This review contains spoilers for Knights 520https://i.ur.com/4O66OSG.png In what I hope to be the closest thing Ill get to having a face reveal on Anilist Id like to open this review by revealing Im Black. Hard to believe I know. Ive found that people have a certain image of an anime fan one that usually isnt Black. Ive had someone express shock at the idea that Black people like anime. Beyond that barrier theres a stereotype that Black guys only watch shounen like Dragon Ball and Naruto. I even got in a lengthy argument with another Black dudehttps://anilist.co/forum/thread/20115/comment/512210 on Anilist who claimed that watching violent shounen was a positive influence for Black boys because it kept them away from a life of crime. So to clear the air yeah Im Black. Yeah Black people can and do watch anime like anyone else can. Yeah I watch anime besides shounen. And no anime isnt the only thing keeping me from joining a gang. Got it? Cool. I dont bring up my race because I particularly want to but because it goes a long way in making sense of why and how I approached this manga. 520https://i.ur.com/qusGk8A.png Anime isnt known for having a lot of representation for Black characters I dont mind too much. Others might and theyre well within their right want to see people who look like them in media. I just understand why this is largely a losing battle in animanga. Im sure youve heard it before but Japan is an overwhelmingly ethnically homogenous nation with 98 of the population being Japanese. The fact that most anime focuses on Japanese characters makes sense in this context. Ive heard people say they wish there were more POCs in anime but from a Western perspective most anime overwhelmingly deal with POCs. If one were to mean that they wished that more minorities in regards to Japan were in anime then theres a discussion to be had there. Though again it might not necessarily involve Black people being highlighted instead the Ainu and native Ryukyu peoples might be focused on. I didnt mention this in my reviewhttps://anilist.co/review/5312 of it but one thing I loved about Samurai Champloo was how it brought to the attention the historical marginalization of these groups. All this is to say is that Japan has its own unique marginalized groups to address. And yeah one can write stories beyond themselves or their immediate experience but I guess there are different levels to this in a diverse place like America which likes to pride itself on being a melting pot it feels distinctly wrong to focus on just one group. At least from my outside perspective animanga not being diverse doesnt feel like as much of a problem. Who knows as animanga becomes more global maybe therell be more of a case for diverse characters. 520https://i.ur.com/c8dfptc.png Im sure a part of me not caring is because it feels less close to home. But another big part of it is because I dont want to deal with the bad because with representation you risk bad representation. For every Daruihttps://static.wikia.nocookie.net/naruto/images/4/45/Darui.png/revision/latest?cb=20170913102716 and Avdolhttps://www..com/watch?v=msqUsa2IOA you risk getting two Sister Kroneshttps://images.squarespacecdn.com/content/v1/5ace4845e17ba35c9d8eb95e/1533285440311PAZU61SQGMZ4Y6W8N5PG/sister+krone+chase.PNG?format=500w Mr. Poposhttps://pbs.tw.com/profileimages/1064562383534743552/79Wn9cw400x400.jpg or Chocoloveshttps://static.wikia.nocookie.net/shamanking/images/d/dc/ChocoloveMcDonnell.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20180106125958pathprefix=en. While Im understanding that many of these characters dont come from a place of malice I dont want to deal with them and Id take no representation over bad representation. Might be a hot take but its just how I feel. All this is to say that when I found about Knights an obscure manga about a Black knight struggling with prejudice I wasnt relieved but instead pleasantly surprised. I dont usually let myself get upset over animanga representation but it makes me happy when I see it. This looked to be one of the most Blackfocused animanga Ive encountered so I was excited to give it a read. 520https://i.ur.com/c0uVGxz.png Knights is set in the fictional Europeancoded country of Exclude and follows a skilled squire named Mistletien and his potionbrewing seductress companion Euphemia. The year is Kings Era 999 and Exclude continues to find itself gripped in a bloody era of witch hunting led by the countrys corrupt Church. The Churchs various priests round up innocent young women falsely charge them with witchcraft then publicly burn them at the stake. Not to mention many of these women are brutally tortured for information regarding accomplices really any friend or loved one prior to their execution. A group of knights has had enough of the senseless killing so they band together to form the Hammer of Justice which protects these socalled witches against the Churchs dastardly priests. Mist and Euphemia are just two members of this organization. We follow the two as they travel the land defeating superpowered priests and liberating innocent girls from their captors. Mist is known as the Black Knight and dons a mask in public. The moniker is quite apt for unlike the vast majority of the populace of Exclude Mist has is Black. His appearance leads most to label him as a demon thus he knows a thing or two about persecution. Our story kicks off with Mist and Euphemia coming to the rescue of an accused noble named Katrina Antonina Nina Visemplar 520https://i.ur.com/0nBHcyE.png The first bit of praise I want to give Knights might be the first thing you notice about it the character design of Mist. Mists appearance might not seem that noteworthy when looking at the other characters depicted he seems drawn in the same manner but with darkercolored skin. Besides his skin the most notable physical trait is his hair a shock of mediumlength dreadlocks. His hair in and of itself is praiseworthy for being visually striking and a tasteful marker of his Blackness. Beyond this again his appearance really wont knock your socks off. And thats largely why I found his appearance so refreshing he largely looks like any other animanga character. Whats notable are the things he lacks his skin is depicted as darker than other characters but not pitch black and yes colorism is a thing but a character being darkascoal in animanga is less about representation and more about stereotyping and he lacks huge exaggerated lips. This shows that at his core hes no different from anyone else. This might not seem that important but seeing as theres a significant chance that a Black animanga character might end up looking like Little Black Sambohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheStoryofLittleBlackSamboControversy this is reassuring hell even a bit uplifting to see. I urge you to keep this paragraph in mind. And yes Im saying this ominously. Knights also capture emotions pretty well. Knights is not at all a deep story it refuses to wrestle with social issues in any significant specific manner. At the end of the day though I dont think this was Minoru Muraos aim and you can definitely get some use out of Knights despite this. Sometimes you want to feel instead of think. In a story about marginalized groups this works out well. Knights can be surprisingly visceral this unassuming and at times bland manga will occasionally make you read it with your gut. Therell probably be a scenario that gets to you. Maybe its Mist finding out that despite their previous praise people are disgusted once they see what he looks like. Maybe Euphemia using what had been born of trauma to empower yourself. Maybe its Mist being betrayed by someone he thought cherished him. Maybe its Nina succumbing to jealousy. Maybe its Mist having someone find him beautiful after countless others have called labeled him hideous. Maybe its Mist lashing out when he feels everyone is against him. Again this is hardly a thinking story so we dont really wrestle with these feelings but theyre there and theyre appreciated even if I wished more was done with them. The religion aspect isnt really handled with any amount of tact but I do understand what Murao was attempting connecting one historically persecuted group with another and highlighting the humanity in both. All of this would help Knights be a pretty comforting and cathartic story. 520https://i.ur.com/hVWYZjB.png Why yes dear reader I did in fact specificy would. Ominous ominous I know While the art of Knights isnt great its good enough to make the fight scenes pop showcasing exciting swordplay. The fights are quite stylized Mist will often shout out whatever German move hes using before he lays down the hurt and attacks will often send combatants flying and creating craters or screaming while theyre gushing amounts of blood that should be fatal. Despite this the fights seldom dip into fantastical territory. The fights are easy to follow even when reading quickly I didnt feel like I was missing anything. The plot on the other hand is a different story. My first criticism of Knights is its somewhat confusing plot progression. Early on theres not much of a throughline between chapters one chapter will end with a big fight and the next will begin in a completely different location not really acknowledging what just happened not even with a flashback. Id think I skipped a chapter but no the manga itself just skips from one moment to the next. We dont even get a timestamp like X days later. Its sloppy and makes it harder for me to get engaged. It also hurts the characterization of Nina. She finds herself smitten with Mist and the knight finds himself taken aback because shes apparently the first person to see his face and not be afraid. But of course while theyre physically together at the end of one chapter Mist is gone without a trace the next as we jump forward in time. Shounen typically dont do romance save for brief mentions and epilogues. Due to this were treated to Nina looking for Mist and repeatedly unable to find him. This would be annoying enough. 520https://i.ur.com/8gogCsa.png Then she goes yandere. At the end of Chapter 8 Nina finds Euphemia subduing countless men by having sex with them seductress remember? Rattled Nina asks Euphemia if she does those things with Mist before calling her filthy. Euphemia slaps Nina and tells her that she shouldnt say things like that because she knows nothing about them. This is all the confirmation Nina needs to believe the two are sleeping together hint hint theyre not. The next time we see Nina she has joined the Priests betraying Mist. She shoots Mist with a crossbow and says that they can be together in hell essentially pulling an if I cant have you no one can. This is bad enough but the hearttoheart Euphemia has with Nina that makes her come to her senses really makes things worse. At that point Euphemia was nothing more than fanservice fodder. Knights is listed as ecchi Im certain her absolutely ridiculous outfit is mostly to blame along with her sexual antics though theres nothing explicit. At best she garnered nothing more than an eye roll. Then we get her backstory. Accused as witches Euphemias grandmother was burned at the stake while Euphemia herself was imprisoned and raped for years causing her to feel impure and hate herself. She was then rescued by Mist and remembered what it was like to live as well as have someone care about her. I actually really liked the idea of Euphemia using what had been trauma as a weapon and reclaiming her body. Rape is seldom used tactfully in...really any media. Personally I feel like this does a good job of utilizing somewhat respectfully. It helps that this is only backstory instead of happening during the story itself which is inherently more traumatic and it isnt used to tantalize. While the discussion of rape is frank nothing is shown and I appreciate Murao not using hentai logic of I actuawwy wiked being waped UwU. Maybe I just liked it because its handled much better than a similar plot point in The Idaten Deities Know Only Peacehttps://anilist.co/review/13888. Maybe its just because its a good example of recontextualization. Maybe its because it reveals Euphemia and Mists significant history. And I guess thats the kicker. 520https://i.ur.com/Gn3OVry.png Nina apologizes to Mist and kisses him to administer a lifesaving potion that he needs to win the battle hes in. Im sure the mangaka wants this to be cute but it falls flat. For one theres too much realworld applicability. Sure a crossbow makes it feel removed from reality but imagine Nina has a Glock and shoots Mist because she thinks hes having sex with his friend. Its really toxic and them resolving their issues doesnt erase the toxicity. In regards to Nina one commenter on the site I used to read Knights put it quite eloquently when they said So because he hasnt had sex with another woman hes suddenly worthy of living again? You wretch fuck you. In regards to Mist it really feels like hes so desperate for someone who pretends to accept him so starved for love that hell crawl back to someone who shot him for having a sexually active friend. Euphemias backstory makes me ship her and Mist together especially as its revealed that she has feelings for him. It would have been sweet to see kindred spirits/fellow outcasts get together and find support in one another. The one thing that Nina has going for her is that she wasnt scared of Mists face. Euphemia states that she herself was shocked to see Mists face but I could totally buy a romance of someone moving past their initial shock. It just feels like MistxNina doesnt work as presented and rewards bad behavior. I would have been fine with NinaxMist if not for the slutshaming notably you could argue that this is also metatextual as Euphemia doesnt get the nice MC instead being paired off with a lecherous noble at the end and attempted murder she engages in. 520https://i.ur.com/KVMCnho.png I cant really stay that mad at her or say she doesnt deserve happiness. While she may have caused Mist to suffer she herself suffers grievously at the end when shes tortured and refuses to give up Mist. With her being wheelchairbound mute and unable to effectively use her right hand I think staying bitter would be a bit petty. Especially since I have bigger reasons to be bitter. 520https://i.ur.com/NMciCTe.png I was...shocked to say the least when I saw this depiction of Black characters said to be slaves at the beginning of Chapter 17. Theyre depicted as darker than Mist as dark as you can probably go without just slapping solid ink on the page. They have very angular faces that separate them from every one of the other characters. Most strikingly theyre depicted as having thick white lips if this were colored theyd certainly be pink. Gag lips. After Murao did such a good job of designing a Black MC I was left confused. To be perfectly honest I was hurt too. I wanted answers. Fortunately I got them a chapter later and while my hurt remained my confusion turned to anger. Their appearance turns out to be a bit of foreshadowing because at the end of Chapter 17 were treated to a knight that Mist whose real name is Cornelius refers to as father. His father is white. The gears started turning. In the next chapter Mists mother previously rendered only in shadow during flashbacks has her face revealed. And whaddya fucking know Gag. Lips. Same goes for every fucking other Black person from Mists homeland. So with this Murao is saying Cornelius only looks normal because hes only half Black. And this one small change made the manga so so much worse for me. It would be one thing if literally every Black character looked like this but no Mist doesnt. Mist doesnt because hes mixed race. Deliberation went into this Murao knew what he was doing he picked and chose. He chose to make Black characters look like fucking jokes with the sole exception being mixed race. Its hard for me to read this as anything but actively malicious. Oh I need my Black main character to look attractive but that doesnt make any sense. Ooh I know Ill add some white in em thatll clean him up. 520https://i.ur.com/uLL9cop.png But hey Hanlons razor says to never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. And shit like this 300https://i.ur.com/FazESYu.jpg This is a good guy who isnt called out by the way seems more stupid than malicious. So I guess those are the two options Murao is either a malicious asshole or a fucking idiot. And no I wont mince words because in terms of how I feel both are equally bad. I wont say hes just ignorant because this feels like a step above that. I wont say hes from a different culture because that type of language gives him a pass and excuse me for not feeling up to handing any out after being lulled into a false sense of security. Him not knowing any better doesnt really make me feel any better when my representation amounts to motherfuckers who look like they just entered stage right in a minstrel show. And I know this paints me as an angry Black man. I know that no one gives a shit about this nearly as much as I do. But what can I say I expected better. I thought that with the central draw of this manga being that it focused on a Black MC the mangaka would do right by said character. I guess that was too much to ask for. 320https://i.ur.com/lkIzn4E.png I planned on talking about the fact that Murao has a very unflattering juvenile view of religion. I myself am agnostic and understand how religion can be used as a tool of oppression but thats the thing its a tool. Religion itself is neither good nor evil but Knights essentially just says religion bad without any nuance or deeper reflection. And yes as I said before Knights doesnt delve into anything but the consequences of this feel particularly meanspirited here and Murao just comes across as a smug atheist which is the worst kind of atheist just so were clear. I could talk about this more but honestly I just want to be done with this manga. Oh right and theres a noble child who keeps calling Mist her slave and its largely played off for laughs and not properly addressed. Murao can blow me. 520https://i.ur.com/CfwZfwA.png At the end of the day Knights is a manga that set out to depict being Black in medieval Europe and it does this well. What you see is ultimately what you get and if this is all youre looking for youll probably have a decent enough time. The manga can depict emotions that are visceral but the connective tissue to these visceral emotions isnt really there and when you take a step back you realize the story is kind of weak. It gets the job done but its average at best really only notable for the novelty of having a Black main character. If you actually care about the depiction of said main character you might end up feeling as bitter as I. The small decisions that grind my gears end up being loadbearing decisions that bring the whole manga tumbling down and ruin it for me. At the beginning of the review I said that Id rather have no representation than bad representation. I didnt anticipate Knights to be exhibit A of that philosophy but here we are. 520https://i.ur.com/V8GRAQu.png If youre interested in a short shounen about sword fighting that does an okay job at depicting prejudice then sure pick up Knights. But if youre like me and youre interested in the manga because of the Black MC then whether youll like Knights or not depends on your stance on representation. If youll take any representation then I guess Knights is fine. Hell even if youre picky with representation but youre not that sensitive to missteps then Knights might prove to be a pretty cathartic experience. But if youre like me and prefer no representation to bad representation then Id recommend skipping Knights. Its just not worth the bitterness. 200https://i.ur.com/Lr5JmmJ.png 520https://i.ur.com/XkAbZK5.png