Not Equal is a Boys' Love manga written and illustrated by Ike Reibun. The manga is notable for featuring an incestuous romance not between siblings, half-siblings, or cousins, but between a son and his own biological father.
The story starts with Ryou Ashizuka, whose parents have divorced ever since he was a child, deciding to go and meet his estranged father, Konomi Suetsugu.
While at his father's house, Ryou accidentally trips his foot in the backyard and all of a sudden, he finds himself being brought back in time to 20 years ago, where he yet again encounters his now much-younger father.
While trying to adapt to his situation and find a way to get back to his own time, Ryou takes the opportunity to get to know more about his father and they soon begin to form a bond. Some bonds, however, turn out to be able to transcend time; and on rare occasions, they can even transcend familial boundaries...
This manga provides examples of:
- Amicable Exes: Ryou's parents are this by the present, even though they didn't separate on peaceful terms.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: During Ryou's minor breakdown in chapter 6, after Konomi rejects him.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Ryou gives Konomi one in the second volume when he tries to avoid him.Ryou: You didn't love me as a father, but you still won't love me as a lover?
- Coitus Uninterruptus: When they were about to have Their First Time, the phone rings, but Konomi tells Ryou to just ignore it.
- Disappeared Dad: Since Ryou's parents divorced when he was still very young, he lived with his mother all his life, and remembers seeing his father only once. The whole plot started because he wished to resolve this issue.
- Does Not Like Spam: Konomi does not drink milk, though this is due to lactose intolerance rather than a personal dislike.
- Fear of Thunder: Konomi freaks out whenever there's a storm, though it's justified since he nearly got struck by one before.
- Forceful Kiss: Ryou does this to Konomi after giving him the aforementioned Armor-Piercing Question.
- Gayngst: Understandable though, since the lead characters are father and son. While they're deeply in love with each other, they know that a relationship between them would be the highest form of taboo.
- He Cleans Up Nicely: While far from unattractive, Konomi looks more like his age when he has facial hair. Once they're gone, he looks exceptionally more handsome, and younger-looking to boot.
- Interrupted Suicide: In the final chapter, when they go sightseeing at the mountain, Konomi tries to walk over the cliffs, but is pulled back by Ryou in time.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Ryou eventually resolves to do this in chapter 7 by no longer pursuing his feelings for his father. Although it's obvious that he is hurting by this decision, and unknowingly to him, so is Konomi.
- Love Hurts: The fact that you're deeply in love with your own parent or child is not easy to digest. This is even worse for Konomi, who only realized twenty years later that the man he slept with is actually his son, unlike Ryou, who knew of their relationship the entire time and still continued to pursue Konomi nonetheless.
- May–December Romance: This is a given, considering that the protagonists are father and son. More specifically, they have an age gap of at least 20 years.
- Odd Friendship: The outspoken Ryou forms one with his dorky and introverted father when he's stuck in the past, but it eventually becomes something more.
- Older Than He Looks: In the present time, Konomi is about 37 years old (at least during the first volume), yet can be mistaken for someone way younger. His youthful features are even lampshaded a few times in the manga.
- One Head Taller: Ryou is taller than his own father.
- Parental Incest: This is a yaoi manga featuring a father and his biological son, after all. However, the manga also takes its time to have the characters reflect on the taboo of incestuous relationships.
- Prematurely Grey-Haired: Mentioned at one point in the finale where after they finally consummate their relationship in the present time, Konomi flinches when Ryou nuzzles too closely, out of fear that Ryou might spot white hair in his head.
- Pretty Boy: Both Konomi and Ryou are beautiful. Even they acknowledge to themselves that the other is good-looking.
- Secret Relationship: In the ending, both main characters decide to stay together, but they know that they can never tell anyone else about their relationship since they are aware that it will only invite a lot of trouble.
- Sick Episode: An extra chapter has Ryou catch a cold, though the chapter is less about him trying to get better and more about him reflecting on a time when he and Konomi tried to keep their distance and maintain a strictly familial relationship even though it was evident that they still had feelings for one another.
- Stable Time Loop: In spite of Ryou messing with certain events by romancing Konomi when the latter was still a teenager, his actions do not end up undoing his own existence since Konomi would still marry his wife due to her resemblance to Ryou.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Very much evident in the second volume, since after Ryou is brought back to the present time, Konomi is horrified to realize that the Ryou he fell in love with is actually his own son. This greatly strains their relationship, but it quickly is made clear to the reader that they are not able to truly let go of each other, and in the end, they finally decide to be together, consequences be damned.
- Will They or Won't They?: This trope is essentially the plot of the second volume. In the end, they do.
