10 best anime to watch if you like The Water Magician

The Water Magician is a popular new anime that debuted in 2025. With its slow-paced storytelling, introspective themes, beautiful animation, and creative magic system, it has garnered a dedicated fan base.

The Water Magician follows the story of Ryo, who is reincarnated into the magical realm of Phi with an affinity for water magic. After being exiled to the dangerous Londe continent, Ryo must hone his magical abilities and survival skills in solitude for over 20 years.

Fans of The Water Magician may be looking for similar anime to enjoy. The good news is that there are plenty of thoughtful, magical anime out there with compelling characters and captivating worlds to explore. This list covers 10 of the best anime to watch if you like The Water Magician.

10 must-watch anime for fans of The Water Magician

1) Grimgar, Ashes and Illusions

Grimgar, Ashes and Illusions (Image via A-1 Pictures)

Like Ryo, the characters of Grimgar find themselves stranded in a strange fantasy landscape. Awakening in the frontier town of Ortana in the world of Grimgar with no memories of their past, these young adults must enlist in the Volunteer Soldier Corps and choose job classes to battle humanoid monsters and survive.

But Grimgar sets itself apart by forcing its characters—and viewers by proxy—to confront the emotional and moral toll of kill-or-be-killed battle. When soldier Manato is struck down early in the group’s adventures, the show devotes an entire episode to the squad, shell-shocked, processing their grief.

In the raw aftermath, they weep, lash out, debate meaning, or simply sit stunned in the deafening ambience. Rarely has the cost of crude survival been explored so viscerally. Manato’s friends begin to reconcile with his death, finding meaning through the connections they shared with him.

2) Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation (Image via Studio Bind)

Mushoku Tensei tells the story of a 34-year-old NEET reincarnated into a fantasy world as Rudeus Greyrat, following his new life from birth. While he retains his memories and intellect, Rudeus must learn to physically, mentally, and emotionally mature alongside his magical burgeoning as he comes of age.

Like Ryo, Rudeus starts off weak and grows exponentially in power. But the true appeal lies in experiencing personal growth alongside well-developed characters amidst an epic adventure. Fans of The Water Magician will connect with Mushoku Tensei’s emotional core about seeking redemption through purpose.

3) Ascendance of a Bookworm

Ascendance of a Bookworm (Image via Ajia-do Animation Works)

Ascendance of a Bookworm offers a female-led isekai tale rife with resourceful creativity reminiscent of Ryo’s studious magical experimentation. It follows book-lover Urano Motosu, reincarnated as sickly girl Myne in a medieval world where books are mostly reserved for nobles and a handful of wealthy merchants.

Refusing to abandon her intellectual identity, Myne pursues her love of books and knowledge despite constant obstacles. Through grit, empathy, and irrepressible enthusiasm, Myne wins over allies even in an unforgiving caste-based society.

Despite poverty and social sanctions, she successfully pioneers inventive solutions from makeshift paper to printing workshops. Like Ryo painstakingly mastering water manipulation, Myne studies fanatically—because magic comes from pushing beyond imposed limits with courage, makeshift tools, and boundless vision.

4) The Faraway Paladin

The Faraway Paladin (Image via Children’s Playground Entertainment)

The Faraway Paladin centers on a child raised in solitude to walk a hero’s path. Protagonist Will, an orphaned human boy, is raised by three undead guardians: Mary, a mummy-priestess mother; Blood, a skeleton-warrior father; and Gus, a ghostly sorcerer grandfather-mentor.

On his 15th birthday, Will finally steps beyond the ruins to quest in the wider world, armed with mastered combat skills and thirst for knowledge about those who came before him. Like Ryo in The Water Magician, Will’s found family shapes him to face external adventure with inner compassion.

And his emergence from his ghostly guardians’ care forces growth when he must form connections bearing the weight of mortality.

5) To Your Eternity

To Your Eternity (Image via Brain’s Base, Drive)

To Your Eternity tunnels into many of the same resonant veins of loss, love, and meaning as The Water Magician. It opens with a mysterious orb cast down to a snow-swept fantasy land, able to copy any organic form thrust upon it.

Gradually, this “It” tries out bodies from moss to wolf before finally settling into a human boy mold, only to watch his mortal template die from infection and exposure in the cold. In response to this dying boy’s last wish, It assumes his form and sets out to understand living, dying, and forging bonds despite mortality.

As the immortal It navigates eras of change, struggling to balance detachment and emotional risk, To Your Eternity asks what makes existence matter beyond survival. Like The Water Magician's Ryo after isolation, It yearns for purpose beyond mere being—and finds it in those whose brief lives teach it how to feel.

6) Re:Zero — Starting Life in Another World

Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World (Image via White Fox)

Re:Zero taps into the trope of an unassuming young man transported to a parallel fantasy world but hard swerves expectations with ruthless tragedy. When Subaru arrives in the kingdom of Lugunica, he discovers he has the “Return by Death” ability, which sends him back in time after he dies to alter fate’s course.

And die he does, in gruesome, horrific fashion, over and over. While failing repeatedly to save himself or his newfound loved ones, Subaru suffers from profound depression and isolation. Yet he chooses to keep fighting in hopes of earning the life with friends he craves.

Through excruciating mental fortitude and unrelenting struggle beyond despair, Subaru walks the hero’s journey further than most dare.

7) The Saint’s Magic Power Is Omnipotent

The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent (Image via Diomedéa, Studio Elle)

Isekai fantasy comedies typically focus on a protagonist blessed with immense power, and The Saint’s Magic Power Is Omnipotent offers a gentler heroine in Sei. Summoned as a saint candidate, the Japanese office worker discovers she possesses extraordinarily powerful magic.

Nevertheless, she perseveres happily through her new life and royal responsibilities using creativity and compassion. Like The Water Magician, this anime oozes heart-warming charm. With its winning slice-of-life adventuring and lovable characters, fans drawn to Ryo’s quainter questing will delight in Sei’s.

8) Erased

Viewers enthralled by The Water Magician’s measured intrigue and high personal stakes will relish psychological thriller Erased. 29-year-old manga artist Satoru possesses a special phenomenon called “Revival,” which usually sends him back a few minutes before life-threatening incidents.

When his mother is murdered by an unknown serial killer, a catastrophic trigger flings Satoru back to his childhood when a rash of kidnappings and killings first occurred in his hometown. Armed with present-day cunning and conviction, Satoru must uncover the killer in his youth to change the future.

Like Ryo in The Water Magician, Satoru suffers profound trauma that isolates him from a callous society. Satoru’s special abilities allow him to pursue justice beyond normal bounds of law or mortality at great internal cost. Ultimately, Erased speaks to the same central themes of living fully without regrets.

9) Log Horizon

Log Horizon (Image via Satelight, Studio Deen)

Log Horizon dives deep into the “transported to a fantasy world” concept by having players of a popular MMORPG transformed into their avatars in the game’s universe.

Protagonist Shiroe and his companions must learn how to live in the now very-real realm of Elder Tale, balancing fantasy adventuring with pioneering civilization. Science-fiction fans who appreciate The Water Magician’s measured world-building will love Log Horizon’s granular exploration of politics and culture-shaping.

It also captures the spirit of magic-based combat and exhilarating discovery while emphasizing creative solutions fit for visionary leaders like Shiroe and Ryo.

10) Somali and the Forest Spirit

Somali and the Forest Spirit (Image via Satelight)

Somali and the Forest Spirit may seem to hew closer to high fantasy, but hear us out. This emotional roller-coaster depicts the adventures of guardian golem Golem, who discovers a human girl, Somali, and escorts her across a magical land because his own body will cease functioning within a year.

Yes, it’s just as heart-wrenching as it sounds. Behind the sweetness of Somali’s wonder and Golem’s patient parenting lie poignant themes of mortality, humanity, love, and sacrifice. Like The Water Magician, its triumph stems from quiet growth and treasuring bonds over spectacle, sure to bring tears and exhilaration.

Conclusion

The Water Magician struck a powerful chord thanks to its patient emotional buildup, meaningful character connections, and its ability to find magic within suffering.

While few anime can match its mature pace and dissection of trauma, many kindred stories exist with resonant messages about personal growth and treasuring bonds despite grief. The 10 anime on this list all deliver inspiration, exhilaration, and cathartic release similar to Ryo’s journey.

They offer tales of persevering through loss, healing within found families, gaining wisdom from mortality’s seeming callousness and cruelty. Most importantly, they all carry hope that living wholeheartedly and walking alongside others eases sorrows once thought unbearable.