Fantasy anime technically encompasses any and all anime that are just pure slice-of-life animes. The genre of fantasy automatically encompasses other popular wide genres and categories in anime like Shonen, Isekai, Supernatural, and so on. But we’ll try to be original and give our picks for our top 5 best fantasy anime of all time.
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Our Picks for the Top 5 Best Fantasy Anime of All Time
To narrow down our pool of choices, we’ll skip any Isekai animes for this one and also skip most popular big battle Shonen like One Piece, Naruto, or Bleach. For the fantasy genre, we’re also skipping sci-fi and horror genres in favor of animes that have a level of technology similar to or outdated compared to our own world. With that in mind here are our top 5 fantasy anime of all time, with reasoning:
To Your Eternity
This fantasy anime story follows an orb that can imitate the shape and life of anything it comes into contact with- including humans it’s been in contact with after they die. Fushi, as he’s popularly known, is the protagonist of this story and his duty is to record all the events on this planet while also dealing with Nokkers- his mortal enemy. Though Fushi is immortal, he has a lot of growth to do- both as a human and as a supernatural being.
To Your Eternity season 1 had fans crying every 2 episodes because of its intimate and heartfelt storytelling dealing with themes of loss, learning, growth, and memory. Season 2 of the anime completes the story by rounding off Fushi’s character, improving on the worldbuilding, and circling back the story to where it had all begun- all in a beautiful and poignant ending.
Ranking of Kings
Ousama Ranking or Ranking of Kings is set in a world of kings where the kings are ranked according to their strength, leadership, wisdom, and other factors. The world has magic and supernatural elements thus rendering a diverse potential to this rather simple concept. The story follows Bojji- a deaf and mute Prince who’s the son of the world’s no. 1 King. In addition to his disabilities, he’s also cursed to never grow beyond his childhood body and his muscles are also cursed to forever remain weak. Bojji still dreams of succeeding his father and becoming the greatest king to have ever lived.
Bojji’s boundless hope and optimism, in addition to his kind, wise and compassionate heart makes him a great character to follow. The anime embodies themes of bravery, wisdom, kindness, and hard work. The diverse and complex cast of side characters also makes this fantasy anime world a vibrant treat to look forward to.
Mob Psycho 100
Mob Psycho 100 is one of the most popular supernatural titles in fantasy anime. Though it’s set in a world of espers, ghosts, and spirits, the story follows the highschooler Shigeo Kageyama or Mob who despite being one of the most powerful espers in the world, still only desires to lead a normal life and impress his school crush. While he may be a powerful esper, he still lacks social skills, friends, and other things most high schoolers have without any or much difficulty.
This fantasy anime has a total of 3 seasons which completes the story of Mob- teaching valuable life lessons about self-improvement, self-identity, growth, and empathy all throughout its storyline. It especially connects with audiences due to its relatability because all of us have gone through our own phases of loneliness, and alienation and have struggled to contribute, grow, and fit in society.
Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood has long held the title of being the greatest anime of all time and for good reason. The story follows Ed and Alphonse Elric- two brothers who lost their mother and again lost their limbs and body in a freak accident in trying to bring back their mother from the dead. This world revolves around alchemy- a concept no stranger to us but is as much a myth as it could be a reality of our past. In this world alchemy is a magic system that relies on an exchange of equal value.
The reason this anime still stands the test of time as one of the best animes to ever exist is because of how it handles character, plot, story, and worldbuilding- all within a tightly-paced 64 episodes. Even the comedy and action hits home. The story handles a lot of themes expertly but it mainly focuses on brotherhood, politics, and concepts of power.
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End
This story takes place after the Demon King’s defeat by the party of heroes and we follow Frieren, the elven mage of this party who is nigh immortal. Her journey with the party lasted only 10 years- which is a long time for humans but to her, it’s only a fraction of her lifespan. The story deals with themes of connection, love, memory, loss, grief, and growth- and everything it does hits close to home.
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is a recent anime that dropped in the Fall 2023 season and is still ongoing in the Winter 2024 season- and yet within its first three months of airing, it managed to overtake and solidify its position as the highest-ranked anime of all time. More than any of our picks above, Frieren is a pure fantasy anime but it is so much more than that- it’s pure emotion.
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Other than FMAB, all of the other fantasy anime in the above list can be enjoyed with your whole family and they will all be a meaningful watch. If fantasy is not exactly your genre you can also check out the upcoming isekais in 2024 which might be more up your alley as some of them also have heavy fantasy themes in them.
