Fandom Help Please? Doctor Who, Sherlock, Anime stuff, etc.?

Question

So I've recently been getting into more and more fandoms *sigh*.
I'm currently part of most anime fandoms, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, MLP: FiM, LOTR, a shitload of video game fandoms, the Avengers, and Merlin.
Before I try anymore, could someone help summarize the following:

- Doctor Who:
This has been bugging me for a while. A lot of my friends watch it. The fandom is huge. Yet, it's so confusing. I have no idea where to start, really. One of my friends said to start with the eleventh doctor (she's a Matt Smith fan), but I dunno, people on Tumblr say "start with Tennant" and I don't really know anymore. Any idea which season I should start with? Also summarize the series please.

-Sherlock:
Now this series, I can understand. I started it last night (more like 2 AM this morning) and watched 2 episodes - I absolutely fell in love with it. What I don't get is why it's so... short. Is the show finished? Are they making more? And somebody needs to reassure me that Sherlock won't die. Somebody please say he won't die. No spoilers please.

-Game of Thrones:
I've always been into Fantasy way more than Sci-fi (explains why I could never bring myself to watch Star Trek or Star Wars) and I'm a fan of Merlin, Legend of the Seeker, etc. I don't know anyone in real life that watch this show (none of my friends do, they're too busy watching Duck Dynasty or something), but it's been interesting me for a while. Problem is, I have no idea what it's about. Care to summarize it? Also include if it's gory/bloody.

-Hetalia:
Another big fandom. Although most people *think* I'm into Axis Powers Hetalia because I was going to cosplay as Seychelles for MegaCon, I'm actually only vaguely familiar with it. I only know the characters/countries. I have no idea what it's about, where I can watch it, or anything. Does anybody know where I can watch Hetalia? Please summarize what it's about, too.

Anyway, that's pretty much it. Feel free to recommend any other shows/movies/fandoms etc. for me, based on what's listed so far. Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

The Doctor is an alien from a race of people who discovered time travel. He basically explores the universe from the Big Bang to the End of Time...and all points of interest in between. But he usually prefers company, so he'll generally pick up a travelling companion or two from Earth to join him as he continues to his next destination.



Most folks will tell you (and I agree) to begin at the 2005 revival episode ("Rose"), and just follow it from there. Reason being, it has modern sensibilities starting from that point. For quite a few reasons, the classic series is more of an acquired taste for people who didn't grow up watching it. The producers of the new era of the show will quickly bring you up to speed on everything you need to know, while brilliantly entertaining you in the process.



When the character of Captain Jack appears, as well as episodes dealing with a secret organization called Torchwood, a spinoff series had been created at that time which ran for a few years at a later timeslot in Britain than Doctor Who did. That's because Doctor Who was always considered a family show, while Torchwood went into more adult subject matter, besides being a genuinely dark and terrifying show. So I'm giving you a little heads up on that in case you decide you want to catch that one, as well, since there was a certain amount of interplay between the two shows.



During the David Tennant era of Doctor Who, there was an episode entitled "School Reunion," which re-introduced a character from the classic series. This resulted in another spinoff series called "The Sarah Jane Adventures," which lasted until the untimely death of the lead actress. This show was a lot more kid-friendly, and also had some crossover episodes with Doctor Who.



Currently, Doctor Who is on hiatus until November, so this ought to give you plenty of time to catch up to the season finale cliffhanger that aired just a little over a week ago.

Answer 2

I saw that someone has already mentioned some stuff about Hetalia, so here's some more stuff to help you get more into the fandom.



Pretty much all the episodes that have been subbed are on Hulu and Funimation as the other person said, unfortunately they only give you some of them dubbed and with this series you really need to watch both or at least the dubbed, because Funimation adds a whole new level of funny to the show with their dubbing. This is one of the few anime that was meant to be dubbed. I'm sure you can torrent most of it but season 5 (Beautiful World) is really new and not yet dubbed (they literally just had a new episode this morning) I can't remember if the other person already mentioned this but the seasons go like this Axis Powers: seasons 1 and 2, World Series: seasons 3 and 4 and Beautiful World: season 5. This may seem like a good bit but all the episodes are about 5 minute long shorts and there's only around 25 episodes in a season. So all the seasons plus the movie (Paint it White) only equals to about 10 hours of stuff to watch.



Hetalia was originally a webcomic and you can read English translated strips here http://hetarchive.net/

I think they took down the Manga because of copyright reasons so you can read the first 2 volumes here http://mangafox.me/manga/hetalia/ but there are 5 volumes in total with a 6th coming out at the end of this year.



The fandom has a lot of famous fanbased works that are really well done and considered almost canon, one you may have heard of is Hetaoni. Hetaoni is a fanmade game where all the characters are trapped in a mansion with a terrible monster (fanonly referred to as Steve) who kills all the characters forcing Italy to go back in time multiple times to try and save everyone. It's very dramatic and heart wrenching. You can watch it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=509lzLd7t2Q





I saw that you mentioned that you are in the Vocaloid fandom. Then I'm sure you've heard of UTAUloids. Hetalia has a set ripped from the main character's Japanese voices. They are called Hetaloids. Here's some examples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZKDO4N08Go

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8-bmn0JR-0





Ahhh! Sorry I threw so much stuff at you, but I get really excited when trying to share my fandoms with people. But basically all you need to know about Hetalia is that it's a cute, funny, and colorful anime about history and stereotypes as seen by Japanese. There are some times when it gets really deep or dark, but history has a lot of deep dark times in it.



I really hope you like Hetalia. Also may I recommend Homestuck?

Answer 3

I CAN ANSWER THE HETALIA ONE! Okay so basically it's just the countries are personified as people, their personality is made up of their countries respective stereotypes. Their interactions with one another usually represent an economical, political, or historical event while at other times its just the countries being derps. You can watch it on FUNimation or Hulu. There are are 5 seasons. The first two are called Axis Powers, the next two are World Series, and finally the newest one is Beautiful World. The Beautiful World though has no english dub yet because it barely came out in Japan this year. Plus Beautiful World has different animation then Axis Powers or World Series. Well I hope I helped! :)

Answer 4

Doctor Who, start with the ninth doctor, that is the "new" doctor who, once your into it and your ready for the harder to watch stuff go back and watch the older ones if you want. Sherlock, it's not over, season 3 comes out in 2014, I don't know why it's so short. Hetalia, you can watch it on netflix, it's a comedy personifying the countries(it's freaking hilarious although it might take a couple episode to really get into it . . . also the episodes are 5 mins each). Some suggestions: Lost Girl, Teen Wolf, Supernatural they're really good . . . also Clannad(my fave anime)

Answer 5

- Doctor Who. I started with the 9th Doctor and then skipped to the 11th, but I'd recommend starting from 9 and watching through all of 9, 10, and 11. Then if you want you can go back and watch Classic Who.



- Sherlock. They're making another season (I still have to watch it, but I believe the next season will also only be 3 episodes)! It'll be out in November.



- Game of Thrones. I haven't watched this yet, sorry.



- Hetalia. You can watch it free on FUNimation's website or their YouTube channel, or you can watch it on Netflix. It's just five minute episodes about the history of the world with Italy as the main character.

Answer 6

Doctor Who - its hard to start off at the old series from the start so start with the 2005 reboot of doctor who with the 9th doctor.



Sherlock - new season in November



Those are the only ones i can answer. I havent watched the rest.

Answer 7

I don't watch any of those except Doctor Who. I recently started watching it (started with the 10 th doctor). You can catch up on Neflix(: