Japanese Manga

Anthony greets Candy in Candy Candy

Escape from the mundane, the stresses of your daily hustles, worries that catch you by, and plummet down into the world of fantasy-fiction in Japanese manga.  You may be familiar with Japanese anime, manga, video games.  They are front-in-line for that techno-savvy, highly-stylized graphics in games and animes:  high-CGI anime for Playstation's, cartoons like Transformers.  They have been a source of creations:  toys, dolls, figurines; children all vie, cry, demand to their parents with deep pockets that can afford to buy.  Candy Candy, a classic Japanese manga, has been remade into T.V. series and movies.  

    

Candy Candy has been mentioned in my book Render the Dreams Beyond Yesterday (which I am still working on).  

Here is the story’s premise.  Candace White, an orphan girl baby, has been left outside of Pony's house in Michigan.  The nun at Pony's house takes in the baby and cares for her.  She grows up in the midst of hilly landscapes, running freely, climbing trees, and playing pranks as an active tomboy.  She grows up with Annie, another orphan girl her age.  They play together until they reach the age of six.  A well-to-do family adopts Annie and Candy is left alone.  Candy receives letters from Annie until one day the letters cease coming.  Candy keeps on checking her mailbox —anxious, awaiting Annie’s response.  Then a letter arrives from Annie one day.  But the first lines reads:  "Good-bye Candy."  Annie has moved on with her new life and friends and no longer wants to be affiliated with the roots of her poor orphanage in Michigan.  (Annie's character is not strong and not quite the individual as Candy.)  Sad, broken-hearted, Candy runs to the hills and cries out of the heart-breaking news.  Suddenly, a boy out-of-nowhere (older than her) comes out and offers consoling words to her:  "You look prettier when you smile."  As she gathers herself, she finds the boy has already disappeared just as quickly as he appeared.  Candy names him her "prince on the hills" because she has not caught his name; undeniably he looks like a prince.  Dressed in sharp Scottish wardrobe, he decked out in nice sash (at least to a poor orphan girl).  But wait, he has left a memento behind:  his family emblem, a medallion.  He must have let it fall onto the ground.  Candy keeps his emblem for years . . . years.  

It has been six years since and she still clearly recalls her prince.  (After all, it is not everyday a prince come by Pony's house in the provincial lands at Michigan.)  She is now age 12 and has been summoned to help out a well-to-do family.  Not adopted like Annie, she is summoned to help Eliza, a girl her age.  Unfortunately, Eliza is neither friendly nor nice.  She is mean, demeaning, and bullies Candy with her equally mean, bullying brother Neil.  The family does not welcome her with warm, open arms.  As a matter of fact, Candy has been left in the attic (not an actual room) and when they deem her behavior wrong, they punish her by putting her with the horses at the barn.  They stay mean—bullying, degrading, setting her up, painting her as a bad figure —and Candy survives through it all.  Eliza does not treat Candy well, making her carry heavy shopping bags when they go out to town shopping.  One day, Eliza and Neil go too far. 

 

Saddened by her loss of an old friend, she rushes to the natural landscape, letting out her emotions freely.  This is true to Candy's character and trait:  her love of nature and natural landscapes.  There, she comes upon a prince-looking boy, a lot like her first prince at age 6.  Here is an uncanny resemblance.  Not only do they look alike, but he says the same comment as her first prince on the hill; he offers her consoling words to comfort her also.  But this time, she catches his name:  Anthony.  Anthony is Candy's first love (that is, after her first prince on the hill).  They meet by the gate which locks have the same symbol as the emblem she has kept from her first prince on the hills.  She learns her first prince on the hills must be from the same family’s lineage as Anthony's.  They meet again and again unlike her meeting with the prince at age 6.  She keeps on meeting Anthony because his family and Eliza's family know each other well.  Candy gets along with the boys of the Ardley family well.  They all like her.  Candy reunites with Annie again, seeing her after much time has passed but Annie pretends not to notice her.  Annie hides her poor orphanage roots from her peers.  Eliza and Neil paints a bad picture of Candy to Anthony—accusing her of stealing the Ardley family medallion (which she kept from the prince since age 6), stealing Annie's ribbon (which Annie herself discreetly placed on the post at the barn), and framing Candy of other stolen household items she had not done.  Despite Eliza and Neil's attempts to influence Anthony's opinion of Candy, Anthony's feelings stay with Candy.  One day, Candy gets a feeling that she would be kicked out of Eliza’s parent’s estate after she gets frisky with Neil.  Now Candy has become a dangerous threat.  (Candy got physical with Neil after he bad-mouthed Annie, who uncovered Annie's hidden past as an orphan with Candy.)  This is also true to Candy's character trait:  getting frisky, physical with another, even if he is a boy.  As a tomboy, she gets frisky even with boys but does so out to defend old friends.  In this instance, it is an old friend who does not even (at first) want to acknowledge her!  But this is also true to Candy's character trait:  a pushover at times. 

Deported to Mexico, Candy is sent down a bad route in her future.  Just then, a car stops the caravan carriage that has Candy on board, halting the deportation.  A car’s driver is Juru, Audrey's family chauffeur, who is assigned to bring Candy back to the estates.  Candy has been adopted to the Ardley family by an unknown, mysterious William Ardley, her benefactor whom she has yet to meet.  Candy finally lives the lifestyle she can only dream of —a nice, big mansion with her own room, fancy feminine dresses, and her own housekeeper.  No longer demised as a servant, Candy and Anthony share perfectly happy times together.  They can now set-off into the sunset.  But it is not so.  They were not meant to last. 

Just why won’t they last?  Firstly, Anthony's life suddenly comes to an abrupt end by an unforeseen event —a horse-riding accident.  Candy's first love ends tragically, a traumatic experience for a young girl at 12.  At any rate, Anthony is Candy's first love, after her first "prince on the hills" at age 6.  (This is an important factor as the writer has a surprise ending for her readers after the hard tribulations her female protagonist undergoes; and it will not disappoint.)  Although Anthony had been Candy's first love, her true first love happens before then . . .  upon meeting her prince on the hills.  Though she has only met him for a brief moment at age 6, she has kept his emblem, a medallion as her most prized memento —for years to come.  She resorts to her memory of her prince’s consoling words, still fresh in her memory when times fall hard.  (Not an everyday impression!)  Candy recollects her meeting with her prince as her source of strength when times do fall hard.

The following poem was inspired by Candy's first-love, Anthony.  Anthony was sweet to Candy, giving her roses named all after her, calling it "Sweet Candy."

 

 

Sweet Roses

 

My first love named a rose after mine,

And bestowed it before me on my birthday,

Sweet scent of roses like me, he said so fine,

Sweet scents like saccharine grapes candy,

Laid with honey, caramel filled within its heart,

Redolent of my being and stay,

My eyes rang true to his matriarch,

Eyes reminiscent of his late mama, whom he hurry,

And he promised to pick more dozens by the bunch,

Roses at the first blossom in the early morn’ rise,

A garden of sweet scents, a fragrant brunch,

A rose garden of abundance dub my style,

And he promised to run far and wide,

At the hills of my home high time on high.