Free Collars Kingdom is a short manga series by Takuya Fujima (who would later illustrate Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid), which was serialized in Magazine Z from 2003 to 2004 and compiled into three volumes. It focuses on a small band of cats who call themselves the "Free Collars". These cats, having been abandoned or hurt by humans in some way have removed their collars, believing that it chains down their 'Wild Spirit', and giving themselves a scar in the process from where their old collars had dug into their necks as the cats had grown.
The main character is Cyan, a young cat who gets abandoned in the basement of Nyan-Nyan Mansion, a fancy apartment, after his master Kokoro becomes ill. There he meets the Free Collars (Amesho, Coon, Char and Rat) who use the basement for their main base, and are currently fighting with another group of cats led by a siamese cat called Siam, who wishes to take control of the basement.
It turns out that the basement of Nyan-Nyan Mansion was once the stronghold of a mighty cat called Wild Cat who ruled over the other cats, and that his collar (which gave him amazing strength) was hidden nearby.
Thus Cyan is pulled into the conflict....
An interesting thing to note is that although the main characters are cats (and appear as such to humans), to each other they appear as catgirls/catboys.
This manga provides examples of:
- Beach Bury: Happens to Amesho, and the sand is sculpted to look like he's got a woman's body. He doesn't mind.
- Bittersweet Ending: Cyan stays with the Free Collars, instead of going with Kokoro (who had been Cyan's driving force throughout the series), who was moving to the countryside (because it was better for his health).
- Calling Your Attacks: Most of the main characters in this series have special attacks, naturally called "Ultimate Cat Attacks".
- Cat Girl: All the main characters are either cat girls or cat boys. However, this is only how they view each other and how they're presented to the viewers; they're actually just regular cats and are viewed and treated as such by humans.
- Cerebus Syndrome: The first two volumes are rather lighthearted, but then the third volume gets rather serious.
- Finger-Lickin' Evil: Siam has a habit of licking her paw pads until they're waterlogged... and then complains about it. This habit is what allowed Scottie and Cyan to uncover her disguise at a book signing being done by her favorite mangaka.
- I Call It "Vera": Rat has the habit of naming his inventions. He also named his camera 'Alfred'.
- Improbable Weapon User:
- Quite a few of the cats, but in particular Coon uses an anchor.
- Char's guitar picks should also count, as would several of the antagonists weapons, which include an umbrella, a top-spinning toy, and a broom, the last of which turns out to be surprisingly bad ass.
- Mistaken for Gay: Rat, to the point of the other cats wondering if he was neutered before he joined.
- Serious Business: Amesho is a game Otaku. Siam is an anime/manga Otaku. To them, defending what they like against the other is Serious Business indeed.
- Sticks to the Back: The general way Coon carries his anchor.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: All of the cats wear clothes, and some carry weapons, yet no human really seems to notice.
