Hi, This Arielle from Aurelia. (LOL, this makes it seem like Aurelia is a big company, but really, it isn’t. Right now, it is a one gal company. At least for now.)
So, Let’s come down to the main topic, Aurelia. What’s Aurelia? Aurelia is going to be a free-to-publish manga platform. Mainly focused on Indian creators. It’s still under development and was only born this week. Here’s a beautiful home-page screenshot to make you fall in love with it. Although you won’t, let me believe that would.
This is the first thing you will see when you will visit Aurelia. Aurelia is split into 4 main stages.
Stage 1 is currently in progress. That is site front-end development. I am just 16 years old and started learning HTML and CSS this month so forgive me if it does not look good. I am not a UI designer god’s sake. I still have not learnt Javascript. That is also partly why I am making this post. If anyone reading this does know javascript, please contact meh at poodle.is.michi@gmail.com.
Enough about advertising. Let us come back to the topic. Anime and Manga are slowly becoming more popular thanks to the cheap internet that Jio offers and all the other memes featuring anime characters. But, it was even more popular back in the days when Animax used to air. I was just 14 years old when I discovered Animax. Anime was just an Interesting cartoon in an Interesting language for me. Nothing more. But soon, the Indian Government decided to ban it. Reason? Because it didn’t allow any advertisements.
All of us who watched it searched one thing, ‘How do I bring Animax back and why was it banned?’. We got nothing. And then soon came Jio. Jio offered cheap internet and, we could surf as much as we wanted before they capped it at 1.5 gigs per day. My dumb ass couldn’t think of a simple search statement like, ‘Animax Website’. It took me one year to search for it.
And what I got, ah, I am not even going to exaggerate. I got enlightened for those 10 seconds. Then slowly, as I was enjoying watching Anime (I was mostly watching on-going Animes so), I dumbly searched for ‘Darling in the FRANXX season 2’. Don’t judge me! I got introduced to Manga. Quite a dumb way, but I got introduced nevertheless.
That Anime didn’t even have a Manga (because it got animated before the Manga), but I still got introduced. From then, I slowly lost interest in Anime. Some IRL problems arose, got abused, got suicidal, failed once and many other things. The only things that were there with me were my Manga. Yeah, I know. Quite dumb but shut up. Manga and Manhwa (Korean Comics, commonly known as Webtoons) were there.
And this is why I want to give something back to the community by creating something that’s not needed? LOL. This is needed and, if created will increase the number of Indian Otakus exponentially. This will not only increase the number of opportunities for Indian Creators (who are god knows where it’s like they have disappeared from the face of the earth lol) but also place India in the Animation and Comic Industry. Don’t try to argue with me that Bollywood is already there. Bollywood is shit and we all know this. So shut up.
Stage 2 is letting creators come on to the site and get used to the environment. While also fixing bugs, adding new features, making the creator’s dashboard more intuitive and all. And if you’ve got yourself a banger story but you don’t currently have an artist or can’t draw, we have you covered there. Aurelia is going to host a Fan-Art forum for artists without a story or those who just don’t want to create a story but it’s art.
It looks much better in person, trust me. Stage 2 is going to be long and arduous, but it’s going to be worth it. You will be able to support your authors and artists with actual money or by just paying them for extra chapters. Authors will be able to choose to either put a paywall or put a time wall. The paywall is not going to be permanent. After a few days, the chapter will become free & to avoid the content from getting pirated we will be closely looking over some of the biggest Manga piracy platforms. Although I don’t think anyone will even bother to pirate it, LOL.
Stage 3 is picking and sorting out the top (or hawt) comics which will eventually be animated. This is a big step for us as a company and as a community. And for it to be as polished as possible we will be hiring professionals who know what they are doing (or will do). Now, the ad revenue will be shared with the ratio of 80–20 (where, 80 will go to the author and artists and the 20 will be used for server charges and the above mentioned ‘hiring professionals’).
Stage 4 is developing applications for Android, Linux, Mac, Apple, and Windows. Yes, an app for every platform. Linux is not going to be left out. Because, I myself use linux.
This is Project Aurelia. I hope you guys will like it. And anyone who is interested in this project and knows javascript please contact me at the above mentioned email. I look forward towards working with you all. And I want to thank you all for showing support and ones who will in the near future.
I know my English is not that good so please forgive me if I have made any major or minor grammatical mistakes.
-Peace out.