The Slicer Brothers were a pair of serial-killing siblings in the anime/manga franchise Fullmetal Alchemist. Arrested and sentenced to death for their crimes, the brothers were secretly used in alchemical experiments by the Amestrian State Military and had their souls bonded to a suit of armour with the elder brother occupying the helmet and the younger brother occupying the body. For years, they operated under the joint alias of Number 48, guarding the supposedly defunct Laboratory 5 in Central.
The elder Slicer brother's Japanese voice was provided by Shinya Ohtaki in the 2003 series and Dai Matsumoto in Brotherhood. His English voice in both series was provided by Bill Jenkins.
The younger brother's Japanese voices were Koichi Sakaguchi (2003) and Kenji Nojima (2009). His English voice in both series came from Duncan Brannan.
History[]
The Slicer Brothers play only a minor part in the events of both FMA series and their roles are essentially the same in both series. They are tasked with eliminating anyone who attempts to break into Lab 5 and confront Edward Elric when he sneaks into the facility. The Fullmetal Alchemist is initially unaware that he is fighting two opponents at once, but after severing the helmet from the rest of the armour, he is shocked when the body continues to attack him and speaks in a different voice.
Edward is badly wounded during his fight with the Slicers as they won't give him enough time to use his alchemy to transmute. Recalling how Scar used his alchemy, Edward counter-attacks with a quick partial transmutation that shatters the armour. Both the Slicer brothers are still "alive" but no longer mobile and Edward refuses to kill them by breaking their bonding seals. The brothers find Edward's decision to be both amusing yet also cruel; having bonded his own brother's soul to a suit of armour, Edward still acknowledges the Slicers as human beings as not doing so would be devaluing Alphonse. The Slicers remind Ed that they were killers before they were anchored to the armour and were regarded as monsters by society while they were still flesh and blood, so for Ed to let them live now is ironically cruel.
Deaths[]
In both series, the Slicer Brothers are destroyed not long after being defeated, though it is not Edward who finishes them off. In both the manga books and in the 2009 series, both brothers are destroyed by the homunculus Lust so that they cannot divulge any information to Ed regarding the experiments that occurred in Lab 5. In the 2003 series, Lust only destroys the elder brother whilst trying to force Edward to create a Philosopher's Stone. The younger brother killed himself before then by crushing and breaking his own anchoring seal.