Umbrella

Umbrella Renoir (JP: アンブレラ・ルノワール Umburera Runowāru) is a downloadable playable character in Skullgirls 2nd Encore.

She is the younger of the two Canopy Kingdom princesses, her older sister being Parasoul. Their mother, the Queen Nancy, was the Skullgirl seven years ago.

Development
Umbrella was originally one of the mascots that former Skullgirls creative director, Alex Ahad, made and used for his old personal website "PuG's PuB" since at least October 2001. She was also nicknamed as Umbrella-chan and appeared in a comic along with other Ahad's original characters.

An old live journal by Alex Ahad stated that Umbrella had "raw magical talent, psychic powers, spirit of Aesil."

Umbrella was the first possible DLC character to be revealed in the Keep Skullgirls Growing Indiegogo campaign, at $20,000. She was initially supposed to be a part of the launch cast alongside Squigly, but was moved to be a first-round DLC character because the team needed villains for the story. It has been stated that she is one of the characters who would need to be made playable for the canon Skullgirls storyline to be revealed.

She was announced as a Skullgirls 2nd Encore DLC character on May 6th, 2021.

Name
Hungern, the name of Umbrella's living umbrella, is the German word for "starve" and the Swedish word for "famine". This fits with the theme of the Renoir family's Living Weapons being named after the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Design
Umbrella's design was inspired by the U.S. salt-producing company,. Its products feature a young girl in a yellow raincoat wielding an umbrella in the rain.

Backstory
Hungern is a Living Weapon, implied to have existed back in Eliza and Samson's time, with Samson calling him an insatiable devourer of people, armies, civilizations and everything in-between. At some point he fell into the hands of the Renoirs. He's in Umbrella's possession ostensibly for her protection, but in truth, she has him because his ability to siphon life energy just by being near him is supposed to be suppressing her dormant Skullgirl power, which she inherited from her mother while she was transformed.

Umbrella has so much power that she can use Hungern without any ill effects whatsoever, a feat so shocking that Samson claims that he's never encountered a "monster" like her before. Due to Umbrella seeing Hungern as her best friend, Hungern is protective of her.

Personality
She is somewhat of a carefree, albeit spoiled child.

Hungern prefers spicy food.

Fighting style
A Umbrella alpha teaser trailer revealed Hungern to have a long tongue like grab that can counter zoners like Peacock, making her intangible until she spits out Peacock. The move also bounces the foe off the wall allowing for follow ups. She also has float like Parasoul but her being inexperienced, falls over and causes her to be on the ground. She has a flashkick move where she attacks the opponent multiple times and slams them down leading into follows ups if guessed correctly.

The key factor for Umbrella's fighting style is the Hunger Meter. There are four states that affect the properties of Umbrella's attacks: Satiated (The default form), Ravenous (Her moves come out faster), Overstuffed (Her moves hit harder at the cost of speed), and Starving (Her moves become slower, but not powerful like Overstuffed). With the meter decreasing as time passes by, Umbrella must pay attention to Hunger's state to avoid getting into troubling situations. The Hunger Meter can be filled by doing attacks where Hungern eats the opponent; the less meter Umbrella has, the more actions Hungern can perform during some of them. Hungern can also spit out small bubbles that can be a distraction and big bubbles that not only create puddles when popped, but also allows Umbrella to jump higher or further.

A small attention to detail in one of Umbrella's intros is when she feeds Hungern ice cream and the hunger meter rises in a small proportion.

Color palettes
If color palette 30 is used together with the Skullgirl Umbrella voice pack, most of Umbrella attacks will spew skeleton parts, e.g. her taunt and Under the Weather super (similar to Valentine's time-out). A Skeleton will spawn in front of a defeated Umbrella for crying with her, etc.


 * 1) "Salty" - Default colors
 * 2) Original colors
 * 3) Santa Claus / Christmas tree
 * Ulala / Red Morolian (Space Channel 5 series)
 * 1) Original colors
 * 2) "Candy Crusher" - Original colors
 * 3) Parasoul / Krieg
 * 4) "Puddle Pirate" - May / Mr. Dolphin (Guilty Gear series)
 * 5) "Wild Child" - Beowulf / Grendel
 * 6) Princess Peach and her parasol (Super Mario series)
 * 7) "Tidal Traveler" - Moana / Heihei (Moana)
 * 8) Ash Ketchum / Pikachu (Pokémon series)
 * 9) Princess Tiana in blue dress / Prince Naveen in frog form (The Princess and the Frog)
 * Hat Kid / Umbrella (A Hat in Time)
 * Scanty (Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt)
 * 1) "Space Case" - Gaz Membrane / GIR in disguise (Invader Zim)
 * 2) "Rose-Tinted" - Amy Rose / Piko Piko Hammer (Sonic the Hedgehog series)
 * 3) "Fresh Heir" - Original colors
 * 4) Original colors
 * 5) Original colors
 * Chihiro Ogino / Haku in dragon form (Spirited Away)
 * Hsien-Ko / ??? (Darkstalkers series)
 * 1) "Wunderkind" - Lucca / Robo (Chrono series)
 * Roll / Rush (Mega Man original series)
 * 1) Original colors
 * 2) "Raining Champ" - Iris (BW1) / Axew (Pokémon Black and White)
 * 3) "Eager Deceiver" - Neopolitan / Hush (RWBY series)
 * 4) Marie
 * 1) "Eager Deceiver" - Neopolitan / Hush (RWBY series)
 * 2) Marie

Skullgirls website
The youngest princess of the Canopy Kingdom, Umbrella is rarely seen outside the halls of the royal palace in Canopolis. She has grown up sheltered, with her only true friend being a family heirloom: the Living Weapon Hungern. Together, they fight evil and kick butt in the name of justice, just like Umbrella’s big sister: Parasoul! Or at least they would if Parasoul would let them out of the palace!

The rise of a new Skullgirl may just give Umbrella the adventure she wants. But, when she finds out the truths about herself and her family, will she wish she had stayed home?

Keep Skullgirls Growing Indiegogo campaign
The younger princess of the Canopy Kingdom, Umbrella is drawn into the current conflict by a familiar presence. She has grown up sheltered from the full circumstances surrounding her mother's death. What effect will the truth have on her?

Playstyle Speculation
Umbrella’s living weapon, Hungern, has an insatiable appetite. Choose between using Hungern to end special moves for extra advantages throughout the match, or let his hunger build up for more damage later.

Hungern takes on the shapes of various nightmarish mouths as it tries to consume the enemy, ranging from horse heads to anemones. Expect lots of teeth! Some of its attacks may have a bit of a Takashi Murakami vibe to them.

Gameplay Inspiration

 * Holy Order Sol (Guilty Gear: Accent Core)
 * Wario’s fart [sic] (Super Smash Brothers Brawl)
 * Roll (Marvel vs. Capcom / Tatsunoko vs. Capcom)
 * May (Guilty Gear series)
 * Shuma-Gorath (Marvel Super Heroes)

Trivia

 * During the IndieGoGo campaign, the art team consistently drew a very disgruntled Umbrella in pictures about DLC. This is a reference to the fact she was snubbed as a first-round DLC character by Big Band.
 * In one of the concept art images of Umbrella's moveset she is seen saying "Is Umbrella gonna have to choke a bitch?" this is a reference to Wayne Brady's line from The Chappelle Show.
 * This is also referenced in one of her voicelines, albeit worded differently.
 * Umbrella is seen dancing with Adam in the background of the Glass Canopy stage.
 * In a drawing stream, one of her moves looks like Venom's Venom Fang.
 * Umbrella's level 1 Blockbuster Retina Reflector references Urien and his super move Aegis Reflector from the Street Fighter games.
 * It may also serve as a reference to Potemkin's attack, Giganter Kai from Guilty Gear.
 * Umbrella's hurt animations show Hungern taking the attack, similar to Rachel Alucard from BlazBlue. Him falling down just shows her getting tired since Hungern is the one taking all the attacks.

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Umbrella Амбрелла