky’s Japanese/Korean/Mandarin Chinese name of Aria or Gloria’s English & Japanese name being a reference to silent actress Gloria Swanson, which you wouldn’t necessarily know at first glance. I also used this category for reaches or questionable references - as an example, I feel like Astrid’s starry look is a callback to Ziggy Stardust (David Bowie’s alterego) but there’s no official documentation of that being a reference. (Also I might be biased because Astrid is my fave.)
I was split on including historial allusions like Ankha or Klaus. Eventually I decided that I’d allow it if the historical reference was often evoked in art or media - so Cleopatra and Roman emperors, yes, but not necessarily someone like Amelia (Earhart).
Some honourable mentions:
Genji is based entirely on the classic Japanese literary manuscript The Tale of Genji, both in name and appearance. I marked him as an obvious reference because I was pretty sure Japanese players would pick up his vibe at first glance, even if I don’t get it myself.
Hopkins may actually be a balloon, so he gets to be a subtle reference
I thought Rizzo was originally named after the character from Grease but it turns out that he is primarily based on the Japanese Robin-Hood esque figure Nakamura Jirokichi who was also nicknamed Nezumi Kozo or “Rat Kid”! His English name is a callback to Rizzo the Rat from The Muppets, though I don’t think that Rizzo is a thief.
Pocket Camp Bio, K. K. Slider Album Covers, Animal Crossing Movie
Villagers get extra points based on their Pocket Camp bio, K. K. Slider album covers, and Animal Crossing movie appearances. And ooh boy was the Pocket Camp one a doozy.
So I originally wanted to include the Pocket Camp bios in because they had the Series 5 villagers and Sanrio villagers, which I figured would make things fairer than relying on info from older games like New Leaf, and they also would provide more complexity and material to flesh out villager rankings. However, I didn’t realise until I started this that only 286 ACNH villagers are in Pocket Camp - just about 69% of our sample size! (Nice? I wish.)
I also initially split the scoring into obvious arts references and subtle arts references, just like the villager scoring, but there were so few arts references overall that I eventually decided that any arts reference gets the villager 1 point. Some examples include Hippeux indulging in fashion & poetry to seem classier than he is, Cyd rocking out to his favourite music, and Dobie, Daisy, and Gala (and many others) all being super interested in books above everything else. (The main distinction I drew was over fashion: the villager needs to have a genuine interest in fashion, not just “they have a particular style”.)
I actually created a second column at the end of our ranking spreadsheet that ranks everyone without the Pocket Camp score, to keep things fair. The top 4 are unchanged, but you start seeing some changes soon after - Kidd and Tex drop from 5th place to 15th place, Chrissy and Merry go up from 15th place to 12th place, and Graham makes one of the most dramatic changes by going from 87th place to 314th place. (This is because most of Graham’s scores come from multiplicative bonuses, but the only additive score he has is from his Pocket Camp bio - otherwise he’s multiplying by zero.)
The K. K. Slider album covers and Animal Crossing movie scores were relatively straightforward: 1 point for each cover and 1 point for being in the movie. (If you’re curious: Lolly, Wolfgang and Monique were on the most album covers, with 3 covers each.)
Personality Bonus
Now we’re getting to the multiplicative bonuses: scores that are multiplied to the sum of the above scores, not added on. First up are bonuses based on villager personality - Peppy, Smug, Snooty, Normal, Jock, Sisterly, Cranky and Lazy.
Peppy and Smug villagers get double (x2) points because both of them are all about making art or wanting to be artists: Peppies are pop stars while Smugs are actors in theatre or movies.
Snooty and Normal villagers get x1.5 points because their artistic interests are more hobby-based. The Snoots are mostly known for consuming fashion (and apparently in some canon they were ex child stars?) but the 2.0 update dialogue has them getting into other visual arts such as painting or woodworking. Meanwhile the Normals are all bookworms, sometimes stymied by people spoiling mystery novels by leaving a note with the name of the killer inside their library book.
Jock, Sisterly, Cranky and Lazy villagers don’t get any bonuses. Supposedly Lazy villagers are good at cooking, and Sisterly villagers tend to look like punk rockers but their dialogue doesn’t really reflect that. That being said, if you know of any dialogue changes that give them more of an artistic bent, let me know!
Hobby Bonus
I also awarded similar bonuses to villagers based on their hobbies: education, music, fashion, nature, fitness, and play. This is probably one of the criteria that’s most open to interpretation.
Villagers with the education or music hobby get double (x2) points because they seem more actively engaged in the arts: the education-hobby folk do a lot of reading and the music folk sing whenever they want. Meanwhile, villagers with the fashion hobby get x1.5 points because their interest is more about wearing fashionable items than making them, while the nature hobbyists also get x1.5 points because part of their hobby involves reading & referencing nature guidebooks.
I might flip the Education and Fashion scores around to make it closer to the criteria I set out for HHP requests and island homes. And you could make an argument that Play should get a bonus since it could relate to games or dance. But that would be a whole other week of scoring and infographic making and I am tired.
Special Bonus
Now we come to possibly the most debatable criteria: has the villager achieved (in)famy in the real world and/or in Animal Crossing fandom?
This could include memes, crossovers, fanworks, news reports, whatever - good, bad, neutral reasons. My main differentiating criteria for this is has there been media reports about this villager, especially in non-Animal Crossing-specific media?
If they’ve achieved (in)famy outside the Animal Crossing fandom, they get double (x2) points. This includes obvious ones like Raymond, Ankha (link is to a safe-for-work article about a very not-safe-for-work meme) and Bob, but also includes potential surprises such as Chingy Nea’s Kotaku saga of getting Graham off their island.
Villagers that achieved (in)famy within the Animal Crossing fandom get x1.5 points. This was determined through queries in Animal Crossing Facebook groups, Twitter and Reddit posts, and things like the various Animal Crossing Icebergs. Being a popular villager isn’t enough - they need to be popular for a specific reason, such as Zucker’s distinctive takoyaki look or Francine and Chrissy being sisters. There were also special surprises such as the FuckRodney subreddit and the apparently Lovecraftian fanfic RubyQuest.
All Sanrio characters got automatic double points. This plus the above house & villager scores does give them an automatic 6 points (not including the HHP requests or any other bonuses), so the rankings may be skewed by them.
And that’s our algorithm! If you have your own interpretations or connections, make a copy of the ranking spreadsheet and see how you go.
As promised, here are the rest of the top 20:
Tied for 5th (24 points)
We had nine villagers tied for 5th place:
Our highest ranking Sanrio villagers Étoile, Rilla and Toby - Étoile and Rilla have arts-related Happy Home Paradise requests while Toby gets bonuses for being Smug with the Music hobby
Eugene for being a Smug musically-inclined greaser seeking a space on the Happy Home Paradise island to talk about himself a lot (a talk show? stand up comedy? who’s to say)
Quillson, looking to transfer his island-honed DJing skills into dropping a record at Happy Home Paradise
Rodney whose movie studio will likely get a lot of Rotten Tomatoes from the hate subreddit
Hippeux (or as the Pocket Camp bio claims, Gary) with his art studio full of masterpieces - though he feels like exactly the sort of villager that would be a very easy mark for Redd
Kidd the photographer, whose French name Moktar likely comes from the novelty song La Zoubida
Tex, whose band will practice at his HHP vacation home and perform at his island ice stage
Rest of the Top 20
Rounding out our Top 20 are:
15th place (22.5 points): Chrissy with her runway show HHP house and K. K. Bubblegum cover (which might qualify for a bigger bonus tbh) and Merry the darling plus-size model
17th place (21 points): Lolly the emcee in training and K. K. Slider cover star, Skye the painting teacher who just wants to bake and read, and Truffles the game-show star whose Korean name is Tango
20th place (20 points): Jacques living up to his Japanese name of Jockey with his array of dive bars, Marlo the Godfather (that HHP request is not for a movie star home, surely), and Klaus who may look like Caesar but who really got points for being named after Greek philosopher Crates of Mallus in Japan or Italian cinema character Maciste.
And there you go! ACNH Fringe’s list of Animal Crossing’s artsiest villagers - and new candidates for our island. I may turn this into a video, though editing takes forever - if you wanna help, let me know and I could provide a voiceover or similar.
Here’s the ranking spreadsheet one last time. If you have any comments, you can reply here or reach out to us on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. Also come check out our islands via Twitch (most Sundays circa 3PM Melbourne time, though I might take the 5th off), YouTube or our official website.
Credits
Inspiration: Backseat Dev
Most information and screenshots: Nookipedia and Animal Crossing Fandom Wiki
Happy Home Paradise screenshots: Cally Casequin (Rosie), Shadao (Audie), Ella Loves Boardgames (Raymond)
Additional game screenshots: edgy_potato_salad (Puddles), Alice Power (Jacques), Creatrix Tiara (Snooty, Flurry), Naomi (Pocket Camp bio)
Art: jootauvei (background), ShopWeGotNext (logo)
Game: Nintendo