Waterfall Scene

In Candy Candy Final Story (CCFS), what happened near the waterfall (Volume 1, pages 141-149 with the subheading “Waterfall Scene”) is different from that in the manga or anime. In the anime, Candy left Albert not long after she came to, but in the manga, she stayed with him in the mountain lodge for the night, and they became friends. I don’t have the CCFS spoiler with me now, but what I remember was that in CCFS, when Candy regained her consciousness after being rescued by Albert, she was wearing his old shirt and lying in bed, covered by a warm blanket. Albert was cooking some hot soup for them.

Just recently, by a swimming pool, I witnessed a lifeguard, after saving a swimmer, almost got drowned herself. She managed to pull herself back to the side of the pool, but she couldn’t stop convulsing after that. Two other lifeguards immediately called for help. Though I didn’t know what had actually happened, when the paramedics arrived, we were told to leave the scene. When I was leaving, she was still shaking uncontrollably and gasping for air. She had my pity, and at the same time I recalled this waterfall scene in Candy Candy.

So what exactly did Albert do to Candy after rescuing her from the waterfall? Some Candy Candy fans, including myself, have wondered if he performed rescue breathing on her, or if it was necessary. In all versions, Candy lost her consciousness in her near-drowning experience. Why did the author Mizuki modify this scene in which Albert had to change Candy?

I browsed through some sites and found an interesting page: The stages of drowning. It said that “The victim… in an attempt to protect itself, initiates involuntary breath holding. This occurs because water has entered the mouth… he/she will not usually make any sounds as he/she cannot breathe. Without oxygen, the victim will lose consciousness… the victim sinks to the bottom of the water… The victim will remain unconscious (and die) unless breathing is reestablished.”

Since Candy was blacked out, it’s highly likely she had stopped breathing altogether. What do you think? 🙂 If this was the case, in How to Revive a Drowning Victim?, mouth to mouth resuscitation is a necessary step to help the victim to breathe on his/her own again. There are a few other pages that support this. For your interest, here is another one: How to Help a Drowning Victim.

Drowning victims may suffer hypothermia, which can be very dangerous. To prevent it, the victim should be covered with something warm if s/he had been in cold water. In the manga/anime version, that was what Albert did to Candy. In How to Recognize and Treat Hypothermia, it says that “Wet victims lose body heat much faster than dry victims… Move the victim to warm, dry shelter… Remove wet clothing… Wrap the victim with blankets.”

In brief, Albert was doing what he should in order to save Candy. Based on this page, which gives us lots of details about near-drowning and hypothermia, the goal is to prevent further heat loss, and the major steps are: removing wet clothing, gentle drying of the skin, and covering the high heat loss areas of the body.

Perhaps Mizuki had done some research prior to writing CCFS and decided to alter this scene in the story? 😀

No matter what Albert did while trying to revive Candy, he had undoubtedly saved her life. In CCFS, she said to him, “Albert, I owe you my life, and I will never forget that.” 

Note: I downloaded the above manga scene from the Facebook page, William Albert Andrew (el príncipe de la colina) http://www.facebook.com/williamalbertandrew.principe