Optimistic protagonist

Many thanks to dear Antlay for her valuable input. 😀 She sent me this screenshot of a comment regarding Candy Candy Final Story (CCFS) from a Candy Candy fan. It was written in Spanish, and my dear friend QuevivaCandy has kindly translated this for me.

I’ve attempted to paraphrase the translation a bit using my interpretation:

I already read both of them, and I already said I would do my analysis. I need the support from you all, terryfans as well as albertfans. I have on mind something that someone has explained to me and what I could understand from the manga, CCFS and the remarkable analysis that some people have done (she makes a joke there, like getting bald). Well, I will share this: “I want to make a little contribution to all this brawl I already read in the reviews. We all talk about being right or not, anohito is whoever the author decided since the beginning. Well, I know someone from Japan. I also have worked with Japanese people, and I hope soon to have CCFS in my hands, even it is going to be in Japanese. Why I say all this, It turns out that, when I talked with a Japanese fan, I asked her if she knew who Anohito was. The truth is, in Japanese or Spanish, the author does not reveal it but it is obvious, for them it’s easier to understand. This girl’s conclusion is Anohito is Albert. Just to see that if she is objective, her sister, a terryfan, concluded that anohito is Albert after reading the novel without being a terryfan. Everything indicates it and that she, being in Japan, knows it so well. What you already have said above and not being manipulated, Mizuki had already planned this way since the beginning. I confess my self an ex terryfan, yes, but now I am an albertfan. After reading the manga and CCFS, I can also come to the same conclusion, not because of the analysis or my own fanaticism, but because of something that people have not considered in many analyses: CANDY!!! OUR PROTAGONIST!!!

She since the manga left clear, that she had already made a decision like she did in Rockstown. In the letter she wrote to Terry and Susanna, she left it clear again, not only because the “I loved you” but she clearly said, “I made a decision and I do not turn back”.

In short, it’s not as ambiguous as you think who Anohito is in CCFS as long as you read the novel with an objective mind. Some people said that Mizuki wrote the story in a way that Terry fans can read it and picked up the hints in favor of Terry whereas the same applies to Albert fans. 🙂  To me however, it can’t be more obvious that Candy was happily living together with Albert somewhere across the Atlantic Ocean.

Antlay has also sent me a few more similar comments but I like the above the best mainly because of what this CC fan said near the end, that many arguments seem to have neglected who Candy really was. She was the protagonist whom the readers admire, right? I think it was brilliant! 😀

Indeed, judging from Section III of CCFS, it was undeniable Candy survived and remained optimistic despite having setbacks in her life.

To support this point, here I will quote Candy’s letter to Miss Eleanor Baker (for your interest, please also read Love Triangle (Part 3)), in which Candy explained to Terry’s mother why Candy had stumbled upon Rockstown. She had been in search of another person (who had helped her very much in the past) but somehow discovered the lousy roadside theater. Anyway, Candy wrote that:

……あの投げやりな荒んだ舞台にわたしは飛び込み、テリィの胸を泣きながら叩きたかった。なんのためにあの夜、わたしは……わたしたちは引き裂かれるような思いをしたの！と。
でも、できなかった。
わたしの心の声が届いたとしたら奇跡が起きたのです。

I wanted to throw myself onto that abandoned stage, to strike on Terry’s chest with tears in my eyes, thinking, for what purpose that night, I… we had to feel torn!
But I couldn’t do so.
If the voice in my heart had reached him, a miracle happened.

I believe in Rockstown, when Candy saw Terry like that, she felt upset and disappointed. Essentially, with the following thought in her mind, was all that for nothing? That night, I… we had to feel torn for nothing?, she wanted to lash out in frustration at Terry. Yet, for some reason, Terry suddenly sobered up and was able to perform again even though Candy hadn’t done anything to him.

Then Candy explained to Terry’s mother that after seeing that his luster had returned, she was convinced Terry would get back on his feet. Though Candy wanted to see Terry, she didn’t want to see him this way (miserable and downcast? I don’t know exactly what Candy meant here). Then Candy left the theater on her own, confused and unsure what to do. It was at that moment that Miss Baker spoke to her.

Later in this letter, Candy cordially declined Miss Baker’s invitation to see Terry as Hamlet. Once again, Candy wrote (my own words based on CCFS),

I want to see Terry’s performance … but I don’t want to see. If I see, for sure I want to meet him. If so, I want to exchange a word with him. Besides, I have promised Susanna not to see him again.

We know from CCFS that Candy had kept Miss Baker’s invitation in her precious jewelry box. It’s clear Candy had made up her mind not to see Terry again, partly because of her promise to Susanna and partly because Candy stuck to her original decision of leaving Terry behind.

After that, Candy wrote a letter to Terry, not intending to send it, in which she wrote with absolutely no bitterness about Terry or Susanna. As explained in A love declaration, Candy could have written this letter with all honesty without worrying about anyone or anything. Yet, Candy wrote that she had got over Terry, and now she was happy and wished Terry and Susanna happiness.

Not to mention that in the very last letter of CCFS epilogue, Candy’s mental letter to Anthony, Candy wrote that (from CCFS spoilers):

… I also thought I would never love someone so much.
However … Anthony, you know that, don’t you?
— I was very much attracted to someone who was like you in London.
But it was just for a brief moment that I thought he was like you and maybe he was the diametric opposite of you.
I have learnt that there were different types of love through this person. 
And that there was something we could never restore.
We can’t see someone again who has died — I couldn’t accept such a simple thing for the life of me …
And — now …
I have learnt there is a fate makes it impossible to see someone although the person is still alive.

Remember how much Candy used to love Anthony? As shown in A love declaration, she said she loved Anthony more than anyone, right? Therefore, after Anthony’s death, Candy thought she would never love anybody as much. (She used “suki” here.)

However, Candy admitted to Anthony in this letter that she had been very much attracted to another man who looked like him. (Note that she didn’t even use “suki” this time and just said she was strongly attracted.) But she learned through this person that something could never be restored. That although this person was alive, it was impossible to see this person. Here, Candy meant Terry for sure even though his name wasn’t mentioned in the entire letter, not even once.

But Candy spent nearly half of this letter introducing Albert to Anthony, about his relationships with others (especially Rosemary), his background, the change of his appearance, etc. In fact, she had paid so much attention to his outward appearance (in particular his blue eyes) that it would have been odd if Candy had had no special feelings for Albert. 😆

Bravo to Mizuki! I think this very last letter in the epilogue indicated the three loves in Candy’s life up to this point. Candy wrote to Anthony about how she had felt after his fatal accident and about her past attraction to an unnamed person in London. But now, Albert was the most important man in her life. 😉

In other words, even though Candy wrote in her diary that she loved Terry more than anyone else, it didn’t mean that she had to continue to love Terry with such intensity for the rest of her life. If she could get past Anthony’s death and fell for Terry in London, she could likewise get over her breakup with Terry (as written in her unsent letter mentioned above) and fell in love with another man.

I can talk about this letter to Anthony on and on, but I’ll save it for other post(s). 🙂 No matter what people say, it’s beyond doubt that Candy is a strong-willed woman, and from her recollections and letters in Section III of CCFS, we learned that Candy had gone through a tough time after the breakup with Terry, but we don’t sense her longing to reunite with Terry at all. She remained positive about her future and decided not to dwell in her past by deliberately leaving her diary untouched (it was filled with her tender feelings for Terry), but I will talk more about this in a different post. Similarly, I will also discuss Terry’s ambiguous letter again.

Before I stop, I’d like to share with you the quote from Marianne Williamson, which matches Candy’s attitude in her mental letter to Anthony:

I’ve come to trust not that events will always unfold exactly as I want, but that I will be fine either way. I sense a mysterious force behind what happens in the world, and it seems to me that souls are learning and growing, no matter how things appear. I trust that when people meet, we meet for a transcendent reason, and that the challenges we face in life are always lessons that serve our soul’s growth.  ~Marianne Williamson