Hetalia Axis Powers, Steins;Gate Recommendations
In both series, a trio of incredibly distinct people work together in order to solve a global, catastrophic problem that they themselves created, namely World War 2 for Hetalia and the convergent world lines for Steins;Gate. To solve this problem, they must defeat forces much greater than themselves--the Axis Powers must destroy the Allies and Okabe's crew must trick time itself.
The characters are also similar--Italy and Okabe are both the hapless yet enthusiastic leads, often just needing a little push from the ones around them to get the job done and delivering some much needed humor; Germany and Kurisu are the serious ones that are
often placed alongside the comic relief so their personalities can bounce off of the others; and finally, Japan and Mayuri are the passive bystanders who only come into the narrative and affect it when they really need to.
The side characters are also treated similarly. Both the countries outside of the Axis powers as well as everyone outside of Okabe's laboratory crew are given proper motivations, goals, and ideals to lend them a sense of depth. Some episodes are entirely focused on these side characters as well as how they deal with their problems, along with a side dish of backstory. These side characters will also frequently appear throughout the story, even when they don't necessarily contribute anything to the scene at hand.
The style of comedy in both series is also very similar, relying on the ensemble nature of the cast to have their personalities bounce off of each other very naturally, however, unlike Steins;Gate, Hetalia's humor has a long line of history to draw from, which means it doesn't need to establish backstory. It's also worth noting that the story beats in Hetalia's narrative, unlike Steins;Gate, are predictable because they draw from real-world events, meaning that the plot is obviously going to be a lot less thriller-y.
Final thing: both series feature multiple TV, Movie, and OVA releases that are chronologically messy, with interquels, sequels, prequels, and spin-offs galore. This is a lot more evident with Hetalia though, where historical events are essentially distributed at random.
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