Free Collars Kingdom Vol. #03

By Matthew Alexander     November 14, 2007
Release Date: July 31, 2007



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Takuya Fujima
Translated by:William Flanagan
Adapted by:William Flanagan

What They Say
Cyan, a young Abyssinian cat, is combating enemies so that he can go on living in the basement of his old apartment building, the one place his beloved master might think to look for him. But Cyan must also fight to be accepted by the group of misfits who call that basement home!

The gorgeous, evil, and slightly wacky Siam, leader of her own army, is determined to seize Cyan's apartment building for herself. Cyan and his friends take the battle to Siam, but are they ready for the temptations and treachery that await them in Siam's lair?

The Review
A premature ending to the series?

Cyan and the other Free Collars prepare themselves for what they hope is the final battle against Siam and her army. Unfortunately, not only does Siam have a huge army of cats, but she also has the crows of her territory on her side. No coming of age for a young warrior story would be complete without some last minute training from the venerable old character. This takes place in the beginning and had me yawning for a chapter. However, the story quickly moves into the final battles and some surprising ‘life lessons’ along the way. Despite Cyan being young, he has a good head on his shoulders and helps some of Siam’s people come to terms with some of their fears and/or delusions.

This leads to some decent character development for some minor characters and a few laughs. Unfortunately, this volume is nowhere near as funny as volume one. However, Siam and Old Man Amesho finally have their heart wrenching past revealed for some great character development on the part of Siam. I love reading stories where the ‘bad guy’ finally has their past revealed and it makes for a perfectly plausible reason behind their character flaws. To make the story even better, both Siam and Old Man Amesho lost something during the same historical incident, yet they both took different paths in life.

This last volume has a great Translation Notes section and I tip my hat to Flanagan’s explanations of various cultural aspects. After reading the second volume, which took a dip in story quality, I felt like the story probably received an early ending. This was disappointing after the high quality of the first volume, but I guess Fujima just couldn’t keep the ball rolling with the same intensity. Despite the series only being three volumes, it really is a worthy read and quite funny if you’ve ever owned a cat. The series has great art and looking back across the series I would probably give the content an overall B.