For around the last decade, the de facto mascot for Animal Crossing has been Isabelle. Isabelle runs the official Animal Crossing Twitter, she’s in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and she’s in Mario Kart 8. With the Isabelle’s ubiquity, it’s easy to forget that Tom Nook ever shouldered an Animal Crossing game without her. In fact, it wasn’t until very recently that Isabelle’s business relationship with Tom Nook began.
Isabelle’s first appearance was in Animal Crossing: New Leaf, which was released November 2012 in Japan and summer 2013 in the U.S. and Europe. New Leaf is New Horizons’ mainline predecessor, and in it, Isabelle doesn’t work for Tom Nook. On the contrary, she’s a civil servant and works as the mayor’s secretary. She even replaces Tom Nook’s role in gameplay, giving the player tutorials Tom Nook had previously provided in the first three games.
Prior to New Leaf, Tom Nook was the manager of the town shop, although the player is also indebted to him for the mortgage on their home. Tom Nook’s role begins to shift in New Leaf, when he becomes a full-blown real estate agent for his own company, Nook’s Homes. By New Horizons, Tom Nook has established a large corporation called Nook Inc., which includes a travel agency that has purchased entire islands. Surprisingly, Isabelle’s and Tom Nook’s paths begin crossing between these two mainline games, in the spin-off Happy Home Designer.
Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer Marked Isabelle’s Crossover Into the Private Sector
In Happy Home Designer, the player is given a job at Nook’s Homes, the real estate firm Tom Nook established by Animal Crossing: New Leaf. The player is tasked with helping villagers customize their homes, although Isabelle will sometimes come by ask the player to help her develop major facilities in the town’s Main Street, such as the School, Hospital, Café, and stores. At this point, Isabelle is still a civil servant, as she’s the town’s Head of Development. However, this is the first instance in which she directly collaborates with a company owned by Tom Nook.
Where the mobile game Pocket Camp stands in this timeline is unclear. Isabelle helps the player run a campsite, which suggests she’s still a civil servant. Tom Nook merely makes cameo appearances in the game and seemingly has nothing to do with the campsite, presumably because he’s off building a corporation. This means Isabelle works for Tom Nook in New Horizons for the first time. In New Horizons, Isabelle is presumably an employee of Nook Inc., as Tom Nook initially introduces her as a new addition to the “island staff.” However, she is still in a field akin to her former civil service duties, as the representative for Resident Services. In his introduction, Tom Nook even acknowledges that Isabelle “has previously done resident support work.“
How long it took Tom Nook to establish Nook Inc. between the events of New Leaf and New Horizons is one of the great mysteries of Animal Crossing. However, it’s clear that Isabelle has only recently become Tom Nook’s employee, and that Isabelle’s shift in employment was spurred by the success of Tom Nook’s Island Getaway Package in New Horizons. After all, New Horizons players know it’s hard to say “no” to residing on a remote island getaway.
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