The Best TV Shows on NHK G

Every NHK G Show Ranked From Best To Worst

Showcasing over 20 shows from 1972 up until 2024, NHK G stands as a beacon of television excellence. Notable series such as Ai yori aoku and Kita no kazoku from NHK G first graced the screens in 1972 and 1973. Check out the most acclaimed shows on NHK G, with a catalog of over 20 series updated for October 2026.

  • Ai yori aoku
    Ai yori aoku (1972)9.0

    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)9.0

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

  • Chiisana Tabi
    Chiisana Tabi (1983)9.0

  • Haru yo koi
    Haru yo koi (1994)9.0

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

  • My Husband is a Cartoonist
    My Husband is a Cartoonist (2010)8.8

    The 82nd NHK Asadora is Gegege no Nyobo. The story is based on a 2008 autobiography by Mura Nunoe, the wife of Gegege no Kitaro mangaka Mizuki Shigeru. The story revolves around the life of the married couple, told from the perspective of Mura. --Tokyograph

  • 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!

  • Document 72 Hours
    Document 72 Hours (2006)8.5

    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.

  • 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.

  • Yell
    Yell (2020)8.3

    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. 

  • 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.

  • Orb: On the Movements of the Earth
    Orb: On the Movements of the Earth (2024)8.1

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

  • Kimi no na wa
    Kimi no na wa (1991)8.0

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

  • 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...

  • Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
    Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! (2020)8.0

    First-year high schooler Midori Asakusa loves anime so much, she insists that "concept is everything" in animation. While she spends her time doodling endless ideas and settings in her sketchbook, she hasn't taken the first step to creating anime, insisting that she can't do it alone. After Asakusa's money-loving best friend Sayaka Kanamori notices her genius and drive – and when it becomes clear that their classmate and charismatic fashion model Tsubame Mizusaki wants to be an animator – the energetic trio start an animation club. Together, the three aim to realize the "ultimate world" that exists in their minds, as they come to see the power that fiction and imagination have on their lives and the world around them.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Ninja Boy Rantaro
    Ninja Boy Rantaro (1993)6.8

    Rantarō, Shinbei and Kirimaru are ninja apprentices in the Ninja Gakuen, where first grade ones are called "Nintamas". They must learn everything a ninja must know, but as for our heroes, money, food or playing are more interesting. The series show the everyday adventures of our heroes.

  • The Piano Forest
    The Piano Forest (2018)6.6

    A tranquil tale about two boys from very different upbringings. On one hand you have Kai, born as the son of a prostitute, who's been playing the abandoned piano in the forest near his home ever since he was young. And on the other you have Syuhei, practically breast-fed by the piano as the son of a family of prestigious pianists. Yet it is their common bond with the piano that eventually intertwines their paths in life.