The history of Gundam Ace and the Magazines That Came Before: or how Ban-Dai somehow screwed up 3 separate magazines and needed to be coerced into making a Gundam magazine

Happy new year. I hope you enjoyed your year, as much as I did mine. I welcomed a new addition to the family, met my father after years of believing he was dead, got to take my job in music further than ever before, and I've gotten to start this blog, so the year has been special for me. To commemorate the year I started this blog, here is one last article to close out the year, after months of repeated delays and false promises of new articles getting released.

So after writing my "how to watch Gundam" article I've been inspired to reread Origin. When I finished Origin I thought "wow that was great I should read more" and so I chose to read not just Origin but all the Gundam manga in the Universal Century I could. Then during some research I did for some of my articles I wrote previously on Gundam, a friend who helped me with said research found some things on Gundam Ace and its founding. I started this article in late September with the goal of publishing it on the 30th, before a huge work opportunity dragged me away followed by family stuff. I didn't leave the blog devoid of content, as throughout September and October I updated all the previous Gundam articles (except that bad Zeta New Translation slander piece I wrote while sleep deprived) to feature more accurate information, some minor spelling corrections and some new points I felt that should have been there in the first place or decided would make the article better with the benefit of hindsight. Seriously I keep starting new articles and then get so caught up with editing/fixing/adding to old articles that my old ones keep getting updates while I keep struggling to get out new ones. With things having calmed down, I finally found the time to finish it and rewrite many parts of it. So, here it is 3+ months later than I wanted.

For those unaware the history of Gundam manga and such starts with small steps, those being manga adaptations of Gundam shows from the late seventies and throughout the eighties. Then later "Mobile Suit Gundam Revival of Zeon" and other minor manga and one offs. These were published in other magazines. This was until the late 80s when Ban-Dai established their own Cyber Comix magazine. This was a serialized magazine by Ban-Dai that specialized in mecha comics, related articles and so on and so forth. Some of the earliest Gundam manga were featured here. Some of these early Gundam manga were actually really neat stories like "Under the Gundam: Double Fake", some of these are still looked back on fondly and influencing the canon today by current Gundam media such as "Gudnam F90", some are really cool but dated now by the simple fact that the Universal Century has become more concrete and thought out over the years as more people have decided on lore for it, added to said lore and a lot of the principals of its technology. Such as "The Story of Dr Minovsky" and "Outer Gundam", which are both interesting reads, with "Outer Gundam" being one of the first proper Gundam AUs with multiple entries. However they're are no longer accurate at all due to their explanations on the history of the Universal Century as well how the technology works having been dated and made any possibility of these being canon absolutely thrown out the window. For example some of these say the UC started after the moon landing, or after the challenger incident, when it was later established that colony construction likely began in the 2040s. Others were just weird. Some of these weird ones like "Cyber Newtype Story: Another Z Gundam Story" are great stories that can be enjoyed by anyone, others like "Gundam Saigon" (think Cocaine Bear meets Gundam, and I am not joking at all when I say that) are just bizarre in a fascinating way. While including original grassroots series and tie ins to established ones like "Armored Troops Votoms", the magazine became increasingly Gundam dominated and would leave less and less room for the rest of the stuff in the magazine. This and other factors, most notably a new deal offered to them by the newly formed Mediaworks company formed by the former VP of Kadokawa, would culminate in the decision to terminate Cyber Comix and replace it. Following Cyber Comix's dissolution it was replaced by two magazines, the first being Media Comix Dyne. This Magazine did not get the audience of Cyber Comix out of the gate and was cancelled due to middling sales after few volumes. This would lead to it being replaced by Dengeki Daioh, a general manga and anime magazine covering a wide variety of franchises and series, which is still being published today. The second magazine replacing Cyber Comix was MS Saga, a magazine dedicated entirely to Gundam, which was not the best idea since Gundam was seeing a decline in popularity at the time in comparison to the 80s. (one that would soon turn around when "Gundam Wing" came out in the mid 90s) MS Saga didn't last, even after serializing sequels to some of Cyber Comix's stories such as "Cyber Newtype Story: Mad Wang 1160". 

Following the cancellation of MS Saga after only a dozen or so volumes, Gundam would require other comic magazines to publish manga, leading to a decline in Gundam manga. However things would change with the success of two comics in particular. The first major Gundam side story told outside the medium of animation was "Blue Destiny", a video game trilogy released on Sega's hugely popular Sega Saturn console. It had a novelization and a corresponding single volume comic serialized in Comic Bon Bon, which proved very successful. The other of these two manga was "Crossbone Gundam". "Crossbone Gundam" was a sequel to the Gundam F91 film. Originally a draft and outline by Tomino for a sequel, but abandoned. Yuichi Hasegawa, who had worked on Gundam comics before, was brought on to adapt it as a manga, to which he agreed on the condition that he could change the draft as he saw fit, and create his own character to center the story around. The resulting series was serialized in Shonen Ace, a manga magazine by Kadokawa focused on anime tie ins and manga with a less broad appeal, where the manga would be hugely successful. It ran for a long time and got 6 volumes. The huge success of this series would lead to the start of a close relationship between Kadokawa and Gundam. Kadokawa had already named their massively popular entertainment magazine "Newtype" after a term frequently used in Gundam's Universal Century.

I can't be the only one thinking MS Saga's covers have no personality in comparison to Cyber Comix

Back in the early 2000s "Gundam Wing", the show that revived interest in Gundam by giving it a new audience (the series was aimed towards the shoujo demographic) was dubbed in English and aired on Toonami. The series was a success in the west, leading to them next doing "Mobile Fighter G Gundam" and then seeking to do "Turn A Gundam" and "After War Gundam X". However Sunrise refused and insisted that the original "Mobile Suit Gundam", a show of great historical significance in Japan, be brought over. Eventually Toonami relented and dubbed it, airing it on TV. It went well until a certain event happened in 2001 that made programs like Gundam undesirable on TV. It was during this big push in the states during the early 2000s that Sunrise asked "Mobile Suit Gundam" character designer Yoshikazu Yasuhiko to write a manga version of that series specifically for the western market. Yas said no. He always thought Gundam was Tomino's work, and starting with Zeta, his own story ideas were left by the wayside, and he felt dissatisfied with the direction of the franchise and its focus on newtypes, not to mention he was not happy during the production process of "Zeta Gundam". However during a hospitalization he began drawing scenes from "Mobile Suit Gundam" to pass time. Drawing scenes like Garma's last stand made him realize just how attached he was to Gundam. Eventually he decided maybe retelling that show's story as a manga could be interesting. After some support from other people he respected Yas gave in and agreed to do it.

Now there was a couple things. First of all was that a manga retelling of "Mobile Suit Gundam" was already a thing. In 1993 Dengeki Daioh serialized "Mobile Suit Gundam 0079", a manga retelling of "Mobile Suit Gundam" written and illustrated by Kazuhisa Kondo. At the time this manga was still on going, and it was still going up until 2005 when it ended. Second, Yas had a specific way he wanted the comic released. He wanted around 100 pages per release early on, and to highlight important scenes with beautiful full watercolor illustrations. However this presented a problem as the publisher Sunrise had in mind was Kadokawa. Kadokawa couldn't put a comic like that in any of their existing magazines, and the magazine succeeding Cyber Comix and MS Saga, Dengeki Daioh, already had a manga remake of "Mobile Suit Gundam" in serialization. So Kadokawa's solution was to make a magazine focused exclusively on Gundam, thus Kadokawa launched Gundam Ace for the sole purpose of releasing this new manga retelling of "Mobile Suit Gundam" as Yas intended. Unlike MS Saga everything was right for this magazine. It was published by Kadokawa, a huge magazine publisher since the 80s, and Gundam at the time was on the cusp of "Gundam Seed", a show that love it or hate it brought Gundam to a whole new generation of fans and became one of the most popular works in the franchise's history. However this was not enough

Gundam Ace launched with "Gundam the Origin" front and center and as its premier title. Kadokawa Shoten's president was the one who made the push for Gundam the Origin getting its own magazine, but many higher ups in the company feared that a regular magazine dedicated to just one franchise would be unsustainable, and I'm sure MS Saga's failure was something that justified these fears. A heavy hitter like Origin would not be enough to carry a regular magazine alone. So they went about negotiating with mangaka and other people involved in Gundam to contribute columns, articles, interviews, and other manga series, all in hopes of filling out a regular magazine. Because of this, Gundam Ace became more than just a shounen magazine, but something of a general Gundam magazine, with manga at the forefront.

The second heavy hitting manga to help push Gundam Ace was "Char's Deleted Affair". Kadokawa saw the potential in a manga remake of Zeta much like Origin, and wanted Gundam Ace to debut with manga retellings of both. For this they approached Hiroyuki Kitazume. Kitazume was an animation director on Zeta Gundam, and he had a host of other jobs while making Zeta too, and he took on even more duties while working on ZZ and Char's Counterattack. After Gundam, the cancellation of the Space Battleship Yamato sequel he was heavily involved in, and the failure of his own projects, he had been left as an animation director and key animator on shows like "Ah! My Goddess" and "Dragonball". When Kadokawa approached him he said no, not seeing a point to remaking Zeta nor a need to, since he felt Zeta was great as is and unlike "Mobile Suit Gundam", it didn't need any major fixing. In addition to this, he had never taken any time to make big manga series like Yas did, so he didn't feel like it was right. However he would warm up to the idea of making manga when he got to thinking about the transition from Mobile Suit Gundam to Zeta Gundam. We never saw what happened to Char in that time or his past with Haman, and Operation Stardust wasn't even an idea anyone had during the time frame when Zeta was made. So he ended up writing for Gundam Ace a comic bridging the gap between the two, starting during the final episode of Mobile Suit Gundam, and ending right before the first episode of Zeta Gundam. This manga would be the other heavy hitting title in Gundam Ace's debut issue. The third big title in Gundam Ace's debut would be the officially licensed serialization of the Gundam San parody web comic.

The plan was for the magazine to be released quarterly, then after serializing more manga series and adding more to it they would release it bimonthly, then later monthly if the demand was high enough. In the September issue they added the Gundam Seed side story "Seed Astray", and "Crossbone Gundam Skull Heart". They had approached Hasegawa with the idea of a Crossbone sequel rushed out to help sell Gundam Ace, and while biding his time coming up with what he felt would be a worthy sequel he made "Skull Heart", an anthology series showing different characters in the aftermath of the original "Crossbone Gundam" manga's events. In the winter issue they had legendary anime character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto write his own Zeta side story "Ecole du Ciel", detailing a Zeon immigrant's time in a Federation pilot academy and watching the rise of the Titans. They also had "Tony Takezaki presents Gundam Manga", yet another parody manga. Over time the magazine got even more comics in regular serialization and was eventually able to move to the fabled monthly release schedule, where it has remained since. 

Not every Gundam manga is serialized in Gundam Ace. Thunderbolt is published in Big Comic Superior, Rust Horizon is published in Grand Jump Mucha, Battle Tales of Flannagan Boone is published in Hero's Inc, Aggressor is published in Shounen Sunday Super, etc. However Gundam Ace has become the premier place for Gundam manga. They give mangaka great creative control (usually), and celebrate many of their own grassroots kind of series such as "Return of Johnny Ridden", "Crossbone" and "Char's Deleted Affair". The manga really has this isolated feeling compared to other shounen/seinen magazines, but it really helps make it feel special and distinct. Being centered around one franchise allows it to be more diverse than most shounen magazines by featuring several detailed non manga related topics and columns, As well as some seinen manga occaisionally published in it too. Being so laser focused on one franchise with everything inside it allows for a real sense of community with its readers, knowing most of them like the same thing. I know people who are subscribed to shounen jump to just read the 3 or 4 series they like and then just leave it on their bookshelf. With Gundam Ace, if you picked it up you are probably a Gundam fan, and so everything there is from a franchise you like. The stuff in the different timelines and such help add variety, and they've found new ways to keep it fresh with unique takes on adapting the franchise to other genres, such as the currently publishing manga about Haman Karn living in our world as an overworked head of a fashion company. Gundam Ace has something for all Gundam fans, and it really feels special. I believe it is one of the best currently printing manga magazines in Japan right now, and I'm glad to keep getting such great titles from it.

Before I end the article, I want to give my thanks to a YouTuber named Cheems. He's a very nice guy and has been a good friend. I told him of my plans to write this article and shared with him parts of a rough draft of it. It inspired him to make a video on the subject, and he was nice enough to thank me and shoutout this blog in his video. Please check out his video, as it presents this subject more concisely, entertainingly and professionally than I could hope to. Subscribe to him if you want some solid informative and entertaining anime (mostly mecha) videos. With that out of the way, thank you for reading, and have a happy new year.

Why you need to listen to B'z: or a career retrospective on the biggest band in Asia

I mentioned in my articles on getting into Japanese rock music that B'z is the biggest band in all of Asia, and that they have outsold most of your favorite artists by a margin so wide it isn't even close. Though when I bring them up to my fellow western people I find so many woefully uncultured people in disbelief. So I am here to tell you all about B'z and explain why you should listen to them, with this little retrospective article. Also of note I will be including English translated names to all the songs with Japanese names next to the song's original name for clarification

B'z was formed in 1988 by a renown young Japanese session guitarist: Takahiro "Tak" Matsumoto. He held auditions for members of the new band he was forming, He settled on young up and coming vocalist named "Koshi Inaba" and later decided to not go ahead with finding new members, instead deciding to use sequencer and drum machine to emulate those elements. Tak and Koshi would release the self titled debut album of B'z in 1988 and would keep writing and recording new music in between Tak's session work. They were able to use Tak's status as a renown session musician to leverage a deal with a major label. The album was a modest seller bolstered by the single yet to be big "Dakara Sonotewo Hanashite (So Let Go of the Hand)". Their follow up album "Off the Lock" would be their first real success, with the single "Kimino Nakade Odoritai (I Wanna Dance)" getting notoriety for being used as the theme to a drama series. The album went platinum and proved a solid basis for their career going forward. These first couple B'z albums are full on new wave with elements of pop rock. Early into 1990 Tak would put his session work on hold to put all his effort on B'z and release the appropriately titled "Break Through". The album sold even better and sold more than 700000 units in its initial run, bolstered by their first minor hit single "Lady Go Round". The songwriting on breakthrough was more diverse and showed more sides to the band. Some songs experiment with hip hop, others are full on dance pop and many tracks are synth heavy pop rock in the same vein as the first two albums, but with better production. Some choice cuts like the title track "Stardust Train" and "Imadeha... Imanara... Imamo..." are great.

Then they got Lucky with Bad Communication. Around the release of "Break Through" they released their first EP "Bad Communication". The dance rock title track and two songs from their debut rerecorded in English in the same musical style as "Off the Lock". Bad Communication unexpectedly blew up and became a huge success for the band. Due to a mix up an alternate English  recording with a bit more guitar and rock elements made it as the promo single version. This prompted them to release "Wicked Beat", their second EP, which was an English version of Bad Communication, as well as English versions of 3 of their then recent singles, including their first number 1 hit single "Komachi Angel". After "Komachi Angel" they released their fourth album "Risky", only eight months after their third album. "Risky" was the moment they fully became the huge band they were, and the first album to prominently feature Tak's guitar. Bolstered by the number 1 hit singles "Easy Come Easy Go" and "Itoshii Hitoyo Goodnight (Lovely One, Goodnight". These two songs helped establish the streak of number one hit singles that remains unbroken to this day. Some real great stuff like "Vampire Woman", "Hot Fashion" and "Easy Come Easy Go" make this worthwhile and prove why this was the first album to reach the million seller mark. This album sold so well that it retroactively helped push "Off the Lock" and "Break Through" to reach million seller certifications.

The band would move to more of a rock direction and they would fully ditch their songwriting team and production staff, seeking to gain more independence. "In the Life" Songs range from stylish and cool low key pop rock songs, to fun upbeat pop rock that is just infectious. Bolstered heavily by the hit single "Alone", "In the Life" became one of the biggest selling albums in Japan's history at the time of release, and while it has since fallen from that position, the album is still seen as a classic. Some incredible songs worth attention are "Sora Demo Kimi ni wa Modorenai (Still I Can't Get Back to You)", "Wild Life", "Tonight (is the Night)" and "Crazy Rendezvous". Following "Mars", another EP of more rock oriented English rerecordings of hit singles, one of which featuring Japanese disco legend Yuki Koyonagi, the band would later take their rock influences to another level with "Run". The synths were toned down in favor of a horn section and an electric organ. Run was the first full on rock album from B'z, and Koshi and Tak were very proud of it. "Zero" was a big hit for the band and a total earworm, but the title track would become among the most legendary songs they ever made. It was rerecorded later in the band's later style of music as a show of how far they've progressed, and it always saved as the closing song for setlists or used in encores. "Native Dance" is a stunning tribute to Native American folk now reworked in the B'z style to be something new. I don't know how else to say it, but every song on Run is a banger and almost everyone of these songs is of significance to the band. One of their essential albums for sure.

B'z sought to take their influences further and try to shake off all the fans of their pop and new wave music for good in an act of self sabotage they hoped would attract rock fans and scare away pop listeners. Thusly they made a double album called "7th Blues". Disc one is a mix of the kind of music they did on Run, combined with Blues. This includes a blues instrumental by Tak and one of my favorite ballads by the band in the form of "Akai Kawa (Red River)". Disc 2 is full on blues featuring the album's lone hit single "Don't Leave Me" and one of their most iconic songs:" Jap the Ripper", and an acoustic blues rerecording of one of their then biggest hit singles "Lady Navigation". The thought process with this album was that since a double album costs more and blues isn't popular in Japan the band could move to more creatively fulfilling blues rock while shaking off the pop listeners, and appeasing their label with that first disc. However it not only didn't work and was bought up by their old fans, it gained them new fans as well, leading to it being certified million seller in the first week. "Seventh Blues" is my favorite B'z album and absolutely worthy of praise. There is some filler or songs that don't work, but the album is surprisingly good at keeping you engaged.

The new found success doing blues rock on "Seventh Blues" fired them up and they soon after released "Loose", the biggest selling studio album of their entire career. Loose is full on blues rock, but with much more punchy and polished production than they had "Seventh Blues". The album isn't afraid to experiment either, an acoustic blues version of "Bad Communication" is here, they make a song with a house beat and spoken word in the form of "Love Phantom" Some songs have a rough and southern feel like "Drive to My World", the synths are back and used to enhance many songs with little flourishes and fills, and we have multiple acoustic based songs. "Negai (Wish)", one of their biggest hits of the era is here, in an upgraded style, and it is great. The album has so much diversity how could you not love it? I love everything on "Loose", even the three hit singles, another essential B'z album. They then ended the blues era with "Survive". "Survive" aimed to take the band in a heavier direction while keeping a lot of the blues sound. The rhythm section on a lot of songs from these blues era albums are great. "Swimmer!!" and "Liar Liar" are proof enough. The album has many great songs and shows the more energetic heavier rock sound they would go to. Also "Cat" is my favorite song from this album, if nothing else just for Koshi singing the words "Meow Meow" with such a strong conviction.

"Brotherhood" was a turning point because it was When B'z moved to their signature hard rock sound. Tak said the band's then recently released compilation albums did so well it created this incredible tension for him and Koshi, leading to a heavier sound. For this reason "Brotherhood" is considered among their best. The album is synonymous with the band to the point. The songs from this album keep getting revived in setlists and fans love the title track for it's themes of companionship and unity. The album has some serious moments, but it is mostly fun upbeat hard rock. "Gir Giri Chop" was a huge success by being the first of many soundtrack singles the band would do for the long running anime franchise Detective Conan Case Closed. "Gin no Tsubasa de Tobe (Fly on Silver Wings)" is another example of the upbeat hard rock here. I love the use of strings on some of these songs, and the musicianship here is great. One of the all time great bass players Billy Sheehan plays most of the bass on this album and he delivers. The album was made with a more raw production sound and a full band of musicians rather than relying on keyboards, digital recreations and production to help make the album come to life. They also wrote songs in the studio as they recorded the album, figuring it would lead to a more spontaneous and energetic sound. This would influence every B'z album going forward and lead them to even greater success. Brotherhood isn't a favorite of mine by the band, not by a long shot, but it is great.

My favorite B'z album is the follow up: "Eleven". This era of the band saw them absolutely dominating. They had 12 songs in the top 13 on the pop charts at one point in this era, a song at number 1 and songs occupying spots 3 through 13, as well as other songs even lower on the charts. Your favorite band will never be as domestically important to or popular in their home country as B'z unless they are The Beatles or something. The album had one of the longest production periods of any B'z album, with the band working with multiple American engineers who have worked with various western rock and metal groups, hoping to truly nail the harder sound they were looking for. This would also feature some contributions from drummer Brian Tichy as a session musician, which will become significant later. The album is some peak B'z. Not only have they found a mix hard rock and this more mature sound they also sought, but they evolved from Brotherhood and improved upon in almost every way. No where is this exemplified more than on "Raging River". It's the longest song in their discography at seven and a half minutes, but it is great. It starts acoustic, but builds and builds to a powerful chorus. After an epic orchestral bridge it transitions to an incredible guitar solo. Then an acoustic verse building to yet another powerful chorus. The last minute of the song is incredible. In my mind it is their best song. On top of this the singles "Juice" and "Konya Tsuki no Mieru Oka Ni (At The Hilltop Where We Can Watch the Moon Tonight" are two of their most iconic songs. Other songs I feel are worth a mention here are "Ai no Prisoner (Love's Prisoner)", "Shinjiru Kurai li Darou (I Believe In You)", "May" and "Tokyo Devil". In my mind this is peak B'z and their best album, truly essential.

The band rebounded from this heavier sound with "Green", something made for the purpose of filling spare time while Tak and Koshi were busy doing solo projects. You might think this less focused approach would hinder the band, but surprisingly no. They move to a less heavy sound on this album, hoping to be a bit different, but capture a lot of that same energy. Opening track "Stay Green" emphasizes this perfectly. A sound like the hard rock of the last two B'z albums, but it is undeniably more bouncy and melodic. It's also my favorite B'z song. The album is still hard rock, but it's not as heavy, and there is a lot more production stuff going on here to make the album as it is, like some of the sounds on these songs like the effect on Koshi's vocals in "Surfin' 3000 GTR", as well as the beat in some of these songs. While I love a lot of these songs like "Go Fight Win", "Blue Sunshine" and "Forever Mine", the real thing this album is known for is "Ultra Soul". The song was written as a big inspirational anthem for athletes and aspiring people. It is a song about human determination. Not only was it a success, it is the most famous and remembered song of their entire career. While made mostly with a digital instrumental, it is a total earworm and is consistently remembered as their best song in Japan, so much so to the point that the people of Japan voted it the number 1 song to relieve stress to. The version included on the album differs from the single version, for having a different guitar solo, which I would say is better than the original.

"Big Machine" would keep the momentum going, even if the album itself didn't attain the same blockbuster success as the last three. A small amount of session musicians played on "Big Machine", their usual support bassist, as well as Brain Tichy and new support drummer Shane Gaalaas, who would become their longest serving drummer. The album seeks go back to a more band oriented sound, and opening track "Arakure (Panic)" symbolizes this well. I love the single "It's Showtime!!" but the better single is"Yasei no Energy  (Wild Energy)". It starts with an acoustic guitar before going into this awesome heavy metal guitar riff with awesome distortion, and then it stays as a fun pop rock song with some cool guitar playing. I love that.  I love "Nightbird", "Ai to Nikushimi no Hajimaru (The Start of Love and Hate)", "Change the Future" and the title track. All great stuff. The band would maintain this direction, but with a more commercial and rock oriented sound, leading to "The Circle." The album benefits from having a permanent support drummer and bassist, and no need for session musicians. The album's lone single "Ai no Bakudan (Love Bomb)" is a catchy earworm, and so is "Aqua Blue". Though the album doesn't forget to rock, as "X", "Shiroi Habana (White Spark)" and "Black and White" prove. it does nothing special, but the album is really good and shows a band in their prime. However shortly into the lifespan of the album on the charts, the band released the lead single from their next album.

You know what "Monster" is from the moment you hear opening song "All Out Attack". The album once again benefits from Shane Gaalaas and longtime support bassist Akihito Tokunaga playing all the drums and bass respectively. Aside from opening with a banger opening track, "Monster" gives us "Splash", one of the most beloved singles from this era of the band and their attempt at making a hard rock song you could dance too. The other singles "Ocean", "Shoudou (Impulse)" and "Yurugi Mono Hitotsu (One Sure Thing)" are all amazing songs. The album once again moves away from the hard rock sound in some songs, but gives us so many amazingly well written you can't get mad, but that also makes the heavier moments like the outstanding title track stand out that much more as awesome. I also want to draw attention to "Pierrot" as a total banger.

While working on an album for their 25th anniversary, the band went back to the drawing board multiple times. They wanted to do new things and grow for this album, but they were unsure how, until deciding on a kitchen sink approach, leading to "Action". "Action" isn't a double album but it comes close. The album tries so many new things. "Kuroi Seishin (Dark Youth)" is a hard rock song, but it mixes jazz scales and other jazz music elements such as a wooden bass, making a great B'z song with lots of unique flare. "Isshinfuran (Intently)" is a great song that tries to merge the sound of a hard rock song with the aesthetics and feel of a power ballad, and it was worked on heavily until near the end of the recording sessions when they nailed the arrangements and additions. "Boku ni wa Kimi ga Iru (For Me There Was You)" is a song with almost no guitar at all, something very rare for the band. "Nanto Iu Shiawase (Such Happiness)" is a wonderful attempt at combining the now standard B'z sound with the sounds of the swing of the 1950s. "Warui Yume (Bad Dream)" is another heavily Jazz inspired song and was the first song of theirs to utilize finger picking, giving it a unique sound compared to most of their other songs. "Hometown Boys' March" aside from being a banger, is a neat song utilizing shuffle rhythms. "Travelling Men's Theme" is a wonderful homage to the Beatles with a song trying to mimic their style, and it totally works. "Ore to Omae no Atarashii Kisetsu (You and I's New Season)" is neat attempt at making a song with latin instrumentation. Not to mention that the rerecorded Burnout theme "Friction Lap 2", "Super Love Song" "Buddy" and "Koubou (Ray of Light)" are all great. While they still sound just like the B'z you know at this point, the album is anything but stale and repeating past glories It is one of their best.

Following a short break B'z would record "Magic". Magic is just coasting along the success offered by "Action" and carrying on a more normal sound after the minor experimentation of that album. However lead single and opening track "Dive" is just awesome and lets you know that you are in for something good. The album is notable for having a support lineup change. Their longtime support bassist left, leading to bass duties split between Mars Volta's Juan Alderete and new support bassist Barry Sparks. Barry was recommended to the band as a temporary fill in for their 2003 US tour and Big Machine tour by mutual friend Shane Gaalaas. If you ask me Tak, Koshi, Shane and Barry is the quintessential B'z lineup and hearing them here is just wonderful. "Mayday" features a neat shuffle rhythm, and "Yume no Naka de Aimashou (See You In My Drams)" is a great tribute to the music of Japan's Showa era. I also wish to draw attention to "Mayday!", "Magic", "Freedom Train" and "Long Time No See" as awesome songs.

In 2011 B'z began work on their next album and took their time with it. The album was progressing as normal until a tragedy happened. The Great East Japan earthquake was on of the biggest disasters Japan ever faced. The band completely reconsidered even releasing the album. So they went back to the drawing board, reworking what they had and writing new songs to match a new tone. The idea was to take the hard rock of prior albums and make an upbeat album for the purpose of raising people's spirits in the midst of this tragedy and they hurried it out to be there only months after the tragedy. This lead to "C'mon" being among the most personal albums in the band's discography and one really important to everyone in the band. It lead to a staggering 18 songs, only 13 making the album. The album didn't sell as well as "Magic" due to the rise of streaming, but it was very well received and did immensely well anyways. The title track served as an excellent mission statement from the band, being a wonderful uplifting hard rock song embodying the spirit of the album and it's intention perfectly, with it's lyrics of togetherness and finding comfort and strength in others. Lead single and Pepsi tie in "Sayonara Kizu Darake no Anata (Goodbye Painful Days)" is an awesome hard rock song that took the throwaway "Go Next!" slogan by Pepsi Japan and turned into a song about leaving a sorrowful old life behind for a new beginning, with a nice sense of refreshment and momentum omni present. The other single "Don't Wanna Lie" is a catchy earworm that once again was used for Detective Conan alongside "Pilgrim", another great song. "Hito Shizuku no Anata (Just a Little Bit of You)" uses the heaviest guitar tuning in any B'z song, and is awesome. "Boss" is a very fun and different sounding song with a neat political satire underlining it. I also want to draw attention to ""Dareka (Somebody)" and "Dead End" as awesome songs. However the real highlight is "Ultra Soul 2011". Taking the band's mega hit about determination and removing all the electronic elements, having Shane Gaalaas and Barry Sparks supply real drums and bass to the song to make a proper hard rock version of the song. If you didn't like "Ultra Soul", I urge you to listen to this version. Some of the charm of the original may be gone, but Shane and Barry being here really bring it together. The short little bass solo in the song is made so much better by actually having a skilled musician like Barry playing on it. Not a complete replacement for the original, but a perfect new version that makes for the perfect book end to this album. Shane and Barry really help make the musicianship here feel tight and excellent.

The band decided to sit on "C'mon" and would take a break for awhile before making "Epic Day". Aside from being their most Japanese sounding album it was also an album with fruitful writing sessions. Many songs were written but they sought something concise, leading to a shorter ten song album. While a weaker offering than their previous album, "Epic Day" proved a strong release when it came out in 2015. Lead single "Uchouten (Ecstasy)" is proof enough. The album supplies  The album gives us plenty of rockers like "Las Vegas" and the title track, while supplying catchy pop rock in equal measure like "Man of the Match", "No Excuse" and a ballad written during the "C'mon" sessions. The album itself is pretty good overall though.

Next is one of my favorite B'z albums: "Dinosaur" recorded in preparation for their 30th anniversary. "Dinosaur" opens with a title track that showcases Tak's playing in top form before getting to the song itself.  The title track is the song that got me into the band, it is just purely awesome hard rock with a cool message about embracing being called dinosaurs and being around for nearly 30 years. Awesome title tracks aren't all the album has to offer. The excellent pop rock song and double a side single "Seimi (Declaration)" was a big part of this album's success, having gold and gaining notoriety for it's use in Detective Conan. The song is a total earworm and alongside the other double a side single "Still Alive" help make this album great. I don't understand how you couldn't love the epically confident "Champ" or the bouncy hard rocker "Skyrocket" I also want to give attention to "Queen of the Night", "Purple Pink Orange", "King of the Street" and "Haruka". Not essential, but probably my favorite.

Following the 30th anniversary tour in 2018 the band fired their drummer of 15 years Shane Gaalaas, their bassist of 11 years Barry Sparks and their keyboardist of 24 years Takanobu Masuda. The reason given being that they were 30 and wanted to refresh things with a new backing band and achieve a new sound. The fans were sad, but excited too. However this lineup recorded one song "Tsuwamono, Hashiru (Soldier, Run)", the best song on their next album "New Love". The album features new support drummer Brian Tichy who had previously worked with the band as a session musician, and new support bassist Mohini Dey. While initially I didn't take to the album, it has grown on me. The aforementioned song featuring Sparks and Gaalaas is great. I think the albums is really well produced, and while there was no single, the album has plenty of standouts I haven't mentioned. "My New Love", "Mr Armour", "Ore yo Karma wo Ikiro (Living My Karma)" and "Deus". While not as awesome as Dinosaur I appreciate them trying to move to another sound. This new sound would be better realized on next album "Highway X". The horns are utilized much better here, and the songwriting for the most part is stronger, even if they have strayed further from their defining hard rock sound. They sound modern and cool here, with many great songs here showcasing this new kind of sounds. Some of my favorites include "Comeback Itoshiki Hanen", "Live", "Unite", "Hard Rain Love" and the title track. Truly the better of the two by this new line up

The band has released new singles since then, and have released their 50th consecutive number 1 hit single "Stars". (Oricon doesn't count digital singles for some reason) and is still on a warpath of success, doing their 35th anniversary tour and they still have more plans for the future. Whether you knew of B'z or not, I hope this will inspire you to go and check out the most successful artist in all of Asia.

Why I dislike modern anime and why anime has gotten worse.

Having so many friends and a wife who watch seasonal anime as they come out is nuts. I pay no mind to this stuff myself but I hear about it so much. "No they killed off the girl with glasses that I liked in Attack on Titan", "Eminence in Shadow is so good", "Chillin in my 30s because the demon lord booted me out of his army such a neat show" etc, etc. On the rare occasion people ask for my opinion I have to say I can't weigh in because I don't watch that stuff. I've tried though. I know it's going to sound hypocritical, me saying this when so many posts here are dedicated to Gundam, and me praising newer Gundam series, but screw it. I am going to definitively give my opinion on prompted and prove some points and facts that's influence my opinion.

I see so many people online hate on anime for a lot of reasons I hate most anime for too. However when someone says they don't like anime, there is a 70% chance a guy responded to it saying why they should check out JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and why it is different. Trust me, as someone who has to an extent tried watching it, I can tell you JoJo isn't going to win over anyone who already hates or dislikes anime. The show is just off the wall weird and strange and sometimes nonsensical on purpose, and I get that is the point. It is different in many ways, but different doesn't mean it will win over some snob. However you notice JoJo is a way bigger deal among weebs here in the west than it is among Otakus in Japan. 

Japan and America have a completely different paradigm in regards to anime. You can attribute the big success of anime here in the states to Toonami. Previously shows like Robotech, Sailor Moon Voltron, Speed Racer etc brought over anime in a rewritten format (sometimes combing shows together by hacking together scenes from different shows into one episode.) and presented as a new show over in the west, and they all had varied levels of success here. However Toonami was where it reached its apex. Cowboy Bebop and it's English dub (I have not scene a full episode of that show or it's dub) are both credited with popularizing anime here. Funny enough Cowboy Bebop was just a show some people at Sunrise did in-between bigger projects, it's seen as great, but not seen as some major milestone or anything there like it is here. A big part of why it is considered a huge milestone here is because it had a great dub and was one of the shows that popularized the medium here. Hell, Sunrise's Batman The Animated series inspired anime: Big O only got another season because it was doing really well in the west. Dragonball is probably the most recognized anime outside of Japan. Evangellion is big too for some reason. I've always likened Evangellion to Star Wars. Not because it's big (It's more so a nostalgic series with a dedicated cult following in Japan at this point) but because like Star Wars it was a passion project by a man who wanted to make something combining elements from a lot of their favorite media. Evangellion takes elements from stuff like Space Battleship Yamato, Gundam and it's various series, Space Runaway Ideon (yet another series by the creator of Gundam), Ultraman, Devilman and some others I am neglecting to mention because I can't be bothered to go on some community written website and read potentially erroneous parroted information most websites offer. However most the anime series considered huge in the west aren't as huge or influential in Japan as a lot  of people may think. Just a humble reminder Gundam is Japan's biggest anime franchise domestically in Japan, and it's fanbase is a small disagreeable yet dedicated bunch in the west. Point is that what's big in the west doesn't usually equate to the same level of huge among Otakus and general audiences in Japan. 

However the western fanbase played a big part on just what happened to anime. This year I have tried to branch out from Gundam into other anime series, and I signed up for My Anime List. This was immensely helpful in organizing the shows in my watchlist that I had been recommended. However it also helped me notice things and get a glimpse into the mind of a "consoomer" of seasonal anime. As of writing this the only show on my currently being watched is Giant Gorg, which I have been enjoying. However, one such anime series recommended to me by a dear friend of mine was UFO Robo Grendizer. Grendizer being a favorite of theirs, and said friend being a huge Mazinger fan. However I noticed that Grendizer is listed as one entry with 74 episodes where as most anime added in the last decade on MAL are listed as multiple entries and divided by seasons. This made me think it was strange until I talked about Gundam ZZ to a friend of mine who was unfamiliar and mentioned it has 47 episodes. They said "that's a lot. Like 3 or 4 seasons of a modern anime series worth of episodes" and it got me thinking and lead me down a rabbit hole. Anime back in the day was worked on differently than it is now. Back then you had a set amount of episodes brought to order, and whatever team was working on it would typically create episodes as the series was airing, being a set amount episodes ahead of what number episode would be airing. If your series was underperforming there would be a good chance it would get cancelled and you would have to work within the episodes of your series being cut down a significant amount, leaving you to try to wrap it properly with the shortened number of episodes. That was just how it was back then and continued to be for decades. So why the change?

Over in America seasonalized TV is very much the norm, and it's easier to market shows when you have those controlled waves of episode releases to build anticipation and keep ratings up. It's also easier to keep track of multiple shows you want to watch like this, and makes this a preferred method of viewing TV for a lot of people. As anime started growing in popularity in the west, so did the way it's made. Over time here in America so many things just grew to be made at an assembly line pace to keep a constant flow of content out seasonally for everyone to enjoy. You can see this now with Marvel and Star Wars stuff produced by Disney or for other examples shows on networks like TLC. Not to say this is bad, but it can lead to a stagnation in quality, again look at Marvel. As anime grew in popularity in the west and was aired on Toonami it helped encourage a change in how it was presented. For example, Gundam Seed (Gundam is the only anime franchise I am intimately familiar with) was 50 episodes, and its sequel series Gundam Seed Destiny was also 50 episodes. Following this was Gundam 00 in 2007, split into 2 seasons of 25 episodes each, a good example of around the time this paradigm shift started. By the 2010s this sort of thing has become standard. The big reason being because with seasonally produced anime it was made easier to watch these and keep track of them. This encouraged binge watching, and helped make them more easily consumable for average people. Though to be fair this can also increase a show's longevity and keep boosting ratings. For example it can lead to something marketed towards young boys such as Demon Slayer lasting long after the debut episode aired on TV. In addition, if you decide to cancel a show it can now just be the death of that series and not cost you anymore money. If you look at a series like "After War Gundam X", it was cancelled, and that meant they could only finish a set number of episodes past the one currently airing at that time of cancellation. Of 49 episodes, they only managed to make 38, as they had work around the cancellation to conclude the series proper. This meant losing 11 episodes and dedicated the last dozen or so episodes to the essential truncated plot points originally planned for much later in the show. Now with the seasonal form of producing and airing anime they can cancel shows easier. If you cancel one between seasons, it will just be over, no more. With no obligation to finish episodes already a decent way into production due to said show not currently airing on TV and meeting a large episode order, its so much easier to cancel shows. For an example, just look at Goblin Slayer. The other big reason for doing this is that in the last couple decades it has become increasingly more common to adapt anime from manga rather than create an original work for TV. Not saying this wasn't always a thing, just look at something like Mighty Atom or Space Pirate Captain Harlock. I'm just that it is more common now than it ever was before. This seasonal format can give shows a chance to let their respective manga continue so they don't have to worry about overtaking them or running out of material to adapt. This seasonal format of releases can help inflate longevity and lead to increase profitability and ratings spikes, a big reason why this has become the norm. So to be fair this seasonal style of releasing does have its merits, but it doesn't really change what I said.

Another big reason for me is the art style and animation, now I know that's surface level, but this sort of thing work vice versa for so many people, let me explain my point of view. I see so many weebs on My Anime List declare outdated art styles and animation to be a defining factor in not wanting to watch something from the last 15 years. Let me just say that hand drawn animation colored by hand will always look more lively and engaging than anything drawn on computers digitally. I am not sorry, that is a fact. Hand drawn animation will always be more lively,  energetic and expressive. Digital animation has always stuck out to me in a way I don't like that much. I can understand not liking the way some old shows might look, I'll be the first to admit the strained and hellish production the original Mobile Suit Gundam went through made a lot of the animation in that show age like milk. However you cannot tell me really well done traditional hand drawn animation doesn't look better than digital animation any day of the week. Digital animation is almost entirely done for convenience sake, cost effectiveness and for the ease of adding in computer generated effects in post. There's this level of movement energy and flow to the movement you can't get otherwise. However it is cheaper, easier integrate CGI into and it takes less time and effort. So it has become the standard as companies adopted more assembly line style of production and creation and release. The other big problem presented by this is how it has lead to standardization with art styles. Art styles were pretty varied, especially back in the day. However, as digitally drawn animation has become the norm so too has more standardized art styles. As more and more shows are digitally made at an assembly line pace, it has become easier to just use more standard and generic art style. More typical art styles among popular shows was already becoming a thing in the 90s, and it's just the thing now. It's easier for studios to use a more uniform art style or variations of said uniform art style. I'm not saying every show is like this, but it's very clear a more industry standard art style has taken hold. Just look at My Hero Academia. (only widely popular modern anime series I have seen a lot of.) I have seen the anime and read a lot of the manga because a friend wouldn't shut up about it to me back in 2017. You look at the anime and then a likewise illustration from the manga, and it's night and day which one looks more interesting or detailed. The villain Tomura Shigeraki looks way worse and less creepy in the anime, I'm sorry but that's just a fact. So much visual personality is lost nowadays in the move from manga to anime because of this standardization. Sure I can still very clearly tell who's art they're adapting but so much of what I like about his illustrations just isn't there. Compare this to any classics shows adapting a Go Nagai manga such as Mazinger Z and his art style was carried over very faithfully in the transition to animation, even a lot of the quirks of his designs and illustrations were too.

Now I think a big part of this style is the inspiration from shoujo works. Stuff like Sailor Moon and some of the works adapted from manga by Clamp were a big factor into what got women into anime in general. This a big factor into why so many shows in the 2000s had these super bishi art styles, to try and make things that appealed more to women. Then you look at the production of something like Code Geass where hiring Clamp to do character designs was a move deliberately done to help the show appeal to as wide an audience as possible. The fact that many of these shows would be released in the west too also played a factor in the process behind making these shows. The western market is undeniably a big part of Dragonball's success, and it is undeniably a big part of what has been keeping the franchise going the way it has. It's undeniable that mass marketability in and out of Japan, and a seasonal release system made for easier mass consumption has influenced the way these shows are made and how they are presented. It's big part of why art style in a lot of these look the same. This cheaper more cost effective digital animation just makes it easier for these shows to be made and this more uniform art style a lot of shows have adopted makes it easier watch all these shows one after the other, especially considering that in the west it is very common to binge watch television shows. I just can't really get behind the digital animation the same way I can hand drawn animation. It's not bad, but a lot of these shows have an uphill battle in winning me over because I am not huge on modern digital animation quite like I am hand drawn stuff. I also miss the variety in art style. It's just a shame. Most people who can't stand most older animation are just so used to these kind of shows made in an assembly line type efficiency and pumped out for mass consumption they just something that looks different and feels too different is just too big of a shift than what they are used to, the kind of anime they like to watch. It's incredibly shortsighted and biased on their end, but it's understandable given what they are used to. The industry has conditioned them to one uniform style with minor variations built on it.

Last reason is fandoms and culture. You want to know why I don't talk about My Hero Academia or keep up with it like I used to? Most of that fandom is toxic. There is a reason why My Hero Academia cringe compilations are a thing on YouTube and why My Hero Academia fans appear on TikTok cringe compilations. A buddy of mine put on a My Hero Academia cringe compilation and I saw things ranging from one girl LARPing as an OC that is the biological daughter of two boy characters who had no romantic interest or huge comradery. Not so bad I know, but then in that same compilation another one where two people dressed as two male characters from the show pretended to have impregnated each-other and then proceed to give one another abortions with a wire clothes hanger. Yes that's a very extreme leap, but that's what I saw. I knew some people who were hardcore JoJo fans, and one of them told me that the fandom is extremely toxic and told me many a horror story about her time dealing with that fandom. I can tell you a lot of Gundam fans here in the west aren't nice people and a significant number of them are elitist snobs. This isn't even mentioning weeb culture in general the general fetishization of Japanese culture that comes with this. Do you know how many people just say a Japanese phrase like "yare yare daze" because they heard it in an anime. A buddy of mine actually got in trouble over a misunderstanding using choice Japanese phrases he learned watching anime. I know it's unavoidable I want as little association with those kind of toxic people as possible. This is why I am never active in online fandoms or big communities. I'm sorry, but a lot of modern anime just bring these toxic communities. Yeah a lot of old anime do the same thing, but at least those communities aren't as vocal or common, and they aren't just consuming product. I can just act like they don't exist and continue to enjoy things how I want to, which at the end of the day isn't too much to ask for.

In the end though I really just like enjoying stuff that interests me at my own pace. It's just a simple fact that the way these shows are made now doesn't give shows a lot of the same appeal anime that got me into the art form has. The cheaper animation, style of production, and how how art styles have of become all so stock and standardized. It just makes many of these shows seem uninteresting to me at first. I've tried watching some of these seasonal anime, but they just don't appeal to me. I'm sorry that's just it. As I branch out into other shows recommended by friends maybe I'll write articles on those, I'm not sure. If you disagree with or take issue with anything I said feel free to contact me and debate me, just know that this is all my opinion and it's not worth raising a big fuss over.

You all are wrong about Asia and John Wetton: or a defense of one of my heroes and his passion project

Last week was horribly busy for me, so I couldn't do much. So let me make up for it with this week's article. I talk about stuff from Asia all the time. Music, Gundam, etc. Now I will talk about Asia, not the country though, the band.

Now I was seeing a lot of people on Discord dogpiling on AOR as a shit genre, and crapping on it, and one person said "anybody who did prog rock and went on to make AOR in the 80s deserves to be shot on site". That's paraphrasing, but my favorite band, Asia, came to mind. I tried to explain why I like AOR to them. I don't know if I got through, but I am used to AOR getting crapped on, and my own tastes being opposite most other people's. I've heard every insult you can dish towards AOR, such as MOR (middle of the road) etc. However I don't think I could have fully explained the truth behind Asia and the music beyond whatever simple conversation I had.

The origins of Asia go back to King Crimson. bassist and vocalist John Wetton wrote the now famous piece "Starless" for the album Starless and Bible Black, where the other members rejected it and it wasn't included. Following some rewrites some of which done by Wetton's friend Richard Palmer James, it was included on Red. While making Red the band had become increasingly unstable. Wetton and drummer Bill Bruford were still willing to work together, but Fripp wasn't, leading to UK. UK was Wetton, Bruford, guitarist Alan Holdsworth and keyboardist and violinist Eddie Jobson. UK was still prog rock, but Wetton was writing increasingly shorter compositions. When Holdsworth and Bruford left, they got Terry Bozzio and made a second album. After making their second album songwriting sessions had begun for a third album. Wetton would write "When Will You Realize" and this song would lead to fighting with Jobson. Jobson had said he wanted to keep writing longer proggressive songs, and Wetton had admitted he simply had little love for that type of music anymore. John tried telling him felt more creatively satisfied with these shorter more direct songs, but the two just decided if they felt happy doing different types of music than it was best to part ways. John released "Caught in the Crossfire" shortly after UK's breakup, featuring Jethro Tull guitarist Martin Barre, Bad Company drummer Simon Kirke and some Roxy music personnel Phil Manzanera and Peter Sinfield (Sinfield was the orignial lyricist for King Crimson) A lot of these were songs he had written over the years including during his time with UK. (a rerecording of When Will You Realize is here) I like the album, the title track and some other stuff is really good, the rest is just okay. From here John looked to start a new band.

Yes was a band also at the end of it's rope by this time. Guitarist Steve Howe wanted to take the band in an increasingly more hard rock direction, as he had been seeking to make more direct rockers for a long time. This in part is what made Anderson and Wakeman leave. Some of this can be felt on stuff like "Machine Messiah", "Does it Really Happen" and "Tempus Fugit", though a lot of their progressive leanings were still present. Following the Drama tour Horn was let go, and Chris Squire and Alan White would leave soon after. Howe and the then keyboardist Geoff Downes had declined to continue Yes and they split up. Wetton had tried starting a project with Rick Wakeman and Carl Palmer, but Wakeman didn't see eye to eye musically with Wetton and the project was shelved. John Kalodner had seen Wetton struggling to get a new project together, due to his wanting to work with other prog musicians, but his growing distaste for prog rock made that an impossiblity. He introduced Wetton to Steve Howe who was feeling similarly to him. The two began writing and auditioning musicians. Carl Palmer auditioned at Wetton's suggestion because the two had tried starting supergroups before but failed. Palmer himself was a man who contributed a lot more rockers or straightforward stuff to ELP. Just look at "Tank", "L.A. Nights" and "New Orleans". Once Palmer passed they auditioned keyboard players, including Electric Light Orchestra's Richard Tandy. However for keyboard players they settled on Geoff Downes at Howe's request. Downes had a background in pop rock and synthpop, and actually turned out to get along so well with John Wetton that the two's songwriting partnership would become the backbone of the band, even though Wetton had written already written almost half an album's worth of songs with Howe. Wetton also got former Queen engineer Mike Stone (best known for producing Journey's album Escape) to produce, having been impressed with his prior work and meeting him at a party. With how many times Wetton tried to get this project going in the past it is clear that it was a huge passion project for him.

Now I hear people call this a sell out album or something engineered to make money, but that isn't true. Wetton has stated several times it was an uphill battle getting the album released. Geffen records said their wasn't a viable single, the band's logo (designed by Yes album artist Roger Dean) was illegible, the album artwork (also by Roger Dean) would be hard to find in a record store and not stand out, the music was something they couldn't market. At some point it seemed like the album may not get released or a push. Wetton said this lowered his expectations greatly as some people said they have too many keyboards and others said they need to tone down prog guitar elements in the music. That was until the lead single came out and become one of the most iconic hits of the entire decade. Everything changed. It sold 10 million copies, is one of a small handful of albums to have never been out of print ever, and it's success shaped mainstream rock of the 80s. I've heard people say so much bad things about this album. It is trash, Carl Palmer is wasted playing crap any 2 bit drummer could play, the album is over produced, the songwriting and musicianship is weak and something anyone could do, the album sounds like it was made by a computer, it's shallow and meaningless. I am here to debunk some of these criticisms at Asia's debut album and hopefully sell you on it by going through these songs track by track.

The album opens with "Heat of the Moment". The song was originally a country song in 6/8 John wrote as an apology to the girl he would eventually marry. When presented to Geoff Downes they changed the verses to make it a grand pop rock song with a standard time signature. Aside from being a total earworm brought to life with Wetton's soulful vocal performance, Carl Palmer's drum fills, and Steve Howe's guitar riff hooking the listener in, it is intentionally placed here at the beginning to serve a few purposes. One, to attract people who heard the hit song on the radio and bought the album for it. Two, to scare off prog rock elitists who may have tried to listen to this band assuming it to be some epic prog rock thing, And three, it appeased the record label, which unfortunately has the final say. It's not even the best song here, but it is a strong opener. Next song and second single "Only Time Will Tell" is like a lot of songs here is a super personal song Wetton had written awhile before the album was being worked on. It starts with  keyboard riff by Downes, then lead into some rocking guitar by Howe with some cowbell form Palmer and crunchy bass playing from Wetton. In the verses we have some of that keyboard playing keeping the song going with some hi hat by Palmer before moving on to  thumping bassline from Wetton driving the song into an anthemic chorus. You may notice Howe isn't much of a leading factor in this song aside from contributing to some bits leading into the next part of the song, as well as a call and response in the verses. I love this call and response, and I think it does good showing off Howe and Downes backing vocals. This makes sense it is a Wetton and Downes composition. Steve Howe and Geoff Downes get to do some backing vocals here that just sound lovely. I can't not love his song.

"Sole Survivor" is the the third single and another Wetton and Downes composition. I LOVE the opening in "Soul Survivor". It is super ballsy to make the listener wait through some technical showmanship leading to the song itself in one of your big singles. Aside from me relating to the lyrics here to an extreme degree, Wetton's vocals are just amazing. The bass line and drums driving the song forward in the verses is wonderful. The guitar is used where it is needed, and they keyboards know when to take a backseat. about two minutes and fourty seconds in we get this section that is mostly keyboards as the song stops. It builds and builds to this cool section where the guitar and keyboards really get to show off and the drums and bass just do there thing. Then verse 3 where John delivers one of the most elegantly delivered fuck you's in music with the line "and from the wreckage I will arise and cast the ashes back in their eyes". Knowing the exact kind of feeling he is talking about and having been a scenario like that myself makes hearing that line super satisfying to me. The following lyrics to are great. Then we end on an awesome chorus and a fade out.

"One Step Closer" is a song Wetton cowrote with Howe, which is obvious because the two's voices are singing together to create a harmony throughout most of the song. This gives the vocals here a unique sound. The verses are driven by the keyboards and bass, but we have this earworm of a chorus that has been unable to leave my head for pretty much my entire life. The guitar solo is short and sweet, and the drums are great too. It's actually one of the most simple songs here. However "Time Again" is where things get serious. This is the one song credited to all 4 band members  It starts with this guitar riff amplified by the bass and keyboards as it goes on and some drums coming in as it ends, then some harmonies by Wetton. A gong is sounded off by Palmer as the riff comes in, now with Carl Palmer's drums helping to build up the riff this time. Then with a symbol crash we get John's thumping bassline driving the song with leads from the guitar and keyboards adding all the flary melody to it. We don't get vocals until a minute and fourteen seconds into the song. Again a sort of call and response between Wetton and the guitar in the verses while his bass rives it forward. Carl Palmer's drums here are just awesome, I love them. The way it leads into the solo is just incredible. Wetton's vocals are of course incredible. I love how it ends the same way we began, just awesome.

Wetton and Downes' "Wildest Dreams" is a strangely political song. The song has this opening with the keyboards, drums and bass playing the same thing until about 30 seconds in. The first verse are mostly vocals and keyboard with some light drums, but then pre chorus comes in. The song builds up to the chorus, which is the song name with some awesome harmonies. Then the second verse, we get some frequent guitar and keyboards, then the prechorus and the song hanging on some keyboard for a bit before going to the chorus, which has more going on than before. Then the opening with a guitar solo over it. This leads into a bridge section where the drums and guitar help build to the third verse. Then the chorus, even bigger than before. Following this the opening of the song, with a key change and a short drum solo from Carl Palmer. A repeat of the bridge section and the keyboards giving us a nice outro. The fact that they crammed all these details and sections into a five minute song is incredible, and is masterfully done.

I absolutely love "Without You", a song written by Wetton and Howe, because it is a very subversive ballad. It's a pretty standard sounding ballad. drums and keyboards lead through an ambient intro, then the verses, lead by Wetton's bass and the drums. After a sort of chorus we have verse 2. Then after the chorus we get a some keyboard, bass and drums leading us into a bridge. About two and a half minutes into the song the bridge transitions to what sounds like a completely different song, with a completely different speed and with a new melody being played by the keyboards and the guitar. Then we build up to this new section where the instruments all play a altered version of the instrumental from the verses, but with Howe giving an absolutely majestic guitar riff and some cool sounds from the keyboards. Then Howe playing a Koto (Japanese string instrument) and leading us back into another verse. We have the final chorus and then the song goes into an outro section that once again sounds like it comes from a different song. I love it because you think it will be a typical ballad, but then it hits you with these parts that sound almost like they are from different songs, but they are woven in organically. 

I love "Cutting It Fine". It is a rocker that also goes in a completely different direction than you think it will. starts with typical acoustic intro from Howe but then goes to the main guitar riff and a verse section lead by Wetton's bass. Wetton delivers his lines with this attitude. After each verse we have the awesome guitar riff by Howe, a top 20 favorite guitar riff of mine. Then we build to a section after the second verse dominated by keyboard and guitar. The backing vocals with Howe and Downes are cool, especially when Downes does them with a vocoder. After the third verse is another keyboard section and it just stops. The you have this piano section that transitions to synths with this marching drum beat. the synths build and build with the drums and then it just fades. I apologize to all of you narrow minded fools who say this whole album sounds like it was tailor made for radio play, because "Cutting It Fine" could not make into the radio like this, and "Without You" probably wouldn't have been able to either.

Album closer "Here Comes the Feeling" is another Wetton and Howe composition. Opening with a main keyboard riff from Downes and cowbell from Palmer, then the main drums and some lead guitar with the keyboard riff. The verse sections start empty with just Wetton and the synths until the bass and drums kick in. Palme's drumming is simple but effective. I love the build up to that chorus, and the chorus itself is great. We have a standard verse with even more build up to that chorus, then a keyboard solo after the chorus. Then a nice guitar solo leading to our next verse. The verse chorus is what you expect by this point, but then we rehash the opening of the song, this time with the guitar, yet another chorus and then more of the opening, just with a focus on the guitar, then it ends.

However like most albums, Asia's debut had more stuff than there was room for. A subdued instrumental piece John wrote called "Deya" was rehearsed, but never made it on the album, and a Wetton Howe composition called "Ride Easy" was recorded, but didn't make it, leaving it resorted to a B side. "Ride Easy" has this cool intro leading to an ambient verse lead by ambient synths and sparse guitar until the rest of the instruments kick in half way leading to a great chorus. It's standard verse chorus from here, but the added instrumentation as it progresses is nice and the bridge section is wonderful. Then after another verse and chorus we have a wonderful guitar solo by Howe and fade out. It's not a particularly impressive, but John lamented it not making it onto the album because it is one of his favorite Asia songs, and I like it, so I felt I had to mention it.


Asia's debut is not pure AOR schlock like most people will lead you to believe, but rather it combines the prog sensibilities of many of the musicians involved and adds a proggressive flare and style to these fairly straight forward rock songs. Side 2 of the album is proof enough, and some songs on side 1 like Time Again also prove it. Yeah, it's not Yes or King Crimson, but it's not trying to be either. The musicians involved were people who watched the influential prog bands they were in basically implode and were burnt out on that type of music. Carl Palmer was offered to do an ELP reunion but chose to stay in Asia, which should tell you something. I'd best describe a lot of songs from Asia's debut as kind of like how Aaron Copeland described ELP's version of "Fanfare for the Common Man". It starts and exactly like how you expect, but it's the oddities and showmanship offered in between the middle and after the end that make it stand out. 

I'm not going to track by track every single Asia album, but I want to mention more history and the notable stuff in Wetton's stints with the band to help prove my point. So following the debut being one of the biggest rock albums of that decade the label demanded a follow up before any of the band members were ready. Conflict would arise between Wetton and Howe over who was responsible for the band's explosive success. Wetton claimed he was because he had writing credit on every song, sang lead, and was the guy who helped pen the explosive mega hit that propelled them to stardom in the first place. Howe claimed he was because he cowrote most of the progressive and interesting songs, as well as being the one who suggested hiring Downes, who cowrote the rest of the debut with Wetton. Both had their points, but it led to a rift in Wetton and Howe's songwriting partnership. This would strain would be worsened when Geffen records requested Wetton and Downes write most the album because the singles from the debut were all their compositions. Howe contributed the instrumental "Masquerade", which would later be reworked into an entirely acoustic guitar based song and released on Yes's Union album, where he would be nominated for a Grammy for best rock instrumental performance. Howe's original band version recorded with Asia didn't make the cut and would go unreleased for decades. Howe's other contribution was "Barren Land", a song about mistreatment of Native Americans, until he was convinced to rewrite the lyric's by John Kalodner because Kalodner feared the lyrics would be controversial. Wetton contributed the song "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes", originally an almost six minute ballad with a much more progressive structure. However it was shortened to 3 minutes (you can hear some notable cuts in this version). You can hear this original masterful version on the Symphonia live album to get an idea what it originally sounded like, albeit in a live setting. 

When the album was finished the record label refused to release it because it didn't have a hit single. Wetton and Downes quickly wrote "Don't Cry", which disappointed everyone with it's commercial sound. The band needed to rush out the album, but technical difficulties made mastering hard, and the end result was a wall of sound type production. The band demanded a remix to give it a less polished, less thick and less commercial sound, but that didn't change much. They wanted to spend more time fixing it, but the deadline was close and concert dates were scheduled, so they had to settle. This is the kind of album people accuse the debut of being. This right here is your pure AOR with blatant commercial sensibilities. However this album still has plenty of great moments, and the band would get their revenge in the form of a music video for "Don't Cry" that required a six figure budget for all the grand sets they used. 

"Don't Cry" is a total earworm, but not a strong showcase for the band. "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes"

as it is here, it is still a heartbreaking ballad and sold by a great vocal performance from Wetton. "My Own Time (I'll Do What I Want)" is a great ballad starting acoustic, then the drums and bass come in with ambient yet cheerful synths. Then the chorus comes in and feels so wonderful. The verse and chorus structure goes like how you expect, but it all sounds wonderful, but the second chorus is just even better than the first and leads to a wonderful bridge with excellent vocals from John. After a third chorus is the guitar doing the vocal melody of the chorus and then some wonderful keyboard flourishes. "The Heat Goes On" is the exact kind of song I'd want in a follow up to the debut. We open with piano, then synths leading us to the main guitar riff. Wetton has this attitude in his vocal delivery, and the bass absolutely kills in this song, just wonderful. After verse 2 is a quiet and subdued bridge section which leads us to Carl Palmer going hard on the cowbell and some guitar from Howe leading us to Verse 3. Then following this is an keyboard solo by Downes. After that we have an organ outro. "Eye to Eye" is a standard verse chorus AOR song until the last minute when Howe's guitar takes over and gives us an awesome solo accompanied by some awesome drumming from Palmer and some keyboards making for a sweet outro. That last minute really elevates the song. "Open Your Eyes" is my favorite song here. It is a beautiful and inspirational song. It has this beautiful ambient opening leading to the standard verse chorus structure. Though the bridge section starts with a slow and beautiful passage from Wetton that builds into this thumping beat and a guitar solo and when the verse comes back we have a key change. Then after another chorus it stops to reprise the intro. Then with the help of the drums it gradually builds up with John's vocals. The other instruments comeback. Howe has another solo as the song fades out. It is truly excellent and I would love to hear a longer version of the song if it exists. I think it is the best song here, and is just wonderful, a must listen, and a song I have a deep personal history with.

I also want to give attention to "Daylight" and "Lyin' To Yourself". I love both these songs and think "Lyin' to Yourself" in particular should have been on the album. As you can imagine I also wish Howe didn't change the lyrics.

Rare photo of the Greg Lake line up.

Following the tour they set up the big "Asia, live in Asia" event, which was to be a huge concert in Japan broadcast live to MTV. However Wetton would leave, unable to adjust to the huge fame the band had received and his differences with Howe. Carl Palmer asked Greg Lake to step in as bass player and vocalist, who agreed. Despite rumors, Lake said he never was a permanent replacement, he was just playing with them as a favor to Palmer and until they could find a permanent replacement. Wetton was finally convinced to comeback, on the condition that Howe would leave. He was replaced by Cobra guitarist Mandy Meyer. Meyer's style was heavier style than Howe's leading to a change in the guitar's role in the band, as well as a change in writing style. With no real expectations the band got to make the album they wanted.

"Go" is the lead single and a nice rocker. It builds up to the first verse which has this galloping riff by Meyer, but sparse instrumentation elsewhere. Wetton's vocals are fantastic as always, though his bass is a bit buried here. The song itself is mostly rocker, but it shows the less pop oriented nature of this album well. Such as Wetton's voice getting more of a spotlight because Howe isn't here to harmonize with him. I adore "Hard on Me" and Palmer's fills here, but it was a last minute addition to the album because Geffen complained about no potential hit. The atmosphere of this album is something I love. "Too Late" was cowritten by Palmer. Like "Sole Survivor" before it is this strong rock song with a great hook and melody. It is wonderful, but also like "Sole Survivor" it stops for a quiet ambient keyboard section. Though here it leads to a power guitar solo and a great chorus with a key change and Wetton singing his heart out. "Suspicion" is more slow paced and bare kind of song. I love it, the percussion the use of synths, the guitar only coming in during the chorus, or so it seems. After the second chorus we get this drum fill from Palmer leading to a keyboard solo from Downes and suddenly a new chorus completely different from before, and it builds up to an ambient outro starting as the song ended. I love this song so much. Wetton has stated as much himself that the showpiece for this album is "Rock and Roll Dream". Has a slow and bare verse section that is just sequencer and drum machine with sparse guitar. However the prechorus has nice synthesizer and some great vocals. Then we lead into a more full sounding second verse. Then after a second prechorus Downes has some energetic keyboards leading us to a wonderful chorus. Then Palmer's big sounding drums carry us into this majestic solo by Meyer. Then it slows and goes back to the more ambient sound of before. Then the royal philharmonic orchestra comes in after the third verse. We go from prechorus to the synths leading us to an absolutely grand and epic sounding chorus. Then some interplay between the keyboards and the orchestra leading us to a powerful final chorus. The way this song ends is just epic. It doesn't do much progressive, but boy is it grand and epic. It builds and has this power and weight to it. "After the War" ends the album and it is an awesome rocker and cold war protest song, but it doesn't do too much of interest. Wetton has stated though that Astra his favorite Asia album.

After Geffen did squat to promote the album the band broke up. Downes and Wetton wrote new songs for a new lineup of Asia with Thin Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham, but those plans fell through when the only place they could get a contract was in Japan. (these songs were released as an album in 2002) The Astra lineup reunited for a tour and a best of with new material. While I love all the new songs featured, especially the ambient "Am I in Love?" the album sold close to a million but still wasn't enough to convince John or Mandy to stay. The two left to be replaced by Roger Daltry's bassist and backing vocalist John Payne and future Savatage guitarist Al Pitrelli, as well as a returning Steve Howe.

Okay so those second and third albums weren't quite as impressive as the debut, so I'll fast forward to where things get interesting here in a bit. First I wanted to highlight what John considers his magnum opus. "Battle Lines" is often maligned because people see names like Robert Fripp and Simon Phillips in the liner notes and expect something epic, only to get disappointed. John said "Battle Lines" was an extremely personal album of songs he was scared of releasing because of just how personal they were. So he waited until it was prime time for a solo album, and he rewrote them with Bob Marlette. The cold reception to Asia and later this album is a big part of what would lead John into a downward spiral in terms of how he how he lived and would lead to the decline in his health that followed. Every time he would be happy with a project it always seemed people who knew him as a prog rock legend would crap on it for being basically AOR or pop rock. John released an album where on nearly every song he was airing out super personal emotions and feelings, and people just decided it was bad. I urge you to listen to Battle Lines, and see it not as a solo album by a prog rock legend, but as a personal and deeply moving experience for John in the form of music. How can anyone listen to the ode to his mother "Hold Me Now", a heartbreaking glimpse into his past, and then just write it off as schlock? 

Wetton has other solo albums too, but I'll gloss over those, as this is an an article about Asia. Wetton remained on good terms with Downes and Palmer. He formed Quango as a successor to Asia, featuring himself on bass and vocals, Palmer on drums, John Young on keyboards and Dave Kilminster on guitar. The band was met with issues on the outset and were not gaining any momentum, leading to a breakup after a single live album. Later Downes contributed two songs to one of Wetton's "Rock of Faith" album and the two started writing together again. They then started the Icon project. While making a seventh Asia album with John Payne, Downes and Wetton met up with Howe and Palmer, and the four reconnected after years in a way they hadn't in a long time. John Payne, Guthrie Govan and Jay Schellen (who is actually the current Yes drummer as of writing this) were sacked and the original lineup was back together. Asia rose like a phoenix from the ashes, and that was the inspiration behind the new album's name, and in my opinion a candidate for their best album, and I will track by track for that reason.

"Never Again" is a real great opener showing how the band members have matured over the years and how that influenced the sound and lyrics of their songs. Wetton's solo writing contribution "Nothing's Forever" is a song I hardcore relate to. The song starts with the chorus and an intro. The intro is mostly synths and Palmer doing some great drumming to build up to the first verse. About 45 seconds in we get the first verse. A stripped down section driven by bass and drums, with Wetton's lines leading to a call and response with the synths and acoustic guitar. The chorus is just wonderful, with a great message. Typical verse chorus follows, then the intro is reprised while Howe does some lead guitar over it and we get to the third chorus. The outro has the same drumming as the intro, but Wetton's vocals and some lovely guitar close out the song as we fade out. I love it. "Heroine" is a beautifully restrained ballad with Howe doing some cool stuff on the guitar. "Sleeping Giant/No Way Back/Sleeping Giant (reprise)" is a cool song. It opens with an ambient synth oriented composition called "Sleeping Giant". Downes playing the same synthesizer riff while Wetton does some great harmonies over it and Howe does occasional guitar fills. Then his guitar takes the lead with some acoustic, before going back to how it was before. The song then fades out and we fade into "No Way Back" starting with some synths building to Wetton singing the chorus. The song has your typical bass and drums leading it in the verse, while Wetton does a call and response with the keyboards. The chorus is guilty of being an impossible earworm. Howe's also surprisingly not very present here. I always preferred Howe's playing in Asia compared to Yes, because Howe is always having to find ways to use his guitar to enhance a song that is great without it. Things like the call and responses or his leads and fills. This song is a good example. "No Way Back" fades out for a reprise of "Sleeping Giant" in a different key and more guitar. 

"Alibis" was written by all the band members. It's a pleasant song driven by bass and drums with nice keyboard melodies over it. The song is just pleasant. After the second chorus we get a guitar solo. The we go into verse 3 and chorus 3. Then a trade off between they keyboards and guitar in a solo section before chorus 4. After the song just stops and we get an acoustic guitar riff from Howe and some percussion from Palmer, seeing him utilize parts of his kit he hasn't used on an Asia album before. Then a electric guitar solo and a keyboard riff from Downes taking us into the fade out. Yeah... real arena rock schlock am I right? Sorry if I am coming off like I am trying to start I fight I am not. "I Will Remember You" is a beautiful stripped down ballad remembering a lost loved one, which never fails to hit me in the feels. Palmer's drums here are nice, and the guitar solo near the end with Wetton's harmonies is excellent. "Shadow of a Doubt" is a fantastic pop rock song with some nice acoustic guitar and drumming in the verses giving it this gentle nature, then an electric chorus with a energetic chorus with this nice sense of momentum. The song has a guitar solo in the middle that is nice and leads to some cool guitar leads in the final chorus, but nothing too special.

"Parallel Worlds/Vortex/Deya" is incredible. It starts with a wonderful stripped down ballad where Wetton is singing his heart out. The keyboards and guitar. The bass playing here is nice too. About two and a half minutes in it ends and we get to "Vortex". Acoustic guitar and piano guide us to the main melody. Then Carl Palmer gives us some fast double kick drum, and Howe leads us with some great guitar playing. The synths are doing some great stuff here too. Palmer accentuates every new part very well with his drumming. 4 minutes in he starts using symbols frequently and then gives us a drum roll and he combines that with the double kick part before playing the double kick part with the snare and using all the toms on his kit with the symbols in addition to it. He gives us an epic drum roll and then with a hit of one of his gongs it ends and we get to "Deya", the instrumental John rehearsed during the sessions for their debut. It is driven mostly by acoustic guitar, but the drums come in and the synths provide nice flourishes to add to the ambiance. Palmer does some nice stuff on the drums leading to some soloing from Howe. The songs ends with some wonderful acoustic from Howe. Easily the most progressive piece Asia has done. Play this for some prog snob who has crapped on this band as being cheesy arena rock garbage and watch their cocky smirk turn into a scowl. 

"Wish I'd Known All Along" is a Howe solo composition. I love the intro, especially Palmer's percussion and Wetton's vocals. The verses do a very nice call and response between the vocals and keyboards. The chorus is great too. After the second chorus we have a guitar solo from Howe leading us to an interesting bridge section where the song shifts gears completely. Then a keyboard solo over the instrumentation from the verse. (kind of like what they did in "Without You") After another chorus we have a wonderful outro and it ends. "Orchard of Mines" is a cover of a song by epic music band Globus. Their cover is pretty straight forward, but made to accommodate a more restrained production and the fact that Asia is a four piece. This is a very weird choice of song to cover, but it works. The band does a great job here. A real highlight for me. "Over and Over Again" is another Howe solo composition. Wetton shines here, and the song itself is solid. Howe's solo here after the first chorus is wonderful. Then a nice electric guitar solo follows later after some once again amazing vocals from Wetton. The last minute is just instrumental. Howe showing off on the guitar and some great work with the synths. 

Lastly is Wetton's most personal Asia song. During the 90s after the mediocre reception to Battle Lines Wetton was drinking a lot and spiraling out of control. (Getting out of this cycle was why there was the big gap between the release of his solo albums "Archangel" and "Sinister") His health took a dive and he needed open heart surgery. His doctor told there is a small chance he will die during it, and Wetton came to grips with the thought that he may not be alive the next day. So he got really reflective and had a new outlook on life he never had before, and it had positively influenced the way he lived and thought. No regrets, live everyday like it is your last because it just might be. A beautiful message I hardcore relate to, and one that I think everyone can learn from. Wetton wrote "Extraordinary Life" to share that philosophy and mind set with the world. The intro is wonderful, but also reminds me of the soundtrack of "Pikmin 2". A minute in the song really gets going. Wetton's vocals are great, and the chorus section is just wonderful. 3 minutes in we get a nice bridge section where the song switches gears and comes to a crawl, before going to another upbeat chorus. Howe gives us a nice solo, and we end with one final chorus.

Phoenix was polarizing when it came out. Some said the band matured, and this album is a beautiful next step that showed this band had a lot to offer, or that their time away brought something new to the table. However other critics hated it, saying the catchiness or edge of the first couple albums was gone and there was no song worthy of standing next to "Heat of the Moment" or "Only Time Will Tell". Me, the world's biggest Asia fan, am just gonna say it. Phoenix is the best Asia album. It does so much interesting stuff that the first couple albums just didn't, as well as taking notes on what made the debut so great and carrying over many of those elements. They expanded upon the debut with a more mature and laid back follow up that I think stands as their best work.

Following Phoenix and the successful tour for it, they made "Omega" with producer Mike Paxman, which to me is just okay. Very disappointing as a follow up to Phoenix. Opening track "Finger on the Trigger" is a rerecording of a song from second album by Downes and Wetton's Icon side project. It's rerecorded here as a more raw and hard edged rocker, and it is better, and a solid track but nothing special aside from Wetton saying "balls" in the context of genitals in one part of the song. "Through My Veins" is an excellent slow and  groove oriented track penned by Howe and Wetton. "Holy War" is excellent. It builds up to the first verse with the keyboards and has this great sense of momentum in the verses. The chorus is nice and song is well done. The song kind of stops 3 minutes in so Palmer can have an awesome drum solo. Then the song carries on like normal after that. I love Palmer getting a chance to shine here. As cheesy as they are I have a soft spot for "Listen Children" and "End of the World". Wetton an Howe's other collaboration "Light the Way" is a great quick tempo rock song with nice keyboard playing, especially a section in the middle where the plays this interesting melody leading to a guitar solo. After another chorus we just get another solo as the song ends. I am only mentioning "Emily" because it is a pretty bad song and is about Wetton falling in love with a Lesbian. Also in Japan this song was replaced with the Japan exclusive song "Drop a Stone", a writing collaboration between all the band members, which is a fun groovy and almost southern sounding song.

Asia redeemed themselves though, don't worry. "XXX" is the true follow up to Phoenix and another incredible album, once again produced by Mike Paxman, and I will once again track by track it. "Tomorrow the World" has this piano focused opening that ends fifty seconds in as the song starts for real. It goes standard verse and chorus, but three and a half minutes in the song stops, with the piano melody from the opening, not with some sparse percussion and guitar leads. Then the keyboard melody from the verses comes in and we have a guitar solo over it. When the chorus comes in out sounds epic. Howe's guitar solos on a bit before we reach a an outro with some organ, drumming and guitar, closing us out gracefully. "Bury Me in Willow" is a beautiful ballad, and 2 and a half minutes in giving us a symphonic bridge section. following another chorus we have a beautiful subdued solo from Howe. The list minute and a half is this beautiful outro driven by bass and drums, with the piano playing a beautiful melody over it. Howe Wetton and Downes cowrote "No Religion" and it is excellent. We have a dangerously catchy chorus in a standard verse chorus followed by a superb keyboard section. The following section is a slow and ambient reprise of the chorus, then then the instrumentation from the verse with a guitar solo over it leading to the next verse. The last minute is this awesome keyboard solo followed by the slowed down chorus from earlier accompanied by piano.

"Faithful" started life as a power ballad until John Wetton requested they strip it down to avoid it being stupidly cheesy. It is like this until three minutes in when suddenly we get a fast rock instrumental version of the chorus, with Howe playing the vocal melody on the guitar. Wetton gives us some vocals and then Howe comes in with guitar solo over some great drumming by Palmer. The song then becomes this upbeat rocker with the same melodies and such as before. Then it ends with just Wetton and some piano. "I Know How You Feel" is a standard bass driven song with some keyboards from Downes helping to carry it. Then a keyboard section about two minutes and fifty seconds in with Wetton saying "I Know" gently. Then a beautiful acoustic guitar solo form Howe. "Face on the Bridge" was the lead single and it is great. Wetton's bass drives the song forward and it is wonderful. Nothing to special going on aside from the instrumentation going pretty hard near the end Howe soloing. "Al Gatta Nero" is an undeniably earworm, but not much of interest is done here. "Judas" is another Howe, Wetton and Downes track. Once again nothing too special done, but it is a great more straight forward rock song. the main riff, the verses and the catchy chorus, as well as the keyboard playing in the outro. "Ghost of  a Chance" starts as a boring mostly acoustic ballad, typical stuff. Then half way through all the electric instruments come in and the keyboards playing the vocal melody from before sounds amazing. Then the guitar does it. The whole vibe and atmosphere of this last half of the song really is what makes it. when Wetton comes in at the end to deliver the final verse, it feels so earned and incredible. 

"XXX" was the last album to feature Steve Howe, who would say that with Yes becoming a big touring entity again during the early 2010s, he was unable to keep up with both bands, and chose Yes. They sought guitar GOAT Paul Gilbert, who was too busy and recommended guitarist Sam Coulson, who was famous for his videos of him playing on YouTube, leading to him playing on Asia's final album Gravitas, which kept up with being decently progressive.

"Valkyrie" is a beautiful emotional opener with a whole new meaning now that Wetton has passed on. However it's thunder is stolen by "Gravitas". It opens with the first movement: "Lento". It's an instrumental with the keyboard simulating a lot of symphonic stuff until the piano comes in. Then about two minutes twenty seconds in we get the second movement "Gravitas". We open with guitar and organ, then getting a pretty solid pop rock song. We have a wonderful ambient section in the bridge before a guitar solo leads us to a closing chorus. "The Closer I Get to You" is a ballad that runs a little long for my tastes, but the instrumentation here is fantastic. "Russian Dolls" is a wonderful somewhat acoustic song with an upbeat chorus where the instruments really kick in. Three minutes in this short bass solo and they keyboards really create his beautiful atmosphere and Carl Palmer's drums carry us through an excellent outro. "Heaven Help Me Now" is weird. The first movement "Wings of Angels" occupies the first twenty five seconds and then the second movement "Prelude" occupies the next minute. Finally the third movement "Heaven Help Me Now" comes in. I love Wetton's voice here. Just superb. The outro and intro too, just chef's kiss. "I Would Die for You" is a rerecording of a demo written during that one era of the band with Scott Gorham that never did anything significant. The song itself is okay. "Till We Meet Again" is a beautiful song to end the album now that Wetton has gone. A nice heartfelt song for him to end his career with. Regrettably John passed away after writing the next Asia album.

I'm not saying Asia is some secret treasure of progressive rock, but that people are wrong about them. So many people waste time dogging on this band like they have no right to even exist. Don't blame this band as a sell out project engineered to sell records, blame yourself for being narrowminded and unwilling to just let John Wetton's passion project be. So many great songs, so much interesting musicianship and things done. If you can't look past something that isn't some big obvious ten minute prog epic to see talented musicianship and interesting things being done musically, it's your own problem. Regardless of whether or not you give this band a second chance, I wanted to get this of my chest. I hope you at least got some enjoyment out of this article and especially hope you decided to reconsider your stance on Asia or even check them out if you haven't already. If you want a follow up where I talk about the John Payne era and that whole can of worms please comment or contact me and let me know.