Knights

This review contains spoilers for Knights

In what I hope to be the closest thing I'll get to having a face reveal on Anilist, I'd like to open this review by revealing I'm Black.

Hard to believe, I know.

I've found that people have a certain image of an anime fan, one that usually isn't Black. I've had someone express shock at the idea that Black people like anime. Beyond that barrier, there's a stereotype that Black guys only watch shounen like Dragon Ball and Naruto. I even got in a lengthy argument with another Black dude 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, I'm Black. Yeah, Black people can and do watch anime like anyone else can. Yeah, I watch anime besides shounen. And no, anime isn't the only thing keeping me from joining a gang. Got it? Cool.

I don't 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.

Anime isn't known for having a lot of representation for Black characters; I don't mind too much. Others might and they're 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. I'm sure you've 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. I've 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 there's 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 didn't mention this in my review 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 doesn't feel like as much of a problem. Who knows, as animanga becomes more global, maybe there'll be more of a case for diverse characters.

I’m sure a part of me not caring is because it feels less close to home.

But another big part of it is because I don't want to deal with the bad; because with representation, you risk bad representation. For every Darui and Avdol, you risk getting two Sister Krones, Mr. Popos, or Chocoloves. While I'm understanding that many of these characters don't come from a place of malice, I don't want to deal with them and I'd take no representation over bad representation. Might be a hot take, but it's 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 wasn't relieved, but instead pleasantly surprised. I don't 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 Black-focused animanga I've encountered, so I was excited to give it a read.

Knights is set in the fictional, European-coded country of Exclude and follows a skilled squire named Mistletien and his potion-brewing, seductress companion, Euphemia. The year is King's Era 999, and Exclude continues to find itself gripped in a bloody era of witch hunting, led by the country's corrupt Church. The Church's 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 so-called "witches" against the Church's dastardly priests. Mist and Euphemia are just two members of this organization. We follow the two as they travel the land, defeating super-powered 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…

The first bit of praise I want to give Knights might be the first thing you notice about it — the character design of Mist. Mist's appearance might not seem that noteworthy — when looking at the other characters depicted, he seems drawn in the same manner but with darker-colored skin. Besides his skin, the most notable physical trait is his hair — a shock of medium-length dreadlocks. His hair in and of itself is praise-worthy for being visually striking and a tasteful marker of his Blackness. Beyond this, again, his appearance really won't knock your socks off. And that's largely why I found his appearance so refreshing — he largely looks like any other animanga character. What's 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 dark-as-coal in animanga is less about representation and more about stereotyping) and he lacks huge, exaggerated lips. This shows that, at his core, he's no different from anyone else. This might not seem that important, but seeing as there's a significant chance that a Black animanga character might end up looking like Little Black Sambo, this is reassuring, hell, even a bit uplifting to see.

I urge you to keep this paragraph in mind. And yes, I'm 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 don't think this was Minoru Murao's 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. There'll probably be a scenario that gets to you. Maybe it's 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 it's Mist being betrayed by someone he thought cherished him. Maybe it's Nina succumbing to jealousy. Maybe it's Mist having someone find him beautiful after countless others have called labeled him hideous. Maybe it's Mist lashing out when he feels everyone is against him. Again, this is hardly a "thinking" story, so we don't really wrestle with these feelings, but they're there and they're appreciated, even if I wished more was done with them. The religion aspect isn't 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.

(Why, yes, dear reader, I did in fact, specificy "would." Ominous, ominous, I know)

While the art of Knights isn't great, it's good enough to make the fight scenes pop, showcasing exciting swordplay. The fights are quite stylized — Mist will often shout out whatever German move he's using before he lays down the hurt and attacks will often send combatants flying and creating craters or screaming while they're 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 didn't 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, there's 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. I'd think I skipped a chapter, but no, the manga itself just skips from one moment to the next. We don't even get a timestamp like "X days later." It's 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 she's apparently the first person to see his face and not be afraid. But of course, while they're physically together at the end of one chapter, Mist is gone without a trace the next as we jump forward in time. Shounen typically don't do romance save for brief mentions and epilogues. Due to this, we're treated to Nina looking for Mist and repeatedly unable to find him. This would be annoying enough.

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 "shouldn't 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, they're 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 can't have you, no one can."

This is bad enough, but the heart-to-heart 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 I'm certain her absolutely ridiculous outfit is mostly to blame along with her sexual antics, though there's nothing explicit. At best, she garnered nothing more than an eye roll. Then we get her backstory. Accused as witches, Euphemia's 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 isn't 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 it's handled much better than a similar plot point in The Idaten Deities Know Only Peace. Maybe it's just because it's a good example of recontextualization. Maybe it's because it reveals Euphemia and Mist's significant history. And I guess that's the kicker.

Nina apologizes to Mist and kisses him to administer a life-saving potion that he needs to win the battle he's in. I'm sure the mangaka wants this to be cute, but it falls flat. For one, there's too much real-world applicability. Sure, a crossbow makes it feel removed from reality, but imagine Nina has a Glock and shoots Mist because she thinks he's having sex with his friend. It’s really toxic and them resolving their issues doesn't 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 hasn't had sex with another woman, he's suddenly worthy of living again? You wretch, fuck you." In regards to Mist, it really feels like he's so desperate for someone who pretends to accept him, so starved for love, that he'll crawl back to someone who shot him for having a sexually active friend. Euphemia's backstory makes me ship her and Mist together, especially as it's 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 wasn't scared of Mist's face. Euphemia states that she herself was "shocked" to see Mist's face, but I could totally buy a romance of someone moving past their initial shock. It just feels like MistxNina doesn't work as presented and rewards bad behavior. I would have been fine with NinaxMist if not for the slut-shaming (notably, you could argue that this is also metatextual, as Euphemia doesn't get the "nice" MC; instead being paired off with a lecherous noble at the end) and attempted murder she engages in.

I can't really stay that mad at her or say she doesn't deserve happiness. While she may have caused Mist to suffer, she herself suffers grievously at the end when she's tortured and refuses to give up Mist. With her being wheelchair-bound, 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.

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. They're 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, they're depicted as having thick, white lips — if this were colored, they'd 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, we're 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, Mist's 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 Mist's homeland. So, with this, Murao is saying Cornelius only looks normal because he's "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 doesn't. Mist doesn't because he's 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. It's hard for me to read this as anything but actively malicious. "Oh, I need my Black main character to look attractive, but that doesn't make any sense. Ooh, I know, I'll add some white in 'em, that'll clean him up."

But hey, Hanlon's razor says to never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

And shit like this

(This is a good guy who isn't 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 won't mince words, because, in terms of how I feel, both are equally bad. I won't say he's just "ignorant" because this feels like a step above that. I won’t say “he’s 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" doesn't 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.

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 that’s the thing - it’s 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 doesn’t delve into anything, but the consequences of this feel particularly mean-spirited here and Murao just comes across as a smug atheist (which is the worst kind of atheist, just so we’re clear). I could talk about this more, but honestly, I just want to be done with this manga.

Oh, right, and there's a noble child who keeps calling Mist her slave and it's largely played off for laughs and not properly addressed. Murao can blow me.

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 you're looking for, you'll probably have a decent enough time. The manga can depict emotions that are visceral, but the connective tissue to these visceral emotions isn’t really there and when you take a step back, you realize the story is kind of weak. It gets the job done, but it's 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 load-bearing decisions that bring the whole manga tumbling down and ruin it for me. At the beginning of the review, I said that I'd rather have no representation than bad representation. I didn't anticipate Knights to be exhibit A of that philosophy, but here we are.

If you're interested in a short shounen about sword fighting that does an okay job at depicting prejudice then sure, pick up Knights.

But if you're like me and you're interested in the manga because of the Black MC, then whether you'll like Knights or not depends on your stance on representation. If you'll take any representation, then I guess Knights is fine. Hell, even if you're picky with representation, but you're not that sensitive to missteps, then Knights might prove to be a pretty cathartic experience.

But if you're like me and prefer no representation to bad representation, then I'd recommend skipping Knights. It's just not worth the bitterness.