Thank you for such a great amount of material for Candy candy fans! As a young girl in the 80s, she was one of my most iconic characters during the informative years of my life. The romance and life lessons captured my heart.
Going down a rabbit hole for the last couple of days and because I found out about the new material released in 2010 by the writer Keyko Nagita, I was hopeful Candy would be reunited with Terry….but alas, after reading everything Nagita has said and your great research and explanations of everything …
I am convinced Nagita’s preference for Candy’s “Anihito” is her favourite character Albert…
first and foremost (1) she blatantly says that he is her favourite character,
secondly (2) as a woman very immersed in literature myself have seen over and over again the perpetuation of what it could be considered archetypical now for girls coming of age stories into womanhood: a puppy love, a love full of angst and fire that gets a girl into womanhood and the everlasting amicable love that makes a woman want to marry them and usually are also perceived as mentors/friends/mature. I do NOT subscribe to this archetype at all, but I have seen all too many times and Nagita loves tropes and stereotypes…

3) the end of the manga heavily suggests that under everything Albert was the ever-present person for Candy, her prince of the hill whatever she called him and although to me this is creepy honestly Albert having-so many “alter egos” and a red flag, many would consider it romantic including Nagita given her background and culture

4) Nagita’s culture accepts (and to my surprise promotes in anime) huge age gaps between men and women still, father-daughter or mentor-daughter relationships becoming romantic once the girl is of age, basically what we would consider grooming or inappropriate. I find it unethical and patronising but I don’t think Nagita has such qualms as obvious from all other anime i have been following recently. There is something incredibly romantic and tantalising to them to pair still in the 20th centrury very young women with the first old mature guy they come across that cares for them. And because a western country on 2010 would find Candy/Albert problematic and Nagita indeed wanted to please all fans she left it open to interpretation but deep deep inside her she wants Albert to be with Candy…

5) daffodils are in her garden (well first of all in gardens in uk we have daffodils lol) but there are there to signify that although some loves are left behind we always carry those people inside of us.

Would love discussion on my points! I hated Albert to be Candy’s endgame by I am very much afraid that in the creator’s head and intention very much is….
Thank you!