UKIYO

From Fanlore
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Fanfiction
Title: 浮世 U K I Y O
Author(s): Sharleena
Date(s): February 2018 - July 2019
Length: 410k words; 22 chapters
Genre(s): Crime AU, Fantasy AU, slash
Fandom(s): BTS
Relationship(s):
External Links: ao3 link, Archived version
01. U K I Y O [version 1] by heiwaxx (2019)

Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

UKIYO is a popular BTS fanfic by Sharleena. It is a Gangster AU, listed with warnings of graphic depictions of violence. The main pairing is Yoonmin.

On Archive of Our Own, it is the 4th most popular BTS work by hit counts. As of late 2022, it has over 1.2 million hits, 47,000 kudos, 7,600 comments, and 8,900 bookmarks.

It was updated every ten to fourteen days from February 23, 2018 to July 7, 2019. It has a smut epilogue called 浮世 : komorebi. UKIYO is the first part of the 浮世 of tides, of hummingbirds series.

Synopsis

Summary: A story of tender tides and unmoving hummingbirds.

浮世

-

UKIYO 浮世

浮 – float 世 – world/society

LITERAL MEANING: floating world

“transient world” or “fleeting life”.

Fan Reviews/Reactions

Goodreads

The fic has 10 reviews on GoodReads, with an average star rating of 4.70 out of 5.

[ ★★★★,3 / 5 ]

I've read this years ago, just found out that it was on goodreads, so why not giving it a shout-out it deserves 💁🏻‍♀️

First of all, a disclaimer: I'm absolutely not fond of any RPF (Real Person Fiction), especially the idol types. Reading them usually makes me uncomfortable. But at that time, this fiction link and quotes kept popping out on my timeline, and the writing was so good that I can't resist to check it out ((—and my brain was like: "c'mon, try opening and reading it, one chapter is all you need to judge it")), and (at that time) I thought this would be a flop and end up making me feel uncomfortable. But boi I was wrong. This piece of work is just insanely good. I absolutely adore the characterization and the world building. Sharleena's writing style is exactly my cup of 🍵. And their characterization, despite being a RPF, is not tied to the real person or the muse's persona. The characters stand for themselves. It just felt like reading a story with characters who happen to have the same name as [insert-idol-names]. I didn't even imagine how the characters look like. I don't even use the muse's face as a visualization ((did that even makes sense lol idk pals)) which is good bcs if I visualize them, I can't read it without feeling weird. And that's what makes me can finish this long long long story 'till the very end. Idk if this can be considered as a good compliment for a RPF writer but Sharleena, for me this is the biggest compliment I've ever said for a RPF ((bcs i don't really read RPF)). Never imagined a Mafia x Succubus fanfiction will be this awesome [chef's kiss].


If Fifty Shades of Gray can make it big, I am sure this one can too 🍻

zan

I read Ukiyo first time in May of this year and haven't been able to stop thinking about It. I feel like after recommending this fic to my friend we've spent hours and hours talking about this story.

There's so many good things about this fic that I don't know where to start. The writing style is amazing, the characters feel like living & breathing people and Sharleena paints Seoul in such a vivid, beautiful and cynical colors.

I loved all the different motifs, symbolism and metaphors. At points the storytelling felt almost poetic, which I'm a big fan of.

The story never got boring and I was surprised time & time again by the different plot twists. But they still felt natural and not forced. The story felt like it had been tought trough properly and the storyline was easy to follow.

And the characters,,,, My favorite part of the whole story! First I want to say that I'm not a fan of shipping real people, but in this fic's case it didn't really matter since the characters truly were their own people and shared nothing in common with the people they've been inspired by.

A common problem I see with fanfics is that a lot of characters are kind of plain and you don't really get any kind of image of them. That was Not the case in this fic: Especially the main 7 characters feel incredibly real with their own backstories, secrets and relationships. It doesn't feel like the other characters only exist for the main character. It feels like every character only exist for themselves.

Sharleena also understands the importance of strong milieu and how it sets the mood to a story. The city of Seoul is in a major role and the writer never let's you forget that.

This is honestly my favorite fanfiction I've read so far. I really wish I could read it for the first time again!

Vara

I read many people talking about Ukiyo on twitter and boy NOW I get what they were talking about.

Sharleena's writing is one of the most beautiful and precious things I've ever witnessed. The story is full of flashbacks (all well distributed and making perfect sense with the rhythm) and metaphorical dreams. The way the autor describes the emotions and the character development trough the dream patterns is quite breath taking and I wont say anything else bc no spoilers here yay.

I love characters with a weird moral compass and all that grey area stuff

and I simply love how the author portraits all of them as somehow cursed beings with a lot of trauma that keep reflecting on their actions. All of them are destroyed in very different ways.

This is the first time I read a story with those kinds of mystical creatures (such as succubus, banshees etc), honestly I had absolutely NO IDEA of the plot as I started reading and I kept being surprised by the traits of said creatures.

Last but not least, I've read the whole "gangs take over seoul" trope before, but the way seoul is portraited here? Almost as a character itself? Yeah that was pretty new and fcking amazing tbh the city speaks and those who are clever enough listen to it. What about the families dynamic?! I could go on for hours.

Now lemme go back to my daily life in which all I wanna do is talk about ukiyo and tattoo a hummingbird and keep replying every single tweet with "mf ukiyo vibes".

(Also someone literally made an ost for this story you guys were really invested thank god)

Maria Eduarda

Other Reviews

Mafia AU. Drug lord Yoongi. Succubus Jimin. I love the writing! It’s a really good fic. It pulls you into this whole different world. Please read the tags![1]

Ugly sobbing while listening to Blue Jeans and Nothing's Gonna Hurt You Baby on repeat 'cause I never got over UKIYO浮世 by the amazing Sharleena And never will🌊🌸[2]

You know that moment where you finish a really good fanfic that was literally written like a book and you got so into it that now that you’re done life has no meaning anymore? Well I’m in that phase right now and it’s not fun[3]

Inspired Fanworks

Art

Vids

References

  1. ^ "do you have any fic recs you can offer to me as a distraction for the weekend?". Archived from the original on 2023-02-07.
  2. ^ "June 10, 2021 Tumblr post". Archived from the original on 2023-02-07.
  3. ^ "July 91, 2021 Tumblr post". Archived from the original on 2023-02-07.
Retrieved from "https://fanlore.org/w/index.php?title=UKIYO&oldid=2622060"