About Fantasy Anime. What makes it great?

Fantasy is one of the most important genres overall and my favourite. The main factor making fantasy unique is the variety of different routes that it can go. Writer can create action-adventure story but he can also make school drama or political thriller spiced a bit with unreal things. You can even make a series about mushroom picking in a fantasy world (I would unironically watch something like that). What I find interesting is how an unrealistic magic setting can give a unique taste to a story making it much more interesting. So, I will try to show what I find beautiful in good fantasy and how I would see the perfect fantasy.
I will use examples mostly from anime because I am a weeb.

For me the most beautiful thing is discovering and that is exactly where fantasy can shine like a diamond. You see as a people we have a decent knowledge about the world so it is a bit hard to find something totally new. Of course, life can sometimes surprise with something unexpected. When we hear a story about ghosts, we don’t believe it, don't we? In a fantasy world if someone is talking about how he saw a ghost there is a chance that this is true or it can be something more unexpected like half man half mist; everything is possible. You can see strange creatures, strange places or so called unknown at every corner, sometimes it might be something horrible and disgusting but there might be something beautiful.

The perfect example is the anime “Mushishi” (take into account that I am not really expert with this anime I watched like 3 episodes from, probably, not the first season so I have close to zero knowlegde about this anime overall). There is that one episode where we see a girl losing the ability to talk because of singing of little birds hiding inside of shells. So as viewers we discover something unique influencing the lives of people who stumbled upon it. But there is also a moment when danger for these creatures ended so they flew away from their shelters creating one of the most beautiful scenes ever made. It is like watching a beautiful natural occurrence but in another world giving us something new unexplained by scientists, you live that moment yourself, not through lenses of people filled with knowledge.

Also, the great usage of fantasy elements in another way we see in “Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood”. It is one of the most popular anime of all time so I think that most of you at least heard about it. The main unnatural element of this show is alchemy but it isn’t just a form of power that characters use to fight. It is like the core of the world and the story. Alchemy is for people like science but is also a weapon and the way some are looking at the world. I mean that this power, or better said art, is fundamental for the world building and is irreplaceable. Story and fantastical elements are becoming one. Starting with characters motivations through the all intrigues ending with conclusion at any point it is important for the story. I just love everything about how alchemy is immersed into story so I will stop to not bore you too much by making this text a love letter.

Of course, fantasy story must be at the same time a good story with good characters, great pacing and an interesting plot. There starts another potential way of good usage of fantastical elements by making them reflections of character-arcs. People in movies often fight with their demons. Why not take it literally? I mean that a good story has meanings for things. Most of the time weird things are the reason for creating something inside a character or because of his/her situation. The example: mentioned earlier “Mushishi” where characters confronted with weird things are just an excuse to dive into their current situation. There is also this series called “Bakemonogatari” where mysterious occurrences always have reasons.

This is enough, I think, for this article but I don’t think I exhausted this topic. To be honest I primarily thought that I would write more but it is already so boring. At least I will leave some recommendations other than what you can see up there. “Ascendance of a Bookworm” for slow introduction to the unknown, and for making a great fantasy story without fighting but only with crafting and selling. “Tower of God” (webcomic not an anime you can read on the webtoon site) for a giant world and introducing many aspects and characters bearing their own meanings making a complex world that we don’t have to be told is big. “Tails of Magicat” is a great adventure about discovering the magical world with a little cat (I wrote an article about it ages ago and you can check it out if you want ).
Remember that I am not any kind of expert. I haven't wrote any fantasy but I hope one day I will. This isn't some kind of sacred wisdom it is just some things that I thought on the topic. You are free to say that this isn't true.

I am sorry for probably bad English it isn’t my native language but I am trying my best. After all I am still learning this language.
Thanks for reading.

Anime that I was talking about you can find on Funimation and Crunchyroll.