Through her agent, Nagita answered the reason Candy signed the letter that way was because this was how Westerners sign letters. The fan then asked two more times what kind of love did Candy mean, even if that was how Westerners sign letters. Was it love as in family? At that point, Nagita’s daughter joined the conversation and firmly said that it wasn’t any kind of love. It was just that Candy Candy was a story about Western people and this was how Westerners signed their letters. (In the video, you can also see that while the fan focused on asking about the word “love”, Nagita’s daughter actually interrupted and said, “And gratitude”. She added this to make sure the word “gratitude” was not lost.” Seems to us that to Team Nagita, gratitude was equally important as whatever love there was between Candy and Albert.)

So when this question was first asked, Nagita did not say it was romantic love. In fact, she and her whole team downplayed the significance of the word “love” by saying it was merely how Westerners sign their letters. Nagita’s refusal to take a position on this subject is consistent with her position for all the years since CCFS was first published, and also with her answers to questions throughout the Livre Paris weekend. (Except of course to some special Alfans whom she treated like a daughter after they’d met for less than an hour. 🙄🙄🙄)

This also puts an end to the Alfans’ argument for years that when Nagita had Candy sign the letter this way, she meant for Candy to convey romantic love because “Japanese people would only sign the letter with the word love when they mean romantic love.”

Another important thing to note is that in her Preface in the French edition of CCFS, Nagita signed her message to her French fans with the words “With love and gratitude” too. Certainly, she’s not expressing romantic love to all her French fans!

But of course, the Alfan tried to discredit this other report and claimed that the answer didn’t come from Nagita’s own mouth, and that it wasn’t enough that Nagita’s agent and daughter answered. As if Nagita’s own agent and daughter didn’t know Nagita’s story as well as anyone! The fact that Nagita relied on people on her team whom she trusted to assist when language barrier arose, was used to undermine Nagita’s intent as an author.

We can hardly take such argument seriously. But anyway, let’s look at what Nagita herself said then, in the rabble-rousing Alfan’s own video.