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It has been a while since the last time I did one of these, but since I have not had much time to write, I figured it would be a good time to bring it back. For those who have not seen this series before, What Else Should You Watch is simply where I take an anime and try my best to recommend other anime based on that show. For this one, since It has been become pretty popular, I thought I would give Doctor Stone a crack. So, without further adieu, here are some alternatives.

Steins;Gate

For those who are unaware, which is likely not many, Steins;Gate is a series about Rintaro Okabe, a scientist working out of a small lab in Akihabara with a few of his friends acting as lab assistants. One day, while working on figuring out how one of the devices he has created, he figures out the secret to time. Specifically, he discovers the ability to send emails back through time.

There are many ways that Doctor Stone approaches science that are fairly similar to Steins;Gate. For example, Doctor Stone takes a somewhat educational approach to its topics, especially when Senku is around to explain. Steins;Gate is like-minded in this regard, although much narrower in its topic selection. Time Travel still exists almost entirely in the theoretically, but the show still takes the time to explain the mechanics of time travel and how it could work.

However, for those who are looking for something a bit more serious in its portrayal of a science, Steins;Gate delivers that in a large way. While most of its science still does exist as purely theoretically, its does provide an interesting amount of detail for what could potentially happen if time travel were real.

It is also worth noting that the story is also just wonderfully written, aside from a bit of the middle which just kind of awkwardly shoves in stuff from the visual novel. Everything else about the story is so expertly crafted that it was honestly surprising to hear that it was a video game adaptation. I generally like to avoid giving credit to voters on MyAnimeList, but it is in the top 10 for a reason.

A Certain Scientific Railgun

There is also A Certain Scientific Railgun, a show which is tonally more in line with Doctor Stone. The show is a spinoff of A Certain Magical Index, but can be watched as a stand alone series without much confusion. It follows Mikoto Misaka, a powerful being known as an esper, who wields the ability to control lightning. In fact, Misaka is one of the most powerful in Academy City, which is full of espers, and she soon realizes that because of this her life will become much harder.

Railgun utilizes science as a way of explaining the characters powers, and arguably not much else. In that way it is quite different from Doctor Stone, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. The lack of explanation leaves more time for exploring the various situations Misaka, along with her other friends, finds herself in.

The show takes a lot of time to explore one character in particular, Accelerator, who becomes somewhat of an anti-hero as the story progresses. His power allows him to control the movement of things, including large objects like cars.

Railgun also has a lot more in the way of action, which is something that does not come up much in Doctor Stone. The show regularly features espers using their abilities to battle across academy city. In fact, many of the major arcs of the series feature fights between the most powerful espers, known as level fives.

In some respects the show can come across as a bit simplistic, but it more than makes up for that with more adventure based story that will leave you wanting to keep on watching.

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Have you already seen these shows? How do you feel about them? Let me know in the comments below.

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