The best Fantasy anime on Crunchyroll include some long-time icons and some recent series that have become hugely popular in a short time. Since Fantasy can refer to a variety of sub-genres, it’s important to note that this list focuses on classic High Fantasy, popularized by Dungeons & Dragons or the Lord of the Rings.
Like its extensive Sci-Fi catalog, Crunchyroll’s large collection of anime series makes it the perfect place to discover new Fantasy series, whether it’s for nostalgic rewatches or to dive into a new series for the first time. The very best Fantasy series are sure to provide fans with unforgettable epic adventures and incredibly creative settings, ripe with magic, monsters, and valiant heroes fighting against evil. While the genre has become ripe with stereotypes, it is also home to some truly unforgettable anime that fans should check out.
10 Goblin Slayer
Since its debut in the Fall 2018 anime season, Goblin Slayer has been a highly controversial series. A Dark Fantasy series like Berserk, Goblin Slayers follows the title character’s one-man war against the Goblins, depicted as universally cruel, sadistic, and devoid of any redeeming traits. Goblin Slayer himself isn’t a particularly nice person, but he retains the audience’s support by virtue of fighting against literal monsters. The series is an interestingly dark take on a Fantasy RPG-style fictional world and the world-building is Goblin Slayer‘s greatest strength, taking a familiar setting in a new direction. There is a well-executed story beneath all the controversy, but viewers deserve fair warning that Goblin Slayer is relentlessly grim and can be incredibly disturbing.
9 The Dungeon of Black Company
Isekai anime have become so common that any series that wants to stand out from the crowd usually has to put some new spin on the genre. The Dungeon of Black Company does just that. Where most Isekai protagonists set out on great adventures to overcome their enemies in battle, Kinji is aiming to conquer the world of business. An everyday human with shrewd business sense and enough money built up to avoid having to work a day in his life, Kinji is suddenly transported into a Fantasy world, falls into massive debt, and is forced to do back-breaking labor for a mining company. Kinji uses his business sense to rise through the business world in his new surroundings, presenting a unique Isekai story in what is otherwise a fairly standard Fantasy world.
8 Don’t Hurt Me, My Healer!
Don’t Hurt Me, My Healer is one of the best comedic anime parodies of common Fantasy tropes and worlds. The series follows the hapless adventurer Alvin and the healer Carla, who tends to make things worse whenever she’s trying to be helpful. Alvin and Carla’s interactions, and the bulk of the series’ humor, are based on a Japanese style of two-person comedy. Carla says or does something ridiculous and Alvin reacts in a deadpan manner. There are a lot of jokes and humor packed into twelve episodes. Amazingly, despite being based on a Japanese style of comedy, Don’t Hurt Me, My Healer got an English dub. The writers and translators deserve major credit for capturing the spirit of the original Japanese style of comedy so well.
7 The Rising of the Shield Hero
An Isekai series with a Dark Fantasy angle that’s still fairly uncommon in the genre, The Rising of the Shield Hero is never quite as dark or bleak as other Dark Fantasy series like Berserk or Goblin Slayer, though it does present a very cynical worldview. After being betrayed by his supposed allies in this Isekai world and turned into a social outcast, protagonist Naofumi leans into his reputation as a scoundrel and deliberately cultivates an aura of a cold, aloof anti-hero. Admittedly, he sometimes goes too far, and it can be hard to sympathize with him, and the fact that he buys other characters as slaves has caused controversy. If nothing else, The Rising of the Shield Hero has a noticeably different tone from other Isekai series. The general consensus is that The Rising of the Shield Hero gets off to a shaky start but does markedly improve once it finds its footing.
6 Fairy Tail
Adventurer guilds are a major aspect of the Fantasy genre, both in RPGs and in on-screen series. Fairy Tail is a great example of what life in one of these guilds would be like. The title Fairy Tail refers to the name of the guild where the main characters are all members and most of the plotlines begin with the characters taking job requests submitted to the guild. Although every character is technically a wizard, each Fairy Tail cast member has magical power abilities that manifest in different ways, allowing each character to have a distinct fighting style in classic shonen fashion. Natsu and Gray are basically magical martial artists, Lucy mainly summons magic spirits to fight for her, and Erza can summon different suits of armor with special powers. There’s a lot of off-the-wall humor, but there are also incredibly dark moments. Additionally, the characters’ relationships with the other guild members, or their families and mentors, do create some genuinely emotional and heartwarming scenes.
5 That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
A comedy Isekai with a pretty cool central premise, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime sees an office worker die protecting his co-worker from a stabbing. Being subsequently reincarnated into a Fantasy world is not really noteworthy in an Isekai series, but what’s most interesting is that he ends up in the body of a low-level slime monster. Thankfully, the newly-named Rimuru collects a plethora of powerful magic abilities that, in time, allow him to become the leader of the monsters of the area. From there, Rimuru starts working on his dream to build a welcoming and tolerant country for everyone, monsters and humans. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime has plenty of comedy but it also has a compelling plot. Rimuru grows as a person, not just in terms of skills and powers, and this series set the standard for most Isekai that followed.
4 Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Conceptually, Magi is a fairly standard Shonen Fantasy series. The archetypes of the main characters will all be familiar to anime fans. Aladdin is the naive and immature but powerful lead. Alibaba is the more mature and composed deuteragonist. Morgiana is the female lead who’s become hugely popular with fans. However, the setting and the world-building are what really set Magi apart from other Fantasy series. While most Fantasy works are set in a world that’s at least vaguely European and broadly Medieval, Magi draws heavily on Arabian mythology, folklore, and geography to create its world. Even the other cultures depicted in the series are based on real-world Asian history, rather than European history, with cultures based on the Mongol Empire and Ming Dynasty China playing major roles in the plot.
3 Rankings of Kings
In many ways, Rankings of Kings feels like a throwback to anime series of past decades. Despite the series debuting in 2021, the art style and animation are very reminiscent of Osamu Tezuka’s style from classic retro series like Astro Boy and Princess Knight. The world itself visually resembles a fairy tale world and operates under a certain amount of fairy tale logic. In addition to story elements like curses and living shadows, the specific plot of Rankings of Kings is driven by a magic law where a king’s prosperity is determined by his physical strength, and the series’ protagonist Prince Bojji is born mute, deaf, and with a weak body, so his whole story is centered on his journey to live up to his father’s legendary strength. Rankings of Kings is one of the best representations of a disabled protagonist in anime, with a story that will make more than a few fans shed some tears.
2 KonoSuba
KonoSuba has become one of the most popular Isekai series due to its almost unrivaled handling of comedy, driven by the fact that the protagonist Kazuma is really the only character aware that he’s living in a Fantasy RPG, while his companions Aqua, Megumin, and Darkness all have over-the-top character traits and hilariously bad RPG stats. The main cast plays off the rest of the series’ world treating the Fantasy RPG premise with sincerity and self-seriousness. Virtually every aspect of standard RPG Fantasy worlds is parodied in KonoSuba, though it’s happening against the backdrop of a genuinely entertaining adventure romp. After a lengthy delay following the conclusion of the anime’s second season, a third season of KonoSuba was announced for 2024.
1 Record of Lodoss War
While some Fantasy series stand out by parodying or playing around with the conventions of the genre, Record of Lodoss War‘s greatest strength is presenting a classic Fantasy story with the utmost sincerity. It’s important to keep in mind that the Record of Lodoss War debuted in 1990, and was one of the first Fantasy anime to gain an audience in North America. 30 years later, the High Fantasy story of Record of Lodoss War seems played out and familiar, but it was groundbreaking for the time, and it is still compelling enough to stand on its own merits. It is also notable that the author based the original story on a Dungeons & Dragons campaign he was playing with his friends, so fans of the popular game will surely enjoy this series.
Crunchyroll has one of the most extensive catalogs of Fantasy anime available online. Although there are many different sub-genres of Fantasy anime, High Fantasy is still among the most common and popular, especially because Isekai have been drawing massive inspiration from that genre, albeit reinterpreting it in their own way. Crunchyroll‘s library offers a wide selection of Fantasy anime, so fans of the genre should make sure to check it out.
