At the beginning of the volume, FukuFuku's owner (whose name is never mentioned) is sitting with her adult cat, FukuFuku, and looking through old pictures of FukuFuku as a kitten. After those first couple pages, the entire series basically becomes a flashback to FukuFuku's kitten days: adjusting to her new home, dealing with her first bath, napping with her owner, learning to use a scratching post, meeting other cats, etc.

I've read and adored Kanata's Chi's Sweet Home. FukuFuku: Kitten Tales was very similar in a lot of ways. The most noticeable differences: Chi's Sweet Home was in color while FukuFuku: Kitten Tales featured black and white artwork, and Chi's owners were a married couple and their young song while FukuFuku's owner was an older woman who lived alone. Also, Chi's thoughts and dialogue were translated for readers, whereas FukuFuku just meowed and purred. I don't think the two series crossover at all, but it wouldn't surprise me to learn I was wrong.

I don't have a lot to say about this volume that I haven't already said about Chi's Sweet Home. It was very warm, sweet, and comforting, and I particularly liked the chapters devoted to FukuFuku and her owner sleeping together. FukuFuku napping inside the jack-o'-lantern was nice too. The one part that was a bit off was FukuFuku's Alice in Wonderland-inspired dream.

I plan to read more of this, although it's not the instant favorite that Chi's Sweet Home was. While I liked that readers had to rely entirely on FukuFuku's facial expressions, body language, and situation to figure out what she was thinking and feeling, this series felt a little less lively and fun than Chi's Sweet Home. Maybe it was because this volume was almost entirely focused on FukuFuku and her owner? If her owner has any family or friends, we haven't seen them yet, and FukuFuku has only briefly met a few other animals - one black and white cat made a repeat appearance, but not enough of one to get a feel for its personality.

And speaking of personality, I'd say FukuFuku was possibly a little more standoffish than Chi (it took her a bit to learn to enjoy being petted, for example), but otherwise she came across as very similar to Chi. I hope the differences in her personality start to stand out more as the series progresses.

All in all, so far I prefer Chi's Sweet Home, but FukuFuku: Kitten Tales is very nice and hits a lot of the same "warm fuzzies" emotional notes. Looks like I have another cat manga to work my way through.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

I think I wasn't crazy about the animated style.  I know this was based on the series, but I found the TV show more charming than this, partly because of how cute Chi sounded.   It didn't translate into this as well.   It was part of a Humble Bundle, so I probably won't be continuing.

Chi is adorable as ever, so many sweet tales discovering the new apartment and other fun animal friends!

She's just the cutest thing ever!   Short vignettes populated with sparse word bubbles - or even words in general - make this a quick read.   Then again, this doesn't need more than it has.   Between the watercolors - the colors aren't quite lush, but the mostly muted quality somehow enhances the cuteness of this series - which are fantastic and the adorable antics of Chi and her family, I don't really need much more.  I've been reading up on the writer and artist, and how brilliant both her art and writing is, and I agree completely: this is cute, this is fun, and her art is captivating. 

As for her understanding of cats, humans, and how they interact, the point has been made over and over again that she not only understands all of this to her core, but she expresses it flawlessly.   She does. 

Also, the vignettes themselves tell an overall story, one building on the other.   I suspect the shortness has more to do with the anthology aspect of so much manga - in which you get a couple pages of a bunch of stories in one magazine.   It's how the previous series, FukuFuku, about another cat, was written.   I haven't looked into it, but I'd be unsurprised if Chi was originally written this way.   More than enough of the vignettes build directly on top of the story told in the pervious vignette that it seems she was given so many pages, and had a story that fit into that page limit.   The author does this well, makes the stories compelling and makes them feel like there's a concrete end to that particular vignette even when I know there's going to be a continuation.   (Like when it's a part one.)

I'm going to leave you with this: 

How can you not love that face?

The Yamadas are going to France, and they have a difficult decision to make: should they notify Chi's original owner that they have her, or should they just continue on as they have been?

I probably wouldn't have minded if this series had gone on to be as massive as Skip Beat! or Naruto, so I was a little sad to have reached this final volume. My expectations were also maybe a bit too high. In the end, I felt this volume was a little too rushed and pushed some of its emotional buttons a bit too hard.

I cried during the bit with Chi's mom. Thank goodness Kanata didn't kill her off, but

I still love Chi, I'm glad she got to meet her mother and siblings, and I'm glad

, but I prefer the earlier volumes in the series that were just about a cute kitten doing cute things while her first-time cat owners watch.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)