Free Collars Kingdom

""You!! Human child!! Brush your ear hair out of the way and listen well! We are no simple strays! We are cats who have won our freedom from humans by removing our collars by ourselves! We are the Free Collars!""

- Amesho

Free Collars Kingdom is a short manga series (consisting of three volumes) by Takuya Fujima, focusing 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 lead 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.

The series originally ran from 2003-2004.

This manga provides examples of:

 * Anchors Away: Coon's weapon.
 * Beach Bury: Happens to Amesho, and the sand is sculpted to lokk like he's got a woman's body. He doesn't mind.
 * Calling Your Attacks: Most of the main characters in this series have special attacks, naturally called "Ultimate Cat Attacks".
 * Catgirl: All the main characters.
 * Cerebus Syndrome: The first two volumes are rather lighthearted, but then the third volume gets rather serious.
 * Clothing Damage
 * Corner of Woe
 * Dirty Old Man: Amesho, but as usual, Played for Laughs.
 * Fan Service: Scottie is subjected to this mostly, a couple of times as a joke.
 * Siam and Char also get this treatment a few times.
 * Fetish Fuel: Lots.
 * 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.
 * Gadgeteer Genius: Rat, who is often a little too obsessed with his work.
 * 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 Badass.
 * Les Yay: There's plenty of this.
 * Mistaken for Gay: Rat, to the point of the other cats wondering if he was neutered before he joined.
 * The Ojou: Siam
 * Otaku: Both Amesho and Siam.
 * Considering how they define otaku, Cyan and Rat can also be included.
 * 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.
 * Tear Jerker:
 * Title Drop: At the end of the first chapter.
 * Too Many Belts: Siam.
 * Train Station Goodbye:
 * Unusually Uninteresting Sight: All of the cats wear clothes, and some carry weapons, yet no human really seems to notice.
 * Winged Humanoid: The crows.
 * Unusually Uninteresting Sight: All of the cats wear clothes, and some carry weapons, yet no human really seems to notice.
 * Winged Humanoid: The crows.