Until the day I publish this reading review on 1 June 2021, I have subscribed to over 400 IZ*ONE fanfic based on my taste. That's not a lot, compare to the whole volume of IZ*ONE fanfic, but most of them are so interesting that I want to introduce you. I have not decided how I am going to write about these reviews (because honestly, I haven't started yet), but I probably will write about them based on different genres, like romance, , family, gender bender, fantasy, gip, alpha/omega, etc., but it can also base on ships (or couple pairing CP)

But before I start to write on any story, I want to share the result and analysis of an "unscientific" poll I did in the past 2 years.

On the eve of IZ*ONE's first anniversary in 2019, I started to collect some figures on IZ*ONE-related tags on AFF out of boredom. As a Sakura stan, I basically only collected figures of the ship related to Sakura (base on my other biases) at first. Since I have written fics on Kkuchaen, Kkubi, Kangbi, and Kwongchaeng, I decided to use these few ships as anchors. From then on, I continued to collect these figures from time to time. It was not done systematically until the last 3 dates (see the chart below), which indicates the growth of IZ*ONE fanfic after their last concert, the time when they disbanded, and one month after disbanded. In mid-2020, there was a wave of witch-hunting on Jinjoo fics authors for writing (and later expanded to some other ships, I think), that led me to discover Jinjoo has indeed been the biggest IZ*ONE ship on AFF, so Jinjoo, 2kim, and Yulyen were included in the later data collections.

Note: It is not uncommon for one ship to have different names, so I decided to use the bigger tag of the same ship with different names as the norm. (e.g. I choose Sakura over MiyawakiSakura when the former has a higher number)

Analysis

As a newcomer to the fanfic world, I have found that AFF contains the largest volume of IZ*ONE fanfic. I have read Wattpad, AO3, and Quotev. Talking about quantities, AFF wins.

Comparing to groups like Exo (145,219), BTS (42,344), SNSD (25,208), Red Velvet/Twice (10,924/10,503) as of 1 June 2021, IZ*ONE's fanfic number seems not significant. However, given the fact that it is a rookie girls group with a very short existence, 3,272 is not really a small number (Blackpink has 5,538 fics, ITZY has 645). Comparing the numbers of Oct 2019 and Dec 2020, there was a >60% increase. Since then, it has a 9% growth until it disbanded and still has 50 new stories added one month after they officially disbanded.

There should be no surprise that Sakura, being the most experienced idol in IZ*ONE, earns the highest number of tags among all members,* although it is still insignificant in comparison to k-pop idols. The figures as of 1 June 2021: Sakura (754), Chaeyeon (695), Hyewon (689), Chaewon (670), Eunbi (629), Yujin (594), Minjoo/Minju (487/468), Yena (414), Wongyoung (377), Yuri (341), Hitomi (316), Nako (270). Please note that this sequence does not represent the popularity of the twelve, but the desirability of a certain idol in the mind of a fanfic writer. This desirability has a lot to do with (romantic/ual) fantasy and can be explained better with ships.

The statistic of ships (1 June 2021): Jinjoo (753), 2kim (710), Yulyen (525), Annyeongz (485), Chaekura (472), Eunsaku (403), Kangbi (360), Kwonchaeng (327), Ssambbang (272), Hyekura (168), Minkkura (99), Ssamyen (86), Ssamkkura (62), Hyeyul (42), Nakotomi (32), Nabi (14). Obviously, Yujin, Minjoo, and Chaewon (with Minjoo as the Highest Common Factor) have given more room for imagination for fanfic writers when they are in a CP ship.

On AFF, the biggest tag is romance (151,151). Romance, in most cases, must involve a relationship between/among more than one person. Thus, CP/ship is the single most important element in fanfic. The chemistry that is created when a certain idol interacts with another idol prompts the imagination of couple-pairing or ship-building. If we use Nako as an example of the other end, it seems that Nako possesses the least desirability for a fanfic writer to fantasize about (probably because of her height that forever resembles a child). Nako is always portrayed as the daughter/niece or younger sister of certain idols. Even when she is involved in a romantic relationship, it will not be written as .

For an introduction, I will stop here. It is the first time I have written an analysis of IZ*ONE in English, and since not many people have written something like this, I am not very confident. Please let me know if there is any subject you would like me to write and please correct me if you find anything wrong. If you like the idea of this reading review, please subscribe and give me an upvote. I really need lots of encouragement to go on.

Supplementary analysis

(revised on 6 June 2021)

Thanks for the reminder of @violentsushi, who noticed the significant drop of ship tag numbers collected 1.5 months after IZ*ONE last concert until ZOZI. This might have happened to most of the ships, but #2kims and #kangbi apparently have suffered the most. However, there was a dramatic bounceback 1 month after ZOZI. The only ship that didn't seem to have been affected is #Jinjoo (686/723/753) since the ship is big, but it may also have been a drop and then bounceback that escaped any notice. As a matter of fact, Kkubi and Kkuchaen ships suffered too, just not as significant.

#2kims (27 Mar/29 Apr 672/619 -53/-7.9%) (29 Apr/1 Jun 619/710 +91/+14.7%)
#kangbi (27 Mar/29 Apr 336/305 -31/9.2%) (29 Apr/1 Jun 305/360 +55/+18%)*

@48_jnnc also have some questions on the underrating of Minjoo and the Minkkura ship. Minjoo is a bit special when there are two different spellings of her name and seems most of Minjoo's fics are not tagged with both spellings. So according to the 1 Jun's figure, minjoo/minju got 487/468 tags. With a closer look, I've found that only 150 fics have tagged both minjoo and minju. May I take the liberty to hypothesize the "real" Minjoo tags should be 487+468-150=805? It then surpasses Yujin by 52 tags. If this is valid, my suggestion of Minjoo as the Highest Common Factor among the CP ships of Jinjoo and 2kim would be supported.

Please correct me if my calculation is wrong as I am terrible at math.

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* There are 8 fics that were updated from 2012-2014 where the "Sakura" is not on the Miyawaki Sakura of IZ*ONE/AKB/HKT, the first fic on the AKB48 Sakura should only have started in 2017. There were 7 fics that have updated between 2018-2019 that Sakura has been tagged along with Majisuka Gakuen. It is safe to say that apart from these 15 fics, all the rest are tagged with pd48 or izone. So, the net tag numbers of Sakura should be around 740+. (the number of tag "miyawakisakura" is 734)

Some more interesting statistics about IZ*ONE. IZONE Percentage Gender STAT