The Best TV Shows on NHK＋

The 74th NHK Asadora Drama is Junjo Kirari, which means something along the lines of "pure-hearted Kirari." The story is set in Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture in the era around the Second World War. When the story opens in 1928, the heroine, Sakurako, is a very active seven-year-old girl. Indeed, even in the first episode she exhibits her confidence and enthusiasm. But above all else, Sakurako is interested in becoming a jazz pianist, and music features extensively in the plot.

The 77th NHK Asadora is Chiritotechin. Location includes Fukui prefecture. This renzoku is about Wada Kiyomi (referred to as Kiyomi-B), a girl brought up in Fukui who moves to Osaka in search of her soul. In Osaka, Kiyomi-B becomes enchanted with rakugo, a Japanese traditional form of comic storytelling, and pursues a career in rakugo. In the summer of 1982, Kiyomi-B and her family move to Obama of Fukui, her father's hometown. Kiyomi-B's grandmother and uncle welcome the family, but Shotaro the grandfather does not allow Masanori to take over the Wakasa lacquer chopsticks making. One day, Kiyomi-B listens to rakugo at Shotaro's factory and becomes fond of it. Shotaro and Kiyomi-B become close through rakugo.

Teppan is a Japanese television drama that aired on NHK in 2010–2011. It was the 83rd Asadora. It starred a new actress, Miori Takimoto, in the role of a young woman raised by an adopted family in Onomichi who learns of her real grandmother and decides to move to Osaka to start an okonomiyaki restaurant. The title word "teppan" refers to the metal surface on which okonomiyaki are cooked. The series, while interrupted by the Tohoku Earthquake, averaged a 17.2% rating, making it the fourth most popular of the Asadora dramas in the previous five years.

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

Towards the end of the Edo era, in the town of Kyoto, there lived a wealthy merchant by the name of Imai Tadamasa. He was blessed with 3 children, Hatsu, Asa and Kyutaro. His eldest, Hatsu, was a traditional girl who loved to play the koto and sew. Whilst his second daughter, Asa, was an impish hoyden who loved sumo wrestling. Asa was engaged to be married to the second son of a distinguished family who ran a money changer business in Osaka, Shirooka Shinjiro. Although Asa was furious when she had first heard about the betrothal, when she met up with Shinjiro for the first time, his charisma greatly attracted her and she fell in love with him in no time.

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.

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.

The story of Makino Mantaro (Kamiki Ryunosuke), a botanist who ran through the Meiji era (1868-1912) in full bloom, begins. Born the heir to the Tosa sake brewery Mineya, Mantaro (Yurito Mori) is a boy who loves plants and flowers and led a straightforward life. His life was colored by the many vivid encounters he had with many people. People whom Mantaro met in his hometown of Kochi, and whose way of life and words gave him a guideline for his life. "Ranman," is a drama in which charming characters bloom freely around the main character, Mantaro, just like flowers.

Mare is an elementary school student. She lives with her family in the city, but, right before her father goes bankrupt, they run away and settle down at a fishing village in Noto. The family rents a couple's home who run a salt pond. Mare's father starts a new business, but it also fails. Her mother supports the family by working at the salt pond. 8 years later, Mare, about to graduate from high school, decides to work for the Wajima local government. She wants to have a steady job, unlike her father. Her job is to support people who move to Noto.

The drama series depicts the life of Tokugawa Ieyasu (January 31, 1543 – June 1, 1616). Takechiyo (who later becomes Tokugawa Ieyasu) was born as the son of a poor and powerless daimyo. Takechiyo lost his father during a war. He grew up lonely and away from his mother. Takechiyo didn't have a clue about what his future would hold. He then has a dramatic meeting with the young Oda Nobunaga.

A Japanese girl from a poor family named Hanako went on an adventure to study in a girl's Christian school in Tokyo. She found her passion in English and step by step made her dream come true.

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.

The chronicles of Sakamoto Ryoma, a pre-revolutionary who helped shape the face of modern Japan. In order to study swordsmanship, Ryoma heads for Edo where he meets many people who influence his thinking. He becomes close friends with men like Katsu Kaishu and Saigo Takamori and later establishes a naval training school in Kobe. Ryoma's controversial political views make him a target for shogunate assassins but his fervent belief in a classless society helps forge the Choshu-Satsuma alliance which ultimately brings about the Meiji Restoration.

In the year 5808, humanity has taken gigantic steps in the vast reaches of space. The innovation of the dimensional tunnel made intergalactic travel possible between any planet in the galaxy. Focused on the planet Earth, an adolescent teenager named Goro Hoshiwatari approaches the feeble travel agency known as "Yamamoto Anshin Travel " to find the whereabouts of his father who disappeared fifteen years ago. Upon arriving, Goro meets the YAT staff and the president's daughter Katsura Tenjouin, whom he falls in love with. After getting inadvertently involved in an accident, Goro finds himself drafted into the agency to compensate for the damage. While Goro tags along to still search for his father, his troubles turbulence from the various cash-making attempts along the tours to enka-singing space pirates and escaping the romance attempts of the Cosmolord Agency's heiress.

Sakura is a Japanese serialized morning television drama that aired on NHK from April 1 to September 28 of 2002. The series totalled 156 episodes. It chronicles the life of Matsushita Sakura, a Sansei Japanese-American living in Hawaii. She moves to a small town in Japan to be an assistant language teacher for Japanese middle-school students. The show, lasting only 15 minutes long, is on every morning except Sunday, every week. Sakura first comes to Japan living with her grandparents; later, she moves because she has to teach English to the Japanese students. There she learns many valuable lessons and makes new friends.

At the age of nine, Haruka moves from Osaka to Yufuin with her father Yosuke and her younger sister Asuka because Yosuke hopes to open a restaurant in the town. Her mother Yuko, however, chooses to stay in Osaka and the parents soon get a divorce. Yosuke starts running a restaurant but ends up closing it down soon after. Ten years later, Haruka supports her family by working part time while going to a junior college. Worrying about Haruka, Yuko invites her to come to Osaka and offers her a job. Although she has not forgiven her mother, Haruka decides to earn money in Osaka to help Yosuke reopen the restaurant. Through various experiences in Osaka, Haruka gradually understands her mother and grows as a tour planner with her talent for pleasing people.

Fight is a story about fifteen year old Yuu, whose family becomes separated after an incident involving her father's spring factory. With her undying spirit to "fight" off every obstacle arising in life, Yuu maintains her positive attitude and moves forward in hopes of the day when her family will reunite again.

Jun to Ai is a Japanese television drama series. It debuted on October 1, 2012 and was broadcast until March 30, 2013. It is about a girl named Jun Kanō, raised in Miyakojima, Okinawa, who moves to Osaka to work in a hotel. There she meets a man named Itoshi Machida, with whom she falls in love. It is the 87th NHK Asadora.

Sets in the 1910s, this is the story of Hanada Suzuko, a young girl who grew up in a family that owned a bathhouse in downtown Osaka. From a young age, Suzuko loved to sing and dance, and joined the Umemaru Girls Opera Company (USK) in Dotonbori. Suzuko continued to show her talent for singing and eventually became a star of the postwar era.