Why Terry is Anohito
On the Battle of Flowers
On the Battle of Flowers
Why Terry is Anohito
The Reason Why Daffodils Are Important
The Reason Why
Daffodils Are Important
As part of the promotion activities for the upcoming release of CCFS Spanish edition, the Spanish publisher Arechi Manga posted a CCF book trailer on their Facebook page. In their own words, Arechi Manga said:
El casting son simplemente amigos del editor, que aprovechando el confinamiento han pensado hacer una cosa entre todos. Aunque las voces tal vez no sean las que tengáis en mente, se pide respeto, pues lo han hecho desinteresadamente.
In English, they basically said:
Casting are simply friends of the editor, who taking advantage of confinement have thought to do one thing among all. Although the voices may not be the ones you have in mind, respect is asked, because they have done so selflessly.
Here’s the trailer if you want to see it:
So, this trailer was done to offer something fun for the fans. But as always, nothing is simple in the CC World. The assignment of magnolia to Albert caused the Albert fandom to collectively reach a virtual orgasm. It was really quite a spectacle to watch, especially with their crooning over the Albert voice in the trailer. But as Arechi Manga had said, all the voices are actually friends of the editor Carles Miralles, who volunteered to help make this trailer as a fun diversion during the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown confinement.
The poor guy who did Albert’s voice — If he knew how many lovesick women are pining for him now, listening to his voice over and over again while fantasizing themselves making love to their POTH. (Hey, don’t just take our word for it. Go over to Arechi Manga’s FB page and read their comments for yourself. They’re literally saying they’re waiting to meet “their” Prince on the Hill — not Candy’s, but theirs.) Then again, maybe Carles’ friend doesn’t mind. Maybe he enjoys it. We hope he does, for his sake.
And if you want to know why Arechi Manga included the magnolia for Albert, it’s because of Alfans’ recent hysterical reactions to Carles Miralles’s first interview on the podcast Ramen para dos. Without outside pressure, Miralles initially did not realize Albert is seen by some (in their delusions) as a love interest. He revealed in the interview that the first Spanish edition of Candy Candy will have on the interior pages: (i) illustration of roses in Part One, as a tribute to Anthony; (ii) illustration of daffodils in Part Two about St. Paul’s, as a tribute to Terry; and (iii) illustration of letters, as a tribute to secondary characters who are Candy’s friends. This interior design was approved by Nagita and her team.
Needless to say, the Alfans went beserk. Albert doesn’t have his own flower!!!!!!!!! Oh the travesty!!!!!!!
There are more instances of Alfans Behaving Badly since then to pressure Arechi Manga to clearly present POTH as Anohito. We won’t go into details about their shenanigans here. If we have time, we may write a blog post about it later. What’s important to note here is that Arechi Manga, caught completely by surprise by the Alfans mob, has been trying ever since to remain neutral on the subject of Anohito. They’ve gone out of their way to try to appease Alfans in hysteria by throwing them a cookie here and there — cookies that are superficial with no deep relevance to the subjects of either Candy’s love interest or Anohito. The magnolia is one such example (and we’ll explain why below.) We do understand why they do this. Their priority is to sell books. Also, out of respect to Nagita Sensei who had said again and again that Anohito is who the reader imagines him to be, it would be unprofessional for Arechi Manga to take a stand that gives any appearance of bias. The hysterical Alfans mob has put Arechi Manga in a tough spot. We don’t envy Miralles and his team.
Anyway, back to the matter of flowers. Aside from the little incident of magnolia, there’s been lately a lot of talks about Albert being connected to roses based on the old Candy Candy novels. We already addressed this subject in our Myth Buster section. You can read it again here. (And if you have to go to the old novels to find support for your case, you’re really reaching for straws.) We’ll also repeat again: Nagita expressly said that CCFS is the definitive version of the story. All previous editions included ideas, concepts, and influences of other parties that did not belong to her. In CCFS, Albert did not plant any roses.
Still, Alfans continue desperately to find for Albert his own symbolic flower, and they are adamant in disproving that daffodils represent Terry. Like five-year-old children fighting over candy (no pun intended), they want Albert to have his own flower, because Anthony had one, and Terry might have one too. As if having a representative flower is proof that Albert was in fact a love interest.
But the fight over representative flower misses the point entirely. And to some extent, this argument about symbolic flower has gone on for so long, even some Terry fans have lost sight of what this argument was about in the first place. So we’d like to reiterate here again why daffodils are significant in CCFS.
Ultimately, the issue is not which male character has a symbolic flower. In fact, ALL main male characters in CCFS have a symbolic flower. Even Neal! It seems like this was something of a fun thing that Nagita had dreamt up way back when. We share with you here an old original Japanese manga depiction of the flower that represents each of the CC characters.
For the record, in this depiction, Terry was represented by yellow violet. At Livre Paris, the NagitaFans asked Sensei about this. Nagita told them that when the depiction was published, she thought yellow violet was related to Shakespeare. She had learned since that this is not the case. Also, she had learned about William Wordsworth. She felt that Wordsworth, along with his famous poem with the element of daffodils, is a stronger symbol of England.
We note that Albert is noticeably absent here, but we won’t pick on this point, because what we want to say here is that having a symbolic flower doesn’t really have much significance on the question of Anohito.
As you can see, other main male characters in the story are represented by flowers too. So, the argument over whether Terry or Albert is represented by a flower is not really the point.
The real importance of why Terry fans place such importance on daffodils is because the way daffodils were written in the story CCFS provides one of the strongest clues that Terry is Anohito. We have already discussed the why daffodils are a clue before and you can read we said here.
Now, again, here is how this very important clue was revealed:
i. Daffodils never appeared in any of the previous Candy Candy novels, the anime, or the manga. It is a new element added to CCFS.
ii. We further note that Nagita had expressly told fans at Livre Paris that she identifies daffodils as associated with Terry, even though the Alfans keep trying to deny this.
iii. Daffodils first appeared in CCFS when Candy stumbled and fell onto Terry in the woods at St. Paul’s. In that scene, Terry told Candy he was there to smell the fragrance of daffodils.
Terry was lying on the ground, hidden within the daffodils buds, in St. Paul’s college. Candy stumbles on him and falls on him.
With his usual boyish and cocky behaviour, he teases Candy while trying to help her. Just like a young girl, who starts to notice a boy, she dismisses him on the spot, she excuses herself and blames him for lying down like a stone.
“Stones can’t smell daffodils,” he says.
Daffodils appeared the second time in CCFS when Candy, now an adult woman in her present home in England, said in her own words:
“ . . . I went out in the large terrace. The Avon river flows slowly, bathed in the afternoon light of the early spring. From the water a cool wind soothes the tension of my agitated thoughts. I fill my chest with the sweet fragrance of the daffodils which comes from the garden. They are in full bloom and I owe to them those golden reflexes that seemed to filter through the trees.”
In the Afterword in the Japanese edition of CCFS, Nagita also said that in her imaginary meeting with adult Candy:
Candy smiled at me and led me to the living room that had “Slim’s painting” on the wall.
The scent of daffodils blew into the room from the opened windows.
The significance here is not that Terry has daffodils as a representative flower. The important point is that Nagita used daffodil as a clue to connect Terry at the beginning of Candy and Terry’s relationship to the end of the story. She associated Terry with daffodils at St. Paul’s. She then told us that daffodils dominated in the end. These flowers are blooming — alive! Golden under the sunlight.
Yes, Candy in her present had a rose garden too. But it is small. This garden is a memorial garden like the one in Lakewood dedicated to the memory of Rosemary. It is a symbol of something that passed. So for all their efforts to connect Albert with roses–and thereby outrageously appropriating this symbol from dear Anthony — they’re missing the point. In CCFS, roses are something of the past. In a memorial garden. In contrast, daffodils are thriving. Their scent surrounded Candy and filled her inside as she breathed. Daffodils are what’s here in her present.
To make this point completely clear: Daffodils in CCFS serve as a huge clue to tell us Terry is Anohito. This is why this flower is important. Not because which guy has a flower symbol.
And regarding Arechi Manga’s kind gesture to tip a hat to the Alfans with a magnolia in their trailer, it’s very nice but as we said above, it’s irrelevant. Tf magnolia indeed represents Albert, then sadly for the Alfans, in CCFS in Candy’s present home, there is no magnolia anywhere to be found. If we give weight to the concept that magnolia symbolizes Albert, then we can only conclude that Albert isn’t much in Candy’s present. And Lakewood has been sold. What does all this mean? We’ll let you draw the conclusions.
Next up, we have a series of AMAZING articles by Scottie, a Candy Candy fan has long been a strong voice of reason why Anohito. She will examine more in greater depth the issue of daffodils as well. Her thoughts on this subject are beautiful and they leave no doubt why Terry is indeed, Anohito.
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3 Comments
Firstly, thank you for writing so many information!
Since there are so many clues that Terry is Candy’s husband, why does the Albert-Terry conflict still exist?😂 But, now that I think about it, since anohito’s name is not stated in the novel, you can imagine her being with whom you want her to be.
After all, it’s a relief to know that everyone is happy in the end!!
Hi Terrylia, you have asked a very important question, the one all fans have asked before and still the discussions continue around it. But we have some important information Nagita gave us in Paris, and other you must consider, because the answer is Yes, Nagita knows who that man is but she doesn´t want to dessapoint the OLD FANS:
1 – In the afteword of the Novel, Nagita told us why she rewrote the story with the title, Candy Candy Final Story: “I felt like I heard Candy’s voice from behind me as I stared at “Slim’s painting.” It was a kind voice that gently pushed me to do what I was supposed to do. This novel was rewritten as I reminisced those nostalgic days with Candy.”
And also Candy told Nagita (in her mind) to write more about her. So this person is the one Candy loves, and must be an specific guy previously known by the fans, because Nagita didn´t need to introduce more details about him if he was a new character in the story.
2- In one of the interviews made by Nagita in Paris, when the journalist asked her who would she choose as Candy´s husband (Albert or Terry), Nagita said it is Candy who chooses, and if you read the novel Candy declared her romantic feelings in a so beautiful and direct way for two characters: Anthony and Terry, and you know Anthony died in the accident. Candy never expressed romantic feelings for Albert in the novel.
3- Candy´s home in her present (around 1936) is full of elements of Terence: it is in Great Britain, the Complete Shakespeare´s plays in leather (that Candy saw at Terry´s villa en Edinburgh) are in her study, the daffodils perfume invades her home (the same perfume Terry declared to love at Saint Paul, and daffodils represent England for Nagita), she lives in Stratford upon Avon (Shakespeare´s town, confirmed by Nagita in Paris), the jewelbox inhereted by Candy´s husband is full of Terry´s clips about his career.
So Terry is the name of Candy´s husband shouted in the story with all of those symbols.
4- When we asked Nagita in the conference in Paris if Terry was happy she said, YES, and we know who gives Terry happiness in his life, besides being a Shakespereane actor: he only loved Candy, his note in the novel is the proof. And living in Shakespeare town for him will be the best gift his creator (Nagita) can give him and his wife (Candy).
So Nagita only “obscured-didn´t say” openly the name of Candy´s husband, but it is described everywhere in Candy´s retrospections, and with the events we didn´t know before (Susana died, so Candy´s oath to not seeing terry again can be dismissed, and Terry is again free to declares his love, even more if he is not a married man, because he never married Susana)
Why didn´t Nagita told that name? she answered that: she didn´t want to dessapoing the OLD FANS, and who are those OLD FANS?: the ones that believed Candy ended with the prince after seeing the end of the anime (that was created and belongto Toei animation) or the end of the manga when Candy runs to the Prince arm (and end created by Igarashi, who prefers Albert as the romantic partner of Candy).
Nagita had 40 years to think in this new story, and we thank her for giving us this amazing end, with Candy and Terry together in Stratford upon Avon, surrounded by daffodils and Shakespeare spirit.
BUT, if the fans want to believe is Albert… it is ok, because Nagita said all the time in Paris: “you can use your imagination to think who is him…”and alfans really can use their wild imagination to think that… Terry fans only have to read the novel…. Hugs.
So, I have a question in mind. Does Mizuki KNOW who anohito is and just don’t want to tell fans so as to not disappoint them OR is it the other case? Even she wasn’t sure about who he is and said to the fans to use their imagination?
The difference in the questions is important because if it’s the first case then anohito is ONLY one person. We just have to find clues to discover who he is.
If it’s the second case, then anohito could be whoever you want him to be. If I want to imagine her married with Terry then she is indeed married to him. If some fans want to imagine her with Albert then she is married with Albert.
What’s important to me, is to discover the TRUTH. I’m not fan of the theory: Just use your imagination, it could be whatever. It’s important to me to know that she is married with the man she truly loves and she is happy with her life, but she can only be married to one person, huh? I’m sure that Mizuki knows everything, but simply doesn’t want to tell fans.