I just watched Goncharov (1973) with some friends, and realized Akiba Maid War is absolutely parodying/paying homage to Goncharov. In the scene where Goncharov sends a letter to his brother, we learn offhand through the voiceover that he has a niece named Zoya back in Russia. Set around 20 years later in the 1990s, Akiba Maid War episode 3 introduces Zoya, a young Russian woman who immigrated to Japan and got drawn into the shady, violent underworld of maid cafes. Zoya's interactions with Ranko also have a lot of parallels with Goncharov and Andrey; their fight scene in particular is filled with little nods to Goncharov and Andrey's final confrontation.
Honestly, given all the classic yakuza tropes Akiba Maid War parodies, I really shouldn't be that surprised to see them also riffing on "the greatest mafia movie ever made". But rather than just introducing a random Russian maid to be their Goncharov stand-in, picking up this throwaway line and setting her up as Goncharov's niece really takes the whole thing to another level. In a way, it's sort of carrying all of Goncharov's themes about the cyclical nature of time even farther, with the next generation of his family repeating his story and making his mistakes again. But it's also providing a kinder version of Goncharov's arc, where Zoya gets to find happiness and go on living alongside Ranko - even if we find ourselves in a cycle of fate, that doesn't mean that we're doomed to go through the same tragedies over and over forever, we can learn and grow and escape the cycle.
