Fantasy Series?

[KholdStare]

I was wondering if there are any good fantasy series that are well, good. Some I've enjoyed is Cardcaptor Sakura, Seirei no Moribito, Kanon, Claymore, Gunslinger Girl, Kino's Journey, Mahoromatic, Chrno Crusade, Cowboy Bebop, Haibane Renmei, and Inukami! I'm currently watching Clannad and True Tears, which I expect to have some kind of fantasy involved, maybe not. Here are my complete list of anime.

If possible I'd like to stay away from sci-fi and focus more on fantasy, so that means I don't want to watch most mecha shows right now. Also, InuYasha, Naruto, and Bleach could be considered fantasy...I guess, but if possible I'd like to stay away from series that has 100+ episodes.

[NightSamurai]

Definitely going to suggest Kiba, definitely among the better action/fantasy anime I have seen, it has great character development and the plot gets pretty deep at times.

[Saber Cherry]

How do you sort your lists? I never even knew you could do that, and I see no option for it. Adding "&sort=rating" when in your own anime screen gives an invalid URL.

Anyway - these are just series that you have not seen, unless I made a mistake.


Masterpiece:
Scrapped Princess - this is a must-see if you like fantasy. Action, magic, and drama in a generally ancient setting. Wonderful soundtrack. Very emotionally powerful, for me, at least.

Excellent:
Twelve Kingdoms is really good - a lot slower and more thought-out than most; not much action, but interesting world, characters, and story.
Rozen Maiden is very good, but is "modern fantasy" - modern age, but with strong fantasy elements. No swords, bows, or dragons. Action, romance, drama, comedy. Emotionally potent.
Otogi-Jushi Akazukin is super-cute! Since you loved Card Captor Sakura, you'll probably really like this as well. It stars Yukari Tamura and CCS's Shaorin's seiyuu (Motoko Kumai).
Kekkaishi is modern fantasy, currently ongoing, and really good.
Zero no Tsukaima season 1 is really good. Same voice actors and similar plot to Shakugan no Shana, but I liked it better. Season 2 is bad, though.

Very good:
Escaflowne (TV) is quite good, though it has aged a bit. Drama / action / romance / fantasy, in ancient setting. Emotionally potent. Extremely good soundtrack.
3x3 Eyes is quite good, and short. A mix of modern times, ancient times, and strong fantasy (plus action, drama, romance). The manga continues/expands the story greatly.
Ghost Hunt is modern fantasy/paranormal, and quite good.
Slayers and Slayers Next are very fun prototypical fantasy, if a little dated. Swords, dragons, fireballs, and in fact all kinds of neat spells. (Comedy / Action / Fantasy)
Tsukuyomi Moon Phase. Action/comedy/romance/vampires and other paranormal. Oh, and it co-stars a loli vampire, FYI. Emotionally potent.

Good:
Hero Tales - I've been enjoying this quite a bit, and it is now airing. Martial arts/fantasy.
Gokudo seems immature at first, but is actually quite funny. I enjoyed it a lot and would like to find something else like it, but it's basically forgettable.
Soul Hunter / Houshin Engi

Decent:
Puchi Puri Yuushi - cute and fun, but forgettable.
Utawarerumono - great in many ways, flawed in others, enjoyable overall but should have been better. Ancient-era fantasy/comedy/action/romance with attractive catpeople and dogpeople.
Fate/Stay Night is modern-era fantasy, but with swords and armor. It's not worth watching, but could have been much better.
Orphen is worth seeing if you like fantasy, but probably not otherwise.


Conclusion: Watch Scrapped Princess and Zero no Tsukaima first, since I am fairly certain you'll love them.

P.S. In your anime list, you have under "Will Not Finish":

Hayate the Combat Butler (TV) Very good
Mushi-Shi (TV) Very good
Seto no Hanayome (TV) Very good
When They Cry - Higurashi (TV) Very good

What's up with that? Did you like them, or not? Though I must say that the Hayate manga is much better than the anime.


P.P.S.

Originally Posted by NightSamurai

Definitely going to suggest Kiba, definitely among the better action/fantasy anime I have seen, it has great character development and the plot gets pretty deep at times.

I was not impressed. I'd classify it as "So-So"

[NightSamurai]

Saber Cherry did you honestly put Fate/Stay Night under "decent"... This definitely deserves at least an excellent if not a masterpiece, awesome action, good character development, and a good romance. I honestly don't know what more you could ask for, well except for the ending, but even then. I will never understand some people...

[Saber Cherry]

Originally Posted by NightSamurai

Saber Cherry did you honestly put Fate/Stay Night under "decent"... This definitely deserves at least an excellent if not a masterpiece, awesome action, good character development, and a good romance. I honestly don't know what more you could ask for, well except for the ending, but even then. I will never understand some people...

Hmmm... well... they cheesified some parts of it. I mean, it was a lot better than Claymore, but... hmmm.... maybe I should put it up with "Good". It was good, but I was still disappointed that it was not as good as it could have been. I suppose it is better than the others I rated "decent", though it is hard to compare "dark" and "light" anime. But the fight scenes were not nearly as good as they should have been, and some of the dialogue was a bit unrealistic. And most of all, I went through an awful lot of the series wanting smack the main character across the face. Also, it kind of dragged out some of the scenes instead of adding more content. Looks like the average on ANN is "Very Good", but I tend to rank things a little low.

[Cheezy]

Fate/Stay Night

Mai-HiMe

Rozen Maiden

These are some very good action fantasy animes.
Also, Myanimelist is bettar than ANN!

[Saber Cherry]

Originally Posted by Cheezy

Mai-HiMe

Mai Hime is extremely good, and has an incredible soundtrack. But while ANN classifies as it "Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Romance, Shounen, Supernatural"... be aware that it is just as much SF as it is fantasy.

[NightSamurai]

I guess you and I have very different ideas of "drawn out", seeing how highly you rated Kekkaishi, an anime that I dropped after 20 episodes or so because the plot didn't seem to be progressing at all. Fate/Stay Night at least advances the plot every episode, and the character progression also proceeds at a quick pace, I am not sure what seems drawn out about it...

[Telmah]

Of this season, I'd highly suggest Spice and Wolf. So far, it's proved to be an interesting and thought provoking show. It is steering away from just being a simply swords and sorcery show, very little fighting, more focus on talking and character development. One of the characters is perhaps the best developed character I've seen in years of watching anime--in 4 episodes thus far, she's shown several different sides, and that complexity is what makes her quite believable. It is difficult to predict how well this ongoing work will end up, but thus far it has been nothing but a treat to watch.

I'll second Scrapped Princess. It has a very final fantasy type of feel to it. The ending is a bit rushed though, in my opinion. It somewhat reminds me of a more swords/sorcery full metal alchemist.

Escaflowne is alright, however I remember reading it was planned out for a full 39 episodes, but lost the last 13 somewhere along the way...so while the first 13 have a good sense of pacing to them, the last 13 seem to move at a break neck speed in order to get every event in it. It is fantasy and it should be noted there's mecha. Also don't judge it too harshly by the animation of the dragon in th first episode...it's perhaps the worst animation I've seen. Finally the movie is completely unrelated and some kinda of crazy alternate dimension where all the characters personalities are completely different as is the plot.

I'd suggest Princess Mononoke if you haven't seen it, it touches on many of the themes of the natural world vs the human world--it is Ghibli's fantasy version of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind in many ways. For a time, it was one of the most well known films they've done, if I recall correctly.

Finally I'll suggest Princess Tutu--the name of the show is the worst thing about it. The first 6 or so episodes seem very mundane, monster of the weekish fair. The only reason I muddled through them was because a friend pushed me too, and they were mildly interesting set to classic ballet music. However, after that point, the series got better and better as it reached its season one climax, as character roles shifted. The interesting thing was, the second season is perhaps one of the most effective I've seen in anime...most shows tend to stick with what made them good the first season and are unwilling to try new things for they fear alienating their fanbase. The character roles shift so completely, everything is refreshing and new...and the story moves to a definite conclusion. It's a mostly unknown show but is very good for what it is.

[Phantasmagoria]

Originally Posted by NightSamurai

I guess you and I have very different ideas of "drawn out", seeing how highly you rated Kekkaishi, an anime that I dropped after 20 episodes or so because the plot didn't seem to be progressing at all. Fate/Stay Night at least advances the plot every episode, and the character progression also proceeds at a quick pace, I am not sure what seems drawn out about it...

You still didn't realize it, do you? The plot didn't seem to be progressing at all (for you) is because you dropped it. I have read till volume 18+ of the manga, it's always changing non-stop, so much it is breath-taking.

Wait a moment, the plot isn't progressing? Concentrate please?

It's either to each of his own, or you're not awake.

[Matrim]

I have question for the original poster - what on Earth made you classify Cowboy Bebop and Gunslinger Girl as fantasy?

The Twelve Kingdoms is a must see for any fantasy fan. If you also mean sci-fi without giant robots mecha when you say fantasy you can try the likes Last Exile, Planetes or Simoun.

How do you sort your lists? I never even knew you could do that, and I see no option for it. Adding "&sort=rating" when in your own anime screen gives an invalid URL.

Just click on "Rating" which is at the top of the rating column and the list will be sorted by rating.

[Saber Cherry]

Originally Posted by Matrim

Just click on "Rating" which is at the top of the rating column and the list will be sorted by rating.

/smacks head
Thanks!

[SeijiSensei]

If, as matrim suggests, you're willing to watch non-mecha sci-fi with a strong fantasy overtone, I'd recommend both Noein and Dennou Coil, neither of which I saw on your ANN list. Both these shows are putatively sci-fi, but they have a lot of fantasy elements hiding in a pseudo-scientific exterior.

Another intriguing fantasy anime is Mahou Shoujo Tai Arusu, a lovely show from Studio 4°C. I do find the very short episode format annoying when watching a sequence of episodes, however. While the show is obviously intended for kids, it has a very dark storyline that kept my interest.

Then there's Mononoke (not the same as Miyazaki's Mononoke Hime) and its prequel, the final "Bakeneko" arc of Ayaskashi Samurai Horror Tales. In this show the demons arise because of past human malevolence; the protagonist has to determine this history in order to slay the demon.

Before watching any of those, though, you need to watch Twelve Kingdoms (Junni Kokki).

[KholdStare]

Thanks all for the replies, especially Saber Cherry for mentioning a lot of titles that I might have heard before but haven't really taken a look at it. Fate/Stay night is seems popular, so I'll try it too, since I don't hate any popular titles. They're popular for a reason, and while they might not be masterpieces, they're not going to be extremely stupid after all.

About anime that I will not finish but gave a good rating, it's probably some technical problems or IRL problems. Note that I didn't even rate Air.

Also, I'm currently watching Spice and Wolf, and I'm rating it as one of the best this season. I've also watched Mononoke-hime, and it's my second favorite Ghibli film. Princess Tutu--I don't know. Everyone says it's good, but the title still turns me off. I'll be drained of anime soon though, so it'll probably come handy.

[Twisted Reality]

Originally Posted by NightSamurai

Saber Cherry did you honestly put Fate/Stay Night under "decent"... This definitely deserves at least an excellent if not a masterpiece, awesome action, good character development, and a good romance. I honestly don't know what more you could ask for, well except for the ending, but even then. I will never understand some people...

Eh, can't say I'd recommend it. Fate/Stay Night felt very much like a video game franchise anime. You get bonus points for spotting the tsundere and Shounen of Justice in episode one. So cliché. Justice Shounen is a pretty unlikeable twerp, in that common sense takes a long time to dribble through the many-fold pores in his skull. I'm not sure he ever wins by any development of his character, so much as a bunch of deus ex machina bail him out. Antagonists behave nonsensically at times, to say the least. Seriously, if I were the Tsundere, I would have killed the brat without mercy.

I'd second Twelve Kingdoms in a heart beat. Easily amongst the best fantasy anime ever. It's a treat for the world-building and Chinese-flavored fantasy it does so well. A refreshing change from the feudal Japan and Tolkien-ripoff fare. The only real mediocre arc was the final one, which isn't even really the spiritual conclusion to the show. The protagonist does bloom rather nicely though into a world-shaking figure.

Vision of Escaflowne wins points for novelty and variety, even if the story stops making sense toward the end. Steampunk mechs look gorgeous and you'd have to be lying if you said you didn't want one of them. A bit of romance gets thrown in there too, and the show is really interested in starting with a bang and taking you from one cliff-hanger to another. It does however, start to run out of steam by the time they roll out their Big Reveal. Which is to say, the show suffers from a dissatisfying explanation of the "deeper truth," that seems so common. We made a gorgeously atmospheric world with mechs and a rollicking swashbuckling adventure. . .but oops! the story stops making sense at the climax!

Full Metal Alchemist is a pretty entertaining ride, despite its flaws (which you're usually too busy to notice). It is however, a bit shounen-ish in that every alchemist has their own "special power" and you get super-deformed-chibi (and fantasy martial arts). The plus though is that there are some darker overtones to alchemy's "forbidden arts" and its general collection of mysteries and conspiracies. Alchemy is basically science-as-magic. And Ed and Al are essentially on a spiritual journey for the Holy Grail of Alchemy (i.e. The Philosopher's Stone).

[Saber Cherry]

Originally Posted by KholdStare

Thanks all for the replies, especially Saber Cherry for mentioning a lot of titles that I might have heard before but haven't really taken a look at it.

You're welcome. Enjoy!

Originally Posted by Twisted Reality

Vision of Escaflowne wins points for novelty and variety, even if the story stops making sense toward the end.

I agree. It has the failing that plagues so much of anime, and I don't understand why, but the last couple episodes are not very good and pretty nonsensical, compared to the rest of the series. I don't like to have to tell people upfront that a series has an unsatisfying ending, because that knowledge can tarnish the series, but since it was already brought up... Anyway, the other 20+ episodes are really good despite a poorly animated dragon in episode 1 or 2. If it had a decent ending I would bump it up to "Excellent", but it is still quite unique, enjoyable, and worth watching. And like Mai Hime, Full Metal Panic, Scrapped Princess, Shana, Mononoke Hime, Chrono Crusade, and a very few other anime, it has a soundtrack that's worth listening to once you're done.