That Flogging Molly song was great, had to find a video of it without that crappy end song tagged onto the end but it's now on my Youtube account so I can always remember it. Not really a fan of the vocalist for the most part, but he's not terrible (and is really good during the end) and the lyrics & instrumentals totally make up for it. My favorite part of that song was definitely from 2:27 forward, and what made the song great in my opinion.
I'll check out all/most of the stuff deth's stuff later, whilst I was doing this only GTI I had posted but my usually multi-tasking was taken up to level as my family's having someone over to fix our furnace and I had a few things I had to do which took up a lot of my time. Never watched Dollhouse or Firefly so can't comment on Cloud's.
As for myself, I could list off some bands but I'm choosing against it for laziness, and the fact that Marianas Trench, aren't under-the-radar everywhere, having two platinum albums in Canada.
I will rank of some anime though. For the record, I'm only going to be listing off anime that haven't really broken into the mainstream over here, and somewhat by MAL Rankings based off popularity. Anything 100 or less got eliminated from MAL, as well as well as the mainstream one.
Gankutusuou ~ Gankutusuou is an anime by Studio Gonzo and as such, it shares two of the three traits Gonzo series seem to share from my experience and what I've heard from others. Those two traits are being a re-imaging of an already popular/well-known story (Romeo X Juliet is another example) & incorporating CGI into it. The third trait is a terrible one so let's be thankful that this series (and Romeo X Juliet) don't have it. Gankutusuou is a re-imaging of the Count Of Monte Cristo, where the main difference, and there are a ton of them, are the shifting the focusing from the Count to Albert. Most of the sames scenes take place but with a totally different meaning and experience. If you're one of those persons who need or want a faithful adaption then this isn't for you. Needless to say, there are plenty more changes and several really big ones, specifically near the ending. However it's still a masterfully woven series, and is just amazing. The OST is one of my favorites, having perhaps my favorite solitary track in any anime and the art style, minus the CGI, is one of the greatest ever though, your mileage may vary. It's definitely one of the most unique I've seen, can't name another anime like it in that regard. The CGI looks pretty all things considered but it really doesn't animate well, which brings it down a bit. The biggest flaw however is the second to last episode, which is down right terrible, absolutely hated it and almost brought the series down two points in my ratings (it only brought it down by one). My brother also said the first episode was kind of boring but admitted it got a lot better from there so there's that too.
Gun X Sword ~ Gun X Sword is the lowest rated anime I'll be bringing up by my ratings and by MAL's. However it's still a very enjoyable series, despite the fact that it belongs to a genre I don't particularly like. Their is a lot of mecha battles, something I'm usually not a fan of, which is why I didn't watch any more Gundam than most of an episode, but I like the way they use it. For the first half, it's mostly only used at the end of the episode, which allowed a nice transition into I suppose. Anyways, the switch happens because, like several other anime, it starts off first rather episodic and then kicks into story mode halfway through the episodes. Both aspects are enjoyable but I prefer the story ones more. It isn't what you'd call original, most of it's been done before but it does all the things seen before really well and still has some unique features about it. The Claw for example, is a pretty original villain, haven't seen much like him. There are plenty other aspects I enjoyed and really like but I don't feel the need to talk about it. Oh, it's also by far the funniest series I'm suggesting, not necessarily that it's a comedy cause it's not, but it provides more laugh than the others. So there's that.
Monster ~ Only three series on MAL have ever received a ten from me; Cowboy Bebop, is eliminated on both counts I set up; my next recommendation; and this one. Monster is also the longest series I'm putting out there, tallying in at 74. This initially worried me as I was positive the series wouldn't be able to remain at a consistent quality and eventually go down hill, much like Death Note did. However Monster only get's better. Only one period in the show I didn't like better than the previous, but that was still better than a lot of what came before it. It does have a slow beginning, for example it takes four episodes for the synopsis of the series to happen. Partially because it's impossible to sell the series without it. I'd rather not discuss any plot at all in these, so I won't. It's also has no supernatural elements; a good amount psychological elements; a story that could realistically have happened (for the most part, but it's very believable); a fantasticly woven story and just so much more. The OST is great too. The villain of the series, is also considered one of the all-time greatest [anime] villains by most who's seen it, and a big portion of them calling him the greatest. I think he's overrated but I still would probably rank him if I was doing a top ten list.
Wolf's Rain ~ It should be noted that Wolf's Rain almost got excluded, being ranked 104 on MAL. Now for Wolf's Rain, I'm combining it with the OVA, since the OVA is just the conclusion to the series. You see, during it's production, there was a period where production where it was shut down due to the Sars scare (stupid right?) but they had to provide episodes due to their contract so four recap episodes were created in a row. Thus the OVA are the four episodes they lost. And you can, and should skip the recaps, the first one was okay for a recap and the rest were putrid. From a technical standpoint, Wolf's Rain is on a level of it's own. The Art & Animation are outstanding and the OST is my favorite by far, and that is saying something since I've seen Cowboy Bebop as previously mentioned. The voice acting is perfect (dub) and seguing here, the characters are all fantastic. Even the human characters, who I was a bit iffy on at first, end out to be awesome when they get their own episode and I can save I love pretty much all the characters. The villain is within my top five favorite villains. It also has one of my favorite endings to anything ever, but it's also one of the more polarizing ones. A lot of people didn't like it or even understand it (probably why they didn't like it, but I thought it was easy to understand [though some parts are debatable on). That understand bit is important to describe. To paraphrase JesuOtaku, "Wolf's Rain is a set in a fantasty world with a rich history but they don't feel like telling you any of that history". Which I like for the reasons she listed, which were that this leaves a greater focus on the characters and little exposition shouting. Now for my own reasons, you don't really need a lot of that to understand the main plot. I mean, you can actually figure it all out with what you get, it's not easy but you can. I just don't think you need to. You might be confused at some things but that's about. I could go on about plenty of other things about it but I'm getting sick of posting this since thanks to circumstances it was put on hold for quite some time so I'll just end by saying I love Wolf's Rain. Hell, it's the only show in my sig to have two characters from it. Granted, my sig is just my three favorite characters from my two favorite voice actors but that still says a lot I suppose.
