Summary
There are a ton of manga out there that fit the definition of Fantasy, but don’t necessarily use that genre label. For example,One PieceandCowboy Bebopare fantasy, but they aren’t usually described with fantasy as their primary tag. However, there are some brilliant manga series that have fantastical aspects at the front and center.
Such stories focus on more classical concepts like monsters, magic, and more. Yet, several anime fans may not be familiar with them because, for some reason, these manga don’t have an anime adaptation yet. The fantasy manga listed below sorely deserve one and would be wonderful to see onscreen.
Updated December 1st, 2024 by Jacob Buchalter:The term ‘fantasy’ can be used to describe almost anything, if we’re completely honest. Just about any story, depending on its content, can be described as a fantasy setting, as all it needs is some element that can’t be found in reality. However, in general, when people think of fantasy they think of medieval lands, dragons, magic, mystical races, superhuman abilities, and more. With that in mind, let’s comb through the absurdly expansive list of fantasy series out there and see if we can’t find some of the all-time best that have yet to receive the anime adaptation treatment. Here are some of the best examples we could find across the manga, manhwa, and webcomic mediums.
Manhwa
7.80
Solo Leveling: Ragnarokis, you guessed it, the sequel series to the belovedSolo LevelingManhwa (which received a fantastic anime adaptation earlier in 2024). InRagnarok, the story follows the son of Sun Jin-Woo AKA Sung Suho who is both following in his father’s footsteps and yet also blazing his own path at the same time.
At first, it really seems likeRagnarokis just going to beSolo Leveling2.0 with some slight differences here and there, but then the story and overall methodology of Suho starts to diverge pretty heavily from how his father would do things, which has been very interesting to see. All in all it’s a fantastic sequel series (so far) that is more than deserving of the same anime treatment the originalSolo Levelingreceived. Of course, they’ll still probably want to wait until the anime adaptation ofSolo Levelingis complete before moving toRagnarok.
8.75
Next up is another completely beloved series,The Greatest Estate Developer.This is another Manhwa series that, at a glance, might seem pretty run-of-the-mill and standard. After all, the general setup of the story follows seems to hit all the isekai trope milestones with the protagonist reincarnated in the world of a book/game they were interested in, reincarnation as a side character, and reincarnation with the main ‘character’ of the book/game at their beck and call.
However, it very quickly becomes clear that Lloyd Frontera is not the average isekai protagonist, in fact, there’s really no protagonist like him. The main ‘content’ of this Manhwa is watching Llyod problem-solve what seems to be completely unsolvable issues using his insatiable greed, his expert knowledge of construction, and his apparently incredibly hideous appearance. The facial expressions in this series alone make it worthy of an adaptation, but thankfully the writing, characters, art, and more are all absolutely fantastic as well.
Magus of the Library
Manga
8.38
It’s already rare for a manga to have a setting based on a country that isn’t one of the countries in Asia, Europe, or South America, but for it to also be based around the wonder of reading is even rarer. This is exactlythe type of wonderful story thatMagus of the Libraryis, as it’s a manga inspired by Arabic culture, in particular theOne Thousand and One Nightscollection of fairytales. It’s also a manga that teaches its readers the importance of reading, knowledge, and taking care of the history of our pasts.
But, it presents all this information in a wonderful way through the story of one Theo Fumis, a young boy who loves to read but lives a life that makes it very difficult for him to do so. He’s mistreated due to being a ‘half-blood’, he’s banned from the local library due to being from the slums, and he has a generally weak body all around. Still, Theo is a very special boy and he’s incredibly kind-hearted, which makes it very easy to read his story of wanting to go to the City of Books and live a life surrounded by books.This manga is very philosophicaland is an absolute love letter to literature as a whole which is why it absolutely deserves to be adapted as soon as possible.
7.63
Star-Embracing Swordmaster is an incredibly unique fantasy series, as it’s one of a rare subset of fantasy series that actually manages to portray the ‘honor’ of Knights in a respectful way. Typically, in these fantasy stories, Knights are usually little more than corrupt nobles with a bit of sword training, with the rare honor-bound Knight appearing here and there.
In Star-Embracing Swordmaster, however, most of the Knights are the very picture of honor and are the height of sword skill and combat prowess in this setting. Not only that, but the ‘power system’ established in Star-Embracing Swordmaster is also incredibly unique, with the most skilled Knights having access to these fantastical combat powers that are closely tied to their worldview or ‘own world’.
Rakhyun (Art) & YC (Story)
7.89
This next story or Manhwa is calledTeenage Mercenary, and it’s a story that’s ‘technically’ not a fantasy story. InTeenage Mercenary, a kid by the name of Yu Ijin was the sole survivor (though he did get amnesia) of a plane crash in a foreign country where he was basically forced to become a child soldier to survive. And, while initially, Ijin wasn’t very capable, he quickly rose to become one of ‘The Numbers’, a specialized unit of the Mercenary Camp he was a part of led by a man named Mad Dog. Here, Ijin trained and participated in operations until his skill in everything related to violence became essentially unparalleled.
Then, many years later, Ijin had the opportunity to return to South Korea after he regained his memories to live with his grandfather and sister again. From here,Teenage Mercenarybecomes a story of Yu Ijin leading a ‘relatively’ normal life, learning to actually enjoy himself and love the people around him. Of course, plenty of antagonists pop up along the way that Ijin has to use his skills to go up against (the fight scenes in this series are incredible), but each and every time this happens most of the cast ofTeenage Mercenarygoes through more and more character growth. Again, whileTeenage Mercenarymight not be the most ‘faithful’ inclusion on a fantasy list, try saying that it’s not fantastical after watching Ijin fight against 30+ people on his own and come out of it on top. And, to top it all off,this series is incredibly longand is still ongoing, so it’ll be a long time before an adaptation would ever have hopes of catching up.
7.41
Next up is a setting anyone reading this list will be seeing a decent amount of in the rest of the entries down below, this is a setting about dungeons and monsters. Typically, in a lot of South Korean stories, the world of the story being told is one where ‘portals to dungeons’ have opened up and put the world at risk. And, in response, humanity usually ascends and gains magical skills of their own that make them able to fight against the monsters of the dungeons.
The Return of the Disaster-Class Herois a similar type of story, but it’s a bit more unique than a lot of the others. Instead of the hero of this story, Lee Geon, regressing back to a time before he was betrayed by his fellow Zodiac companions or reborn in another world similar to his own, Lee Geon survived by the skin of his teeth at the bottom of the Tower for years and years before finally making it out. Now, back under the blue sky and with an actual Constellation behind him, Lee Geon returns to help save the world from the calamities and get revenge on his selfish Zodiac ‘teammates’ to find out who it was that betrayed him back in the tower. Overall,The Return of the Disaster-Class Herois absolutely a power fantasy story, but it’s one of the best around with interesting characters, an interesting setting, and some truly incredible art.
7.78
Let’s start things off with some of the Manhwa choices on this list which, for those who aren’t familiar with the name, is essentially the Korean version of manga/comics. First up for fantastic fantasy Manhwa is a story called Reincarnation of the Suicidal Battle God. And, while the title of this series is a bit over-the-top, it’s relatively accurate considering the main character Zephyr has reincarnated, originally died by blowing himself off as a final middle finger to the Demon God, and is now trying to make himself even more of a Battle God hero in his second life.
Essentially, this story fits into the subgenre of ‘time traveler returns to the past to do everything perfectly the second time around’. But, where RotSBG is different (other thanthe fact it never lets up) is in the sheer quality of its storytelling between all the tropes.The fight scenes in this series are incredible, Zephyr is a lot more of an outspoken protagonist, and the individual characterization of side characters like Ned, Princess Altair, or even someone like Anna Primrose is fantastic.
Webtoon/Manhwa
7.55
The next Manhwa on here is quite an interesting blend of ideas. Essentially, after his mother suddenly passed away, Airen Parreira pretty much ‘gives up’ on life, spending most of his days sleeping isolated in his room. Then suddenly, Airen starts to have dreams about this mysterious disheveled swordsman who does nothing but practice his swing all day, every day. Eventually, this man’s ‘will’ inspires Airen, and he slowly starts to come out of his bubble, work on himself, and find a new path in life.
This story is incredibly interesting in quite a few ways. One, it’s one of thebest self-help Manhwa out there, as the situation Airen is first in is so relatable to so many people, and watching him climb out of the hole he’s dug is absolutely a delight. Two, it feels like it has the premise of a reincarnation or time travel MC story, but the mystery of the man in Airen’s dreams isn’t quite that basic. And three, it’s a Manhwa that manages to stay pretty reserved in how fast its characters grow, which most advancements in the main cast’s strength feeling completely earned and well-developed.
7.62
Before saying anything else about this series, let’s just make it clear that the concept of the Runcandel family is so incredibly fun. A family that is entirely devoted to the path of the sword, so much so that the babies of this family are made to ‘pick a sword’ at birth is so interesting. While a lot of manga, anime, and manhwa have families in them with dedicated lineages and families who specialize in one thing, the Runcandels take it to a whole new level.
In any case, a story that took an introspective look at the Runcandels as a whole would already be interesting enough, but add in Jin Runcandel, a character who spent his entire first life being ‘cursed’ to have no talent in the sword, and suddenly the story becomes even more interesting. Yes, this is another ‘main character returns to the past with future knowledge’ type story, but the fact that Jin comes from a different version of the past doesn’t actually feel like a drag on the story at all. This is mostly due to the fact that Jin travels the path of a swordsman almost immediately in his second life (as his curse was broken), which immediately puts his life on an entirely new trajectory that his knowledge of the future won’t entirely solve for him. The Swordmaster’s Youngest Son is just a story with a great concept, great art, great action, great characters, and great pacing overall.
7.75
And for the final manhwa inclusion (at least for a bit), let’s take a look at a story called Overgeared. Not that it wasn’t a trend before, but it feels like in recent years a lot of comics, manga, and manhwa are relying on the concept of a VRMMORPG or ‘full-dive’ MMO quite a lot. Overgeared is one of these stories, with its main character named Greed (Shin Youngwoo outside of the game), spending almost every waking moment of his life in a VRMMO called Satisfy. However, despite dedicating so much of his time to the game, Shin isn’t very lucky and has a pretty basic class and a pretty basic level. Well, that is, until he stumbles upon a secret Legendary class called Pagma’s Successor which seems like his lucky break. The only problem is that changing to this class has completely reset Greed’s level, stats, and abilities, meaning he has to climb all the way up again.
Not only that, but this Legendary Blacksmith class is one built around hard work and creativity more than anything else, so Greed suddenly has to dedicate himself even more just to get back to his previous level of strength. Overgeared is on here for a couple of reasons, but the main one is just that it’s a story that readers never seem to necessarily see the end of. These adventures could keep going until the end of time and it wouldn’t seem that out of place, especially with how fun it is to watch someone like Shin Youngwoo stumble his way into success.
