The Best TV Shows on NHK G

Every NHK G Show Ranked From Best To Worst

Dive into our updated selection of NHK G’s finest, featuring more than 20 series as of July 2026. Notable series such as Ashita no Kaze and Ohanahan from NHK G first graced the screens in 1962 and 1966. Across the timeline from 1962 to 2026, NHK G has presented audiences with over 20 captivating shows.

  • Imo Tako Nankin
    Imo Tako Nankin (2006)10.0

    The series takes place in 1962 Osaka. Hanaoka Machiko, 37, is single and works at a hardware store in Osaka City while doing literary work. One day, she falls ill due to overwork and falls in love with Tokunaga Kenjiro, the doctor who examines her. Kenjiro and Machiko marry. But Kenjiro, who lost his first wife to illness, lives not just with his five children, but his brother, sister, and parents. In a comical and heart-warming way, the drama depicts Machiko's struggle with the new family while pursuing her career as a novelist.

  • Bura Tamori
    Bura Tamori (2009)10.0

    Bura Tamori (ブラタモリ, sometimes stylized as "BURATAMORI"))is a Japanese weekly geological TV series broadcast domestically on NHK General Television and internationally on NHK World Premium hosted by Tamori. It was launched in 2008. In the program, Tamori, accompanied by NHK's female broadcaster, strolls Japan's city or area with professional or amateur geologists, local historians or curators, and explores the place's terrain features and geological changes, as well as its history, culture and civil engineering.

  • Chiisana Tabi
    Chiisana Tabi (1983)9.0

  • MAO
    MAO (2026)8.9

    Eight years ago, Nanoka Kiba was saved from the wreckage of a fatal accident at Gogyō Town Shopping Center. Drawn to the abandoned passage of storefronts on her walk home from school in present day, she becomes inexplicably transported to Japan's Taishō period where she meets the mysterious Mao, a fellow traveler whose arrival at a ghost-inhabited village is simultaneous with hers. Together, they investigate the bizarre events that begin to occur around them, and Nanoka soon pieces together her broken memories of the accident and how she and Mao may have something more sinister in common.

  • 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!

  • 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...

  • 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.

  • Kingdom
    Kingdom (2012)7.7

    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. 

  • Omusubi
    Omusubi (2024)7.5

    A Heisei youth graffiti drama, in which the heroine Yoneda Yui (Hashimoto Kanna), born in the first year of the Heisei era, connects people's hearts to the future as a nutritionist. Always cherishing her individuality, she sometimes struggles, but powerfully and joyfully pushes through the turbulent Heisei and Reiwa eras.

  • Yowamushi Pedal
    Yowamushi Pedal (2013)7.2

    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.

  • Ashita no Kaze
    Ashita no Kaze (1962)N/A

    The 2nd NHK Asadora and the first Asadora to be broadcast in 15-minute episodes Monday through Saturday. Starring Fumiko Watanabe in a drama of a poor family after the war.

  • Ohanahan
    Ohanahan (1966)N/A

    The 6th NHK Asadora. Starring Fumie Kashiyama as a woman, born in the Meiji era, who raises a family by herself.

  • Tabiji
    Tabiji (1967)N/A

    The 7th NHK Asadora. Starring Tadashi Yokouchi in a narrative about an employee of the national railroad living through 50 years of modern history with his wife.

  • Mayuko hitori
    Mayuko hitori (1971)N/A

    Kano is known as a "cocoon child" whose father is an agriculturist. Her mother disappeared when she was little and since then Kano has been wondering why her mother left her thus changing the shape of her life.

  • Ai yori aoku
    Ai yori aoku (1972)N/A

    The 12th NHK Asadora. Set in Amakusa, Kumamoto Prefecture, at the end of the Pacific War. Maki is the heroine, married to Shuichi who must go to war. She stays home and takes on the role of other war widows, managing business and a Chinese restaurant.

  • Kita no kazoku
    Kita no kazoku (1973)N/A

    The 13th NHK Asadora. Starring Youko Takahashi in a story about a brother and sister coming of age in Hakodate and Kanazawa.

  • Jūkyūsai
    Jūkyūsai (1989)N/A

    Daisuke dropped out of high school, and his motorcycle was the only thing that helped him cope with his loneliness. His parents find a new high school where he can ride his motorcycle to school, but he is forced to live in a dormitory. The students in the dormitory are all young people with bitter memories of dropping out of high school. The prefect of the dormitory is a teacher who is passionate about their physical education. The drama depicts the fierce clash between a nineteen-year-old rebellious high school student, who is torn between being an adult and a child, and the adults around him. This is Oda Yuji's first lead role in a TV drama.

  • 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.