The Best TV Shows on NHK G

Every NHK G Show Ranked From Best To Worst

A broadcaster of distinction, NHK G has aired more than 20 shows between 1978 and 2024. Notable series such as Future Boy Conan and The Wonderful Adventures of Nils from NHK G first graced the screens in 1978 and 1980. Check out the most acclaimed shows on NHK G, with a catalog of over 20 series updated for November 2025.

  • Dear Radiance
    Dear Radiance (2024)9.0

    Murasaki Shikibu (Yoshitaka Yuriko), the heroine of this story, wrote the bestseller 'The Tale of Genji,' transcending a thousand years during the Heian period. She weaves the story of Hikaru Genji, fueled by her love for Fujiwara no Michinaga (Emoto Tasuku), with her hidden passion and incomparable imagination. It is a tale of a woman who lived with unchanging love in an ever-changing world. (From TV JAPAN)

  • Document 72 Hours
    Document 72 Hours (2006)8.7

    An unusual documentary series that delves into human dramas through chance encounters with ordinary people at selected spots. Filmed over 72 hours in a single location, the show captures glimpses into people's lives as they open up and share their stories. Japanese Broadcast Version

  • Attack on Titan
    Attack on Titan (2013)8.7

    100 years ago, the last remnants of humanity were forced to retreat behind the towering walls of a fortified city to escape the massive, man-eating Titans that roamed the land outside their fortress. Only the members of the Scouting Legion dared to stray beyond the safety of the walls – but even those brave warriors seldom returned alive. Those within the city clung to the illusion of a peaceful existence until the day that dream was shattered, and their slim chance at survival was reduced to one horrifying choice: kill – or be devoured!

  • Future Boy Conan
    Future Boy Conan (1978)8.4

    After the great disaster of 2008, a war that destroyed the planet, the world is now largely ocean with the continents having sunk. Conan lives on a remote island with his grandpa and nature, never having seen another human being. But one day a mysterious girl, Lana, washes up on his beach. The two become quick friends, but she’s soon kidnapped and taken to Industria, a technological remainder from the world before. Conan leaves his island in pursuit, braving new lands and many hardships with new friends and enemies just beyond the horizon.

  • To Your Eternity
    To Your Eternity (2021)8.2

    An immortal being takes on the form of a human boy, wandering the earth and experiencing the pains and joys of life throughout his story without end.

  • March Comes In Like a Lion
    March Comes In Like a Lion (2016)8.0

    This is a gentle tale about people trying to regain something. And it is a tale of battle. Rei Kiriyama had lost his family in an accident when he was young. Now he is a 17-year-old pro shogi player who is burdened with deep loneliness. Rei lives alone in an old town in Tokyo, but after becoming acquainted with three sisters, Akari, Hinata and Momo, he begins to change little by little...

  • Orb: On the Movements of the Earth
    Orb: On the Movements of the Earth (2024)8.0

    After learning heretical teachings about the Earth and the Sun, a child prodigy searches for his master's hidden research while evading the Inquisition.

  • The Wonderful Adventures of Nils
    The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (1980)7.8

    Nils Holgersson is a young boy on a farm who is cruel to the animals. But when he catches the farm's little goblin it becomes one prank too many. He is magically shrunk and suddenly the farm animals are out for revenge. He flees on the back of the goose Morten and they join up with a flock of wild geese. Together they travel all over Sweden, with Nils hoping to find a way to become big again.

  • The Mysterious Cities of Gold
    The Mysterious Cities of Gold (1982)7.8

    The adventures of a young Spanish boy named Esteban who joins a voyage to the New World in search of the lost Cities of Gold and his father.

  • Half Blue Sky
    Half Blue Sky (2018)7.8

    Suzume is a girl born to a family running a small restaurant in Gifu Prefecture. She loses her hearing in one ear from a disease. Encouraged by her loving parents and childhood friend, she lives through an eventful life with a tenacious spirit.

  • Kingdom
    Kingdom (2012)7.6

    In the Warring States period, young orphan Xin vows to aid King Zheng of Qin in his quest to unify China by becoming a general himself.

  • Yell
    Yell (2020)7.5

    NHK's 102nd morning drama depicts the life of a famous composer. Koyama Yuichi with his wife Oto. They meet each other through music and overcome hardships together. Yuichi composes songs that became "Yells" for people all over Japan in the Showa Era (1926-1989) in which radical changes were going on. 

  • Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water
    Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water (1990)7.4

    In mankind's grasp for the future, a sinister foe known only as Gargoyle begins his plans to take over the world. Nadia, with the help of a young inventor, Jean Ratlique, and Captain Nemo of the submarine Nautilus, must fight to save the world from Gargoyle and Neo-Atlantis.

  • Kimi no na wa
    Kimi no na wa (1991)7.0

    A story of a man and a woman who meet amid the Great Tokyo Air Raid in 1945.

  • Yowamushi Pedal
    Yowamushi Pedal (2013)7.0

    A timid, anime-loving teen gets drawn into a school cycling club, where his new friends help him face tough challenges to develop his racing talent.

  • Tsurune
    Tsurune (2018)7.0

    After target panic drives him from archery in middle school, Minato decides to return to the sport when his friends join the high school kyudo club.

  • Natsuzora
    Natsuzora (2019)7.0

    Okuhara Natsu was born in Tokyo in 1937. In 1945, she loses both parents to war and becomes an orphan, but her father’s comrade, Shibata Takeo, takes her in and moves to Tokachi in Hokkaido. In an unfamiliar land surrounded by unfamiliar people, Natsu feels lost at first, but surrounded by Tokachi’s vast nature and its strong, yet compassionate people, she grows up to be a strong girl. When Natsu enters elementary school, she meets Yamada Tenyo who draws lovely pictures of horses. Tenyo tells her that in America, animation in which pictures move is becoming popular, Natsu’s curiosity is piqued. Upon graduating high school, Natsu goes to Tokyo to look up her brother, and takes a jump into the world of animation.

  • Beppin-san
    Beppin-san (2016)6.3

    The 95th NHK Asadora is about Sumire, a girl born in the uptown of Kobe in the early Showa period. In the wake of wartime devastation, she works hard toward making children's clothes for a living, and later establishes a first-ever children's goods store in Japan. -- NHK

  • Romansu
    Romansu (1984)2.0

    The 32nd NHK Asadora. Starring Takaaki Enoki as a young man who becomes a film director. The first Asadora with a male lead since 1967.

  • Haru yo koi
    Haru yo koi (1994)N/A

    A successful screenwriter looks back on her life when she learns her husband has cancer. A year-long series, starring Narumi Yasuda.