Recommend a good fantasy based anime

[JKTrix]

I'll assume you mean 'fantasy' as in Lord of the Rings-type swords and sorcery, rather than just general 'fantasy' (which most anime would fit in).
Twelve Kingdoms is probably the best 'Swords n' sorcery' type of fantasy anime I've seen. The story, the setting and the 'rules' of the world are all incredibly well fleshed out. The only problem (besides how annoying the main character is at the start) is that when it ends, you feel there is so much more to the story, even though they do wrap up the main story of the show. There are reasons for that which I won't get into now, but definitely check it out for one of the best Fantasy anime out there.

Scrapped Princess is also high in my fantasy rankings. It's a little newer than 12 Kingdoms and has a real ending, but the overall story is not as rich as 12 Kingdoms is. Escaflowne is great. In fact some of the influential people behind Scrapped Princess made Escaflowne beforehand.

There are lots more, but why bother with lesser shows when you can start with the best. 12 Kingdoms, Scrapped Princess, Escaflowne, and maybe even Lodoss War for history's sake is what you should start with, all in the 'swords n' sorcery' category. All of these are currently available in full on US DVD.

For something brand new, 'Seirei no Moribito' (guardian of the sacred spirit) just finished airing in Japan, and it is another excellent story. The feel is somewhat similar to 12 Kingdoms (rather than Lodoss or Escaflowne) though it's quite a different story. It's animated by Production I.G., most famous for the Ghost in the Shell series, so the animation particularly in the combat scenes is excellent. The artistry in the show is beautiful, the music is probably the best thing to come out of Kenji Kawai for some time, and the story (while it lulls in the middle a bit for extra character development) is smooth and engaging. Highly reccommended.
It was licensed by Geneon before it even started airing, but...Geneon has kind of sunk.

[Momiji]

While excellent, putting up Haruhi instead of Bleach is moving even further away from the desired genre.

Anyway, if you want tradition swords 'n sorcery fantasy, you're talking things like Lodoss Wars or Slayers. Slayers is great, really funny. Lodoss Wars isn't bad, fairly standard as far as fantasy tales go.

Beyond those two, which are the big ones, I don't really know of many others that really fit into the genre and are worth watching besides Escaflowne, which has a lot of different genres but is really good.

I know, I just like Haruhi, and Bleach is lower than NARUTO, if you ask me.

Oh, I totally forgot about Slayers. That one's good.

[ShunNakamura]

Slayers is the big one for fantasy/comedy. Another couple Fantasy/Comedy would be Zero No Tsukaima and Negima[though the manga is far better than the anime the anime is still somewhat decent].

I guess you could also go Magic Knight Rayearth for another Fantasy/Comedy.

If you count Tsubasa Chronicles as Fantasy[I do but I realize you may be using a stricter sense of the word] that is a good manga that has a fairly decent anime of it.

Utawarerumono is an excellent choice I would say. Though there isn't a lot of flashy magic to see.


Finally Fushigi Yugi would likely count as fantasy since most of it takes place in the 'fantasy' world. And it is a classic.


Edit--- errr... I think I recall seeing another sword and sorcery on the international channel long ago..... Hazard? or something. Only seen a few episodes of it.

[JKTrix]

...Utawarerumono...

Edit--- errr... I think I recall seeing another sword and sorcery on the international channel long ago..... Hazard? or something. Only seen a few episodes of it.

Utawarerumono is known as 'Shadow Warrior Chronicles' in the West. I've seen it, I remember it, it is pretty good. But I didn't mention it in my previous post, for what it's worth.
Edit: Didn't know they changed it back to 'Uta' etc. That's great!

The other show, El Hazard, I did forget. It's been a while! That's another great show, I'd say it's better than Slayers and even add it to the list of my reccomended shows from the previous post.

[ShunNakamura]

...Utawarerumono...

Edit--- errr... I think I recall seeing another sword and sorcery on the international channel long ago..... Hazard? or something. Only seen a few episodes of it.

Utawarerumono is known as 'Shadow Warrior Chronicles' in the West. I've seen it, I remember it, it is pretty good. But I didn't mention it in my previous post, for what it's worth.

The other show, El Hazard, I did forget. It's been a while! That's another great show, I'd say it's better than Slayers and even add it to the list of my reccomended shows from the previous post.

Yup that was it... El hazard. Is it really that good? As I said I only saw a couple episodes and while it didn't look bad it didn't look great either.

And while Utawarerumono was planed to be called Shadow Warrior Chronicles it didn't pan out. ADV films left the title as Utawarerumono.
linkage.
and cover to fully make my point.


I am not sure what changed in the plans[I do know those of us at the Yesy-forums were really outspoken against the name]; however, it was left as Utawarerumono.