BEFORE SAILOR MOON THERE WAS CANDY.

As a girl, I religiously watched a Saturday morning cartoon series on the French channel on television. It is only now after finding innumerable web pages devoted to CANDY, that I realize that I was hooked on a Japanese anime series of more than 100 episodes which was also aired on TV in several countries. It was derived from a 1975, nine volume Shoujo Manga geared towards young girls written by Kyùko Mizuki drawn by Yumiko Igarashi and published by Kodansha.

Shoujo (pronounced "syoojo", means "girl") manga is a Japanese comic which is originally aimed at young girls as an audience. However nowadays there is also a very large male audience for this anime genre. Unlike shonen manga (manga aimed at male readers) which is focused on action, shoujo manga tells more about romance, feelings and relationships.

The story line is simple. On a winter day, a baby was found on the doorstep of Pony's Home, a small orphanage in a remote valley in Michigan. Sister Lyn and Miss Pony give the child the name of Candice White as she was found on a snowy day. Growing up in the orphanage, both CANDY and her best friend Annie, dream of having their own father and mother someday. As a teenager, she is adopted by the Audreys, a very rich, influential and highly respected clan in the US. Elisa is the haughty daughter of the Legan family of the Audrey clan. CANDY has been adopted so that Elisa will have a playmate. However Elisa continually tries to humiliate her by referring to her inferiority as an orphan. CANDY tries not to become dejected, but stays cheerful and optimistic throughout these problem periods.

My memories of this program are marked by images of CANDY looking soulfully and tearfully into the distance, with soft-focus pastel colours and twinkly lights in the background. These scenes fed my own melodramatic longings for a reunion with long lost family members and created a romantic glow around my adoptive status.

While there was a fair share of romantic liaisons, the series revolved mostly around the funny mishaps and adventures of a very independant, mischievous girl and her loyal pet raccoon, Capucin. CANDY refused to let anyone bring her down. I thrived to be like her, ignoring schoolyard taunts or jabs at being adopted. Self-reliance and independance were virtues celebrated in other children's characters who shared in some shape or form the orphan mythology.

 

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