My response to your comments

First of all, thank you for your support, Reeka, Antlay, Agnès, and QuevivaCandy! I woke up this morning and happily found that I had received quite a few positive comments about my latest drawing. You ladies made my day, and thank you all for your compliments and encouraging words! Unfortunately, I don’t have time to reply to any of you till now. Since some of you have said similar things, I decided to answer all of you in one new post. 🙂

Reeka, so glad to know you like my present to you! I’d changed my mind a couple of times before I settled with the decision of modifying Igarashi’s illustration of Prince on the Hill, which I like very much. In her original drawing, it was set in the early evening with a hint of sadness. How I wish she had drawn his beautiful blue eye! I’ve always preferred her Albert to the one in the anime version (I know not everyone agrees with me, but oh well.. 😛 ). Btw, good analogy of Lois Lane and Clark Kent! 🙂

Antlay, I actually like various tartans, but because my background is already greenish and blue, I picked red/black as a contrast. Since you asked me why I didn’t draw Prince on the Hill, your question has resurfaced in my mind again and again, so I should thank you, my friend! 🙂 I decided to use this new drawing as the cover photo of “It must have been love” mainly because the confession is one of the highlights in the story. 🙂

Agnès, of course you can write in French or English. One lady from France told me that she didn’t understand my posts, but she liked my drawings. I hope she will read Antlay’s comments and yours. Who knows? There might be others. 😉 I also thought of using blue/green hues, but as I said to Antlay above, red/black makes good contrast. I’ve seen kids with blue eyes which reflect lights like blue marbles under the sun, so I modified Albert’s eyes again and again until I was satisfied. 😛

Yes, Candy clearly fell for Anthony because he looked like her prince, and she noticed Terry because she thought he looked like Anthony. Also, comparing Terry to Albert, they both experienced some pain and difficulties while growing up, and they were both rebellious in different ways (Albert said he was a good fighter, which implied he had been involved in fights during his college years? I don’t know…), but their personalities were quite opposite. For sure Albert was more mature, considerate and kind to others. I will talk more about their differences in another post.

QuevivaCandy, I’m happy to hear that you like how the wind ruffled his hair! I was a bit worried it looked a bit messy, but without that it would look too unrealistic. 😛 About your story of not recognizing the same boy years later, I had a similar experience myself! I met a boy (when he was 7) and didn’t see him again till he turned 17. He had similar features but looked almost like a different guy! Also, he was quite tall (1.75m) and strong by then (used to be very skinny)… Lol… Yet, I think Albert would have been even taller when he was 17. 😉

Candy remembered three traits of her prince, his blue eyes, his tender voice and his blond hair (青い瞳… やさしい声… 金色の髪…) as shown in the famous manga scene here. I believe Candy used the same adjective (やさしい) to describe Anohito’s voice in CCFS. This adjective can have many meanings in English. Other than ‘tender’, it can mean gentle, kind, affectionate, friendly, loving, etc. Now, which character has these personality traits in Candy Candy? 🙂

Glad to know you all agree that Prince on the Hill was such an important character in the story that it would be odd if Candy was meant to be with Terry. As I said before, an epilogue is often a brief description of the fates of the main characters in a novel, but Candy Candy Final Story (CCFS) epilogue is far from being short. Not only that, Mizuki devoted nearly the entire epilogue describing Albert’s mysterious background, growing pain, inner struggles, relationship with others, etc. Most importantly, we can see his personal interaction with Candy in their correspondence. If you think it wasn’t obvious enough who would play a significant role in Candy’s future, Candy’s last letter to Albert gives a strong evidence of the source of her happiness, and without a doubt she no longer grieved of the loss of someone in her past:

… I am — very grateful to my parents who have abandoned me at the Pony’s Home.
Thanks to that, I could meet you!
It is me who can never thank you enough.
Yes, Albert-san,
Herein lies my happiness; in now.
Ah, I don’t think I will be able to sleep tonight again.
But, I wish little Bert dream the most fantastic dream.
With love and gratitude

Candy

I think Candy thanked her parents (was very grateful) whom she had never met because by abandoning her at Pony’s Home (not another orphanage), she could meet her Prince on the Hill. I strongly believe Candy honestly meant what she wrote, and that she wasn’t flirting or trying to flatter Albert. I can’t believe some people still insist that she had no romantic feelings for her prince. 🙄

For your interests, you can read these related posts:

With love and gratitude (Part 4)

With love and gratitude (Part 5)

With love and gratitude (Part 6)