“I'm a cat. Chillin' is in my blood, man.”
― Picture quote, Wild World
Bob (ニコバン,Nikoban?) is a lazycatvillager who has appeared in every game of the Animal Crossing series. His name is most likely based off the bobcat. His initial phrase, "pthhhpth," may be a reference to the sound a cat makes when coughing up a hairball (this is further supported by the information on the e-Reader card which indicates he tends to spit often while speaking). His picture phrase in New Leaf is a feline spin on the memetic phrase, "You only live once." He has the play hobby.
Bob was long speculated to be the first villager designed due to his simplicity, name, January 1st birthday, and having the first villager e-Card and amiibo card. This was later confirmed in a conference by series director Hisashi Nogami.
Bob is a lavender cat with darker purple spots all over his body and face. His eyes are half-closed, making him appear sleepy and reflecting his lazy personality. He initially wears the Blossom Tee. The inside of his ears are various shades of pink, and his tail has two darker purple spots on it. Bob carries the Gelato Umbrella when it rains.
Personality
Below is a brief description of the lazy personality. For more information, click here.
As a lazy villager, Bob will be friendly and easy to get along with due to his laid back lifestyle. Like all lazy villagers, he has a love of food and relaxing. He will enjoy partaking in the usual hobbies, usually for relaxing reasons or for food, like when fishing. Bob will get along well with other villagers, but may offend or confuse jock villagers, who have a lifestyle of exercise and fitness, which conflicts with the lazy lifestyle of relaxing and food. He will get along with other lazy villagers with whom he will talk about food, comics, or superheroes. He will also get along well with normal, peppy, smug and sisterly villagers, and occasionally cranky villagers, but may from time to time annoy snooty villagers, who disagree with the lazy lifestyle.
House
In every game, Bob's house includes the whole set of the Kiddie Series including the wallpaper and flooring. He also owns a Nintendo 64 furniture logo, which is only seen on Animal Forest and Animal Crossing games. K.K. Ragtime is played on a Kiddie Stereo, except in New Horizons where it plays Neapolitan instead.
Everyone loves Bob's laid-back attitude, in spite of his nasty habit of spitting whenever he speaks. Ever wonder why he sleeps so late? It's because he's up all night playing video games. Can you blame him?
Prior to the CEDEC 2020 conference, confirmed by series director Hisashi Nogami, there was a large amount of speculation that Bob was the first villager created for the game, based on the following traits: