Hi everyone! Yes…the Raist still lives. As you might all have noticed I have been out of the picture for a very long time. I can assure you this was pretty much unplanned on my part. So why was I gone and am I back now? Well, I will tell you in the update down below. This post will also deal with the future of my blog, and some things that are going to change next year for me in real life. It won’t be all doom and gloom I promise you, as I will also be talking about some of the new things that are coming up. It’s going to be a long post, but having been away for so long I guess you will just have to bear with me. (And if you don’t want to read it all…hey you can just skip the things you are not interested in and get to the good parts lol!) Okay…and here…we….go!

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Oh great, one of those long and boring update speeches: booorrrinnggg!!

Temporary Hiatus that turned into a long Hiatus (Update)

As most of you know this year hasn’t been my best year when it comes to my health. I have been on a very long forced hiatus earlier this year, because of a lot of stomache problems. After having had numerous tests, more than I cared for, pretty much the only thing that came out of it was my Irratable Bowel Disease. Having had some new meds for that I thought that things finally were on the mend. I was feeling much better, had a renewed energy, and felt like I could take on everything again. Until things started turning bad late August. It was just before I was about to go on a three week vacation where I was in a lot of pain, but also had lost quite a bit of weight. This caused some alarm and eventually I had to take quite a few (and very annoying) tests to find out if anything had been missed. Around this time a very good friend of mine got some very bad news concerning her health, a very dear colleague of mine had passed away, and my father got the news that his backproblems could not be fixed and he would have to live with excruciating pain for the rest of his life. All this, combined with a vacation where I spent a lot of time worrying and visiting the hospital eventually resulted in a bit of mental breakdown.

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I have definitely seen enough of hospitals to last me a lifetime, thank you very much.

It got so bad that I shut myself off from the world and even started ignoring messages and emails from people who reached out to me asking if I was okay. I feel truly bad about that, and I really offer my sincere apologies to everyone that did. All of you know me as a person who certainly isn’t like that but I just wasn’t able to break through the fog of negativity that surrounded me, and turn things around into a better and more positive way of thinking. It took energy to even sent a small message to someone, and as weird as that sounds, I just didn’t have it. So how are things now? Well my friend has luckily made a full recovery, and for that I am grateful and very happy. Her year was even more rough than mine, and if she reads this I hope that 2020 will be the year that hopefully will bring much more joy to her than this one did. As for myself, all the tests again revealed nothing serious, so just like my father I will have to find a way, to deal with this pain. Stress certainly doesn’t help it, and luckily I have just had two relaxing weeks off work to make good for the vacation I didn’t have so to speak. The pain has lately been a bit more manageable and I feel better mentally too, but I am living with a ticking timebomb, so things could turn around again in a heartbeat.

The future of my blog

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Okay…maybe not THAT far into the future…..

As a famous person with a green skin once said: “Always in motion the future is….” With my health being what it currently is, blogging as much as I love it, has seriously become something that is very hard to do. But there is another reason that it may even become impossible. Next year, in February to be exact, my company is moving to a different city, something that was planned a year or so back. It will now finally happen, which means I will have a lot less free time on my hands, as I will need to travel for almost two hours a day. The same job also requires all of it’s employees to study for a course meaning even less free time. As much as I love this hobby, it takes time. And for me to be able to write about things, I also need time to watch, read and play with stuff in order to write posts for you guys. As such one things is clear: I will not be able to write/comment as regularly as I did before my hiatus. I’m not exactly sure yet what this means for the future of my blog, but I will cross that bridge when I get to it. For now though, I will still be taking this month off wordpress to plan some things, and be ready to publish a new (real) post for you all in January. So that means I’m back….but also not completely back…yet.

August’s Leftovers

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A few leftovers from August.

Having just taken a look back, I saw that my last post has been published in August. It’s crazy that it’s been that long but well to coin a very unpopular phrase: “It is, what it is”. Saying that, there were some posts that didn’t make it in that month and which have already been written. Fan favorite anime “ Is it wrong to try to pick up girls in a dungeon” will finally be getting a review from me. I saw it’s first season and highly enjoyed it (much more than I expected), and it will be the first post from me in the new year. The Warhammer fantasy novel Drachenfels is one of the most unusual vampire novels that I have read. Exactly how unusual you will have to wait and see until you read the post itself. Lastly the ugliest (but certainly the most badass) creature in movie history Predator had a new installment in it’s franchise. Was it any good? Erm….well let’s not get into that one just yet shall we? Those were the leftovers from August, so let’s see what else you can expect from me (if, and that is again a big if, everything goes according to plan).

Anime

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Something new, and something (very) old.

I will finally have a review for the first season of March Comes in Like a Lion. I know this anime is loved by a lot of you, and this review for it is long overdue. I hope it will have been worth the wait. The second anime that I will be showcasing in the new year is the original 43 episode Gundam series dating back to 1979! Yes, that is an old series. Not only though will this post be about the show (and how awesome it still is), but also I will try to make clear how important classic anime still is in this modern day and age. Something that seems to have been forgotten which is in my humble opinion a real shame.

Movies

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The movies for the first month of the new year are centered on the sci-fi theme.

As always movies are a big part of this blog, and in the new year that won’t be any different. The three movies I will be reviewing in the first month of the new year will be all science fiction, but couldn’t be more different from each other. Alita Battle Angel, the live action movie based on the terrific manga is up first. Then we will have the (surprisingly fun) spin-off from the Transformers movies, Bumblebee. And last, but definitely not least, is the classic Mel Gibson film Mad Max. Observant readers will notice one very important movie that is missing here: Star Wars-The Rise of Skywalker. As the huge Star Wars fan that I am, will I not be writing about that one? No worries, I will of course but I do hope to still write the review for that one this year, to end 2019 with a bang so to speak. (At least I hope it will be a bang and not a whimper lol).

Tv Series

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Yes…these shows could not be more different from each other!

It’s been a while since I wrote a post about tv series, and that’s going to change next year. First up is the review for the fourth season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the in my opinion highly underrated Marvel series. After that it’s something entirely different with a review for the HBO mini-series Chernobyl, which was pretty much the best television series that I have seen all year. Yes, it really was THAT good. Last but certainly not least is the Mandalorian, the new Star Wars live action series. Having previewed it previously on this post having now watched the first five episodes I am pleased to let you all know it’s one heck of a good series. Certainly the best thing to happen to Star Wars since Disney took over.

Asian Dramas

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These Asian dramas are all amazing in their own way.

For all fans of Asian dramaseries, I have a few real gems for you coming up in the new year as well. I have recently finished the Korean drama series Two Weeks. Best described as a kind of Korean take on The Fugutive, it has plenty of thrills and action, but at it’s heart is a truly beautiful story about a father and his dying daughter. Novoland: Eagle Flag is a Chinese dramaseries, which I have only one thing about to say about: it’s epic! With a whopping 56 episodes, this series is incredible and is going to end up as one of my alltime favorite asian dramaseries. Last but certainly not least is Kill It. I just started watching this show yesterday and I am totally hooked. It has an amazing storyline, terrific action, a great cast, but above all plenty of twists and turns that make it very hard to stop watching it. (As a matter of fact I probably will finish the show tomorrow, as this one is total bingewatch material).

Books

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Manga, a thriller and art are the books on offer for January 2020!

Reading is definitely something that I am enjoying quite a lot again, and I’m also getting more into Manga (which honestly is bad, since I already have way too many hobbies!). The horror manga Uzumaki definitely redefines what could only be called a descent straight into hell. I still have nightmares thinking back on that one. After that it’s finally a Robotech post, having talked about it for quite a few times on my blog, with a review for the art book Robotech: The Visual Archive. One book that I was looking forward to immensely is the Japanese thriller Confessions that I recently won for a contest held by my good friend Neha aka the Biblionyan as part of their 1000 followers give away! Thank you again for this amazing price and I can say that it definitely lived up to my expectations.

Boardgames

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HEY YOU GUYS!!!

Only one boardgame review for the new year so far, but it’s a good one: The Goonies Adventure cardgame. Based on the classic 80’s movie, this is a really fun (and tough as nails) cardgame, that I have enjoyed quite a lot! I haven’t been able to play many boardgames lately, but rest assured that in the new year this game won’t be the only one I will be writing a post for.

Other Stuff…and Merry Christmas!

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Retro Raist and Raist’s Collection will both return next year as well!

Well, we are almost done here! As usual both the Retro Raist and Raist’s collection features will be returning again next year, and the two pictures shown above give you two “small” hints as to what they are about. I’m pretty sure that in the upcoming weeks, I will probably come across something else that’s interesting for one of my special features posts, as that usually seems to happen. Other than that, I think that’s quite enough for now! (At least I hope it is). Even though Christmas is still two weeks off, I want to take this opportunity to wish every one of you a very merry Christmas. I hope you all get to spend it with your loved ones and have an amazing time. Since I will be away for most of December (on WordPress that is) I might not get the chance to do so at another point, so that’s why I am doing it now. A heartfelt thank you to all of you that reached out to me: it’s meant a lot, and it’s something I certainly don’t take lightly. For now, this is goodbye: talk to you all soon, and thank you for reading!

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Merry (very early) Christmas to you all!