Some of you might have noticed that I have been very quiet lately. Rest assured that I have been trying my best to work on my next post in the Lost in translation series, but real life responsibilities are demanding and making it harder for me to keep up. Anyway, many of you must have read and/or heard of the interviews of the author of Candy Candy, Keiko Nagita, carried out in Paris during the book fair. You can quickly find them by doing a Google search, and you may also want to read the comments in my previous post about the controversial interview.
Yet I’d like to bring your attention to two notable ones. The first one you can easily find it on YouTube uploaded by Sweet Poupee, titled “Nagita sensei answers about Candy & Albert’s relationship: March 17, 2019 Paris”. I could hardly hear the conversation but you can read the detailed description. I’m actually surprised Nagita sensei was that honest in answering this question, essentially stating that Albert was not a father figure to Candy. Whew!! What a gift, as Sweet Poupee indicated. 🙂
The other Interview by Maccha for Bulle Shôjo has been shared in few Albert’s pages already. Many thanks to Fay for sharing it with me such that I can post it here in case you haven’t yet heard about it. Again, I consider this interview another gem, in which Nagita sensei revealed her own feelings regarding Terry and Albert. Even though the author said she did not know which male character Candy would pick (yeah right 😛 ), she essentially implied Candy would choose either one of them, not an unknown man. Also, in this interview one question to Nagita sensei was about Candy in her 30s as a married woman. The fact that the author did not correct the interviewer means that Candy was indeed married to Anohito. Don’t you agree? 😉
Speaking of which, I’d like to point out that at the very end of the epilogue of Candy Candy Final Story (CCFS), Anohito asked Candy a question about why the lights weren’t on,
どうしたんだい？キャンディ
Literally, this can be translated to “What’s up, Candy?” or “What’s the matter, Candy?”
In English this does not sound kind or tender enough (IMHO). I’m not sure about the Italian version and/or French version, but let me show you a manga page in which Albert asked Candy the same question (read from right to left, top to bottom).
As you can see, Candy wanted to thank Granduncle William, who responded by laughingly discouraging her from speaking formally, reminding her of their relationship. She immediately blushed, nonplussed. Meanwhile, Albert added that he didn’t know about Neal’s forced engagement but urged Candy not to worry. At this very moment, she collapsed on to the floor. Albert, shocked, knelt down beside her and put his hand on her shoulder, asking, どうしたんだ.
Those with sharp eyes might have noticed that the question in CCFS ended with one extra い, which serves to soften the speech with friendliness. It’s also a gentler and/or masculine variant of the question shown below. If I remember it correctly, Archie asked this question with the い ending before in the manga too. At any rate, as shown in the drawing, Albert was being tender to Candy, and I hope this helps you understand Anohito’s question in CCFS epilogue better. 🙂
