Knight Run

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Knight Run’s rough art and text-heavy nature make it a hard series to get into, but I’m extremely glad I gave this one a chance and followed through. It’s a powerful story with some excellent central characters, and the author’s use of visual symbolism in key panels is second to none. The setting is incredibly dark, and the series unflinchingly examines many difficult topics while also asking the question of how human beings can survive and persevere in a world that seems hell-bent on breaking them down. Everyone suffers, and hardly anyone ever gets a happy ending, but the grim atmosphere makes key moments of ... kindness and courage resonate all the more.

Currently, only the first two arcs have received an official translation. Fan translations cover arcs three through five, and will hopefully catch up to the original story someday.

Let me start off this review by saying, this is my favorite story. Period. This includes all of the manga, anime, shows, and novels I have read so far.

I was originally pushed away by this manwha after I looked at it's subpar ratings and how distracted I got by how much text there is. When I finally came back to it, I forced myself to read a bit more, after that it was impossible to make me put it down. The story constantly puts you through a rollercoaster of emotions, which makes you feel attached to the character and grow with them, which made me ... cry numerous times throughout the story. The story was so good that I immediately read the first arc again, mainly just to witness the absolutely amazing ending.

At this time I had finished the first arc and began to move on to the second. The second arc completely threw me off by moving on to a whole new cast of characters that I had no knowledge of in the first arc. I did the same thing again and decided to stop reading it due to it being so different than the first arc. When I made the great choice of finishing the second arc, I was astonished. The second arc's story trumped that of the first with characters that originally meant nothing to me, and with a plot that was irrelevant to the first one.

Sadly this manwha doesn't have too big of a fanbase, so WEBTOON naver discontinued the translation of Knight Run after the second arc was translated. I want everyone to read this amazing story so you can experience what I did, as well as create a bigger community for this so that other translators will pick it up some day.

Knight Run is, if it has to be summed up, epic fights between awesome looking characters wielding supernatural weapons in fights with high stakes.

The character design and proportions are on spot. I never felt like there was something out of place and the alines are truly alien in their images. The space ships have unique designs and the perspecitves of destroyed landscapes, cities and shipwrecks is some of the best I have ever seen. The painting art style may seem crude at times but it really shines at setting atmospheres with the colour choices of the artist.

The characters have their own backstories, motivations, ... hopes and dreams, there are no characters that feel like they are made out of card board, even those that never utter a single line.

The story itself, the first arc being finished, and the second currently ongoing, is superb. It was near impossible to not feel bad about the antagonist.

The finale of the first arc was a bit of a tear jerker, with the story coming to a dramatic and well defined end.
However, the author continues the story on that high level.
The second arc was, so far, incredible, with its ups and downs.
Especially the 'My Hero' bit.

The only bad thing about is, is that it gets pretty emotional at times, so I can't just binge read it all.