Not Simple



Not Simple is the tale of a young man named Ian who has spent the majority of his life in search of his older sister, whom he hasn't seen since childhood. His journey takes him from his birthplace of Melbourne, Australia, to faraway England, to several cross-country trips on foot across the United States. Each new and often painful twist on which these travels take him are chronicled by Jim, a freelance journalist and Ian's only friend.

It lives up to its title, telling the story of Ian in a unique and complex fashion by jumping back and forth across various times in his life as Jim writes the young man's strange and tragic tale. The manga is written and illustrated by Natsume Ono (House of Five Leaves, Ristorante Paradiso). As with Ono's other works, Not Simple is notable not only for its quirky art style, giving the series a more western look when compared to most modern manga, but also for its mature and hard-hitting story. The manga was originally published in 2006 by Shogakukan, and was licensed for an English release in 2010 by Viz Media.

This manga provides examples of:

 * Abusive Parents -- Not Simple runs the full gamut of this trope, from Ian's distant and verbally abusive father to his alcoholic mother, who even.
 * Anachronic Order -- The story continuously jumps around in time The beginning is set before the events that lead to the end, followed by the end, followed by the beginning, which then carries on up until near the opening scene, and then finally jumps back sometime near the middle of the story.
 * Break the Cutie Ian, pretty much the whole time. Even as an adult he has that wistful, innocent look that makes all the unsimple things even worse.
 * Downer Ending: Downer beginning?
 * Framing Device -- The story of this manga is told as Jim writes a book (also titled Not Simple) detailing the trials of Ian's life.
 * Fridge Brilliance / Fridge Horror --
 * How We Got Here--The story of Ian's life starts to be told after his death.
 * It Got Worse -- These three words pretty much sum up poor Ian's life.
 * Justified Title
 * Kill the Cutie Again, Ian.
 * Parental Incest --
 * Poor Communication Kills -- Ian is killed by Irene's dad's men in the Downer Beginning shortly after hearing that the woman he loved (and whom he planned to run away together with once they reunited) died since he last saw her three years ago. This was told to him by the woman's niece, Irene, whose mother had recounted the story of Ian and her Aunt after her Aunt died.
 * Rape As Drama --
 * Seinen
 * Title Drop
 * Trauma Conga Line -- The story of poor Ian's life.
 * The Woobie Ian.