Candy and Prince on the Hill (Part 3)

Thank you for the feedback to the previous posts in this series so far, and some of you asked me to talk about the age gap between Albert and Candy. Before Candy Candy Final Story (CCFS), for decades the fans had believed Albert was around Anthony’s age when he appeared as a Scottish teenager to little Candy on Pony’s Hill. He said so himself in his letter to Candy in the old Candy Candy novel, the novelization of the manga version published by Mizuki. Therefore, their age gap was roughly 8 or 9 years old. However, Mizuki widened this gap slightly in CCFS to 11 years because Albert told Candy in a letter that he was 17 back then.

As explained in my old post, Age difference between Candy and Albert, this change made the original story plot not very convincing because most people look like their adult versions by 17 years old. Hence, it’s highly unlikely Candy couldn’t see her prince in Albert. Nonetheless, Mizuki must have a reason for this modification, and I wonder if she had somehow found out that a handful of states in US require the adult to be at least ten years older than the child he or she is going to adopt. Some states require the age difference to be even bigger. For your interest, please check Who may adopt? 🙂

Yet, even if Albert was 11 years older than Candy, in their correspondence to each other (shown in CCFS epilogue), we get a feeling of strong friendship between them. Moreover, she wrote colloquially like his equal (especially you know how Japanese culture stresses politeness and respect).

As a matter of fact, there are many examples in real life as well as famous novels or movies in which the age gaps between couples are much wider than ten years. For example, Master Jervie was 14 years older than Judy Abbott in Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster. Their age difference didn’t stop Judy from falling in love with Master Jervie, who was her roommate’s young uncle. In fact, he thought Judy might have preferred her best friend’s older brother, Jimmie, who was only slightly older than her, but she told Master Jervie that, “…I wouldn’t think of marrying Jimmie; he isn’t grown up enough.”

According to the post about Movies Silently concerning age difference, Daddy-Long-Legs was popular and deemed acceptable soon after being published (in 1912) because the marriage between the President of the United States, Grover Cleveland, and his young wife, Frances Clara Folsom, was still fresh in people’s minds. Mr. Cleveland met his future wife when he was 27. She was the baby daughter of his long term close friend, Oscar Folsom. After Mr. Folsom had passed away, Miss Folsom became Mr. Cleveland’s ward for years until she grew up, studying in college. His feelings for her then took a romantic turn, and she became the First Lady at the age of 21 (in 1886). Please click this Wikipedia page for more details of her life.

Below are some more examples for your interest: 😀

• Humphrey Bogart was 15 years older than Ingrid Bergman in “Casablanca”
• Rex Harrison was about 20 years older than Audrey Hepburn in “My Fair Lady”
• Maria von Trapp was 22 years old when she married Captain von Trapp, who was 25 years older (real life story that inspired the movie “The Sound of Music”)
• While filming “The Sound of Music”, the actress who played the eldest daughter Liesl, Charmian Carr, admitted she was attracted to Christopher Plummer, who played her father. Despite the 13-year age difference, Plummer admitted that the attraction was mutual.
• The late actor, Paul Walker, and his girlfriend had a 17-year age gap
• The other famous actor, Bradley Cooper, and his girlfriend is roughly 17 years apart too

Need I say more? 😉 Hence, falling in love with someone much older (doesn’t matter who’s the younger one) is not necessarily a problem to some people. In CCFS, Candy mentioned more than once that Albert looked younger than his age, and in a couple of letters to people she wrote that Albert looked a lot like his beautiful late sister, Rosemary. Hmmmm… don’t you think she was essentially saying that he was an attractive man himself? 😉

Now, let me present to you my another attempt to color one of my favorite scenes in the manga version. ❤❤❤ I listened to this music “What is Love?” when coloring. 🙂

I must say Igarashi did an excellent job portraying Candy’s dreamy expression when she fixed her gaze on Albert, who was tenderly smiling at her. Note that she didn’t yet know he was her mysterious Prince on the Hill (the handsome young man she had claimed to look like a prince). For your interest, please check my earlier post, Love Triangle (Part 7), for the detailed explanation of Candy’s inward admiration of Albert. 🙂 In short, she secretly adored his good looks by using the adjective, すてき, twice in a row, ❤❤ which means lovely, beautiful, cute, superb, splendid, great, fantastic, marvelous, dreamy, etc. I think you get an idea of what was on her mind at that very moment. 😍 Anyway, click Part 4 to read more if you like.