Shirayuki is just an ordinary small town girl, who happens to have one very unique distinguishing feature. She has fiery red hair. This attracts the attention of the local prince, who commands her to become his concubine.

She refuses and escapes to a neighboring kingdom, where she meets the brave prince Zen and earns his trust. Shirayuki then begins a new life in the kingdom of Clarines under Zen’s protection, where many adventures await for them.

Snow White with the Red Hair is a fairy tale-like story. Unlike the rest on this list, this show is more of a dramatic fantasy. It doesn’t have the action you expect to find in the fantasy genre. Instead, it displays a romantic story between a prince and a common girl.

This is the story of Maria, a sexy and powerful witch who lives in medieval France, during the time of the Hundred Years War against England. She’s completely against war and does everything in her power to stop the battles between humans. She will summon terrifying dragons to scorch the land and scare the hell out of anyone who turns to violence.

Junketsu no Maria has been quite the popular show last winter, probably thanks to its wonderful action scenes with tons of creative displays of magic. It also has a certain comedic element and many jokes and talks about sex, as one of the show’s themes is Maria’s virginity. It’s also one of the purest Fantasy anime of 2015, since it’s set in medieval times, where there’s no technology whatsoever.

One of the most popular shows of this 2015 Anime Fall season, Chivalry of a Failed Knight follows the story of Ikki Kurogane, the lowest ranked Apprentice Knight at the Hagun Academy. He is baptized as the “Worst One” since he has little magical powers according to the standards. However, he is able to stay in the academy thanks to his physical abilities and strong will to improve.

On the first day of his second year at the academy, Ikki is challenged to a duel by the prodigy freshman student Stella Vermillion. In this fight, the loser becomes the winner’s slave for life, which later on gives way to both ecchi and romantic scenes.

Chivalry of a Failed Knight displays a futuristic fantasy world that relies more on the practice of magic that on the development of technology. The story itself is not very original (to say the least), but the action is quite well-developed and the ecchi/romance portion of the show does its job just fine.

The Testament of Sister New Devil has been the most popular fantasy show of 2015 winter season. It tells the story of Basara Toujou, an apparently regular boy who’s suddenly told by his father that he has two little sisters. He now has to learn how to be an older brother, which becomes more difficult than it should, as his little sisters turn out to be demons. He’s not as ordinary as he looks either, though.

This is a fantasy harem story with strong comedic elements, some romance and lots of fan service. The action scenes are all in all quite good, but the show clearly focuses on the ecchi side. If you’re into both fantasy and ecchi anime, this one is the right choice for you.

The legend says that whenever the Demon God awakes, the Goddess of Fate will choose six heroes and grant them the power to defeat the forces of evil. These are known as the Heroes of the Six Flowers, who appear every couple of hundred years to save the world. Adlet Mayer is a young man who’s trained his entire life to become one of the six heroes.

Upon receiving the mark of the Six Flowers, he sets on a quest with Princess Nashetania (also one of the six) to join the remaining heroes. Confusion and suspicion arise when all the heroes meet, realizing there are seven of them instead of six. This fantastic story gives a little twist to the classic heroic adventure against evil, since we cannot be sure of who’s the real enemy.

In a futuristic New York, a breach has opened, letting alien-like creatures and monsters in. Humans co-exist with these beings, in a tough city where crime, secret intelligence and magic are an everyday thing. Leonardo Watch is a young boy who has been given the “All Seeing Eyes of the Gods”, and he joins the Libra organization to fight criminals and learn the truth behind his recently acquired ability.

Kekkai Sensen is, at first, extremely weird and somewhat difficult to understand, in the sense that many of the events that take place do not have a logical explanation. This is a world of fantasy where paranormal things simply happen for no apparent reason, like giant entities coming out of nowhere to give you god’s eyes in exchange for your little sister’s eyesight.

Having said that, once you learn to follow the show’s quick pace, you’ll enjoy the story’s development as well as the action filled adventures Leo and Zapp are embarked on.

The Heroic Legend of Arslan is yet another pure fantasy show set in medieval times. It follows the story of 14 year-old Prince Arslan, son of the great King Andragoras and heir to the throne of Pars. After losing his first battle and facing the fall of his kingdom, Arslan sets out on a journey to recover what’s his by birthright and to fulfill his destiny as the great ruler he’s meant to become.

This fantastic adventure takes us through some mythical kingdoms and puts us in the midst of war, as we join young Arslan on his path to prove himself a worthy leader. Aside from the load full of action, the story itself is extremely well-developed and has a lot of drama, since the main character has to face many trials on his way.

Dungeon (for short) takes place in the magical city of Orario, where Gods have descended to give worthy human adventurers their blessing. This is how Bell met the gorgeous, yet of little renown, goddess Hestia. He now wanders the city’s dungeons to rise as a great adventurer and bring honor to his goddess, while also trying to win the heart of Aiz Wallenstein, a beautiful and famous female adventurer who’s completely out of his league.

This show is probably the definition of the fantasy genre. It’s set in a magical world that closely resembles RPG games, where characters fight monsters in dungeons using magic and special abilities as they gain experience and level up. These features are probably what makes Dungeon so popular and the top fantasy anime of a 2015 spring season that brought us high-quality fantasy shows like Arslan Senki and Kekkai Sensen.

Gate is another great recommendation for fantasy genre purists. The story takes place in Tokyo, sometime in the near future (21st century), where a mysterious portal has appeared, letting warriors, mythical creatures and monsters from another world come in.

Youji Itami, a 33 year-old otaku with military training is awarded for his heroic deeds when the portal army raids Tokyo, and is later appointed as the leader of a reconnaissance team to explore the other side of the portal and find out about potential threats. In this new realm, he will find powerful and interesting supernatural allies.

Gate gives us everything we can expect from a fantasy world, from orcs and elves to mages and demons. It also combines the best of two worlds, the modern military warfare and the powerful magic of a mythical land filled with creatures of legend.

When the popular online game, Yggdrasil, is suddenly shut down, the experienced player known as Momonga decides to remain logged in till the very last minute. He then realizes that he’s become his own avatar and can’t possibly log out. He soon accepts and embraces his new reality, as he deems it much more fulfilling than the human world.

Overlord is, to many at least, the top fantasy show of the year. This last summer season gave us many great fantasy anime (Gate, Rokka, Akagami no Shirayuki), but none as good as Overlord. This show completely changed the cliché version of the “trapped inside a game” show. It has a simple story with many elements taken from RPG games and an overpowered main character.

It is a simple formula that succeeds in displaying the type of world we always wanted to be immersed in while playing an RPG game. The main character, Momonga, has a load full of power and absolute freedom to explore a vast realm filled with mythical creatures, warriors and wizards. Being the overpowered mage he is, there are no limits to what he can do in this world of fantasy.