Incident of Two Badges (Part 2)

Dear friends, it’s been a long while. How are you all doing? With utmost sincerity, I hope you’re coping well with the new normal routines and pandemic fatigue.

I did not plan to write Part 2 for Incident of Two Badges, but how could I resist when Fay had kindly downloaded those manga images from the Facebook page of Foro Andrew? Ευχαριστώ πολύ Fay! ❤️ As I mentioned before, Japanese manga pages are read from right to left. Please check my previous post for the translations.

In Candy and Prince on the Hill (Part 6) I mentioned an interview of Yumiko Igarashi in a Taiwan manga/anime book fair back in 2007. The host asked the mangaka if she were Candy whether she would choose Anthony or Terry. Soon after that the host added Albert as a choice too. She thought for a moment before she answered “Albert” with a smile. Regrettably the link to this interview in Chinese is now broken. 🙁

Yet, I recently found another article about a similar book fair taken place several years later. In 2012, Yumiko Igarashi was once again invited to Taiwan. Many Candy Candy fans from different generations attended, some of them even old enough to bring their granddaughters! I won’t translate the entire interview but I’ve captured an extract and summarized the questions and answers (in case the page is taken down in the future). The editor asked Igarashi sensei: “Sensei, do you prefer Anthony or Terry?”

Igarashi replied that she would marry Anthony but if she wanted passionate love she would choose Terry. She said Anthony was relatively more mature, and he was seemingly able to protect the girl he loved. On the other hand, Terry was more aggressive. Igarashi then added, “From my experience, the readers who liked Terry as young girls often suffered some kind of pain in their relationships as they grew up. Yet those who liked Anthony were comparatively happier as adults.”

The editor followed up, “Sensei, when you came in 2007, you said you would choose Albert if you were Candy. How about now, five years later?”

Igarashi answered, “Now, I won’t make a choice. Any one of them is good.” (The audience burst out laughing)

Isn’t this interesting? This interview in 2012 at least proved that she had indeed chosen Albert back in 2007. I wonder if Igarashi had been somewhat influenced by Anohito in the Candy Candy Final Story (CCFS) published in 2010. 🤔 Anyway, from the above article, I discovered a link to another interview in Hong Kong during the Christmas season in 2012. Again, I’ll only display an extract of Igarashi’s answer to the question “Why is Candy Candy so popular in Japan as well as around the world?” and my summary of Igarashi’s reply with some omission about the story’s popularity.

“Candy kept a kind heart in spite of hardships and difficulties. The story had a happy ending… Candy and the other characters were like real people. For example, Candy was an ordinary girl — she did not have a perfect appearance, nor was she the most beautiful female character. Readers can hopefully see her optimistic and kind personality…”

Igarashi clearly pointed out that the story of Candy Candy had a happy ending. We all know the manga ended showing Candy happily running toward Albert’s outstretched arms. 🙂 In the Old Candy Candy novel the readers got to read what happened after that reunion. The two main characters began writing letters to each other.

Because of its timing, some readers said that Candy settled for second best (her good friend and companion Albert) on the rebound because she could not have the man she really loved, similar to what DanielleV wrote in her comment:
“In the old novel, one could assume that Candy ran into the arms of Albert because she was trying to get over Terry. However, in the revised (2010) novel, Candy had decisively put her very brief and immature relationship with Terry behind her and was intent on furthering her life with Albert.”

By the end of the manga, Candy’s feelings for Albert were inexplicably strong. As mentioned in my previous post, Incident of Two Badges, the author demanded the mangaka Yumiko Igarashi to redraw or re-arrange some scenes. Nonetheless, the parts where Candy missed Albert so much had remained — she blindly went to Rockstown just because her vagabond friend had sent her a parcel from that town, not because she had to ask him why he had owned the same Ardlay’s badge. In other words, she could not resist the slight possibility of seeing her friend again.

In fact, many of your brilliant contributions to Let’s imagine… have convincingly explained why Candy missed Albert that much or how she remembered the heartwarming life with him in the tiny apartment. Do you know that in the Old CC novel Candy did not mention about her missing friend in her letter to Miss Eleanor Baker? Furthermore, in that same letter Candy seemingly still had remnant feelings for Terry or not fully recovered from the breakup. She even sent the tickets back to Miss Baker and asked her to forgive her rudeness.

Those who have read the CCFS know that Nagita sensei had significantly revised both this letter and Candy’s unsent letter to Terry. In the latter Candy was evidently less emotional when compared to the equivalent one in the old novel. Not only that, Nagita sensei decisively made Albert (actually Candy as well) wait much longer in CCFS before he could confess to be Prince on the Hill. Initially I did not appreciate this change, and who knows how much time had elapsed since Candy’s trip to Rockstown?

It’s unclear whether Candy had brought Dr. Martin’s drawing of Albert to Rockstown, but in CCFS Candy recalled she had used it for searching. However, unlike the manga version, Candy was angry at Albert at their reunion at Lakewood. I’m inclined to think that she might have feigned her anger to conceal her true feelings for him. After all, the friend she had missed terribly turned out to be her mysterious but generous benefactor.

Because many important events had happened since Candy’s discovery of Albert’s true identity, like Stear’s memorial, Archie’s relocation to study in Massachusetts, Annie and Archie’s engagement party, the reconstruction of the orphanage, the grand opening of the resort in Florida, etc., Albert might have waited for two years (or more?). As Candy wrote in her letter to Miss Eleanor Baker, it had been a long time since they had met in Rockstown.

What do you think?

Some fans reasoned the author had added this extra time period because she wanted to eliminate the possibility that Candy was still grieving about the sudden loss of her second love. Time heals all wounds, right? 😉 Anyway, in this new chronology, Candy was older (no longer a minor) when the confession took place after the Great War. Not only that, she had undoubtedly recovered from the breakup years ago, as conveyed in her unsent letter to Terry and her last two letters in the Epilogue.

Remember my post Love happens when least expected, where I discussed two similar interviews of Nagita sensei about Candy’s three loves? The first one may be more well known among the fans, which Nagita sensei used the word “romance” (恋) for Anthony and Terry and the word “love” (愛) for Albert. Some fans argued it was the solid proof that Candy’s love for Albert was fraternal or he was a father figure to her. However, note that in the other interview, published in Candy Candy Encyclopedia, the author described the heroine as optimistic and used the same word “love” (愛) for all three men. 🙂

As you can see, both the author and illustrator had described Candy as optimistic. In fact, Nagita used the term 前向き in the lesser-known interview, which also means positive or forward-looking. Hence, do you think Albert and Terry are equally likely to be Anohito in CCFS, as Christine brought up in her comment? I agree with her that the CCFS “ends abruptly and in a very thick veil of mystery” and “there is a complete absence of of awareness regarding the whereabouts and future of the main characters. Even when it comes to Candy, Nagita never makes it clear whether she’s married, has kids, is working or unemployed“, but Candy and Anohito did not live in North America because in the Prologue Candy said an ocean (Atlantic Ocean) separated her from Pony’s Home.

Compared to Albert, I think Terry’s chance of being Anohito is slim, not because of my personal preferences, but mainly because of the serious lack of evidence. I like what Michelle brought up in her comment: “if the author had provided a story where Candy and Albert become a couple along with a parallel narrative surrounding Terry’s life with another woman, presumably a colleague of his, without having to kill off Susanna. It’s pathetic that some fans depend on Susanna’s death to establish their happiness. Even vultures, crows, rats and other scavengers don’t stoop so low.”

Yes, Nagita sensei could have improved Terry’s character in her new novel by removing the disturbing scenes or writing more about him being an actor in New York, including his inner thoughts about Candy or Susanna. Yet we readers get none of that. On the contrary, the author added multiple new scenes for Albert. The notable changes when compared to the Old CC Novel include the following events:

• Albert paid for the reconstruction of the orphanage in CCFS, not Annie’s adoptive father Mr. Brighton.
• The Ardlay’s patriarch had the authority to make the final call and gave Annie and Archie his blessings, overriding Archie’s parents and Aunt Elroy’s objections.
• Candy’s diary was introduced in the last edition of the old CC novel, but it’s in CCFS that Nagita sensei added the subplot in which Albert returned it to Candy, who knew its contents better than anyone.
• The unforgettable embrace in the forest in Lakewood is not found in the manga or the old novel, which is undeniably the highlight in the Epilogue. Apparently, Terry’s attempt to force Candy to forget Anthony had done nothing to free her from the guilt of feeling responsible for his death.

So by the time Candy could send a mental letter to Anthony, the past no longer held her captive. After writing so much about his young uncle Albert, she briefly mentioned Terry without using his name, as though the detail was not important at all. She explained she had been strongly attracted to a guy that looked like Anthony in London. Note that she used the verb 惹かれる, which means “be attracted, be drawn to, be charmed”. Not only it’s a verb commonly used to describe infatuation, but Candy implied this attraction had occurred unintentionally. For more details please read my post Did Candy find her happiness? (Part 6) 🙂

If an epilogue is supposed to give readers a glimpse of the main characters’ future, and if Terry was supposed to be an equal contender, isn’t it odd his name is mentioned only once in the entire Epilogue? Sarah said it well in her comment: “Terry’s name is mentioned only once in the Epilogue and that’s in the Lakewood scene where Albert takes the initiative and mentions him by returning the diary to Candy. This is a crucial moment because Candy could have responded that she’ll keep the diary as it’s something essential to her. She doesn’t though.”

Also, if you have read my post The day her life changed (Part 4) you know that Candy said to Anthony:

わたしは、あなたがすべてを赦してくれているのを知っています。(I know you will forgive me for everything.)

Now that there are three official translations, I wonder if it’s clear that Candy had used a heavy word to ask Anthony to forgive her (赦し). It’s not a frequently used kanji — more for literature or religious use, like asking God to forgive our sins. For daily use, people would rather use the alternative kanji 許し. They both pronounce as “yurushi”. For example, near the end of Candy’s letter to Madam Elroy to plead for Archie and Annie, she asked the old lady to forgive her (許し). The same word is used in Candy’s letter to Georges, where she directly quoted Albert’s frustrated exclamation “forgive me now”. 🙂

I have a feeling that Candy asked Anthony to forgive her not because she had been attracted to another guy in London, but because she was now in love with her Prince on the Hill. Remember their first conversation about the mysterious Scottish boy? Candy had claimed that she loved Anthony himself, not due to his resemblance to her prince. Young Candy might not realize it, but it’s undeniable she fell in love at first sight because Anthony looked like a replica of her prince.

Speaking of forgiveness, Terry refused to apologize after treating Candy roughly during the May Festival. I’m sure he could have used 許し too if he had apologized, but he was too proud for that, I guess. 🤔

Last but not the least, the recent Spanish translators’ mistake of translating Candy’s birthday as May 5 got me thinking about the significance of the month of May in the CCFS. It seems that throughout the novel, the turning points often occurred to Candy in May: (1) Annie’s adoption and Candy’s first encounter with Prince on the Hill (2) Stewart’s arrival at Pony’s Home to pick up Candy to be a companion for Eliza (3) Candy’s first encounter with Anthony at the rose gate (4) Candy and Terry’s kiss (forced) during the May Festival (5) Candy’s birthday party in Chicago and got many presents from her Prince on the Hill (6) Candy and Albert’s day trip to Lakewood, etc.

For points (3) and (5), I’m not 100% sure. In the manga, Anthony marked a day in May as Candy’s birthday. In CCFS, Anthony’s hybrid rose, Sweet Candy, was ready to bloom when he presented it to her. We know that Candy left Pony’s Home when she just turned thirteen, so it could be May when she first met him at the rose gate.

About the day trip to Lakewood, I wonder if Albert came to pick up Candy in the month of May (perhaps to fulfill her birthday wish one year later). Candy mentioned bluebells in the Lakewood forest, which can be a hint, because bluebells look their best from mid-April to late May (the same in where I live). Nagita sensei wrote that bluebells were everywhere too during the May Festival.

Even if the trip to Lakewood did not occur in May, it might be late April when Sweet Candy roses were blooming (read Candy’s letter to Mr. Whitman), which means that she might meet with Albert again and return her precious diary to him some time in May.

Do you see what I’m getting at? 😉 After all, two common tropes in romance novels have been used in Candy and Albert’s relationship. At St. Paul’s Academy, Candy thought to herself she could not directly use the serious word “love” (愛) even for Anthony (or Terry for that matter), but she did end her letter to Little Bert with love (愛) and gratitude. 💌 By then, she regarded him as a man, a love interest, no less! She had remained optimistic for her future and ready to embark a new adventure with the man she loved. 💑 This story has a happy ending indeed.

Thank you for reading my lengthy post. I hope there aren’t many typos or mistakes. 😛 For your interest, please check Sarah’s comment. She not only shared her knowledge about the history of Scottish people, but she also recommended some books to read. 👍👍