History Manga / NotSimple

* FatalFamilyPhoto: All the way back in the beginning of the manga, Kylie takes a picture with Ian on their balcony. Kylie keeps it with her as a reminder to reunite with Ian and as a reminder of what she's doing all this for, but [[spoiler:she dies in prison with it still on her. Ian eventually retrieves it and a copy from his mother's house, one of which staying with Jim. Likewise, Ian has one copy on him when he's about to die.]]

* AnachronicOrder: 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.

* PoorCommunicationKills -- Ian is killed by Irene's dad's men in the prologue 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. [[spoiler: However, it all turned out to be a mistake, as Irene was unaware that it was actually ''her mother'' who had met and planned to run away with Ian... her mother was just lying to protect her daughter's feelings.]]

* RapeAsDrama: [[spoiler: Of the statutory kind. Kylie and her father had sex, resulting in Ian's birth, but Kylie's mother claimed that the girl did it to get back at her. That sexual encounter was more or less the catalyst for everything that went wrong in their family's life, as the mother became an alcoholic to cope, the father abandoned them for a new wife, and Kylie was left trying to raise him as best she could.]]

* KarmaHoudini: Ian's father, who despite more or less being the catalyst for much of the conflict and not caring or even acknowledging his role in, suffers no consequences.

* DespairEventHorizon: Jim is witness to Ian's climactic breakdown in the latter half of the story, when he's wailing after learning about[[spoiler:his sister dying in prison and why.]]

* BaitAndSwitch: Ian's mother gives him up to a pimp, stating that it's fine for him to prostitute himself as she's not related to him. She then says she's kidding--about the relation thing, not about pimping Ian out.

It [[JustifiedTitle 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 (''Manga/HouseOfFiveLeaves'', ''Manga/RistoranteParadiso''). 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 serialized in Penguin Shoubou's ''Comic Seed!'' and later ''Ikki'', collected into a one-volume graphic novel by Shogakugan, and was licensed for an English release in 2010 by Creator/VizMedia.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Several times throughout the story, Ian mentions that he sometimes thinks that Kylie is his mother rather than his sister, in part due to the huge age gap between them. [[spoiler:She is, as we later learn in the manga.]]

* Foreshadowing: Several times throughout the story, Ian mentions that he sometimes thinks that Kylie is his mother rather than his sister. [[spoiler:She is, as we later learn in the manga.]]

** That's not to say Kylie had it any easier. [[spoiler:She was impregnated by her own father, resulting in the conception of Ian and her mother getting drunk and blaming the relationship's fallout on her. She gets separated from Ian only because the mother wanted to spite the father, has a spat with her that results in her running away from home, and becomes a criminal. On top of that, she has to go ''back'' to her mother's house to take care of her in exchange for granting Ian a better life, gets a boyfriend who turns out to be the guy who pimped her little "brother", and gets sent to jail for attempting to stab the man. After all this, Kylie dies of pneumonia in prison, with her body weakened from H.I.V.]]

** That's not to say Kylie had it any easier. [[spoiler:She was impregnated by her own father, resulting in the conception of Ian and her mother getting drunk and blaming the relationship's fallout on her. She gets separated from Ian only because the mother wanted to spite the father, has a spat with her that results in her running away from home, and becomes a criminal. On top of that, she has to go ''back'' to her mother's house to take care of her, gets a boyfriend who turns out to be the guy who pimped her little "brother", and gets sent to jail for attempting to stab the man.]]

** That's not to say Kylie had it any easier. [[spoiler:She was impregnated by her own father, resulting in the conception of Ian and her mother getting drunk and blaming the relationship's fallout on her. She gets separated from Ian only because the mother wanted to spite the father, has a spat with her that results in her running away from home, and becomes a criminal. On top of that, she has to go ''back'' to her mother's house to take care of her, gets a boyfriend who turns out to be the guy who pimped her little "brother", and gets sent to jail for attempting to stab the man.

* AmbiguousDisorder: It's not explained but multiple characters seem to notice Ian is mentally off. this can be seen in his single-minded obsession with seeing Kylie again, even after he becomes an adult, his moments of absent-mindedness and the fact he had no qualms about [[spoiler: being molested]]