Manga Title: Not Equal
Manga Artist: Ike Reibun
Manga cover picture:
http://joyofyaoi.files.wordpress.com...ot-equal-2.jpg
Review: Mood: Today I want a twisted, impossible romance. Impossible from many angles. In fact, I want to see a mangaka take on one of the most unsuccessful cliche plot conventions in yaoi (not rape, mind you) and pull a complete rabbit out of the hat — convince me she’s taken it seriously and has found a way to make it work. It’s okay if she bends (or flat out breaks) our universe’s rules to pull it off. I’m in an unexplained-phenomena kind of mood. As to sex, moderately graphic and consensual, please. Oh, and hand it over with a side of drama CD’s, to go.
Story: A 17 year-old who grew up without his father is suddenly overwhelmed with the need to see him, the need to feel loved by the man who has always seemed to ignore his existence. However, his pilgrimage to the family home leads to some completely unexpected and inexplicable events.
Mangaka: Ike Reibun marches to her own drummer, her stories ranging from very realistic modern day to the historical to the fantastical to the outrageous science fiction futuristic. Her art is not beautiful, not by a long shot, but it is effective and carries an impressive amount of detail. She leans toward the dark side of things yet maintains a strong orientation toward the romantic.
My experience: I like stories that warp reality, so I was a sucker for this story’s premise. To my surprise, these characters — all of them, major and minor — also won my affections, even the ones who act like jerks. I admit that I usually find stories that feature this plot convention to be annoyingly artificial and sensationalist, so I was surprised to be lured in by how Ike-sensei approached the problem.