Knights

Type: Manga

Status: Ongoing

Premise: The witch hunts are a lie; the church has been using them as a way of instilling fear in the masses and increasing their influence by torturing and burning innocent women at the stake. Among the highest orders of the church priests have been endowed with "god's blessing" for their actions and are empowered by the spirits of ancient apostol in their crusade against the impure, but not everyone is fooled by these "servants of god" they see the corruption and smell the scent of death and decay. Mistletien (Mist) is a squire and not yet a full knight but he takes it upon himself to rid the earth of those who perpetuate the witch hunts and save as many people as he can. He is called the Black Knight; a Hammer of Justice.

Thoughts: This manga is interesting because it is a completely fictional world using real world events as a staple plot device. We have a group of characters who are extraordinary but plausible and they are fighting an enemy who is just as mundane as they are (excluding the "servants of god") in a situation that did indeed happen in real world events making this manga read more akin to fiction than fantasie. The plot winds in and around the atrocities that were committed during the witch hunts with only minor fantastical elements coming into play later on in the narrative (these elements provided a direction for the story, but were not entirely mandatory; the plot could have progressed without them with only minor changes). I enjoyed this radical departure from the classic manga story line for its different setting and great interaction in bet between party members.

Prose: Good story line that is a refreshing deviation from the norm, interesting and quirky characters that have depth to them and well done action scenes makes this a good manga to get away from more standard manga plot lines.

Cons: There are some disturbing aspects to this manga due to its plot being based around the witch hunts; it is cruel and graphic at times and pulls no punches when immersing you in the desperation of those times, be warned.

-Notes: Euphemia is an ..... interesting character; she makes vary little sense near the beginning of the series but eventually we come to learn why she is the way she is, so suspend disbelief at the beginning and you will be able to understand and reflect afterwards.

8/10          (Wow, "Black Knight" in the most literal sense of the word...)