Korean dramas have been a massive hit around the world for the past couple of years, elevating the small peninsula country to all-new heights in tandem with K-pop when it comes to global popular culture. Audiences cannot get enough of the characters, romances, and cultural touchstones introduced in these dramas, allowing people to learn more about Korean culture, customs, and history. Their impact is undeniable for tourism and general knowledge about South Korea, although some might develop romanticized notions about very real people and situations.
While historical and romance dramas have remained a staple on television networks and streaming, fantasy dramas have steadily been increasing in quality and popularity in the past decade. With the closing of the drama Alchemy of Souls in early 2023, it seems that there is a bright future in the genre, showing how far these storylines can go with the tropes audiences are familiar with. These are the best Korean fantasy dramas released so far.
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12 The King: Eternal Monarch
Studio Dragon
Lee Min-ho and Kim Go-eun star in The King: Eternal Monarch, a fantasy drama in which two parallel, but completely different, worlds collide. In one universe, the Kingdom of Korea still exists to this day. Lee Gon (Lee), the kingdom’s Emperor, accidentally finds himself in the current reality. There, he meets a detective (Kim), who may be the key to uncovering the secrets behind his father’s assassination. As the two worlds continue to collide, romance and problems arise as characters continue to interact and discover the existence of an entirely different universe.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
11 My Roommate is a Gumiho
JTBC Studio
In My Roommate is a Gumiho, the Korean mythical creature, the gumiho, or a nine-tailed fox, finds itself in the male lead. Shin Woo-yeo (portrayed by Jang Ki-yong) is almost a thousand years old, but his biggest dream actually is to become a human. A college professor decides to give a drunk girl a hand one day, and she swallows his sacred bead. If they’re unable to get it out of her, she will die, and he will never become a human. Naturally, they decide to live together until they can figure out what to do next. My Roommate is a Gumiho is based on a Korean webtoon.
10 Doom at Your Service
Released in 2021, Doom at Your Service features a relationship between the gods’ messenger and a human. The human, Dong-kyung, is an editor at a web novel company when she discovers she’s dying from an aggressive brain cancer. One night, after wishing upon a shooting star, she decides her wish is that the world, and everyone in it, will become doomed. Her wish is heard, and Myul Mang, a messenger of the gods that literally brings doom, enters a contract with her to make her wish come true.
9 Tale of the Nine Tailed
Lee Dong-wook, Jo Bo-ah, and Kim Bum star in Tale of the Nine Tailed, a story that shows what happens when the world of the gumiho and humans collide. Over the course of 16 episodes, a thousand-year-old gumiho is spotted on a mission by a human producer at a television station. She follows him home and uncovers his secret, realizing he’s not as human as she originally thought and gets caught up in a game between his brother and him. But, as it turns out, their fate was always meant to meet, and there’s a lot more than what meets the eye when it comes to their relationship.
8 The Legend of the Blue Sea
One of the few mainstream Korean dramas to tackle the subject of mermaids, The Legend of the Blue Sea was a hit when it came out domestically and internationally. The story is inspired by a classic Korean tale, but with a modern twist: the main characters, who meet in modern-day Seoul, are reincarnations of two lovers from Joseon-era Korea. Now, in the contemporary era, a mermaid (Jun Ji-hyun) meets a con artist (Lee Min-ho) in Spain and follows him all the way back home to Korea. The series, which aired from 2016 to 2017, was one of the highest-rated of the seasons.
7 A Korean Odyssey
JS Pictures
The infamous Hong Sisters, some of the most well-known writers of Korean dramas, came out with A Korean Odyssey in 2017. A girl is born with the ability to see ghosts and spirits, and when she grows up, she owns a company that basically buys haunted houses, exorcizes the spirits, and flips the place for a much larger profit. This catches the attention of immortals on the prowl, as well as those with supernatural powers. As demons close in on her and her powers, an unlikely romance appears. A Korean Odyssey is loosely based on the Chinese novel Journey to the West, although it takes place in the modern period.
6 Extraordinary You
MBC Drama Production
Based on the Korean webtoon July Found By Chance, the series Extraordinary You tackles several tropes found in Korean drama through different means. A high school student discovers the world she lives in is actually a webtoon, and none of them actually exist. When she realizes she’s only a character that exists to be there, she decides it’s time to change her fate and rewrite the story by herself. But when she meets a nameless student in her class, she starts to realize the consequences of what it means to rewrite a tale that wasn’t hers, to begin with.
5 Hotel Del Luna
GTist
Korean singer IU stars in Hotel Del Luna with Yeo Jin-goo. Written by the Hong Sisters, Hotel Del Luna takes place in a hotel of that name. It is a supernatural hotel where ghosts come if they have loose ends to wrap up in the world of the living, and it’s run by the sinful Jang Man-wol (IU), who found the hotel tethered to her soul. Twenty years before the series start, a human promised his son to work at the hotel, and when it is time, he finds himself forced to become the manager of Hotel Del Luna. His presence will set off a series of events that cannot be reversed, changing his life forever.
4 W: Two Worlds
Chorokbaem Media
W: Two Worlds, also simply known as W, is currently being adapted for an American audience under the title Angel City for The CW. In this version, which is the original, a surgeon finds herself sucked into the webtoon her father makes while investigating his disappearance. There, she meets the wealthy protagonist of the series, saving him from an untimely death, changing the series’ trajectory by accident. Her actions reflect in the real world, but when the boundaries between the webtoon and the real world begin to blur, something more sinister is afoot.
3 Alchemy of Souls
Netflix
2022’s Alchemy of Souls is one of the most ambitious projects by the Hong Sisters to date. The fantasy action series is set in a fictional country, but fits slightly into the realm of a historical drama. The land’s most feared assassin, Nak-su, switches her soul into another body, forcing her into a new life on the run. After she ends up at the Songrim, one of the four houses of mages that lead the nation, she meets a noble named Jang Uk. Although she is in a weak body, she becomes Jang Uk’s master and teaches him how to become a mage, allowing the two to confront the dangers lurking in the shadows together.
2 Goblin
Hwa&Dam Pictures
Goblin is at the top of many people’s favorite Korean dramas list, and that is for a good reason. Starring Gong Yoo and Kim Go-eun, a former general from Korea’s past find himself turned into a goblin after being cursed to see all his loved ones die. Centuries later, he meets a high school student he believes to be his fated bride, the only one who can end his curse of immortality. At the same time, their story is woven together with the tale of a Grim Reaper falling in love with the owner of a chicken shop, but it will not be smooth sailing for all of these characters/
1 My Love from the Star
HB Entertainment
My Love from the Star, also known as You Who Came From the Stars, was a smash hit when it was released in 2013. Kim Soo-hyun portrays an alien who came to Earth during the Joseon Dynasty and currently works at a university as a professor. When he crosses paths with a Korean actress with quite a few issues, his previously peaceful life becomes full of disturbances, especially when he finds out she lives next door. However, it’s almost time for him to return to his home planet–leading to some dilemmas when a romance strikes up between the two.
