Favorite Fantasy Anime Shows

So the reason why I'm jonesing so hard to get back into video games is at least partially because Overlord is back and is heavily leaning on classic old-school RPG and fantasy tropes. But it airs once a week so... here are my other favorite sword and sorcery anime. And just to keep things fair I'm going to try to avoid talking about stuff I put on my other list.  And I'm going to try not to discuss shows I only know by reputation. Sorry, Yona of the Dawn,  Slayers, and Record of Lodoss War. Also while I've seen everything on this list and have tried to differentiate it a lot of my memory was jogged by My Mother's Basement's "Five Fantasy Anime You Probably Missed" video. 

Sorcerous Stabber Orphen

 Let's start old school. For better or worse most anime of the 90's didn't take themselves all that seriously. The dub voice acting specifically was seldom dramatically ambitious. The tradeoff is that a lot of them are really fun and funny and Orphen is one of those. There is a dramatic plot. You will not care you'll just love the journey.

Claymore


For a lot of reasons I hope they remake Claymore eventually. It has interesting characters and good story but it was produced at a time where the focus was more on action and there it delivers. If you want gore, gore it has. But I feel that this incarnation of it was kind of a wasted opportunity.

All the same. I really do like Claire as a character. It's relatively easy to convey hot anger, but getting cold anger across on screen takes skill. And Claire is the anime epitome of cold anger. And the entire story is about making her realize how truly pissed she is and calming her the hell down before it kills her.

Avatar the Last Airbender & The Legend of Korra


It's anime. Fuck you, fight me. Most of it was animated in Korea and nobody gets there nickers in a twist debating whether that stuff counts as anime. Furthermore, the show along with its sequel is just too good to leave off a list of my favorite fantasy shows animated or otherwise. especially with how Last Airbender ended. If I had to make a list of best finales that show would probably top it.


The Heroic Legend of Arslan

It's the most ambitious fantasy show I've seen in some time, with epic battles and huge production values.

Beast Player Erin
I'm a sucker for stories that follow a single character throughout their life and Beast Player Erin is one of those. But beyond that. It has a strong message (these animals are not pets) that it gets across by showing rather than telling. Specifically, the entire story has a tension regarding the use of tamed and domesticated animals, and it's just really intriguing watching wondering how they are going to resolve it.


Moribito: Guardian of the Sacred Spirit

You've got your action. You've got your drama. You got your intrigue. There is something in this show for everybody. That said it kind of switches gear in the middle, becoming a different show until its ends.  Oh and hey it looks like they made a live action version that was up for an Emmy. WATCH THIS SHOW!

Spice and Wolf

Hey, who wants a crash course in currency markets. Eh, Spice and Wolf was just really refreshing. Most of these stories are about a warrior on a quest. This one is about merchant trying to make bank while not going bankrupt.

And a lot of it is him talking his trade and trying not to get swindled by other merchants.

Resturant to Another World

Again sometimes you want the traditional, "I be strongest warrior I go on quest to save village" but...it's been done a million times and occasionally I want something different. And Resturant to Another World is that. It's a fantasy anthology more or less centered around a restaurant.  Because it's not so concerned with EPIC narrative it can get away with telling smaller more atmospheric stories I rarely see in sword and sorcery largely because they wouldn't add anything to a larger story unless they were the point in and of themselves and here they are.

That being said don't watch it unless you're prepared to be hungry by the end of each episode.

Scrapped Princess

Talking about what makes Scrapped Princess good would be a spoiler. But it is probably one of the best anime I've seen that does what it is trying to do.


Snow White With The Red Hair

I have a thing for post-modern reimaginings of fairy tales. And this is a great one. It's not Snow White if that's what you're looking for but it's a story that draws on it for inspiration and is one of the most charming anime romances I've ever seen.



Maoyu: Archenemy and Hero

It was a casualty of how we watch anime these days. It had a decent time in the spotlight before everybody moved on. But still, I think did what it was trying to do pretty well. Which again was get past the "I be strong hero. I save village" thing.

The Twelve Kingdoms
I lied. I couldn't resist putting this on here. For a really long time, it was my favorite anime. And I just couldn't keep from mentioning it even if I did put it on another list. GO WATCH THE TWELVE KINGDOMS!