The Best TV Shows on NHK G

Every NHK G Show Ranked From Best To Worst

Peruse our comprehensive roster of NHK G’s top shows, encompassing over 20 distinct series as of August 2026. Leading the pack on NHK G are Ai yori aoku and Future Boy Conan, with their initial broadcasts in 1972 and 1978. NHK G’s extensive portfolio includes more than 20 shows, spanning the years from 1972 to 2026.

  • 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

  • Dear Radiance
    Dear Radiance (2024)8.9

    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)

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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!

  • Vinland Saga
    Vinland Saga (2019)8.5

    For a thousand years, the Vikings have made quite a name and reputation for themselves as the strongest families with a thirst for violence. Thorfinn, the son of one of the Vikings' greatest warriors, spends his boyhood in a battlefield enhancing his skills in his adventure to redeem his most-desired revenge after his father was murdered.

  • 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 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)7.7

    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)7.5

    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)7.5

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

  • 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.

  • Tsurune
    Tsurune (2018)7.1

    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.

  • 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.

  • 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.