Best Fantasy Manga & Manhwa Without Anime

Key Takeaways

• Unique fantasy realms in manga manhwa like “Solo Leveling: Ragnarok” offer new takes and ideas on pre-established concepts.
• “Magus of the Library” is a particularly unique fantasy series, as it merges Middle Eastern lore with literature, telling a story of the importance of reading overall.
• “The Old Knight in the Frontier Bard Loen” captures the sentimentality of adventure, how life catches up with you, and what it means to grow old.

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 Piece and Cowboy Bebop are 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.

20 Solo Leveling: Ragnarok

The Sequel No One Really Even Knew They Needed

Solo Leveling: Ragnarok is, you guessed it, the sequel series to the beloved Solo Leveling Manhwa (which received a fantastic anime adaptation earlier in 2024). In Ragnarok, 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 like Ragnarok is just going to be Solo Leveling 2.0 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 original Solo Leveling received. Of course, they’ll still probably want to wait until the anime adaptation of Solo Leveling is complete before moving to Ragnarok.

19 The Greatest Estate Developer

Maybe One of the Funniest Series of All Time

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.

18 Magus Of The Library

A Manga That’s All About the Importance of Literature In All Forms

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 exactly the type of wonderful story that Magus of the Library is, as it’s a manga inspired by Arabic culture, in particular the One Thousand and One Nights collection 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 philosophical and is an absolute love letter to literature as a whole which is why it absolutely deserves to be adapted as soon as possible.

17 Star-Embracing Swordmaster

A Knight Who Actually Follows The Knight’s Code

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’.

16 Teenage Mercenary

Technically Not ‘Fantasy’, But Ijin’s Combat Abilities May As Well Be Magical

This next story or Manhwa is called Teenage Mercenary, and it’s a story that’s ‘technically’ not a fantasy story. In Teenage 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 in order 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 Mercenary becomes 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 of Teenage Mercenary goes through more and more character growth. Again, while Teenage Mercenary might 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 long and is still ongoing, so it’ll be a long time before an adaptation would ever have hopes of catching up.

15 The Return Of The Disaster-Class Hero

In a World Where the ‘Heroes’ Are Undeserving of that Word, Lee Geon Does Their Jobs For Them

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 Hero is 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 Hero is absolutely a power fantasy story, but it’s one of the best around with interesting characters, an interesting setting, and some truly incredible art.

14 Reincarnation Of The Suicidal Battle God

A Hero Who Failed, Gets The Attention Of The Gods, & Gets To Try Again

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 than the 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.

13 Reformation Of The Deadbeat Noble

The Most Uplifting Story About A Hardworking Boy You’ll Ever Read

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 the best 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.

12 Swordmaster’s Youngest Son

A Story Centered Around One Of The Most Interesting Fantasy Families

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.

11 Overgeared

A Toxic, Unlucky, & Obsessive Gamer Gets The Chance Of A Lifetime

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.

10 Golden Wordmaster

Destroying His Enemies With The Power Of Words

Isekai series are tough sells for fantasy recommendations. Most of them either use the same old tropes, are hilariously ridiculous power fantasy stories…or are just plain boring to read. And, while Konjiki No Wordmaster otherwise known as Golden Wordmaster does commit a lot of these same crimes, it also tries a lot of new things other isekai won’t.

What brings people into this series the most at first are two things, the protagonist of the series, Hiiro Okumura, and the wonderful magic he uses. For one, Hiiro is the most standoffish bookworm there is, he won’t do anything unless it’s for some good food or a great book, which makes for some pretty unique interactions. Two, the magic Hiiro was ‘gifted’ with when he was brought over to this world was Word Magic, which basically gives him the ability to apply words to objects or himself and imbue those objects/people with the properties of those words. As one can imagine, this can lead to some really creative fights and overall solutions to problems, making the series an interesting read all the way through as Hiiro gains even more mastery over his powers and the conflicts around him continue to swirl.

9 The Beginning After The End

The Hyper-Dark Non-Isekai Isekai Story

Going from an isekai story to a reincarnation story, The Beginning After the End seems like it’s basically an isekai at first. A king dies in his world, powerful and successful, he’s then reincarnated as a boy to some random family in a new world and uses all his previous experience and knowledge to get incredibly far in life at an early age.

But, one of the biggest selling points of this series is also one of the same reasons Mushoku Tensei is so popular, it approaches adult topics and heavy emotional moments incredibly often and won’t shy away from them. The moment, for example, where the MC Arthur Leywin finally tells someone close to him about his reincarnation and his life before this one, the sheer horror on their face and the work they have to do to process this is just so realistic. However, it does seem like this webcomic has recently had some issues with its publication and art team, so it’s sort of in limbo at the moment, but there are still hundreds of chapters to read before it reaches this point.

8 The Old Knight In The Frontier Bard Loen

The Most Exciting Retirement Trip You’ll Ever See

Next up is another low-fantasy series that, for the most part, doesn’t really have much magic in it. Yet, the fantastical adventures that ‘the people’s knight’ Bard Leon goes on after his self-imposed retirement make this story more than worthy of the ‘fantasy’ genre. To boil it down as much as possible, The Old Knight in the Border is a story about an old man who served his country faithfully for his entire life, was recognized for his efforts, and has lived a full life going on an adventure for himself before he dies of old age. It’s sweet, it’s sappy, it’s tragic at times, and Bard himself is quite an interesting character.

7 Witch Hat Atelier

The Most Fleshed Out Magic-Based Fantasy Around

Witch Hat Atelier is a story that manages to revitalize the concept of magic for its readers so that it actually feels, well, magical again. There’s a lot to love about Witch Hat Atelier, whether it’s the mystical yet still understandable rules of the magic circles that witches draw, the different applications of magic between each character, or even just the overarching narrative between the witches and the brim hats.

WHA is just so much fun to read because the audience is pretty much learning about magic at the same time as Coco (the protagonist), and this gives the setting an ever-present feeling of ‘wonder’. And, to top it all off, the actual artwork for this manga deserves to be respected alongside some of the all-time greats like Berserk or Vinland Saga. It feels like a beautiful combination of classic storybook art with modern manga aesthetics mixed in. Frankly, if it does ever get adapted, it’ll be hard for the anime to overtake the manga in terms of visual fidelity, considering how masterful each composition is in Witch Hat Atelier.

6 Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint

When Reading A Story Ahead Of Time Actually Pays Off

There’s a bit of a setting trope in fantasy manwha specifically, comparable to the isekai trope of modern manga. To summarize it in as few words as possible, it’s common for fantasy manga or manwha to have a setting where the world is invaded by beings from another planet, universe, or reality, causing the rules of the central world to change. Whether it’s dungeons, monsters suddenly spawning, or the world itself becoming a game, it’s a common narrative in these types of manwha, and almost always the main character is massively underpowered at the start. Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint is one of these stories, but it’s so much more memorable thanks to the main character Kim Dokja, who actually knows the general events of what’s going to happen ahead of time.

Turns out Dokja, who loves web novels, read ‘Three Ways to Survive The Apocalypse’ and now has an invaluable advantage as the events of this book become his reality. And, because the story wasn’t all too popular, Dokja is one of the few people in the world who knows all the best ways to get ahead in this new fantastical world. Plus, Dokja is also at constant odds with the protagonist of the story, Yoo Joonghyuk, who has also lived through this world multiple times, but in a different sense. It has all the best fantasy tropes while also feeling a lot like a classic isekai story.

5 Spirit Circle

Taking ‘Love That Lasts A Lifetime’ To A Whole New Level

Before reincarnation stories were all the rage in the form of isekai or ‘second-life’ manga and anime, Spirit Circle was (and still is) one of the all-time greats. It’s a seinen manga series that only ran for four years from 2012 to 2016, but that was enough time for it to garner quite the following. It manages to tell a story that jumps back and forth between the many different time periods and reincarnations of two characters and avoids getting too confusing.

At its core, Spirit Circle is a high school romance series with a fair bit of fantasy mixed in, and both of these aspects are done masterfully. The only big hiccup is its art style, which is a bit simplistic and would be a tad difficult to translate into the modern anime stylistic trends. If Shaman King can do it, though, so can Spirit Circle.

4 Psyren

Hunger Games But With Absurdly Powerful Psychic Teens

Trending towards the battle royale genre of fantasy stories, there’s Psyren. Psyren has a fair bit in common with Battle Game in 5 Seconds, an anime that recently aired, but Psyren came long before it. It’s similar to T he Matrix, in that characters use landlines to transport to an alternate world where they can use superpowers and are in constant danger; however, instead of martial arts, they use psychic abilities or ‘Psi’.

The best thing about Psyren is that it’s almost impossible to tell where the story is going at any point in time, which is always a huge plus for a thriller mystery series. And, thanks to other incredible modern-day psychic-based anime adaptations like Mob Psycho 100, it’s obvious that Psyren would do well if given the adaptation it deserves.

3 My Hero Academia: Vigilantes

Street Level My Hero Academia Antics

This is an odd one because technically it’s a spin-off of the iconic Shonen Jump My Hero Academia franchise. But Vigilantes (which is also published in Shonen Jump) has long since proven itself to be on par with My Hero Academia, even surpassing it in some ways in regard to storytelling. For one, it’s on a much smaller scale, focusing on the adventures of a smaller main cast fighting street-level crime.

More than that, though, Vigilantes explores the nuanced aspects of a world revolving around Heroes and ‘Quirks’ that fans have always wondered about while watching MHA. If the MHA anime ever catches up with the manga, Vigilantes would be a fantastic series to adapt to hold fans over, regardless of what website it would stream on.

2 Fire Punch

He’s On Fire And He Punches Things…At First

With the Chainsaw Man anime received so well by the fanbase and the next ‘chapter’ of the manga topping the Viz Media charts, it seems like an apt time to talk about Fire Punch, Tatsuki Fujimoto’s first manga. This fantastic story is almost equally deserving of an adaptation — even if the plot is a little all over the place.

The main character is a guy named Agni with a ‘Blessing’ of infinite regeneration, who ended up being set on fire by another person with the ‘Blessing’ of inextinguishable flames. This caused an infinite loop between the powers which meant Agni was always burning alive but could never die. Eventually, he learns to live with the pain enough to control his body again (which just sounds like the worst thing ever) and goes on some of the wildest adventures in manga history. Anyone who loved the off-the-walls comedy from Chainsaw Man, the absurd action scenes, or a completely unpredictable narrative, Fire Punch will scratch a lot of those same itches.

1 The Legend Of The Northern Blade

A Story About A Wuxia Protagonist That You’ll Actually Want To Root For

For those familiar with other manhwa series, the Murim is a setting or concept used to describe a fantasy world of fantastical Martial Arts. In such a world, these martial artists can manipulate energy, destroy mountains with a punch, or even fly. This is where The Legend of the Northern Blade takes place, with the story focusing on Jin Mu-Won, son of Jin Kwan-Ho, fourth-generation sect leader of the Northern Heavenly Sect.

This manhwa tells the ever-expanding tale of Jin’s journey from being a prisoner in his own dilapidated home to becoming something more. It’s incredible every step of the way, has non-stop action at every turn, and nails the small character moments as well. That said, it would require an incredibly well-done adaptation to really do it justice, as anything slightly disappointing would be a crime against the non-stop action this story provides. If, for example, it got the God of High School anime adaptation treatment or was made by the renowned Mappa Studios, nothing could be better.