The Best TV Shows on Nippon TV

Every Nippon TV Show Ranked From Best To Worst

Across the timeline from 1970 to 2025, Nippon TV has presented audiences with over 20 captivating shows. Our curated list, current as of September 2026, showcases over 20 of Nippon TV’s highest-rated series. Icons of Nippon TV, Tomorrow's Joe and Downtown no Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende!! made their debut in 1970 and 1989, setting industry standards.

  • Frieren: Beyond Journey's End
    Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (2023)8.8

    After the party of heroes defeated the Demon King, they restored peace to the land and returned to lives of solitude. Generations pass, and the elven mage Frieren comes face to face with humanity's mortality. She takes on a new apprentice and promises to fulfill old friends' dying wishes. Can an elven mind make peace with the nature of life and death? Frieren embarks on her quest to find out.

  • Fighting Spirit
    Fighting Spirit (2000)8.7

    Makunouchi Ippo is an ordinary high school student in Japan. Since he spends most of his time away from school helping his mother run the family business, he doesn't get to enjoy his younger years like most teenagers. Always a target for bullying at school (the family fishing business grants him a distinct odor), Ippo's life is one of hardship. One of these after-school bullying sessions turns Ippo's life around for the better, as he is saved by a boxer named Takamura. He decides to follow in Takamura's footsteps and train to become a boxer, giving his life direction and purpose. Ippo's path to perfecting his pugilistic prowess is just beginning...

  • Hunter x Hunter
    Hunter x Hunter (2011)8.7

    Gon, a young boy who lives on Whale Island, dreams of becoming a Hunter like his father, who left when Gon was still young.

  • World Wonder Ring Stardom
    World Wonder Ring Stardom (2011)8.7

    Stardom World is the VOD network for World Wonder Ring Stardom. WWR Stardom is a Japanese women's promotion started in 2011 featuring matches of many varieties including high speed octane action, long brutal brawls, and even costume battle royals. In 2019, the promotion was acquired by Bushiroad and has since become one of the top wrestling promotions in Japan.

  • InuYasha
    InuYasha (2000)8.6

    Kagome Higurashi is a modern day young girl who lives with her family by the old Higure shrine. Unbeknownst to Kagome, she is the reincarnation of priestess Kikyo and posseses the "Jewel of Four Souls" (the Shikon jewel). One ill-fated day, Kagome locates an ancient well near her home and is abruptly transported through the well and into a feudal Japan, inhabited by demons. There, she encounters Inuyasha, son of a powerful demon father and a human mother, who is pinned to a tree by an enchanted arrow.

  • Death Note
    Death Note (2006)8.6

    Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospects—and he’s bored out of his mind. But all that changes when he finds the Death Note, a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami death god. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil. But will Light succeed in his noble goal, or will the Death Note turn him into the very thing he fights against?

  • The Apothecary Diaries
    The Apothecary Diaries (2023)8.6

    Maomao lived a peaceful life with her apothecary father. Until one day, she's sold as a lowly servant to the emperor's palace. But she wasn't meant for a compliant life among royalty. So when imperial heirs fall ill, she decides to step in and find a cure! This catches the eye of Jinshi, a handsome palace official who promotes her. Now, she's making a name for herself solving medical mysteries!

  • Monster
    Monster (2004)8.5

    Kenzou Tenma, a Japanese brain surgeon in Germany, finds his life in utter turmoil after getting involved with a psychopath that was once a former patient.

  • From Me to You: Kimi ni Todoke
    From Me to You: Kimi ni Todoke (2009)8.4

    Nicknamed "Sadako" for her spooky appearance, high schooler Sawako begins to break out of her shell when she befriends popular boy Kazehaya.

  • That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
    That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (2018)8.4

    Corporate worker Mikami Satoru is stabbed by a random killer, and is reborn to an alternate world. But he turns out to be reborn a slime! Thrown into this new world with the name Rimuru, he begins his quest to create a world that’s welcoming to all races.

  • Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon
    Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon (2020)8.3

    In feudal Japan, half-demon twins Towa and Setsuna are separated from each other during a forest fire. While desperately searching for her younger sister, Towa wanders into a mysterious tunnel that sends her into present-day Japan, where she is found and raised by Kagome Higurashi’s brother, Sota, and his family. Ten years later, the tunnel that connects the two eras has reopened, allowing Towa to be reunited with Setsuna, who is now a demon slayer working for Kohaku. But to Towa’s shock, Setsuna appears to have lost all memories of her older sister

  • Beelzebub
    Beelzebub (2011)8.2

    Violent delinquent Oga encounters a baby one day, which crawls onto his back and immediately forms an attachment to him. Though he doesn't know it yet, this baby is named Kaiser de Emperana Beelzebub IV, or "Baby Beel" for short—the son of the Demon Lord!

  • Tomorrow's Joe
    Tomorrow's Joe (1970)8.1

    A young drifter named Joe Yabuki wanders through the slums of Tokyo, but when the local ruffians try to give him a hard time he teaches them a rough lesson with his fists. The spectacle sparks a gleam in the eye of an old drunk who happens to be watching—Danpei Tange, a failed boxer and former coach who sees something special in the boy. He pleads with Joe to train with him off, but the cocky young fighter brushes him. Later, though, when Joe is arrested and put in a juvenile detention facility, he realizes that he’s going to need to hone his raw fighting skills if he wants to survive. Thus is born a partnership that might just take Joe all the way to the top…

  • Ascendance of a Bookworm
    Ascendance of a Bookworm (2019)8.1

    When a sickly young girl suddenly becomes obsessed with inventing new things, her family and friends are all puzzled. "What has gotten into Myne?" they wondered, never dreaming that the answer is not a "What" but a "Who": Urano Motosu, a book-loving apprentice librarian who died in an earthquake in Tokyo who somehow found herself in Myne's body! And since Myne's world is still in a medieval stage, where books can only be owned by the elite, the new Myne intends to do everything she can to bring her beloved books to the masses in the time she has left.

  • Ranma1/2
    Ranma1/2 (2024)8.1

    Akane Tendo meets her new fiancé, Ranma Saotome, a martial arts prodigy with a twist: he magically transforms into a girl upon touching cold water.

  • Chihayafuru
    Chihayafuru (2011)7.6

    Chihaya Ayase has spent most of her life supporting her sister’s model career. When she meets a boy named Arata Wataya, he thinks Chihaya has potential to become a great karuta player. As Chihaya dreams of becoming Japan's best karuta player, she is soon separated from her karuta playing friends. Now in high school, Chihaya still plays karuta in the hope that she will one day meet her friends again.

  • Yawara!
    Yawara! (1989)6.7

    Inokuma Yawara is just another young high school girl. Well, not quite - for Yawara is being raised by her grandfather, 7th dan Judo master Inokuma Jigorou, to be Japan's great hope for the women's Judo competition at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. All the same, Yawara just wants to live a normal life...

  • Flower and Asura
    Flower and Asura (2025)6.5

    The story is set in Tonakishima, a small island with a population of 600. Hana, a high school girl who lives on the island, loves recitals, and holds regular reading sessions for the island's children. Mizuki, the president of the Broadcasting Club, senses Hana's power to attract people through her reading and invites her to join the club. Hana joins the Broadcasting Club and experiences many firsts with the other members.

  • Downtown no Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende!!
    Downtown no Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende!! (1989)N/A

    A Japanese variety show hosted by popular Japanese owarai duo, Downtown, with comedian Hōsei Tsukitei (formerly known as Hōsei Yamasaki) and owarai duo Cocorico co-hosting.

  • DayDay.
    DayDay. (2023)N/A

    A show covering entertainment, trend news, and hot topics, featuring in-depth discussions on relevant issues, real-time viewer polls, the latest weather updates, and horoscopes.