Sunday, July 20, 2008

have some candy

Straight from the Miss Pony Orphan's Home to you, it's Candy Candy! One of the most popular shojo manga characters to ever bat her dinner-plate-sized eyeballs at dreamy boys on several continents, this adorable orphan emerged from the early 20th century Michigan woods with a pet raccoon and a impish desire to cause trouble.

Photobucket

The manga by Kyoko Mizuki and Yumiko Igarashi was originally serialized in Nakayoshi (home of Princess Knight and Sailor Moon). Toei Animation Company animated a CANDY CANDY television series that ran for 115 episodes from 1976 until '79. The show was broadcast in Argentina, Italy, Hong Kong, France, Puerto Rico, Africa, Southeast Asia, Canada, et cetera; and garnered a fanbase of soap-opera loving fans throughout the world. A dispute between Mizuki and Igarashi put the rights of the series into question for years, meaning one thing; no new CANDY CANDY.

Photobucket

CANDY CANDY's blend of exotic Western locales, the frilly shojo visual motifs of ribbons, curls, and flowers, and a melodramatic storyline that involves doomed romances, sabotaged romances, class-barrier-defying romances, and the First World War, remains popular even without legitimate releases. The memories of millions of worldwide fans and the interest of American shojo fans, themselves denied a childhood of CANDY CANDY merchandise, will no doubt keep this show firmly lodged in the frontal lobe of the collective unconscious.

Photobucket

In America, CANDY CANDY got all of one home video release in the early 80s from ZIV International, the folks who brought us English-language versions of the Toei series Captain Future, the "Take To The Sky" Captain Harlock, Angel, and Fables of The Green Forest. Dubbing was by Jim "Force Five" Terry. Reports of CANDY CANDY being broadcast on American television have yet to be verified.

Photobucket

(additional crayon added by the original owner)

Help us increase the CANDY CANDY quotient by enjoying the contents of this red-vinyl 33 rpm single! Side A is the opening and ending theme to the CANDY CANDY anime TV series, and Side B is an amusing story involving Candy, her pal, and some rich kids. Even if you don't speak Japanese, you can enjoy the powerful stereo separation that still survives in spite of the pops and crackles. Keep seeking happiness, Candy!

Photobucket