Friend Sheep

"*The War Criminal of Aries―Counting and killing, Friend Sheep.*"

— **Friend Sheep**

## Appearances

**Friend Sheep** (フレンド・シープ, *Furendo Shīpu*), real name **Meland Sherry** (メーランド・シェリー, *Mērando Sherī*), is an antagonist of *Zodiac War*. She is the **War Criminal of Aries** (『牡羊(おひつじ)』の戦犯(せんぱん), *"Ohitsuji" no Senpan*), part of the war criminals of the twelve western zodiac signs.

## Personality

Friend Sheep reportedly has a strong sense of duty, wishing to give back to the world for her privileged upbringing. However, this righteous mindset is coupled with an immensely cruel nature which makes her capable of killing others without a second thought, albeit only for causes she finds just. Like all the other war criminals, Friend Sheep hates war and is willing to give up her own life for the sake of eradicating it. Although she isn't shown speaking much, she appears to have a verbal tic of making sheep sounds.

## Appearance

Friend Sheep is a young woman with purple eyes and very long light gray hair with even bangs and tied into a lengthy braid tied with a bow at the end. She is shown wearing a white fluffy one piece sweater with puffy short sleeves and a long collar affixed with two black buttons. She wears black thigh-high stockings and long black fingerless gloves covering her entire arms, over which she wears white fluffy armbands around her wrists and elbows. She also wears knee-high white boots with black heels and fluffy fabric above the ankles, as well as a white hairband ending in two ribbons on each side, reminiscent of elongated sheep ears.

## Background

Born to a supermodel and the chairman of the world's leading clothing brands, Friend Sheep decided to give back to the world for her privileged lifestyle and volunteered for the battlefield in her early teens, distributing warm clothing free of charge to the soldiers. However, when she ran out of wool, she continued making clothing out of hair, skin, muscle and organs procured from killing prisoners of war. This resulted in a massive international incident which led to her being charged with abuse of POWs and being labelled a war criminal. At some point in the past, at her mother's suggestion, she worked as an amateur model for fashion magazines, but was so embarrassed that she spent all of her money buying every issue featuring her that she could find.

## Abilities & Equipment

 Effect:

Friend Sheep is proficient at hypnosis, being capable of putting any enemy to sleep in less than 100 seconds. Although the exact limitations of her technique are unknown, she is shown using it exclusively on people who've already been killed, temporarily bringing them back to life, though the body still seems to be effectively dead, such as when Nezumi's body showed signs of decay. The people controlled this way seem to assume their former identities, not realizing they're being controlled until the moment Friend Sheep makes her attack, at which point they assume her personality. The hypnotized people also seem to have their physical abilities enhanced, again shown when Nezumi managed to kill both Ushii and Usagi at breakneck speeds. One flaw of this ability seems to be that both Friend Sheep and her target share damage, shown when Friend Sheep is shot by Inounoshishi, bullet holes also appearing on the target of her hypnosis, Baron Sue.

* **Comb and Shaver:** Friend Sheep is illustrated carrying around a giant white comb and metallic shaver, though how she uses them is unknown.

## Quotes

"The War Criminal of Aries―Counting and killing, Friend Sheep."
「『牡羊(おひつじ)』の戦犯(せんぱん)――『数(かぞ)えて殺(ころ)す』フレンド・シープ」, *"'Ohitsuji' no Senpan―'Kazoete Korosu' Furendo Shīpu"*
—Friend Sheep's self-introduction, *Zodiac War Vs. Zodiac War*, *First Battle*

"I wish for clothes."
「お洋服(ようふく)が欲(ほ)しい」, *"Oyōfuku ga hoshii"*
—Friend Sheep's wish

(Ahh, that's right. I'm not the Warrior of the Rat, Nezumi―no miracles have occurred. I've been killed a long time ago. I died in battle a long time ago. I, the one called me, is actually the war criminal wearing "western clothes"―I'm Friend Sheep, just released from self hypnosis, baa baa!)
「（ああ。そうだ、俺(おれ)は『子(ねずみ)』の戦士(せんし)・寝住(ねずみ)じゃねえ――奇跡(きせき)なんて起(お)こっちゃいないんだ。俺(おれ)はとっくに殺害(さつがい)されている。俺(おれ)はとっくに戦死(せんし)している。俺(おれ)は、俺(おれ)という『お洋服(ようふく)』を着(き)た戦犯(せんぱん)――自己催眠(じこさいみん)から解(と)き放(はな)たれたフレンド・シープなのよん、めえめえっ！）, *(Aa. Sōda. Ore wa "Nezumi" no Senshi Nezumi janē―Kiseki nante okocchainain da. Ore wa tokkuni satsugai sareteiru. Ore wa tokkuni senshishiteiru. Ore wa, ore toiu "oyōfuku" wo kita senpan―Jiko saimin kara tokihanatareta Furendo Shīpu nanoyon, mē mē!)*
—Friend Sheep controlling Nezumi's body, *Zodiac War Vs. Zodiac War*, *First Battle*

"If only war didn't exist."
「戦争(せんそう)さえなければ」, *"Sensō sae nakereba."*
—Friend Sheep's true wish, *Zodiac War Vs. Zodiac War*, *Final Battle*

## Trivia

* Friend Sheep's name is phonetically similar to the word "friendship".
* Friend Sheep's true first name, Meland, contains the Japanese onomatopoeic word *mē* (メー), which denotes the sound a sheep makes.
* A common motif of Friend Sheep's character (as well as her wish) is clothing, specifically Western-style clothes, the Japanese word for which is 洋服. The first kanji of this word (洋) means "foreign" and contains the radical for "sheep" (羊), thereby tying into the rest of her character.
* Friend Sheep's way of killing, "counting and killing", may be a nod to the common expression of "counting sheep", which could furthermore tie in with her hypnosis ability, as the Japanese word for "hypnosis" (催眠, *Saimin*) contains the kanji for sleep (眠, *Min*).
* The title of the chapter dedicated to Friend Sheep, *First Battle: Lost Sheep at a Crossroads*, contains the kanji for "sheep", which is used in the Japanese word for Aries.
* Friend Sheep has no actual lines of dialogue in the entire book, her only words being spoken through characters whom she is controlling.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 *Zodiac War Vs. Zodiac War*, *First Battle: Lost Sheep at a Crossroads*
2. ↑ *Zodiac War Vs. Zodiac War*, *Final Battle: Fish Will Not Live in Water That Is Too Clean*
3. ↑ *Zodiac War Vs. Zodiac War*, *Third Battle: Distinguished Beyond Compare*
4. ↑ *Zodiac War Vs. Zodiac War*, *Seventh Battle: To Want it Both Ways*