There may be some of you out there who wonder what role Drake and Hyacynth play in the creation of World of Glitches. I'm sure there are even more of you who don't care, but we'll ignore that fact for today's rant.

Drake and Hyacynth are a couple of good friends, both of whom live at some distance from me. Now, it's difficult to explain, but we all sort of tend to think in similar but different ways. What it adds up to, in any case, is that they are both excellent consultants for the strip. Sometimes I can come up with a strip idea from start to finish, but more often than not, Drake and/or Hyacynth will have contributed something to the creation of a strip.

Almost everything you see on the site was crafted by me, but almost everything also has some influence from at least of the two. World of Glitches might still exist without them, but it probably wouldn't be as good. For that matter, new strips would appear even less often than they do now.

That reminds me, if you see any girls with a guillotine and a spike looking for me, I'll be in Siberia.

The other night, I sat down and watched a couple of Studio Ghibli films on DVD, subtitled in English--Laputa: Castle in the Sky, and Kiki's Delivery service. But wait a minute, you say. Neither of those have been released in their original Japanese versions in North America! Hell, Laputa only had a limited screening run at a film festival in New York! Were they fansubs? No, indeed they were not. They were pirated Hong Kong DVDs--surely you've seen them on E-bay? Full sets of your favorite series, in their original language yet subtitled in English--for a fraction of the cost! Wouldn't you like Rurouni Kenshin on 4 discs for only $40? It's damn tempting. And you'd think that from somebody who has fansubs, both taped and digital, I wouldn't have a problem with it.

Well, I do.

In theory, fansubbers do not make money for what they do. A 'good' fansubber will take down titles that are liscenced in the US. I respect that. You can go to a site such as Sun Devil and buy titles that are quite available in the United States--some even with the U.S. box art! What's the problem with getting titles that aren't released in the U.S? It was the very Studio Ghibli collection that gives me problems. I respect the work these people do. I think it carries to the medium to a level of narritive and visual art. They deserve money for what they do. I bought Princess Mononoke--I said "hey, although you did a shitty job promoting this in the theatres, I saw it, liked it, and now i'm going to buy it for thirty dollars." And I'd do the same for every other Ghibli release.

Perhaps it's because I'm a Libra, or even worse, a lawyer's daughter, but I just have to apply that to any other title on the list--even lousy titles like Angel Sanctuary (flames ahoy!). In addition to my moral qualms--the product quality is definately what you pay for. Images are gritty, and the subtitles you want? Off-timed, occassionally innaccurate, or sometimes not present at all.

So guys, don't wait for Laputa on my account. Don't do it for the Mouse. But please, do it for the Totoro.

Okay, I can't beleive I said that. The Totoro thing, I mean. Don't buy pirated DVDs, kids.

Cyn out.