Candy Candy pitfalls

Since the forum has gotten a bit of life back into it, and the whole Albert saga reared its head once again, I was thinking about Nagita's writing.

Despite admiring her style, it does show that she isn't a prose writer. I was thinking of the manga. And Albert's role. And I realised that while the manga was progressing, Nagita was writing each episode as it came, without having a clear picture of what the ending would be. Hold on to untangle my thoughts.

A novel writer starts with an idea which transforms into a roughly sketched plot. At least that how I go about it. And from my discussion with other writers, this is one of the most common ways to start writing a novel. You don't want a detailed plot in your mind, because then the story loses spontaneity but also you don't set out completely in the dark because at some point you'll run out of steam and ideas, unless you are writing in an absurdist style and everything goes (like the last Raiders of the Lost ark where UFOs appeared at the end of the movie and it was one of the most profound WTF moments in film history which ruined ROTLA for me completely).

So you have the idea - Coming of age story of an orphan girl.

And a vague plot - She had a lot of trials and tribulations, loving "mothers", gets adopted by a mysterious tycoon, and meets boys while she is growing up that will change the course of her life, change herself and mark her life for ever.

This is the skeleton. And you can start building from then on. Perhaps you also have an ending, and a lot of writers do have a hazy ending, which can be fluid or set, but it doesn't matter because the ending can always change.

The good thing about writing a novel is that the story will be written a lot of times in multiple drafts which will iron out imperfections, parts that don't work, superfluous characters, stilted dialogue, and a lot of other things. The story will be trimmed down to an inch of its life, and it will be a hundred times better story for it.

The manga writers don't have this luxury as they are writing in a serialised way and don't have too much time to write the plot for the next episode. Which means a lot of bad things which everyone can spot in Candy Candy. Plot holes, undeveloped arcs, and so on. The worst of all is that they set up writing this manga, without having an end in mind.

As I said in a previous discussion, this is a weakness of many Japanese mangas. Time and again, mangas stop and leave the story unfinished. Perhaps because of not having thought of it thoroughly so they reach a point where they run out of ideas/options, or it can't go any further and they try in a very amateurish way to tie up lose ends giving a very awkward ending (see Candy Candy).

Nagita in an interview said that she wanted to give Candy three loves. Now, this statement falls into the category of "Story ideas". So Candy Candy was a coming-of-age story of an orphan girl who experiences three types of love.
Romantic love, passionate love and gentle love. And that would have been fine if we were taken by the hand and Nagita wrote the life of Candy from the time she was small to the time she neared sixty years old.

That way, the story is believable. Because she can have the first romantic love in her early teens, her passionate love in her twenties and her gentle love in the sixties. However, since we are trying to squeeze Nagita's "story idea" of three loves inside a manga, it makes Candy look like a girl who has premature menopause.

She has her first love while she's like 10, her passionate love when she's 15, and if we follow the Alfan obsession, she ends up in a gentle love with Albert by the time she's 19. Just when the hormones are raging, Candy settles in a tea-and-biscuits type of love with someone who started as a prince, then was a mysterious friend, and ended up as a guardian/stepfather/prince amalgamation so much so you think he is the Father, the Son and Holly Spirit all rolled up nicely inside a hot mini kilt (In the anime, lol).

You can see the non-clarity of the whole situation. No vision of how the story ends. It would have been much more satisfactory for me, if in the last episode, Candy was packing up her bags, said a teary goodbye to Pony's home and rode the train into the sunset, full of hope for her future. At least, I would have dreamt all the adventures she would have had, in her life, with other men, with her job, with perhaps starting a family or even becoming a great scientist or something that young girls can look up to. Instead we are supposed to believe according to the Alfan dogma, that Nagita's message was the secret to happiness if to find a stable, older guy with lots of cash who preferably knows you from when you were a child, so to have those fate strings pulling you together, and if by the time you hit your early twenties he starts writing you flirty letters, you go for it. In the meantime, hide yourself from the world, serving all others, apart from your self.

It's the cultural difference someone will say. They are fans of gentle love so quiet, it becomes a whisper you'll be hard to hear if you are reaching a certain age and your ears are playing you games. However, and here's another pitfall of Candy Candy. We are supposed to believe the Japanese nuances where Albert and Candy are concerned, to read between the lines, and believe in mirages (things that aren't there) because Nagita writes with the Japanese writing kimono on (not the Western writing hat) but as far as I can recall, Terry is as Western as they come. He is loud, and obnoxious, and damaged, and passionate, and obviously sex-on-legs in a way he makes mine tremble so what happened there Mrs. Nagita? Did you forget your Japanese sentimentality in the drawer of your writing desk?

Why everything else to make sense to our Western perceptions? The evil siblings, the funny brothers, the young noble gardener and wait a minute, the only Japanese person in the whole story is Albert who happens to be a British expat living in Chicago, under an alter ego persona, incognito...Well Mrs. Nagita, you certainly hid this Japanese influenced character rather well...

To conclude, because it looks like I'm going to write a PhD thesis, once again...I once was famed in this forum for my very long posts.

I don't buy the gentle love with Albert. It doesn't fit with everything else. It is forced and unnatural. And certainly it is not hidden under obscure nuances and Japanese sensitivity. While leads me to either one of two things:

First - Nagita because of the nature of the manga, got lost in the story. She had to come up with the goods fast and in the meantime, Igarashi who was much more ambitious compared to Nagita, wanted part of this artistic licence and started making her own "adjustments" to the story. Same goes for the publishers who had their own ideas. Too many cooks and the broth is to throw down the sink. I put the anime aside, because as much as I love it, it is the worst CC version of them all.
The books are the closest to Nagita, but unfortunately the manga bears down like handcuffs. She doesn't have much space for manoeuvre.

And the second - The three loves...Nagita said in an interview there are many loves in a human society...

That phrase stuck with me. Pay attention. She didn't say there are many types of romantic loves. She said there are many loves in a human society.

Which are: The mother's love (Candy experienced that with her "Mothers"), the siblings love (Her love of Annie, her "sister"), the love between friends (with the boys and Patty), the first love (Anthony), the love of your life or else the Mother of all loves (Terry). Which love is missing from here? The love for a guardian/mentor/father/brother. The love for an older male who is a rather important love for a girl growing up. This is Albert, the gentle love of your father, the teaching love or your mentor, the caring love for your brother, the teasings and the laughter, but also the looking after each other. And Candy is lucky that have experience all those loves.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LADY GATO AND PATTY72!!

Well, a double celebration today in the CT forum. I thought to open a thread for the both of those great CT fans, and super nice ladies through and through. Without further ado

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR CT GENERAL LADY GATO

and

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR SUPER CT SIMS ARTIST PATTY72!

Dear friends, I wish you health and happiness always! To have reasons to smile every day and be creative to give us great CT stories and fanarts!! Enjoy your special day today!
I'll start the party!

Where is Albert in CCFS?

Girls, I made this poll because of my fanfic. Many ideas sprung in my mind and I wanted to get your opinion on Albert's face in CCFS. Instead of opening a thread in the general forum, I thought to create the poll. It's more fun I thought. All opinions are welcome. I just wanted to see what you guys think happened to him before deciding whether to apply my idea or not.

Susanna Marlowe

hi everyone! I have been very much absent from the forum for various reasons but I thought to pass by quickly and leave a question of mine as I would be very interested to read your opinions. My writing contribution will be sparse but I will be reading with interest of what you think. So it's about Susanna. To put the question in context:

We all know about Mizuki's issue with historical and other inaccuracies in the CC story. And we have come to the conclusion that: a) Mizuki was not that interested in getting everything accurate down to the small details and it was difficult in 70's Japan to have easy access to Western history sources.

I'm intrigued about Mizuki's choice to name the spoilt girl who forced Terry to split up with Candy as Susanna Marlowe. What we know about this name?
Susanna was the name of Shakespeare's daughter. Marlowe is surname of a quite famous poet who as the conspiracists have it, could be behind Shakespeare's works. I can come back with some links.
"Christopher Marlowe[1] (baptised 26 February 1564 – 30 May 1593) was an English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe was the foremost Elizabethan tragedian of his day.[2] He greatly influenced William Shakespeare, who was born in the same year as Marlowe and who rose to become the pre-eminent Elizabethan playwright after Marlowe's mysterious early death. Marlowe's plays are known for the use of blank verse and their overreaching protagonists."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Marlowe

I find it almost impossible to think that Susanna Marlowe was a name chosen lightly or by luck. Why do you think Mizuki chose that name? If you say she wanted to connect Terry with Shakespeare, why not name her Ophelia, or Juliet, or Hermione? They were all famous women in Shakespeare's plays. I'm inclined to think that Susanna Marlowe is more a symbolic name. Could it mean that Terry dedicated his life to his Shakespearean career despite him loving Candy? Sometimes I'm thinking that Susanna symbolises something more than just a spoilt up and coming actress...What do you think guys?

Misunderstanding calm love

Ok I think this deserves its own topic. The reason I'm opening it is the following. From all the years of getting to know and talk to CAshippers for me this is one of their main arguments and it is almost certain that at some point this will come up. And for me personally is the most annoying argument to show for a 20 year old girl to whom many old fans want to reflect their preferences in life. I won't write much because I type from the tablet which is frustrating in its own right. To get the ball rolling, I'll wrte two things and you can confirm if I'm right or wrong. Memory is not good.

First and irrelevant to my intro, do we happen to have this interview of Mizuki with the three loves in Japanese? I'm just curious to get the exact wording.

Secondly and that is where a stronger memory will help. Didn't Mizuki say about the ccfs that the story of candy and anohito is another story all together? Meaning that she didn't show us anything about Candy and her partner because as she put it, she would need another book to write? Somewhere along those lines....

Now let us imagine that Mizuki did actually mean that the calm love Candy experienced was with Albert.

First problem - Mizuki's interview about the three loves was referring to her older work. Meaning that the classification of the three loves was referring to the CC story which ends when Candy is what? 18? Mizuki said I wanted to describe three loves for Candy. How can it be that in the space of 18 years a writer described 3 loves which according to some are the three main types of female-male love. Completely wrong in my opinion but I'll keep the pretence for argument sake. So a woman in her life experience the first love, the hormone crazy passionate, first sexual fellings love, and the mature calm wise self confident seen the world and I'm done with it calm love, all in the space of 18 or even 20 years with the three loves of what? 3 years apart? Candy is not a woman, but a runner bean by the speed she is maturing.

Second problem - as it has been pointed out, the target audience of the initial story was early teens girls. To even hint or try to describe a mature calm love to an 11 year old girl who in her own life fancies a boy from the neighborhood and goes bananas every time she sees him and makes cartwheels in the street to impress him, or even worse tries to beat him up because she doesn't even know how to express her fancy...is like trying to describe a moon shuttle to cave men.

And third problem - but still we can overlook the above and still say yes, at 18 Candy and Al or even at 20, they started having feelings for each other. So I chronicle the calm love below:
Candy and Al realise they have feelings for each other
Candy and Al date and everything is hunky dory because they are so calm and in the zone, there is nothing that can disturb the straight line.
After many years of Al working continuously and Candy working tirelessly as a nurse, they get married. Al sells property because somehow it makes sense to up house and go to UK. He also finds the pony painting and he gives to Candy. Who has second thoughts about the moving but Pony tells her. Keep the painting dear. It is a sign for you that you are doing the right thing and go with Al. With whom she has the secure calm strong mature love so she shouldn't really feel the moving jitters for Pony to need to encourage her to follow her mature secure husband. So they go to England. Candy works or stays at home on her own and Al stays in the office until the evening in her calm and mature and secure relationship. And no she is not melancholic at the start because in a calm relationship what is so melancholic about? And in a calm secure mature relationship, Albert her husband doesn't want her away from him for too long so she cannot visit Pony in the US.
By the way in this calm mature secure self confident relationship, how much of the above can expand to write a whole book on its own?