The Best TV Shows on NHK G

Every NHK G Show Ranked From Best To Worst

Our curated list, current as of January 2026, showcases over 20 of NHK G’s highest-rated series. Notable series such as Future Boy Conan and The Mysterious Cities of Gold from NHK G first graced the screens in 1978 and 1982. Across the timeline from 1978 to 2025, NHK G has presented audiences with over 20 captivating shows.

  • Unbound
    Unbound (2025)9.3

    In 18th-century Edo, Tsutaya Juzaburo rises from a poor background to become a leading publisher. Despite political changes threatening his career, he works to shape Edo’s cultural scene through innovative books and collaborations with artists.

  • 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!

  • 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.

  • Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
    Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! (2020)8.1

    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.

  • Massan
    Massan (2014)8.0

    Massan is based on the lives of Masataka Taketsuru and his wife Jessie Roberta "Rita" Cowan, a Scotswoman Taketsuru met while studying abroad.

  • 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...

  • My Worst Friend
    My Worst Friend (2023)8.0

    Hotaru (Makita Aju), a college senior on a job-hunting losing streak, finds her childhood friend Miharu (Takaishi Akari) her nemesis. Miharu responds to disputes in their classroom with a fair argument and overcomes various accidents with her ingenuity, always basking in the dazzling spotlight. Wanting to be like Miharu, Hotaru applies for the employment exam acting a girl someone like Miharu and she passes the first paper screening. Still puzzled by the situation, she continues to lie with a smile for the following interview, and the next, and the next... (Source: TV Japan)

  • 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)7.6

    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.

  • 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.

  • 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. 

  • 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.

  • The Piano Forest
    The Piano Forest (2018)6.4

    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.

  • 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.