The best fantasy manga are not about who hits hardest. They are about the world: a map you want to walk across, a kind of magic that has rules, and characters who change on the way.
Here are four fantasy manga I think every manga reader should try, from a quiet journey after the adventure ends to a hole in the earth that nobody comes back from. After each one there is a small tip for reading it with ComicFlow, the manga reader I build for iPhone and iPad. It is $2.99 once, with an optional $6.99 one-time Pro unlock.
Disclosure: I make ComicFlow at Applestan.
Quick Reference #
| # | Series | By | Kind of fantasy | Volumes in Japan | Status | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Frieren: Beyond Journey's End | Kanehito Yamada, Tsukasa Abe | Quiet journey | 15 | Ongoing (on hiatus) | Readers who like to slow down |
| 2 | Witch Hat Atelier | Kamome Shirahama | Learning magic | 16 | Ongoing | The most beautiful art |
| 3 | The Ancient Magus' Bride | Kore Yamazaki | Folklore and faeries | 25 | Ongoing | Melancholy and found family |
| 4 | Made in Abyss | Akihito Tsukushi | Dark exploration | 15 | Ongoing | Strong stomachs |
If you only try one, start with Witch Hat Atelier. It is the one people finish and immediately push on a friend.
1. Frieren: Beyond Journey's End #
By: Kanehito Yamada (story), Tsukasa Abe (art) | Volumes: 15 in Japan (ongoing, since 2020) | Genre: Fantasy / adventure / drama
The hero's party has already won. The Demon King is dead, the ten-year quest is over, and the elf mage Frieren goes back to her own life. For an elf, fifty years pass quickly. When she comes back, the hero Himmel is an old man, and soon she is at his funeral, realizing she never really got to know him. So she sets out again, this time to understand the people she travelled with.
Frieren is a fantasy manga about time and memory. There are battles, and they are good, but the heart of it is small moments: a flower field, a silly spell, a memory of Himmel that turns up at the right time. It runs in Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday, won the Manga Taisho and the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize's New Creator Prize in 2021, and has more than 35 million copies in circulation. Viz Media publishes it in English. The manga has been on an indefinite hiatus since October 2025, and a third anime season is set for October 2027.
Why it hooks you: it makes you miss characters you met two pages ago.
How to read it: Frieren rewards rereading, because small scenes come back much later. Tap the page to show the controls and tap Bookmark on the moments you want to find again. Once a volume has a bookmark, a small badge at the top of the reader opens the list. Bookmark manga pages on iPhone has the details.
2. Witch Hat Atelier #
By: Kamome Shirahama | Volumes: 16 in Japan (ongoing, since 2016) | Genre: Fantasy / coming of age
Coco is a dressmaker's daughter who has always wanted to be a witch, but everyone knows you have to be born with magic. Then a witch named Qifrey visits, and Coco secretly watches him work. She sees that magic is not born at all. It is drawn, with ink and precise symbols. She tries it herself with a book she bought as a child, and the spell goes terribly wrong. Qifrey takes her on as an apprentice, and the only way to undo what she did is to learn.
Magic you draw is a perfect idea for a manga, and Shirahama, who started as an illustrator, draws every page like a picture book. It runs in Kodansha's Morning Two, won the Harvey Award for Best Manga in 2020 and again in 2025, and won the Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material, Asia, in 2020. Kodansha USA publishes it in English. The anime aired from April to June 2026, and a second season has been announced.
Why it hooks you: every new spell is a puzzle you can almost solve yourself.
How to read it: this is a manga for a bigger screen. On iPad, open Reader Settings with the gear and set Page Layout to Auto, and ComicFlow shows two pages side by side when there is room. A page that was scanned as one wide spread stands on its own instead of being squeezed in half. To see the fine linework in a spell circle, double-tap that part of the page to zoom in, and double-tap again to zoom back out. Reading manga on iPad has more.
Two pages side by side on iPad, in right-to-left manga mode.
3. The Ancient Magus' Bride #
By: Kore Yamazaki | Volumes: 25 in Japan (ongoing, since 2013) | Genre: Dark fantasy / folklore / romance
Chise Hatori is fifteen, alone, and sure that nobody wants her, so she sells herself at an auction in London. The buyer is Elias Ainsworth, a seven-foot-tall magus with an animal skull for a head. He tells her she is a rare kind of mage who can draw magic from everything around her, and that she will be his apprentice and, one day, his bride. In his house in the English countryside, surrounded by faeries, dragons and old magic, Chise slowly starts to believe her life is worth something.
It is a slow, strange and often gentle story built on British and Irish folklore, but it does not look away from hard things, including Chise's past. It ran in Mag Garden's magazines and now runs on Bushiroad Works' Comic Growl website. Seven Seas publishes it in English, with 22 volumes out there as of July 2026. The anime has two seasons, the second from 2023.
Why it hooks you: two people who do not understand feelings learn them together.
How to read it: set Right to Left (Manga) once, and if your files carry the series name, ComicFlow remembers that direction for every volume in the series. If you set up the same layout and direction for every fantasy series you read, ComicFlow Pro can save it as a reader preset and apply it with one tap.
Reader Settings on iPhone. Saved presets are part of Pro, and direction and page layout are free.
4. Made in Abyss #
By: Akihito Tsukushi | Volumes: 15 in Japan (ongoing, since 2012) | Genre: Dark fantasy / adventure
The town of Orth sits around the Abyss, a giant hole that goes deeper than anyone has ever mapped. Cave Raiders climb down to bring back relics, but coming back up is the dangerous part: the Curse of the Abyss gets worse the deeper you have been. Riko, an orphan who dreams of becoming a legendary White Whistle like her mother, finds a robot boy named Reg in the first layer. When a message from her missing mother turns up from the bottom, the two climb down, knowing they may never return.
Made in Abyss looks like a children's adventure, with round, cute characters, and then it becomes one of the darkest manga you will read. The wonder is real, and so is the horror, and the contrast is the point. It runs on Takeshobo's Web Comic Gamma, has more than 22 million copies in circulation, and won an Excellence Award at the Japan Cartoonists Association Awards in 2023. Seven Seas publishes it in English. A new anime film, Awakening Mystery, opened in Japan on October 23, 2026. Be warned that it has graphic violence and very disturbing scenes.
Why it hooks you: every layer of the Abyss is more beautiful and more dangerous than the last.
How to read it: the layers of the Abyss are drawn in huge detail, often in wide spreads. On iPhone, turn it sideways to give a spread the whole screen. If your copy is a scan with wide white borders, open Reader Settings and switch on Trim Margins, which crops the border as each page is shown, without changing your file. Remove white borders from manga on iPhone explains it.
Getting these series as files you can read #
ComicFlow reads files you own: CBZ, CBR, ZIP, RAR and PDF. It does not open EPUB, and books bought inside store apps such as Kindle or BookWalker stay in those apps. Two routes work:
- Buy DRM-free where you can. Where to buy DRM-free manga lists the stores I could confirm and what format they sell.
- Scan volumes you already own. How to scan manga you own covers it.
To get the files onto your phone or iPad, Wi-Fi Upload lets you drag them onto a page in any browser on your computer. If a whole series comes as one ZIP or RAR, ComicFlow 3.8 imports every volume inside it as its own book. Once a book is in the library it opens with no connection at all.
What is included without Pro #
Everything above except presets is in the $2.99 app: offline reading, right-to-left reading saved per book and per series, double-page spreads, double-tap zoom, page curl, Trim Margins, the Continue Reading card and bookmarks. There are no ads or ad tracking.
ComicFlow Pro is an optional $6.99 one-time unlock, not a subscription. It adds saved reader presets, Komga, Kavita and OPDS server libraries, Face ID-locked collections and EPUB export for Kobo, Boox, reMarkable and PocketBook e-readers.
Related reading #
- 4 manga with the best art ever drawn: more series to read on a big screen
- 4 romance manga that get love right: for something lighter next
- How to read manga on iPad: layouts and tips for the bigger screen
- Manga page curl on iPhone: turn pages like paper, new in ComicFlow 3.8
- Bookmark manga pages on iPhone: keep the pages you love
ComicFlow sends anonymous usage analytics to help improve the app, and you can switch that off in Settings, then Privacy, then Share Usage Data. Your manga files stay on your device. The privacy policy has the full list.
Frequently asked questions
What should I read after Frieren?
Witch Hat Atelier by Kamome Shirahama is the closest match: a quiet, beautifully drawn story about learning magic, with a world that keeps opening up. The Ancient Magus' Bride by Kore Yamazaki fits if you liked Frieren's melancholy, and Made in Abyss by Akihito Tsukushi fits if you liked the sense of a long journey into the unknown.
Is the Frieren manga finished?
No. Frieren: Beyond Journey's End has run in Weekly Shonen Sunday since April 2020 and has 15 volumes in Japan. It went on an indefinite hiatus in October 2025 so the creators could focus on their health. Viz Media publishes it in English, and a third anime season is set for October 2027.
Is Made in Abyss suitable for younger readers?
Not really. The art is round and cute, but the story contains graphic violence and some very disturbing scenes. Treat it as a manga for adult readers.
How do I see two-page spreads properly in a fantasy manga on iPad?
In ComicFlow, open Reader Settings and set Page Layout to Auto or Double Page. On an iPad there is room for two pages side by side, and a page that was scanned as one wide spread stands on its own instead of being squeezed next to its neighbour. Double-tap any part of the page to zoom in on it.
Do I need a subscription to read manga on iPhone with ComicFlow?
No. ComicFlow costs $2.99 once, with no subscription and no ads. Offline reading, right-to-left mode, double-page spreads, zoom, page curl, Trim Margins, the Continue Reading card and bookmarks are all included. An optional $6.99 one-time Pro unlock adds saved reader presets, comic server libraries, Face ID-locked collections and EPUB export for e-readers.
