While I was working on my latest drawing, I browsed the internet for some ideas of men’s and women’s pajamas, and I happened to find this interesting page about matching pajamas, showing couples or families wearing identical pajamas. They looked so cute that they reminded me of a scene in the manga, where Albert and Candy were wearing matching pajamas. (Note that the picture was retrieved from the Korean manga version, but it was flipped such that the capital letters A and C were incorrectly shown. I flipped it back to the right way as seen below.)
In the manga, after trying to find Albert in Rockstown but failed, Candy still missed him very much, and this picture was what came up in her mind when she spotted the cups with their initials ‘A’ and ‘C’. In my manga version, it said that Candy bought a few things for them both when some items were on sale, (that had likely happened when they had first moved in), including the cups, the pajamas, and the curtain, and Albert teased her that originally they had agreed to discuss what to buy, but Candy made the decision after all. At any rate, Albert was apparently surprised that Candy had bought matching pajamas for them, and I can easily imagine the way he blushed in embarrassment. Candy even looked mischievous as if she had expected him to react this way.
By the way, this was not the only occasion where Candy and Albert were wearing matching pajamas. Earlier in the manga, soon after Albert had vanished in her life, long before her trip to Rockstown, Candy missed Albert so much that she reminisced their great times together in the apartment (picture also taken from the Korean manga version):
Come to think of it, during Albert’s absence, the manga didn’t show that Candy thought of Terry at all, not even after her trip to Rockstown where she had seen with her own eyes how miserable Terry had been on the stage. Yes, she had shed tears again for him back then, recalling their painful breakup because of Susanna, but Candy could stop crying as soon as Terry had sobered up somewhat after that, and Candy had actually left the tent without staying to meet with Terry. As a matter of fact, after her trip to Rockstown, Candy undeniably missed Albert, not Terry. She didn’t know that Terry had returned to Broadway until Albert informed her of Terry’s good news when she reunited with Albert in Lakewood much later. That speaks volumes, doesn’t it?
I wonder if the author Mizuki had specified the illustrator Igarashi to draw matching pajamas in these scenes shown above. Do you know that matching outfits carry significant meanings among couples in China? Does anyone know if it’s the same in Japanese culture?
After some brief research, I found this article that showed several couples in China, South Korea, and Japan, wearing matching outfits. It claimed that “Matching outfits is definitely an Asian phenomenon. But it’s not mainstream. Matching couples certainly don’t go unnoticed by passers-by here.” Do you agree?
I found the above manga pictures from these fan pages:
https://www.facebook.com/CandyAlbertWorld
https://www.facebook.com/williamalbertandrew.principe