What a pleasant surprise when I received You Higuri's Gorgeous Carat as part of my Christmas presents a few days before we stood freezing as the ball dropped in Times Square to welcome the year 2001. Indeed, my friends do seem to know me very well, and I am thankful they know I love Higuri's work so much; I think this manga is very, very beautiful. It came into my life just when I needed her beautifully, melancholic faces. Being that Team Bonet now lives in New York City, it's immensely wonderful that we can browse the stores for our favorite manga whenever we please, and thus keep our Higuri up to date. 

However, after starting my new job as an English teacher in Upper Manhattan, I've held little time to construct shrines to these pretty manga; in a while, I even fear I should lose the inspiration, the joy and the freedom writing these grant me. It's true what they say, that large cities inflict the soul, and too many dreams burst and cajole in your head in a way that may cause you to feel more alone than you've ever felt. Loneliness, a feeling Higuri's characters seem to represent in their expressions and wondering eyes. One afternoon, I visited Higuri's site, Tiara, and I found myself wondering why I'd not constructed at least a tiny place for my new manga, since I love it as much as Seimaden and Ludwig II. So, here I am, a little more battered, sad, and nostalgic, but still as in love with Higuri as ever, and so grateful that an artist such as her exists.

Gorgeous Carat, published by Eyes Comics, consists of two volumes so far, and is the return of Higuri's art to a setting in an historical, Romantic era, very much resembling her work in Ludwig II and Kamen no Romanesque. It is the story of a French phantom thief, Noalle, and his companion Florian, who plan to steal jewels. Just what Noalle holds to be his true past is yet to be discovered. The story is romantic, nostalgic, and exciting. 

After learning, through one of her interviews I've read, that Higuri very much likes to set her work in historical times, I've taken a deeper love to these works. They were my favorites to begin with, with the exception of Seimaden, which is her fantasy extravaganza. After reading plenty of her work, I chuckled to find characters resembling Rauresu, Teteiyusu, and Zoku Cutlass's Shiurado; this was funny, since, like Azura, the pirate would probably enjoy a good smoke too. After being slightly dissapointed by Ramen Ikaga!? (Would You Like Some Noodles!?) and Zeus, I leapt at the drawings of Baroque and Gothic buildings with the overdone decorations.