Detectorists, two small town “smartest guys in the room” try to rediscover their friendship through their shared love of metal detector operation
https://imdb.com/title/tt4082744/
Steins;Gate, hard to generalize and hard not to spoil anything but it feels like if Back to the Future were made as a modern anime
https://imdb.com/title/tt1910272/
FLCL is a world where change seems distant or impossible, and the sameness itself is stifling and a major source of conflict in the plot, as in Seinfeld.
Steins;Gate's protagonist's alter-ego Hououin Kyouma is a larger-than-life egotistical (comedy) genius which is analogous to Jerry when he's on-stage in the monologue segments of the show. But that same SG protagonist as his "normie" self Rintaro Okabe is crippled by self-doubt, upstaged by his own alter-ego, and would do anything for his friends, much like the version of Jerry we see outside the monologue segments. If you've seen the last episode of Seinfeld, the parallels between the two are a bit more clear. In Seinfeld, the past catches up with Jerry and the crew, and they cool their heels in jail as a kind of karmic payback or comeuppance for their years of prior shenanigans. In Steins;Gate, at a certain point the comedic backdrop lifts, the folly of Rintaro's ego and hubris is laid bare and elevated, and the karmic debt seeks its due via time and space.
Kyouma is far more of a Kramer than a Jerry Seinfeld. Jerry's the snarky straight man surrounded by oddballs, that role in Stein's Gate would probably be Kurisu.
Good point about Jerry being the straight man. I was trying to explore the difference between onstage Jerry and offstage Jerry and draw a comparison to Rintaro/Kyouma, but I don't disagree with your interpretation. I think if we bring in the sequels, Maho is the closest we get to a straight (wo)man foil to Kyouma's color man.
Naota: Nothing amazing happens here. Everything is ordinary. We crossed the bridge as usual, and before we knew it the seasons had changed. Mamimi left town. She said she wanted to be a photographer. I don't know what happened to her after that.
This is just one quote, but it captures the vibe of the show IMO. Events happen and reactions to those events happen, but the sameness itself is the source of conflict in the plot, without getting into spoilers or character motivations or backstory.
I need to watch the sequels too, as my thoughts are based on the original 6 episodes comprising S01.
People Just Do Nothing, two pirate radio DJs and crew trying to hack it https://imdb.com/title/tt3762198/
Detectorists, two small town “smartest guys in the room” try to rediscover their friendship through their shared love of metal detector operation https://imdb.com/title/tt4082744/
And for a Japanese kick:
FLCL, a coming of age story about nothing, but writ LARGE https://imdb.com/title/tt0279077/
Steins;Gate, hard to generalize and hard not to spoil anything but it feels like if Back to the Future were made as a modern anime https://imdb.com/title/tt1910272/