Mona

these were the bands i associate with the zeitgeist of mid-late 00s visual kei fandom in the west. only some of them are legendary because they were actually good, but they all defined the era, for me. the bands people were talking about during this time in JP were obviously very different. but nobody specified what kind of legendary we're talking about :^)
 
Ancafe, D'espairsray, Nightmare, Gazette, Dir, Alice Nine, Miyavi, Kagrra, ReS, Psycho le Cemu, LM.C, SID (Aki fangirls)
12012 (Wataru)/Phantasmagoria (Kisaki)
Vidoll? Ayabie? D? Versailles? girugamesh (at least the meme)?
"con bands": Duel Jewel and BLOOD/Kiwamu

Malice Mizer, the GazettE, DIR EN GREY, X Japan, Kuroyume put Nagoya on the map and Lynch. has kept it there, anything MORRIE does apparently, Kagerou, The Piass, BUCK-TICK, LUNA SEA, GLAY will go on forever, but once they do stop they will be legends. 

Apart from all those mentioned above, surely cali≠gari deserves a mention too

Kagrra, LUNA SEA , X JAPAN,  (DEAD END  but I don't know they  judged than visual kei).

Sorry to disappoint you all, but honestly,  Golden Bomber belongs here

Maybe this is the gaijin in me, but I feel like KAGEROU, Kagrra,, and D'ESPAIRSRAY have to be on that list. Three renowned bands, two whose vocalists are deceased, and the third whose vocalist doesn't sing anymore? Yaaa
 
(Also, any native English speakers wanna unpack that last sentence and tell me if it's grammatically correct? The fuck.)
 
Ooh and now my brain is percolating, what about [YUKIYA bands here]? Kαin is in that weird spot where they're certainly not the most popular, but YUKIYA can sell a one track CD for $200 at a live, have it sold out, and then appear at auction the next day for $400 and people are actually paying for it. That has to be the actual meaning of “cult favorite” imo, which must make them legendary(???).

If you mean bands from the current generation, it's gotta be the older ones: SID, the GazettE, Nightmare and MUCC. These are the ones that made the bigger impact in the scene and could be considered "iconic" years from now.

Pretty much agree w/ mostly everything above.
 
If I'm not mistaken, there was a television segment on multiple generations of visual kei, and they considered R-Shitei as the iconic band of their 'era'. I would add vistlip and Kiryu to that as well. I would also consider SID to be pretty legendary, but they fall into the same "definition" problem that A.B.C (and MUCC) has fallen into. I consider them now to still be "visual kei", but others tend to separate them (wholly or partially) from the scene due to their mainstream success.
 
(Well, Janne da Arc was a visual kei band, but A.B.C is a solo project...but A.B.C is listed in vkdb... idk what do y'all think? If A.B.C was considered a visual kei band/project, I would absolutely include them on the legendary list)

um, MERRY
 

 
also Dir en grey, LUNA SEA, X JAPAN, MALICE MIZER, L'arc~en~Ciel, Gazette, Versailles, Mejibray, An Cafe, Phantasmagoria, etc, judging on their wide fanbases.

LUNA SEA, GLAY, Dir en grey, X JAPAN, MALICE MIZER, BUCK-TICK, MUCC, Siam Shade, among many others...
 
In the current scene, idk, I guess we'll have to wait and see? Diaura, Arlequin, Kodomo Dragon, Nocturnal Bloodlust etc, I guess. 

You mean new bands right?
Because to me LUNA SEA, DEG, pierrot, malice mizer and all that bands from those era already are 😎
 
but for newer bands, idk, maybe NoGod, lynch., tbh

Definitely Luna Sea. 

Maria Cross