Knights is a Japanese fantasy manga which follows a young squire in the kingdom of Exclude, created by Murao Minoru, a writer artist team. The kingdom is gripped by a witch craze, with women being kidnapped, tortured, and killed by corrupt 'holy men'. Our protagonist, Mistletien, is infamous as 'The Black Knight', and he travels the kingdom rescuing these so-called witches with the aid of his best friend, Euphemia, among others. His mission is to end the witch hunts, by killing those involved with perpetuating it, and by foiling executions. Mist, as he is often called, is able to perform this mission, which goes against one of 'The Ten Precepts', this kingdom's rules of knighthood, because there are many who believe he will never become a full knight. You see, he is not called The Black Knight due to anything he wears.
He actually is black.
This presents a problem for him, as Exclude is an overwhelmingly white country. Almost every character who finds out about Mist's skin tone react in horror, having never seen a black person before. To add to it, the corrupt church labels black as an evil color, making many people believe Mist is a demon due to his black skin, and mistreat him.
One thing I find interesting in the art style of Knights is that, aside from the characters, the art reminds me a bit of a woodcut, a medieval method of creating art. Seeing as this is a manga that takes place in a medieval world, it seems very fitting.
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