Candy Candy

Candy Candy (キャンディ・キャンディ, Kyandi Kyandi) is a Japanese anime created by Japanese writer Keiko Nagita under the pen name Kyoko Mizuki. It was published as a manga in April 1975 written by Mizuki and illustrated by Yumiko Igarashi, a collaboration which was put together by the Japanese magazine Nakayoshi. The manga series ran for four years, and won the 1st Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo in 1977. The story was adapted into an anime series by Toei Animation. There are also three animated short films. In addition, a three-volume novel was published between 1978 and 1979.

To create the story of Candy Candy, its author, Keiko Nagita, drew primary inspiration from novels such as Jean Webster’s Daddy Long Legs and Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, seeking to explore the trope of the optimistic, cheerful orphan protagonist who faces life head-on and moves forward.

In Candy's Secret Revealed!—an interview for the Keizensha Encyclopedia—Nagita says: "I decided to write a story that was neither merely a magical manga nor a conventional tale of an orphan girl searching for her mother, but rather the life of a girl who lives looking toward the future; within that life, I wanted to include three loves. The first is the initial love with Anthony—a fleeting romance, a love composed solely of tenderness with a boy of a special, pure transparency. Then comes the turbulent, youthful love with Terry—a love one must part from, even while still in love. And finally, I wrote of a serene, mature, fated, and enduring love with Albert."