Summary
Fantasy is a massive overarching genre inanime, consisting of multiple settings full of dozens of interesting concepts and ideas. Fantasy can blend into many other sub-genres, from Humor to drama. Many use myths and other popular stories as a basis for their settings.
There are several great shows available to watch that take place in medieval high or low fantasy. With influences from popular high fantasy genres and tropes and epic battles where good and evil go head to head, this anime genre follows grand adventures and the mysterious power of magic and the creatures surrounding them. Here are the best fantasy anime to watch.
It’s hard to distinguish Isekais from normal Fantasy anime due to how heavily saturated and interconnected they are. The main distinction is that an Isekai generally starts or establishes that our protagonists came from our world.
Sub-genres
Comedy, Shounen
In this fun little comedy story, a young dragon named Letty gets kicked out of his family’s home due to his timid and passive nature in the world. Now searching for a new place to live, he joins the reluctant dark lord Dearia, who happens to have experience in home acquisition. Together, they explore several locations for Letty’s dream home while avoiding the nefarious heroes who are out to carve him up for EXP.
Dragon Goes House-Hunting takes every known archetype and trope in JRPGs and plays with them in good humor. The sociopathic “heroes” that want to hunt down Letty and the dungeon raiding that occurs here are all parodies of the gameplay loops you get in Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. Some characters from other Fantasy RPGs are referenced like The Hunter and Palico from Monster Hunter.
Adventure, drama, tragedy, comedy
Elaina is a young woman who travels the world after becoming a full-fledged witch. As she interacts with different countries, she witnesses beautiful scenery, hysterical events, and the grim consequences of those who wield magic for destruction and salvation. She encounters friends and close companions while traveling through many different countries and kingdoms.
Wandering Witch is a mix of multiple moods and themes, symbolic of the nature of Elaina’s journey. There are ups and downs throughout the series and there are some episodes that explore a more comedic side to Elaina’s journey. Meanwhile, others force her to confront the darkness of human nature, the danger of magic, and other serious themes. In all of them, Elaina remains a simple traveler who continues her dream of writing a story like the Adventures of Nike.
Comedy, Romance, Harem, Anthropomorphic, Medical
Monster Girl Doctor is a light-hearted harem show that explores the wild scientific biology of fantasy creatures and human-like monsters. The story follows Glen Litbeit, a young doctor who runs the first monster-specialized clinic in the city of Lindworm, alongside his assistant, Saphentite the Lamia. Together, they help treat the many residents of Lindworm and their unique needs.
Outside of the comical fanservice moments and Glenn awkwardly navigating around many of the female characters around him, Monster Girl Doctor shows how he is a great doctor and helper of the monster inhabitants. A lot of the biology and pseudoscience surrounding the characters is explored, from the centaur’s need for horseshoes to mermaids' need to take care of their gills when they’re outside of water and harpies' need to take care of their wing feathers.
Adventure, Drama, Economics, Romance
Kraft Lawrence is a traveling merchant who’s accompanied on his journey by Holo, a rural harvest god who can turn into a large wolf. She mostly travels with him in her human form and throughout their adventure, she helps with his economic strategies along with learning about the world around her.
Spice and Wolf were once released several years ago with this latest remaking bringing the series to a new audience with cleaner visuals and animation.
Trigger studios
Comedy, Gourmet, Drama
To try and rescue his sister Falin from the belly of a Red Dragon, Laios and his party of dungeon explorers Marcille and Chilchuck embark deeper into the dungeons to rescue her. The only problem is their rations and food supplies are not at their best, resulting in Laios proposing to cook and eat the monsters in the dungeon. They soon met up with a Dwarf named Senshi, who is an expert at preparing monster dishes, and so the gourmet hijinks began.
The base premise of Delicious in Dungeon is that this group comes across a cool or interesting monster that inhabits the dungeon, they kill it, and then Senshi prepares it into a “delicious” meal that the party partakes in, with mixed reactions that make the comedy work. Drama lurks in this otherwise comedic dungeon-crawler series, and the party has to find ways to avoid gruesome deaths that are worse than starvation.
White Fox (Season 1), LIDENFILMS (Season 2)
Horror, Action, Adventure, Drama
After barely escaping a gruesome fate from a horde of goblins, a young Priestess joins a mysterious adventurer named Goblin Slayer, whose singular focus in his life is to wipe out every single goblin in the world. Along the way, skillful adventurers High Elf Archer, Dwarf Shaman, and Lizard Priest get involved and join the Goblin Slayer’s crusade against these chaotic monsters.
Goblin Slayer is a Dark Fantasy thattakes elements of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, from using similar dice to having the same roster of monsters that would be encountered in a D&D campaign. The series had a great balance between the darkness and the light dynamics with the characters that let you get invested in their arcs and developments outside of the carnage. Goblins are treated as a genuine threat, and many of the best parts of Goblin Slayer are when the characters find new strategies to improvise against them and other monsters.
Drama, Mythology, School, Romance
Chise Hatori is a young red-headed orphan brought into a world of magic and spirits of good and evil when she becomes the student of an eccentric mage, Elias Ainsworth. Throughout her time with him, she discovers the ancient world of faeries, dragons, and wizards of many types and finds her place in this beautiful and dangerous world.
Ancient Magus’s Bride is a beautifully animated series that weaves the Celtic myths of England well with a modern setting. Season 1 did a great job building the plot, world, and the many characters and plots Chise deals with. Themes include perseverance, finding peace in life, and exploring the natural beauty of the world around her. Fans of the fantasy genre, old and young, will love the soundtrack, presentation, and characters of Ancient Magus’s Bride.
Action, Adventure
The Record of Lodoss War is an Epic Fantasy story about a series of heroes who embark on a quest to save the world from oblivion. Our young hero is Parn, and joining his adventure are his friend, the white mage Etoh, the whimsical elf Deedlit, the rugged dwarven warrior Ghim, and the human wizard Slayn. Together, this band of legendary heroes takes on all kinds of monsters, from goblins to titanic dragons.
Record of Lodoss War is an epic series of OVAs, or Original Video Animations, based on the Dungeons & Dragons campaigns done by a group of writers transcribing their adventures in a magazine. These adventures became adapted into video games, manga, light novels, and popularly, the OVA series. Record of Lodoss War was important for introducing many elements and tropes of High Fantasy to anime and popularizing them in Japan.
Military, Horror, Action
The ’90s anime series Berserk is one of the most influential anime to come out. It mostly tells the Golden Age Arc and follows Guts during his time with the Band of the Hawk. Compared to the recent Berserk anime series released, the art style and animation are much closer to the manga and much cleaner, with no CG interfering with the quality.The manga is also still ongoing, thanks to the legacy of Kentaro Miura carrying on through his best friend Kouji Mori.
Berserk has such an influence that many of the visuals in the series are referenced and featured in various video games like Dark Souls, Elden Ring, and a majority of Dark Fantasy manga and anime. Guts has also become an iconic character throughout Fantasy anime due to his imposing appearance and complex character arc in the anime.The bitter conclusion of the anime is one of the perfect ways to set up the story of Guts in the manga and later anime adaptations.
Adventure, Drama, Romance, Comedy,
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is a beautifully animated story of the immortal elf Frieren on a journey around the world after the defeat of the Demon Lord. The story mostly follows Frieren after Himmel the hero passes away, and she goes through decades retracing the paths of her journey with him while accompanied by her apprentice Fern and their companion Stark.
The anime is a beautiful balance of meaningful calm and intense action, represented by dynamic animation. Frieren’s personality is enduring with her comedic quirks, from being an eccentric magic collector to getting trapped by mimics. Fern is a great POV as the student who learns how magic works. Many other charming characters share time with Frieren, and the anime takes the classic elements of high fantasy and succeeds in keeping them engaging.
