Summary
The fantasy genre is an all-encompassing one, even more so than many other ‘standard’ genres simply because there are just so many different types of stories that easily fit within the fantasy definition. For example, there are action, adventure, romance, mystery, isekai, horror, comedy, and even dark themes that can (and do) all work exceptionally well within a fantasy setting.
Dark fantasy stories and manga, in particular, are the focus here because a lot of them just haven’t had the opportunity to get an anime adaptation yet. So, let’s look at some of thebest examples of mangain the dark fantasy subgenre that absolutely deserve their own anime.
Updated July 27th, 2024 by Jacob Buchalter:Fantasy series are a dime a dozen. There are a million stories involving exploring new worlds full of magic, dragons, and all sorts of other fantastical things. And, while there are a whole lot fewer series that could be described as ‘Dark Fantasy’, the list is still pretty big. All that said, just because there are a lot of Dark Fantasy stories, doesn’t mean there are a lot of good ones. Thankfully, we’ve done the work to look through all the manga, manhwa, webtoons, webcomics, and more to find what we believe to be the Dark Fantasy series that deserves to get adapted into animation the most.
Ongoing
2018
First up is a pretty niche pick but one with a very devout following calledThe Beginning After the End. It’s a bit of a shame, but this is an isekai series and it’s far from the only one on this list. However, the actual ‘isekai’ side of things is very minor in the story, and it only serves to let Arthur Leywin (the protagonist of this series) make more adult decisions earlier on in his life. In general,The Beginning After the Endmight seem like the standard fantasy, isekai, or even magical school series, but that’s just on the surface.
The further one reads inThe Beginning After the End, the darker things get and it’s no exaggeration to say that, at points, it feels almost too cruel with the level of dark themes this story has. That said, it’s a fantastic story and one that will be getting an anime adaptation eventually, just not yet.
Completed
Next is a series calledThe Sky Prison: Avalon. This is a very unique fantasy series, as it manages to mix multiple sci-fi ideas in a way that makes it feel like fantasy. To go a bit more into it, in this setting, all of humanity live their lives in cryogenic sleep. These massive fleet ships are taking humanity to their new home on a different planet, but in the time in between everyone is put into cryogenic sleep and connected to a sort of ‘false reality’ of dreams. The protagonist of this story, a man by the name of Azuma, is a lot more serious about his studies compared to everyone else. This is because Azuma wants to become an ‘administrator’ AKA a person who is put in charge of maintenance of these gigantic fleet ships and will wake up once every ten years to check on the status of said ship. This is Azuma’s only goal in life and one that he is deadset on as he is dedicated to ‘facing reality’.
However, in between one of the maintenance periods, their fleet ship crash lands on a nearby planet, and those who survive it have to crawl and scrape out a living on this harsh new world. Azuma is awoken from his pod 400 years later to discover this new situation, and now must figure out what he’s going to do with this new reality he’s been faced with.The Sky Prison: Avalonis a fantastic fantasy story in many ways, but the way it manages to meld fantasy and sci-fi concepts into one is so incredibly unique. Take the Orlan Armor Suits for example, these are actually just remodeled space suits, but they’ve remodeled these things in such as way that they look like personalized knight armor. Basically, foranyone who likes creative sci-fi, unique fantasy, or interesting and dramatic political stories,The Sky Prison: Avalonis absolutely worth a look.
2007
Goodnight Punpunisn’t ‘technically’ a fantasy story. While that might seem ridiculous given how much ridiculous stuff happens in this series and with the main character being this odd cartoon bird, it’s the truth.Goodnight Punpunis, at its core, an incredibly visceral and real story about the integral choices in life, how those affect a person going forward, and the ramifications even a single act of kindness (or cruelty) can cause.Goodnight Punpunis shockingly dark, and this darkness feels especially deep when compared to all the hilarious comedic moments of the series.
There’s not much we can say aboutGoodnight Punpunwithout spoiling a bit too much, but this series absolutely deserves an anime adaptation, though the studio to take on this job would have to figure out how exactly to adapt a story like this, as it’s truly difficult to ever imagineGoodnight Punpunin motion.
It’s getting pretty difficult to find well-written Dark Fantasy series nowadays that haven’t already had some adaptation in some shape or form. However,The Skeleton Soldier Failed To Protect The Dungeonis one of them.
This one starts like so many other Dark Fantasy stories unfortunately do these days, with time rewind beginning. The main character is a basic skeleton mob summoned by his Succubus owner to protect the dungeon. However, the dungeon is raided, and the skeleton fails. Right before fading away, however, he unlocks some ‘ability’ to level up and ‘respawn’. He does so, only twenty years before the events that led to his death. While this may seem pretty standard for this sort of story, the events don’t play out quite as predictably as one would expect.
This next one doesn’t have a ton of chapters (only about 17+ manwha chapters, not web novel chapters, at the time of writing this), but man is the concept interesting. It’s another reincarnation story, but instead of coming back as some basic mob, or even a vending machine, the protagonist spawns as his favorite race of choice in the space-survival game he was obsessed with.
What makes it so worth adapting is it’s truly a story where humanity is the enemy. The ‘protagonist’ is the villain of the story, starting off in a really disadvantageous position but scaling more and more as he succeeds in finding ‘food’ and getting new genetic abilities.
2022
The next story is a lot less ‘dark’ in terms of tone than a lot of other entries on here, but the setting is easily unique enough to pull people into it. The Runcandels in this setting are a world-renowned family of famous swordmasters, and Jin Runcandel is the youngest of them. Not only does every member of this family strive to master their swordsmanship past the realm of human possibility, but they all specialize in different things.
Jin, sadly enough, had a very unlucky life. He was exiled from the family for having no talent in the sword, only to find that a curse was what held his talent back, and when he finally was rid of the curse he died shortly after. Thankfully, like a lot of these stories, he wakes up years in the past and is now able to get a second chance at the life he so truly deserves.
2021
So as not to leave out a whole medium with Manwha and Webcomics, let’s talk about a series calledReincarnation of the Suicidal Battle God.This is a series with a concept a lot of experienced manga readers are familiar with; the protagonist dies trying to save the world or something similar, reincarnates or reverts to their younger self, and can now prepare even more thoroughly for the looming threat.
However,RotSBGhas this standard setup and that’s the only real commonality. Everything else about this story is exceptionally unique. For one,its art is both fantastic and memorable. Two, it has a main character who isn’t meek, naive, or airheaded like most adventure protagonists tend to be. And three, the world-building is well integrated with the narrative itself and plays a part in all of the important battles. All-in-all it may be a bit less ‘grimdark’ than many other series on here, but is no less deserving of an inclusion.
Status
First Published
What Do You Wish For With Those Murky Eyes: Record of Highserk War
There are so many series out there these days about some modern-age teen pulled (or reincarnated) into a grimdark world of fantasy and magic. However, the majority of these series almost immediately make the protagonist too strong or too comfortable, ruining the atmosphere and tone they initially set up. Thankfully, this series (absurdly long name incoming)What Do You Wish For With Those Murky Eyes: Record of Highserk War, is different.
The main character in this series is so incredibly tired of the world he was reincarnated into, as it’s a medieval-esque world thats constantly at war. To survive, there’s no real way other than to become a soldier, but to be a soldier means both committing and witnessing a lot of atrocities. Fans of this subgenre will quickly recognize how similar its world feels to the Golden Age Arc ofBerserkbutwith plenty of its own unique twists.
2006
It’s so absurd to think that one of the most beloved manga of all time,20th Century Boys, still doesn’thave an anime adaptation(though it has multiple live-action films). This series dates all the way back to 1999 and is both written and illustrated by the renowned Naoki Urasawa (best knownfor series likePlutoandMonster).
No other manga handles the concept of a psychological mystery like this one does, and at no point in this manga are readers going to be able to accurately guess what’s going to happen next. It’s a lot less ‘fantastical’ and more based in reality, but that absolutely doesn’t mean there aren’t fantasy elements involved throughout. The initial concept of the series, with kids who come up with their own ‘end of the world’ scenario thats actually coming to life, is already interesting. But the way it builds on this foundation and constantly subverts the readers expectations is a major reason why20th Century Boysis so beloved to this day.
It’s Sudden, But I Came To Another World! But I Hope To Live Safely
2019
Not many manga fans expected tosee an isekai recommendationhere, but this story (let’s just call itIsekai Demo Bunanto circumvent its ridiculously long name) is a perfect blend of fantasy, dark themes, and interesting character dynamics.Unlike the standard isekai protagonists, this one (who doesn’t really have a ‘name’ so people call him multiple different ones like ‘Shisho’ and ‘Candidate’) is incredibly weak. He has no special abilities given to him by this new world, only the same innate comprehension talents he had in his original world. And on top of this, he basically has zero magical power, which is something that almost everyone else in the world has in spades. So really all that Shisho has going for him is that he’sone of those standard ‘smarter than you’d think’ protagonists.
While this story isn’t obscenely dark, Shisho would have absolutely gone down a much darker route if he hadn’t run into the very definition of a model knight, Illias. Shisho is a self-described weak human, and because he’s weak and understands this weakness, he has no qualms about doing whatever he needs to do in order to survive. Thankfully, Illias usually keeps him on the straight and narrow, but not all the time, and the moments where it dips into a much darker tone are some of the highlights of the series overall.
