Why Terry is Anohito
Clue #1: Daffodils
Clue #1: Daffodils
Why Terry is Anohito
What CCFS Says
A notable addition on the CCFS story is the presence of daffodils.
They first are encountered at Candy’s description of the surroundings outside her house as an adult woman.
“… 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.”
The second time we encounter the daffodils, is at the scene of teenager Candy stumbling on Terry’s body at St. Paul’s college.
Here’s a brief description of the scene:
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.
In such an unexpected reply, Candy is trying to get to her normal self but instead she looks at him and recalls his accidental entering in her room when he was injured but he looks absolutely fine now.
Terry returns back to his usual behaviour and she complains how she went out to fetch medicine for him that night only to return and find him nowhere. Of course the admission from Candy, of his weak state and how she wanted to help him, kicks in the usual “defence” mechanism of Terry which is to turn inwards and shut everyone else out by turning standoffish and rude very quickly.
Candy reacts in the same way, feeling hurt. She runs away.
The POV of the story here changes and the reader is inside Terry’s head. He remarks how Candy for the first time said his name, he has heard her saying his name and a smile is drawn of his face.
This scene above is a pivotal one in Candy’s and Terry’s budding relationship as teenagers. Candy for the first time speaks of the boy’s name, Terry. He notices and smiles – something he very rarely does.
The relationship is still immature – The daffodils are in the budding state.
Finally, the last time the reader encounters the daffodils again in CCFS is in the Afterword, where Candy takes her creator (Nagita) by the hand inside the room to show her Slim’s painting.
The perfume of the daffodils drifts inside the room from the open window…
Without writing a PhD thesis on daffodils and how they are connected with Terrence Grandchester, looking at the simplest representation of things is always the best approach in plot analysis.
Based on a multitude of authors describing the writing process, the words come out from deep within themselves, while they are almost like they are in a trance. A writer is desperate to tell a story, and while most of the words you read come from the writer’s subconscious mind, most often than not, they don’t sit down for hours, confusing the text with riddles and nuances, which more likely than not, can cause severe migraines to the readers.
Believe it or not, Nagita did not write Candy’s story to torture us with brain gymnastics, looking for every minutiae and cultural references to make sense of what’s happening.
The symbolisms are simple and straight to the point. In this case, when the relationship between Candy and Terry as teenagers was still resembling an unripe fruit, a significant scene takes place where Candy says his name for the first time while he’s hidden within the daffodil buds.
Fast forward to Candy in her thirties, her house garden harbours daffodils in bloom. The relationship is now fully mature. The fragrance is inside the house. The peak of its maturity which means they should be in an adult relationship for a few years.
What the Author Said
The main and most notable moments where the author expressed the connection between daffodils and Terrence Grandchester, took place in Paris.
At the VIP meeting that took place at the famous Parisian patisserie Ladurée, three lucky Candy Candy fans had the amazing opportunity to meet in person with the CCFS author. One of the lucky fans was the webmistress of Candyneige forum, the biggest CC fandom forum in France.
This is a first hand recollection of events, according to the webmistress of the Candyneige forum:
I arrived at the VIP meeting with a bunch of daffodils which I had collected from my garden. I had taken great care of bringing the daffodils to the meeting since I had flown to Paris the day before. My excitement and nervousness of waiting to meet with Nagita, were over the top of the scale. Upon my entrance, the author immediately at the view of the daffodils bouquet, she jumped with joy and cried out loud: “Terry!!!”
Nagita’s agent, explained right away that Terry has a special place in Nagita’s heart.
Sophie’s own account of her private meeting with Nagita is here.
You can also see what she has to say about Daffodils and Terry on her forum here.
For those who wish to confirm Sophie’s account, you can contact Pika Edition directly at the Pika website or on their official Facebook Page.
Furthermore, Nagita was asked by fans at the Livre Paris Book Fair:
“What inspired you to include the daffodils in the final story?”
Why the daffodils?, because they are in the poem of the British poet Wordsworth. I thought of Shakespeare and violets. But when I was in Stratford the daffodils were in bloom. Stratford, the people of Shakespeare. Stratford on Avon. When I think of ‘an English flower’ the daffodils come to my mind. Wordsworth wrote a poem about the daffodils. Have you heard it? He is a famous poet. I like the daffodils.
The video of fans asking Nagita this question can be viewed on YouTube:
Video courtesy of Nagita Fans.
The Birth of Terry Through Nagita’s Essays:
What follows below is an excerpt from Keiko Nagita’s famous CC essays which she wrote:
“For me, the “theatre world” was a very exciting world. For a long time, I was unable to watch the play I loved. I just imagine the back side of the stage. But …
Theatre is a fascinating world. A number of plays received in the lessons as a research student ….
I noticed that I was muttering the Hamlet’s line of Ophelia and that I had learned before I knew the pleasure of reading the drama.
When writing an original Candy scene, I often imagined a story or a scene as a “stage”.
Especially … the “Scenery of the May Festival”.
The costumes of “Romeo and Juliet”. Terry …
(Yes … Terry, you want to act <・・> like your mother)
It is the May Festival that is clearly set in me (more than confirming the will of Terry).
In retrospect … “Terence G. GrandChester” The name of the most nervous and time-consuming of the characters. It is not ordinary, but it is meant to be a lasting name like poetry (Poetry) ….. If this essay goes on, I would like to refer to the names of the characters. Various names.
Among them, the excitement when you found the name of at the corner of the library …!
In Shakespeare playbook, although it was not one of the main protagonists’ names, the name had become a light!
The excerpt above can be found on this page here in original Japanese. Go here to read all the essays with Google Translate.
Terri’s fate may have been known since he received his name from within Shakespeare.
Conclusion
From all the above, we can safely conclude the following:
Keiko Nagita during her time of conceiving the characters that would accompany Candy at her journey, became involved with a theatre company. She always had a deep love for the theater and in fact she even considered of becoming an actress herself.
During a May Festival, she witnessed herself, the scene of the May Festival in Candy’s world took shape. Terry was born from the Shakespeare’s plays, Nagita loved. His name picked from a character inside the Shakespeare playbook.
According to her own words in her essays, till Terry appeared in the story, she felt that everything she used was borrowed from a variety of other stories. Terry’s character made her feel this was finally her own story.
Nagita makes it very clear the connection between Terry and Shakespeare. That is why violets were considered as the flower associated with Terry at the beginning. It’s the flowers that Ophelia mentions in Hamlet, of bringing to put to her father’s funeral but “They have all withered and died”. Violets signify early death. Could they have been connected with Susanna’s death? And her madness? Terry’s inability to love her?
The pairing between Terry and Susanna is similar in its dynamics with the pairing between Hamlet and Ophelia.
Then, in her trip to Shakespeare’s birthplace, Stratford upon Avon, Nagita comes face to face with the flowers made famous from Wordsworth’s poem “I wondered lonely as a cloud”, a poem she has said she loves too.
Her eyes gaze over the fields of daffodils alongside the bank of river Avon…she smells their fragrance. The birth of spring, rebirth, hope.
The scene she has written with Terry being hidden within the field of budding daffodils make it to the final version of Candy’s story. When for the first time, she called him Terry. Just like Nagita found him in Shakespeare’s books and gave him that name.
The fragrance of daffodils lingers inside Candy’s home. They are now fully blossomed all around her house, by the river Avon. Terry is finally home.
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6 Comments
I love so much all what has been written here not only with Nagita´s diary confessions that are still in the web and translated in this page, but for the lovely encounter Sophie had with Nagita at the VIP meeting in Paris in 2019, and what Nagita answered to the fans!!! Thank you so much for all this valious information!!
Lovely to read about the poetic-romantic side of the story.
Although I have to say that roses are related to Anthony, not Albert. Not that I’m aware of, anyway.
Es una historia muy hermosa que me hizo soñar y aun me sigue haciendo soñar y que felicidad que el amor entre terry y candy vencio al final saludos keiko nagita,una historio muy hermosa
Amo la historia candy candy
Querida Andreyna, muy buenas observaciones.
Sin embargo me gustaría puntualizar que las rosas representan a Anthony, no a Albert. Albert no ha sido nunca asociado a las rosas y las Albertfans lo hacen a través de su sobrino, lo cual es hacer trampa. Otra pista muy importante son los tomos encuadernados en piel de Shakespeare, que son mencionados específicamente por la autora en la villa de de Terry en Escocia. Y por supuesto la ciudad donde nació y está enterrado Shakespeare, “Stradford upon Avon”, como la compañía donde trabajaba Terry.
Como tú yo leí al principio traducciones parciales del volumen japonés. Sin order. Una aquí yo otra allá. Hasta que tuve la oportunidad de leer la versión italiana y entonces todo cayó en su sitio.
Te recomiendo que leas los dos tomos traducidos por Mizukifans. No vas a encontrar una traducción más fiel de la novela japonesa hecha por fans y con anotaciones sobre la diferencia con la edición japonesas.
https://www.wattpad.com/user/Mizukifans
Te aconsejo que leas la historia en orden. Pues toma una perspectiva totalmente diferente. Y es importante ese orden para comprender el texto.
Muchos saludos y buena lectura!
Este analisis me ha gustado muchisimo, porque la autora escribio una novela romantica para adolescentes y aqui se ve claramente reflejado estos puntos.
Pocos criticos y menos muchos muchos grandes fans de la historia que no se han preocupado por descubrir y analizar el romanticismo de esta historia que es una belleza , una historia que aun siendo para niñas y adolescentes (como muchos de nosotros hemos sido cuando la disfrutamos ) ha llegado a nuestra edad adulta y aun no hemos podido descifrar por completo, nos confundimos con tonterias (malas traducciones, adulteracion de la obra original, nos dejamos influenciar por opiniones externas de personas que no son escritores ni expertos en el tema)… no vamos a la fuente original, el primer relato de la novela que Ella escribio en japones que es seguro que ha sido traducida al menos al ingles oficial.
Cuando lei algunas cartas de la obra del 2010 en blogs y youtube (…que quien sabe si estan bien traducidas…) Yo pense: Anohito (el mas adorado) es Terry. Despues me puse a leer sin saber unas cartas traducidas del 2003 mezcladas con las escritas en el 2010, (muy pocos autores ponen de donde fue extraida la obra y la fecha) porque me dio curiosidad por que muchas fans decian que era Albert, anohito. Al fin las consegui (…igual quien sabe si estan bien traducidas…).
Alli en ese instante, me dio un ataque de ansiedad fuerte : ¿Albert es un pedofilo? ¿boto a toda la familia Adler y su fortuna? mato a William para ser solamente Albert?, que demonios es esto…..El no era su padre adoptivo, un poco mas similar a su hermano mayor….
Despues consegui la informacion que buscaba en un blog llamado quien es anohito. Estaba la informacion mas organizada por fechas aproximadas de la escritura de las cartas, y ese era el punto de como leer correctamente la informacion dada, por supuesto esto fue omitido por la autora para que cada uno descubriera quien es Anohito segun cada persona, creencias y comprension. Yo lei las cartas de manera desorganizada, primero las cartas entre Candy y Albert, luego la carta de Susana a Candy, luego las cartas no enviadas por Candy, el periodico de la muerte de Susana y la carta de Terry y luego todo lo demas. Fue por Ello que Yo pense: es Terry, es Terry, es Terry…
He leido otros detalles de la obra: del por que es Avon la ciudad donde viven ahora Candy y Terry, ( la ciudad donde nacio Shakespiare y donde se ama con idolatria las obras de teatro del afamado ) , el rio que pasa en frente de la casa de la pareja que simboliza que nada se estanca y todo sigue, del por que el cielo azul Terry y Candy aman los cielos azules en sus dulces recuerdos de ninez al igual que Albert y las flores, la mezcla del pasado presente y futuro ezcladas entre narcizos y rosas. La autora nos muestra de manera tan simple y dulce las simbologias que cada uno desee interpretar a su criterio y no ofender a ninguno de sus seguidores.
Amo a Nagita, Ella es una escritora japonesa impresionante. Gracias por hacerme soñar despierta.
Excelente análisis. Está muy claro.