Shou Tucker is a character from the anime/manga series Fullmetal Alchemist. Known as the Sewing-Life Alchemist among the Amestrian Military, Tucker is a reknowned bio-alchemist who specialises in creating Chimera. While appearing to be mild-mannered and shy, this is merely a façade that covers the fractured psyche of a desperate and selfish man, as the Elric brothers discover when they take up temporary residence with Tucker and his daughter Nina as they begin their journey to become State Alchemists.
Japanese Voice: Makoto Nagai
English Voice: Chuck Huber
History[]
2009 series[]
In the Fullmetal Alchemist manga and in the Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood anime series, Shou Tucker allows Edward and Alphonse Elric to stay with him whilst they are studying to become State Alchemists. Tucker had gained a bit of notoriety and earned his State Alchemist's License two years prior to the series by producing a chimera capable of human speech. Ed and Al begin visiting Tucker at his estate to pore over his library of texts and forge a bit of a friendly relationship with the Sewing-Life Alchemist as well as his young daughter Nina and their dog Alexander, though Tucker's wife was said to have left the family two years before. Tucker explains to the Elrics that bio-alchemy, especially in the field of chimeric research is experimental at best and results in a large number of failures and false starts. Tucker himself notes that, ever since the speaking chimera that earned him his license, he has yet to present an alchemical breakthrough worthy of his yearly State Alchemist assessment and fears that a failure this year will cost him his certification and research privileges.
When Tucker reveals to the Elric brothers that he has finally managed to create another speaking chimera, Edward quickly perceives that Tucker has bypassed the impediments of artificially creating a being capable of comprehending and vocalizing speech by instead alchemically merging a live human with an animal - in this case Nina and Alexander and in the previous case, his wife. Tucker coldly confirms Edward's gruesome suspicions, to which Edward responds violently. The Sewing-Life Alchemist taunts Fullmetal between blows, stating that the two alchemists are alike in their sacrilege - that Edward's attempt to steal his mother's life back from the grave and Tucker's use of his family's lives to further his research are both indicative of scientific minds that seek knowledge despite any preconceived taboos attached.
Unable to reverse the damage that Tucker has done to Nina, the Elrics have no choice but to leave the estate and report the incident to Colonel Mustang, who places Sewing-Life under house arrest with his daughter until he is to be tried in Central City. But before Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes and Major Alex Louis Armstrong arrive in East City to take him into custody, the mysterious Scar appears by breaking into the estate and murdering Tucker along with his mutated Chimera daughter.
2003 series[]
In the 2003 FMA series, instead of being murdered by Scar, Tucker is arrested and supposedly executed for his crime. In truth, however, he was put to work in Laboratory 5 as both a researcher and experimental subject. At some unknown point, he is transformed into a chimera after being merged with an unidentified animal.
When the Elric brothers investigate Lab 5, Edward encounters Tucker and is disgusted to see him alive. Since the death of his daughter, Tucker worked non-stop to try and bring her back in chimera form, failing every time. One of these failures resulted in a rebound, turning the alchemist into a chimera himself. During this time, Tucker also created several non-Nina chimera and acts as their master. In cooperation with the homunculi, he attempts to trick Edward into fashioning a Philosopher's Stone out of prison inmates, hoping that the homunculi will help create a new homunculus body for Nina with his memories as the foundation of her new soul. Paranoid and very unstable, Tucker joined up with anyone who could offer him the protection needed to complete his goal. He joined with Greed's group briefly, most likely on the promise that he could give the homunculus the immortality that he so desired, as well as serve as a doctor to the other chimera working with Greed.
After the demise of Greed and his followers, Shou accepted Frank Archer's offer to rejoin the military under his command with alacrity. Using his new-found military privileges in return for building an army of chimera for Archer and the Führer, Tucker used his research to create lifeless dolls in Nina's image. Learning that Al became a vessel for the Philosopher's Stone, he deceived the boy by offering to teach him how to master the Stone; in reality, he only wanted to use Al to transmute a fully-human Nina from his chimera-dolls. Though Tucker succeeded in the first flawless human transmutation, Sloth pointed out that Tucker's will was not strong enough to bind Nina's soul into the new body made for her. With his hopes shattered, this bit of information drove Tucker into further madness. He was last seen drawing alchemy arrays on a wall with the Nina doll in his arms, either bent on bringing his daughter back or trying to relive the happy times before his daughter became a victim of his research.